Blue Collar Trade Manager lets a tow operator build and send an invoice from the cab right after a call — with mileage, after-hours, and storage fees itemized from a price book — and collect payment by card or ACH through a click-to-pay link before the truck's even back on the road.
Create an estimate for the tow call from scratch or pull line items straight from your towing price book, then send it for approval by text or email.
The customer reviews and approves the estimate online or by replying to a text — no printing, no in-person signature required.
Turn the approved estimate into an invoice in one step, so line items, pricing, and job details carry over without retyping anything.
The invoice goes out with a public click-to-pay link so the customer can pay by card or ACH from their phone, without creating an account.
If the invoice sits unpaid, automated payment reminders go out on a schedule you set, instead of you having to remember to chase it.
Paid, unpaid, and overdue invoices roll up into reports so you can see outstanding balances across every customer at a glance.
Late-night, weekend, and holiday tows typically bill at a higher rate. Storing daytime and after-hours rates as separate price book items means the invoice reflects the right surcharge automatically, instead of manually calculating it call to call.
A single tow can involve a base hook-up fee, per-mile charge, winch-out fee, and storage if the vehicle sits at the lot overnight. Itemized price book line items keep each of those separate and clear on the invoice rather than one bundled number the customer has to take on faith.
A tow operator is rarely near a desk when the job wraps. Mobile invoicing with a click-to-pay link lets the driver send the bill and get paid right at the scene, whether that's roadside or at the impound lot.
Someone who just got towed usually wants the transaction over with as fast as possible. Card or ACH payment via a text link, rather than requiring cash or a mailed check, matches that urgency and gets the driver back on the road faster.
Store after-hours, weekend, and holiday rates as separate price book items with a surcharge built in, so the invoice reflects the correct rate for when the call happened.
Rather than manually adding a surcharge line each time, pre-configuring the different rate tiers in your price book means the driver just selects the right item and the pricing is automatically correct.
Add each as a separate line item on the invoice — base hook-up, per-mile charge, winch-out fee, storage — so the total is itemized rather than one lump charge.
Itemized fees are especially useful in towing because customers (and sometimes insurance companies) often want to see exactly what they're being charged for, particularly on higher-cost recoveries or extended storage.
Yes — once consent is captured, the invoice can be sent by SMS with a click-to-pay link so the customer can pay by card or ACH immediately.
This is particularly useful in towing since the customer is often standing at the scene without easy access to a computer, and wants to pay and leave as quickly as possible. This is general information, not legal or tax advice — check with a licensed attorney or CPA in your state before relying on it.
Payouts follow Stripe's standard payout timing to your connected bank account, which is typically a matter of a few business days, not instant cash in hand.
This is worth planning around for cash flow, since even though the customer pays immediately, the funds landing in your bank account follows Stripe's normal payout schedule rather than being instant.
You and the customer are both notified of the failed payment, so you can offer an alternative payment method or retry before releasing the vehicle.
In towing specifically, this matters because vehicle release is often contingent on payment — knowing immediately that a card failed, rather than finding out after the fact, protects you from releasing a vehicle unpaid.
For a large recovery or extended storage bill, ACH's flat $5 fee cap is usually cheaper than a percentage-based card fee once the invoice is above roughly $625.
A heavy-duty recovery or a vehicle that's accrued weeks of storage fees can run well past that threshold, making ACH the lower-fee option (Stripe Pricing; FeeProbe).
Reports show outstanding invoices and balances, but ongoing daily storage accrual on an unpaid vehicle needs to be added as new line items or a follow-up invoice as the days add up.
BCTM doesn't automatically add a new day's storage charge to an existing invoice — you'd add that as an updated invoice or additional line items reflecting the current total owed.
$0/mo — no subscription and no per-user seats. Card payments: 3.9% + $0.30 (1% BCTM platform fee + 2.9% + $0.30 Stripe). ACH bank payments: 1.8% (1% BCTM platform fee + 0.8% Stripe, Stripe portion capped at $5.00). Cash and check: no fees. Full fee breakdown.
No subscription. You pay a per-transaction fee only when a customer pays you.
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