Smithville officials weigh tow-rotation and app dispatch as contract nears renewal

At a Smithville work session, city staff and local tow providers discussed options for the city’s towing contract, including keeping the current contract, adopting a tow-rotation or contracting through an app-based dispatch platform such as AutoReturn/Attura.

Staff said the current agreement began with a three-year contract (2015) that allowed two one-year extensions and that the city issued a similar request for proposals in July 2022; the city is now in the final year of that contract. Unidentified Speaker 2 (staff/chief) presented three options for council consideration: continue the present arrangement, adopt a rotation that bids more frequently, or contract with an app/platform that would hold the contract and dispatch the closest approved driver.

The conversation centered on response times, pricing and local control. Kenny Purdue of Brad’s Towing, representing his company during public comment, urged the city to adopt a rotation and to use a vetted platform to ensure competitive, transparent pricing and local storage requirements. "We humbly ask that the city of Smithville take action to move this contract to some sort of tow rotation," Purdue said, adding that platforms can enforce insurance, safety and pricing standards and that rotations are “simple, equitable” and improve response times.

A platform representative described the app model as driver-based and GPS-enabled: "It's like Uber," the representative said, explaining the system sends a notification to the closest logged-in driver rather than routing calls through dispatch. The vendor gave sample consumer and agency figures: a $2.65 hook fee for customer vehicles, Platte County storage set at about $45 per day and Kansas City storage at about $30 per day, and per-dispatch platform fees (reported examples: Platte County roughly $28.50 per dispatch and Kansas City about $22 per dispatch) charged to tow companies.

Staff said the platform typically bills tow companies for dispatches and that the city could negotiate pricing for city-owned vehicles and could require local storage and other terms in the RFP or platform agreement. Council members pressed whether the platform would reduce average wait times enough to justify a change; staff reported recent average tow response times in Smithville of "around 10 to 12 minutes." The platform representative said the system seeks the closest available driver but acknowledged marginal gains where coverage must cross rural areas.

Councilmembers also discussed regional models: some neighboring jurisdictions use a single contracted vendor and report stable performance; others use rotations. Several councilmembers asked staff to return with deeper research on Attura/AutoReturn and similar platforms, including pricing, how vendors meet local storage requirements, impact on local tow businesses, and whether a shorter contract term (one staff-proposed option was a two-year contract with a one-year extension) would better protect the city and preserve competition.

The council directed staff to gather information in time for procurement planning (staff said an RFP would need to be ready by March if pursued) and to add the towing item to the Jan. 20 work session for further action and decision. A motion to adjourn was then made and approved.

Next steps: staff will return with vendor pricing and operational details, options for contract length and RFP language that could require local storage and other protections; the council will consider those materials at a future work session before making a procurement decision.