For ride-hailing fleets, every vehicle on the road represents revenue. When a vehicle is unexpectedly towed or impounded, the impact goes beyond inconvenience. It creates direct costs, operational disruption, and frustration for drivers.

One large ride-hailing service faced this challenge at scale. Vehicles occasionally violated local parking restrictions or were left in restricted zones during peak hours. When that happened, cars were towed without warning. Each impoundment required time, coordination, and fees to recover the vehicle, with total costs reaching up to $10,000 per incident.

The challenge: Finding and recovering towed vehicles quickly

Once a vehicle was towed, locating it was often difficult. When engines are turned off, GPS signals typically stop broadcasting, leaving fleet teams without visibility into where a vehicle has been taken.

Without reliable location data, the company faced:

• High impound and storage fees
• Delays in vehicle recovery
• Lost vehicle availability and driver downtime
• Manual processes to track down missing assets

They needed a way to locate vehicles quickly, even when they were inactive, and take action before costs escalated.

The solution: Using Motorq’s APIs for real-time visibility and control

The company partnered with Motorq to access OEM-backed vehicle data and commands through flexible APIs. Motorq enabled bi-directional communication, allowing the fleet to both retrieve vehicle data and send commands back to vehicles when needed.

Two API capabilities became especially valuable:

• Get Location, to retrieve accurate vehicle location data
• Create Geofence, to define and monitor specific locations such as impound lots

With Motorq’s APIs, the fleet gained the ability to remotely wake a vehicle from a dormant state and have it broadcast its location. This made it possible to identify where towed vehicles had been taken, even when the engine was off.

By pairing real-time location data with geofencing, the company could determine whether a vehicle was sitting in an impound lot and respond immediately.

The impact: Faster recovery and lower operational costs

Today, this ride-hailing customer uses Motorq’s APIs to detect when vehicles enter known impound locations and take swift action to recover them. This reduces time spent searching for vehicles, limits storage fees, and keeps more cars available for drivers.

The result is meaningful cost avoidance. Every vehicle kept out of extended impoundment can save the company up to $10,000, while also reducing operational friction and driver disruption.

Beyond asset recovery, the partnership demonstrates how connected vehicle APIs can help fleet operators address everyday challenges tied to local regulations, vehicle oversight, and scale. With reliable access to OEM vehicle data, fleet teams can move faster, operate with more confidence, and protect their assets more effectively.

Build smarter fleet operations with Motorq’s APIs

Motorq’s flexible APIs help fleets locate vehicles, automate workflows, and reduce operational costs at scale. Explore Motorq’s APIs to see how connected vehicle data can support your operations.