DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — When it comes to crazy world of the auto repossessor, there's sure been a lot in the news lately.

A number of LPR companies — companies that sell special vehicle-mounted cameras to the repossession industry to operate and capture license plate numbers to feed into massive databases — have sprung up and have gotten busy trying to solidify deals with various auto lenders, and compete with each other to win over the repossession industry.

It's the repossessor that has to actually purchase and maintain these expensive systems, and although there's a lot of interesting anecdotes about finding sought cars while driving down the highway, there remains a lively debate within our industry whether these cameras are worth the investment.

Manheim recently sold its huge repossession program, Remarketing Solutions, to Renovo.

On another front, in order to fight the big "forwarders" (repo account aggregators), there is a proposed merger of three of the national repossession trade associations: American Recovery Association, National Finance Adjusters and Allied Finance Adjusters. Each of these organizations has political and structural differences, and it will likely take a tremendous effort to finalize this.

Also, the impact of General Motors' purchase of AmeriCredit — one of the nation's largest non-prime auto lenders — is also an unknown.

There are a growing number of lawsuits over situations where a repossessor allegedly overstepped the GLBA, or the FDCPA. And there's the looming potential for lawsuits filed as a result of the impending Consumer Finance Protection Act.

These are all instances where there is no claim of actual physical injury or property damage, but would require a defense that would not be covered under standard insurance coverages carried by a repossession agency.

And then there is a bombshell: OPENLANE's recent purchase of the industry's flagship online management application, Recovery Database Network. We have a "wait-and-see" attitude about the potential impact this will have on the repossession industry as a whole.

Whew. It's hard to keep up with it all, and no one knows how it is all going to shake out.

What shouldn't get lost in all this is the continued need for the repossession industry to focus on our core business. With high-level business transactions, with high-tech infrared cameras, with competition coming from all angles, we should not lose sight of doing what we do best — offering the most professional, safest, risk-managed field investigations and repossessions possible. Let's face it, mergers and cameras don't produce good field operators. 

The repossession industry has to continue to set itself apart by outperforming the "forwarders," and the one place where that battle is won or lost is the handling of information. Years ago, repossessors felt their sole responsibility was "bringing in the metal," but in the 21st century, with the world being online 24/7, simply towing an old sled in the storage yard is simply not good enough. Professional repossession agencies continually and persistently provide an ongoing flow of information from the field.

And not the generic "drove by address, no unit spotted" updates, fondly called "Dunkin' Donut reports," since they could be as easily generated at the coffee shop counter as they could anywhere else. Now more than ever, the better repossession agents are part tow-truck driver and part high-tech private investigator.

One without the other isn't enough. The intelligent humanized processing of information from the field is the very thing that sets the professional repossessor apart from an LPR camera.

Also, professional agencies respond to crises in an expedient fashion. This business immersed the "most invasive collection practice allowed under the law," the professional agencies demonstrate their value by being responsive to the problems that invariably will arise.

Clients who view repossession services as only a commodity to be bought and sold on price alone continue to be surprised when their recovery ratios fall short of what they should be. The effort to make this highly individualized service a commodity will ultimately fail. 

Repossession services — from Hummers to Hyundais, from Alaska to Key West — can't realistically all be viewed as being all "the same." So far, larger creditors' efforts to have a generic view of repossession services generically have yielded dismal results.

The "report cards" published by a number of large auto lenders continue to show that the smaller, independently owned repossession agencies can beat "forwarders" by as much as two to one.

It's easy to get distracted with all the news swirling around the repossession industry, but now more than ever, it's important for the independent repossession agency to keep focused and provide the lending community the best service possible. That's how we'll prevail.