Elite Collateral Recovery turns to Vestige to protect its reputation and clients with Vestige AI Cameras
“With insurance rates where they are today, the cameras are essential to our ability to stay in business and protect ourselves and our clients.”
“If it wasn’t for the cameras, we wouldn’t be in business today,” Max Piñeiro, Owner, Elite Collateral Recovery.
Max Piñeiro is unfortunately used to violence in his line of work.
Recovering vehicles that are past due on their loan often evokes strong emotions from owners.
But rarely is one of his employees dodging bullets from the cab of their truck as they dart through the dark of the Florida night with a Maserati attached to the tow boom.
Thankfully, Piñeiro had installed Vestige vehicle and body cameras to protect his staff from terrifying moments just like this.
“Our driver was so lucky as you can see in the rear video the vehicle’s owner trips over the truck’s boom while he’s trying to shoot at our driver,” Piñeiro said.
“And then having it all captured on video, especially the driver’s call into 911 and his interactions with the detectives on the scene. Everyone could see he handled it exactly the way it should be handled.”
Piñeiro said he’s surprised that the majority of recovery vehicles and personnel are still operating without cameras to protect them against worse-case scenarios like the Florida shooting as well as everyday complaints – often falsified – from vehicle owners.
“It’s about protection. We protect our employees and our reputation and we protect our clients and insurance companies with these cameras,” he said.
“It’s changed the way we operate and all for the better.”
Nevertheless, the majority of light and medium duty commercial vehicles on the road, including tow and recovery vehicles, are not equipped with safety cameras like those Piñeiro manages at Elite Collateral Recovery.
While the long haul industry rushes to embrace safety technology like road-facing and dash cameras, industry research shows the majority of work truck operators are not investing significantly in safety cameras despite the data showing driver coaching cameras can drive significant safety improvements.
Fleet owners continue to place their employees and their organization at serious – it not grave – risk relative to the growing challenges of rising insurance rates, fraudulent claims and the inattention of the motoring public.
Vestige is helping scores of tow and recovery fleets with our 360-degree safety camera system that ensure vehicle owners have unflinching eyes on their vehicles and body cams that deliver the extra layer of security when situations flare suddenly like the situation in Florida.
“We’ve innovated to serve the tow industry and are committed to providing simple, affordable and reliable solutions that protect tow and recovery operators from the growing list of challenges they face,” said Twain McDougal, President, Vestige. “Scores of tow truck operators trust Vestige because we’ve shown time after time our solutions pay for themselves and keep employees safe.”
Three decades of experience: Adopting vehicle cameras to protect the business
In the high-stakes world of vehicle repossession, every mile traveled comes with the risk of confrontation, false claims, and insurance nightmares.
For Elite Collateral Recovery — a leading repossession company with a 34-year track record — those risks once threatened its operations, its employees, and its hard-earned reputation for trust and reliability.
Today, the firm operates smarter and safer with a complete vehicle surveillance strategy built around Vestige, an AI-powered safety camera system designed to protect drivers, clients, and companies with its powerful mobile app that makes it easy to respond to virtually any incident in real-time.
And when coupled with Vestige’s body camera technology, the bundled solution delivers a powerful layer of protection that aligns well with the tow industry’s unique challenges. .
“The body cam is the element that has really changed our game,” Piñeiro said. “Now we record every element of the process from the moment we arrive on scene to the time we box it up.
“It’s not just about interacting with an upset vehicle owner. It’s every bit as much about collecting verifiable evidence that we took care of the vehicle throughout our interaction.”
The rising tide of desperate car owners who are underwater on a seven-year loan and are willing to make false claims against firms like Elite Collateral translates into risk with almost every job.
“The world has changed so much in our business with so many car owners five years into a loan with a lot of debt yet to pay on a car with well over 100,000 miles,” he said. “So people get desperate and make outrageous, false claims about us denting their car or causing other damages.
“But their story quickly changes and they high tail it out of there when we tell them the entire tow and storage was on camera.”
Background: Building a Trusted Brand in a Risk-Filled Industry
Founded in 1991 by Piñeiro in New Jersey, Elite Collateral Recovery has grown into one of the leading repossession firms in the country.
Over three decades, the company expanded to cover all of New Jersey, New York City, Delaware and Maryland and parts of Florida, including Port St. Lucie and Cape Coral.
Trust served as the foundation of the firm’s growth.
Elite Collateral Recovery serves a diverse set of clients — from major lenders and credit unions to small local banks — and has retained employees for more than 30 years. Family-run and fiercely loyal to its people, the company values safety, consistency, and operational discipline.
But the nature of the business brings risk.
The job is often misunderstood, thanks to sensationalized portrayals in reality TV.
“It’s not like what you see on television,” Piñeiro explains. “Most repossessions are civil as more people are willing to bring you the keys as they know they’re well over 90 days late on payments.”
“But that doesn’t mean they’re all safe.”
Even when recovery incidents don’t involve violence, false claims of damage to a vehicle used to be an insurance headache rife with administrative burden and escalating costs.
“Some of these people are always trying to get one over on you,” he said. “They are facing stiff costs to get their vehicles back, including the repossession fee, admin fee, storage fee and catching up with past due payments, so they will try to make something up about a dent not being there before the tow.”
“But we have the footage now to prove the dent was there and we had nothing to do with it.”
Industry Headwinds: Staged Accidents and Soaring Insurance Costs
The repossession industry faces mounting external threats.
One of the most serious is insurance fraud, especially in Florida. “We’ve had drivers brake-checked on the highway — people trying to stage accidents just to file a claim,” Piñeiro said. “It’s dangerous, and it’s deliberate.”
These incidents aren’t just safety concerns — they’re financial liabilities.
The cost of defending against a staged claim, even one that’s clearly false, can be staggering.
And with insurers increasingly reluctant to cover repossession operations, premiums are rising fast. Independent research shows the cost of insuring some commercial vehicles in high risk areas has increased by ~40 percent in the past decade.
A host of diverse factors has contributed to these rising costs, including:
- Increased Accident Severity: distracted driving and increased highway speeds are key
- Rising Medical Costs: Medical claim payouts have outpaced general healthcare inflation
- Litigation Trends: A rise in large jury awards, often referred to as “nuclear verdicts”
- Higher Equipment Costs: The cost of trucking equipment has soared past decade
- Increased Repair Costs: vehicle parts and repair services have risen, driving higher costs for insurers when settling claims.
“Some companies have had to close shop because they couldn’t get insured anymore,” Piñeiro said.
“The costs of insurance have skyrocketed but the costs of our services to the client have not kept up so you have to have the tools to protect yourself from insurance risks.”
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A Turning Point: The Search for Reliable Video Evidence
Piñeiro had long understood the need for safety tech. The company was already using license plate recognition (LPR) systems to locate vehicles more efficiently.
But when it came to protecting employees and equipment, early camera solutions fell short of expectations.
“We tried other providers. The quality was bad, the service was worse, and the footage wasn’t reliable,” Piñeiro said.
“We were looking for something better, something we could actually count on.”
That’s when he was introduced to Vestige, a comprehensive vehicle and body camera system built specifically for high-risk commercial operations like towing, logging, and public transit.
“The recommendation came from someone I trust in the industry. That made all the difference.”
McDougal has led a strategy focused on one simple and powerful deliverable: safety.
“We’re the leading safety solution that combines 360-degree vehicle cameras, body cameras and personal safety buttons like our PERSA solution,” McDougal said. “We’re focused on innovating with unique features designed for the tow and recovery industry.”
One of those innovations include the Power Take Off video trigger built into the Vestige software, which creates event-based bookmarks when the PTO is engaged to make it easier for operators to locate the incidents where an event in dispute may have occurred.
“We know our customers expect reliability and simplicity, so we’ve built a solution that’s easy to install, simple to use and delivers real-time video footage and nearly instant access to critical moments caught on video.
“We know from experience that can be the difference between a favorable report from law enforcement that protects our clients from a unfair insurance or legal settlement and a positive outcome.”
The Vestige Solution: Full Spectrum Protection
After vetting Vestige’s offering, Piñeiro equipped its fleet with a full suite of AI-powered cameras, including:
- Forward- and rear-facing dash cams to capture on-road incidents
- Interior cab footage to document driver behavior and interactions
- Body-worn cameras for field-level visibility during repossessions
Together, these tools provide what Vestige dubs a 360-degree shield around every truck and every driver.
The system is equipped with AI-powered safety technology to deliver real-time alerts to both the driver and dispatchers in the back office about safety violations like distracted driving, device use and fatigue.
“Clients who value safety like Pinei and hundreds of others who rely on Vestige to transform their safety culture, ” McDougal said. “We hear from clients regularly about accidents and claims being reduced significantly as they adopt these artificial intelligence tools across their organizations.”
Vestige Fleet Multi-Cameras & GPS Tracking Features
Vestige Fleet Multi-Cameras & GPS Tracking Features
With Vestige, you can install up to eight HD dash cams on each vehicle. The cameras will be placed all around the vehicle, including one monitoring the driver’s actions, giving you a full view of everything that is happening.
Live Video Streaming
With our 4G LTE remote connection, you can access live high-quality video footage of everything the cameras capture. This integrated video solution lets you track performances easily and check for any unsafe driving behaviors that need improvement.
Cloud-based Video Portal
All video recordings will be retrievable from the cloud for 90 days. You have easy access to video clips for a post-incident analysis, making performance tracking more streamlined. You can also access additional video evidence for an accident in the portal, allowing you to protect your business from liability claims with video proof.
Automatic Video Uploads and Alerts
Vestige allows you to create notifications for vehicle accidents and other harsh driving events. You can get alerts within minutes of an unsafe event. The event video file will be uploaded to the cloud right away, allowing you to watch it anytime you want with on-demand video retrieval.
Real-World Impact: Safety Cameras Capture the Truth When It Matters Most
The value of that shield became clear during the terrifying episode when the driver was shot at by a person chasing his car being repossessed.
Thanks to the footage, law enforcement arrested the aggressors on the spot. There were no gray areas, no conflicting stories.
“That video protected my guy and proved what happened,” Piñeiro said.
But it’s not just about extreme events.
The cameras also record vehicle conditions during pickup, helping resolve disputes when car owners claim damage occurred during repossession.
“We get footage before and after. If someone says we scratched their car, we can show exactly what it looked like before we touched it,” he said.
Reliability and Support: Why Vestige Outperforms the Rest
One of Piñeiro’s frustrations with previous camera providers was unreliability — both in the tech and in the service.
“Footage would disappear, hardware would fail, and we couldn’t get anyone on the phone.”
With Vestige, those problems vanished. The system is cloud-connected, intuitive, and dependable.
And if there’s an issue?
“They pick up. They fix it. That’s all I need.”
The result isn’t just peace of mind – it’s operational continuity.
“We can’t afford downtime. Every truck off the road is money lost. Vestige keeps us rolling.”
Culture Shift: Empowering Drivers and Earning Client Trust
Beyond the operational benefits, the cameras have brought about a cultural shift at Elite Collateral Recovery.
Drivers feel safer, knowing they’re backed by indisputable evidence.
Clients — especially large financial institutions — see the company as professional, transparent, and trustworthy. Maintaining trust with nationwide banks and smaller credit unions is straightforward when the organization has demonstrated the commitment to safety and accountability
“When we tell lenders we have full video documentation of every repo, their whole posture changes. They know we’re serious,” he said. “It sets us apart.”
It also strengthens internal accountability. “If something ever goes wrong, I can get the whole picture – literally. It’s not about blame; it’s about facts.”
Looking Ahead: Staying Ahead in a Changing Industry
With loan terms growing longer and more borrowers falling behind on payments, repossessions are on the rise. Eight year auto loans are increasingly common, translating to many more drivers owing significant sums on cars with little to no resale value.
But so is scrutiny — legal, financial, and reputational. “This job’s getting tougher,” Piñeiro admits. “But we’re ready for it.”
Piñeiro’s journey with Vestige is a clear signal to the repossession industry: the era of operating without protection is over.
In a landscape shaped by false claims, rising insurance premiums, and public skepticism, proof isn’t just helpful – it’s essential.
And with Vestige, that proof is always just a click away.
“You don’t know how much you need cameras—until you need them. With Vestige, we’re protected,” Piñeiro said.
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