Professional Standards in Repossession Volume I – A Book Review

A New Standard and Foundation for Operational Excellence

For years now, we’ve seen lawyers drag CARS and CCRS certification into deposition as standards for repossession agent compliance in legal disputes. Just as the CARS and CCRS repossession courses have become pillars in legal compliance, a new pillar may have just been added; Wes Carico’s “Professional Standards in Repossession Volume I.”

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For almost a decade, Wes Carico of Nostalgic Towing out of Georgia, has been writing guest editorials for CURepossession. His opinions and observations on the industry have always been some of the most read articles that I publish. So, when Wes approached me asking me to read something, of course I agreed.

Honestly, I was quite surprised by what he had presented to me. A three volume Professional Standards in Repossession manual/book.

In the history of the repossession industry there have been numerous attempts by numerous industry experts and leaders to wrap their arms around what exactly are or should be the industries’ professional standards. As fine as their attempts may have been, none have come close to the level of detail in all aspects of the industry as Wes Carico’s recently published “Professional Standards in Repossession Volume I.”

In Volume I, Wes details his views on ethical and professionalism operational foundations in a step-by-step manner, over a four-part, fifteen-chapter outline of standards. A strong and compliant repossession agencies’ standards are the pillars on which your company’s character and reputation are built. Wes lays out the six pillars on which they should be built:

Safety
Compliance
Documentation
Training
Leadership
Public Interaction

I had the honor and pleasure of seeing Wes’s earlier drafts of this massive undertaking and was frankly floored by the level of detail for such a massive undertaking. Wes fortunately made it more easily digestible by breaking the entire works into three volumes.

Volume I – “Professionalism in Repossession.”

Volume II – “Practical Standards”

Volume III – “A Look Forward”

Currently, only Volume I is available. Wes is still working on publishing the next two volumes.

From the field to the office, to ownership, Wes covers all aspects of operations, values, accountability in such detail I’m still a little taken back by it.

This is and always has been an industry of stiff-necked people who insist on doing things their own way. It is expected that there will be some dismissal and push back to these standards by some agency owners. No one wants some outsider to just expect them to change their operations and values just because some “do-gooder” came along with a new set of standards. Fortunately, much of what Wes suggests can be adapted to agencies of pretty much any size.

I strongly suggest that everyone take what you can from this and apply it to your company and day-to-day operations. Wes really has created a new standard and foundation for operational excellence in the repossession industry.

Fair warning: these books are extremely likely to be read and studied for years to come by many state and federal legislature members as well as litigation attorneys. I know, repo industry expert Mark Lacek surprised me with a picture of my lesser book “Repo Blood” being touted as a must read by consumer litigation lawyers at a National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) convention a couple of years ago. With the granular comprehensive detail provided by Wes, they will be digging deeper into these books.

Like it or not, I strongly suggest every agency owner read these and consider their practical application to their company. It may come back to bite you in deposition one day.