Traditionally, the 10th anniversary is celebrated with gifts of tin or aluminum. Well, Digital Recognition Network (DRN) closed 2018 with a series of critical milestones, representing all kinds of metal found during its 10-year history.

The artificial intelligence and data analytics company that provides vehicle location data and analytics to auto finance companies highlighted its live hotlist exceeded 410,000 license plate recognition (LPR) assignments in 2018. That figure represented an increase of 33 percent year-over-year.

Additionally, DRN — also a member of the Automotive Intelligence Council — reported that its affiliates attained more than 204,000 live vehicle recoveries by late December on behalf of their clients. The company computed that amount equates to more than $2.5 billion in recovered vehicles for 2018, contributing to a total of $10.5 billion in recovered assets since the company’s inception.

“We are extremely proud of the growth of our hotlist and the value that recovered assets provide to our lender clients,” said Todd Hodnett, executive chairman and founder of DRN.

“With that said, it is critical to note that our hotlist success simply would not be possible without our forwarder partners and our affiliates,” Hodnett continued. “They are the driving force behind its success and are the heart of the recovery industry.

“We are grateful for their hard work and honored that DRN’s revenue share program helped affiliates to generate $6.2 million in 2018,” Hodnett went on to say.

Back in August, DRN announced that it hit a new record of more than 20,000 live vehicle recoveries in one month. That momentum continued with each month setting new vehicle recovery records.

And now with 2019 in motion, Hodnett sees DRN generating even more sterling numbers.

“While we are extremely pleased with our hotlist numbers for 2018, we expect that this is just a preview of even greater benefits for our DRN affiliates to come in 2019,” Hodnett said. “We anticipate continued hotlist growth, which translates to increased growth in affiliate repossession revenue from their clients and increased revenue share that is paid by DRN.

“DRN is so committed to ensuring that our affiliate network reaps the benefit of their work that we have committed to a goal of $10 million for revenue share payments to our affiliate network,” he continued.

“We know that when affiliates win, everybody wins: lenders are able to better mitigate risk, providers make more assignments and affiliates pick up more cars and achieve greater revenue share. We look forward to working with our providers and affiliates to continue to achieve success for all,” Hodnett went on to say.