ELVIS lives and he's helping clear dumped cars on Merseyside. ELVIS-LA is a West designed state-of-the-art software system, the latest weapon in the battle against abandoned vehicles in Liverpool.
The system - it stands for Easy Link Vehicle Information System for Local Authorities - was developed by Keynsham-based WPC Software in collaboration with Liverpool city council.
It is designed to streamline the administrative process of dealing with the 1,000 cars a month abandoned on Merseyside at an annual cost to the council of more than £400,000.
ELVIS-LA records details of all abandoned vehicles reported to local authorities.
It also notifies the councils' vehicle removal agents automatically and records how it was removed and disposed of.
David McElhinney, chief executive of Liverpool Direct, the city council's IT support agency, said: "This is a very useful piece of software which we hope will have a considerable IMPACT on the time taken to deal with abandoned cars and reduce the cost of recovering them.
"ELVIS-LA is a great example of Liverpool Direct working with the private sector to improve council services and make a real difference to the quality of life for people in the city."
WPC Software managing director Alan Walker said: "For many local authorities, keeping track of abandoned vehicles can be a laborious and expensive process particularly if vandals get to the vehicle before the removal agent. If an abandoned vehicle is set alight the final bill can be as much as £1,000 so the time taken to process information is critical.
"ELVIS-LA speeds up the administrative process greatly so that swift action can be taken to remove abandoned cars before they are vandalised. It even eliminates some manual operations, resulting in considerable cost savings for local authorities."
An earlier version of ELVIS was developed by WPC Software with Merseyside Police to help its vehicle crime group manage vehicle information and input details on the Police National Computer (PNC) more efficiently.
Several other police forces around the country have since shown an interest in ELVIS.