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Transcript

Inside Towing’s Safety Culture And The Fight Over Fees · Towing News Now

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_14: Welcome one and all to the Towing News Now podcast.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_14: A podcast dedicated to insightful interviews, news stories that affect the towing industry, and a weekly spotlight on towing supplies and equipment.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_14: We have two hosts.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_14: One of them has been in the business 40 years.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_14: The other's his charming wife of many years, who also is the general manager of product supply.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_14: No other than Wes and April Wilburn.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_14: Wes and April, I turn it over to you.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_17: Well, DJ, as always, I appreciate that your warm welcome and uh your introduction.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_17: And of course, I appreciate the fact that you got me involved in this podcast and all the great things you've done for me and the industry in general.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_17: How are you doing today, DJ?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_14: I'm doing excellent.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_14: And for those people that listened to the last podcast, I had my tooth pulled and the tooth is it's coming along fine.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_14: The gum and everything else is good.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: Well good.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's good to hear.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_14: Yeah.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_14: Yeah.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: So what's going on?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_17: Did y'all get a bunch much of that storm just from last week?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_14: Uh we've got rain going on right now.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_14: Uh same with us and myself.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_14: Yeah, rain, heavy rain.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_16: We're getting a little bit of that weather too, win and off.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_16: It's kind of sporadic.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_16: We're it's the summertime, so in addition to like the regular stuff we're getting, you get just pop-up storms.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_16: But we've been um sitting here holding it down, been working on the website adding stuff.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_16: Um one of the things that was introduced last week was the 2026 state telling legislation report.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_16: You can find that on our website.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_16: And I'm gonna I'm gonna share it on Facebook and on on TikTok too.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_16: And then one more thing about the podcast.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_16: Thank you guys very much for letting me be a part of it.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_16: I really feel like it's been an integral um week to week part of it.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_16: It's actually helping me grow and learn more things too, because I'm having to do more research on the other states and things like that too.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_16: So thank you guys so much for letting me be part of it.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_16: I know I said that twice.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_16: But um so that's my that's my two cents worth.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_17: Well, thanks, April.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_17: Well, we appreciate the two cents and we definitely appreciate everything you're doing with the podcast.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_17: You don't give yourself enough credit, you you say the state the same tone report and give me credit for it.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_17: I barely did anything with it, you did the majority of it.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_16: Well, my apologies if I gave you credit for it.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_16: That's a hundred percent April Wilburn right here.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_16: Thank you very much.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_16: No, I you know what I don't take enough credit, but I do take I do trade I do take credit.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_16: Um I do a lot, but I'm learning a lot as I'm doing it too.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_17: So Way well, we definitely appreciate everything you do and have done.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_17: Um the state telling report, you give me credit, but you did most of the work.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_17: I appreciate that.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_17: I appreciate everything you're doing.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_17: I'm glad to have you as part of the thing.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_17: Just uh for those that aren't on Facebook with us, you may miss it.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_17: She just also celebrated a birthday.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_17: Looking looking good, looking forward.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_17: So um it well, I want to thank everybody who took time and happy birthday to her.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_17: It meant meant a lot to me, and I know she appreciated it as well.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_16: It did mean a lot to me and practice makes perfect.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_16: This is my fifteenth year being 39.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_16: I'm getting really, really good at it.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_17: There you go.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_17: So I've had a I've had a good week around here.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_17: We've um been busy, had a had several orders, made some chains up for a friend, Nate Butler, had some other orders as well.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_17: The um electronic brake tool has been very, very popular.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_17: It's a new uh air release for Volvos and internationals.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_17: Um International this you'll see this braking system on trade trucks and tractors and Volvos on tractors obviously.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_17: Um this is a system where they put two air uh trader valves behind the b front bumper I'm told on most of these.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_17: And it's the w when you shut when you shut the cab door after you release the brakes by whatever method, it's a lot.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_17: Unless you give the thing air, that's or you have either that or you have to completely disable the brakes by caging.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_17: Um but this will allow you to apply air to the two trader valves.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_17: It will release the brakes, make it re ready to tow.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_17: You have to be very, very careful though, it's like the old MCI buses.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_17: Once you give that system air right there, it releases all the brakes completely loose.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_17: So you need to make sure you're hooked onto it, top, etc., which you should be doing anyway.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_17: So we've been super, super busy making these little air fitting kit kits and the piece itself.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_17: That's pretty much what I've been doing my week this week.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_17: Um like I say, made some custom change to a couple customers.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_17: And uh, enjoy life with my wife.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_16: So on live on live.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_16: Uh yeah, we've been just hanging hanging in in here, so and we do appreciate everybody who um called and placed the numbers with us and that we talked to.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_17: So we got a uh great interview for the second part, and then in the third part we got some news we want to go over.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_17: And boy, there's some things happening, news, a bunch of it's happening right here close to North Carolina.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_17: There's um we'll we'll cover the stories in depth, but it's uh the authorities finally taking a good hard look at some folks that from what I understand aren't the most um how do you say it, most scrupulous operators.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_17: So um a bunch of crackdowns on that.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_17: And um we have those new stories.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_17: What other new stories that we do we have, April?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_16: So two of the things that we're gonna talk about, we're gonna listen to some video clips, um, is one of them is where the states are fighting the towers and the um Oaida.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_17: What does that stand for the independent truckers group?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_16: Yeah, pretty much going against the the towers and particularly two states, Pennsylvania, North Carolina.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_16: Um and then the second thing to kind of segue into that is could the Invested America Act uh be the final small the final nail for small fleets and that is a trucker talking about how they feel like it's unfair because they've made them they raise their insur how much they have to be covered for insurance.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_17: Yeah, so it gives a pretty good breakdown of that.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_16: Yeah.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_17: So we'll look at that when we go through those stories.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_17: And uh you know, they they say some stuff that might appeal to some people, but with that ounce of common sense I think the average person can see through it.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_17: But anyway, we'll get to that when we get to the uh news stories.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_17: And then uh DJ, we also got a special announcement about one of our sponsors.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_14: We sure do, Wes.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_14: One of our uh one of our sponsors stepped up big time to help the podcast to help the industry.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_14: INA Towing Network, Gay Rochester and everybody there at INA are wonderful, wonderful people.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_14: So as we go along, we all know how much INA has done for the industry, how they've helped TRAA, and you'll see them at all the shows.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_14: So when you see an INA, just go by and say hi and say thanks for being a sponsor of the Toein News Now podcast.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_14: That would be wonderful.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_17: Yeah, he definitely sponsors a lot of stuff, and um for many decades done good work for the industry.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_14: So we take a break, we come back, we got a great guest, and I know that you know this is a tour that is working all the time.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_14: So, how about we take a break, West, and we'll be right back.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_15: For electric and vehicles, we have developed an app that gives you all the manufacturers 401 for when that number one happens.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_15: Whether you are a fire, tower, or plate, we got you covered.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_15: To find the EV Clever app, go to your Apple or Google Play store for a 30-day free trial.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: We also offer the National Tow Operator Certification, an independently sourced virtual testing program covering light duty, heavy-duty, electric, and alternative fuel vehicles.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_14: Welcome back, listeners.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_14: You know you're listening to Towing News Now Podcast.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_14: I want to remind all of you, we are available on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, Stitcher, iHeartMedia, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcast.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_14: We're coming right now from the Towing Equipment Direct.com Studios, and the upcoming segment is sponsored by INA Towing Network.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_14: Simplified Solutions and Superior Service.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_14: That's what it's all about.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_14: And without further ado, if you've ever been to the Florida Tow Show and there's a guy that hangs out with me a lot, Richard, I want to introduce you to over 20,000 listeners, is what we got going now.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_14: And I want them to know a little bit about you.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_14: So tell them right away they're gonna know you're from Rhode Island.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_14: So tell our listeners a little bit about yourself.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you, DJ.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_03: Uh my name is Richard Branch.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I own a company in Rhode Island called Precision Towing.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_03: Uh started out 27 years ago with one truck.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I work I worked myself all the way up to uh 14 trucks, and I will tell you this.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_03: Being an owner and owning a towing business, it's a 24-7 business.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's something that you live for, and it's something, it's like having a second wife, because if you don't devote all your time to it, you'll never make it in the towing business.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's very tough.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: You miss birthdays, you miss parties, you miss a lot of things.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: But there's one thing I don't miss, and that's when I go to the Florida Toast Show to hang with my friend, DJ Harrington.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_03: I will sit at the booth with him and I will make sure he's doing fine.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_14: Thank you, Richard, and you do.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_14: You sit at the booth with me down at the Florida Toast Show.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_14: And folks, I want you to know Richard is just as generous at to all his team members.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_14: You know, some people call them employees, but he calls them team members because they're really a team at his place.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, they are.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_03: We are like family.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_03: Uh all my guys, we celebrate their birthdays.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um, everybody's like family here, and that's the way you have to be to be successful.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_03: I tell my employees, if it wasn't for you people, we wouldn't be where we are today.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_14: Yeah, and God's been real good to you.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_14: You have a nice home, you have a place in Florida, you have a place up in Rhode Island.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I do.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and there's one person that I have to thank for what I have today, and that's my wife.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_09: Oh, yeah.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_03: She puts up with a lot, and I'm sure every other owner can probably agree to that.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_03: You say you're gonna be home at five o'clock, five o'clock comes and goes, because the phone rings and something happens, and you've got to go on the road.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_03: Still today, I still operate a truck today, I still go on the road today.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_03: So it's tough.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: Tough to do a business.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_03: And today, now, with the economy, nobody wants to do this kind of work.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: This is getting to be where kids are used to playing on telephones and computers.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: This isn't that kind of work.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_03: This is something where it's not an eight to five business.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_03: You don't go home at five o'clock, you might come out at one in the morning.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's tough business, and you have to want to do it.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_03: You have to want to do it, and you can make a very good living doing this.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_16: I was gonna say it definitely is a lifestyle and a culture that most people don't get the concept of.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_03: That's right, April.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_03: They don't.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_03: And it it it's not like I say, it's not an eight to fight business.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: Wherever I go, I have my phone with me all the time.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, uh um I know a lot of people in the industry.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_03: I go to shows to see all my friends, you know.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um and this is what we do.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like I tell people we work hard and we play even harder sometimes.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: But you have to enjoy what you do.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_03: And on a second something can happen.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: It you have to think about safety.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_03: Safety, safety, safety.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: And this is what I preach to my people.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it it's it's a tough business, it can be a dangerous business.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: Uh back in 2013, I lost a driver who was taking a drive shaft out and didn't check for play and it hit him in the head.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I will say this, I've learned a lot from that and I tell my employees I don't want to call someone's loved one again.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_03: I had to do it once and I hope I never have to do it again because there's not enough words to tell somebody that their loved one that hurt is in the hospital and then five days later he passed.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_03: So you know, people have to learn this is a tough business.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_03: This is nobody slow down and move over.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I push slow down and move over.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_03: Matter of fact, if you come see me at any shows, I will be passing out some slow down move over pins that I will be giving out.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_16: And you're handing it out to the people who understand that.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_16: You know, yeah, towers it's you need to go to the grocery stores and do that and to the elementary schools and do that because that's where it's lost.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: And and what what ends up happening is we had two kind of pins made.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: And this is something that Gay Rochester started.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: And I just told her uh asked her if I could go order I think we ordered two hundred pins.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: A hundred and fifty that have white arrows on it, and fifty that have red arrows on it.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_03: The red arrows mean that you lost someone from an accident.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_03: And the white arrows are just a support, slow down and move over.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_03: So, like I said, anybody that sees me, uh I will be at the Ohio show and I will be giving out I'll have pins with me.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_03: So if anybody would like any, just stop in, see me, and I'll it'd be more than happy to give you some.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_17: So where w what what booth will you be at?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I'll be walking around with the Ohio show.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I don't know if TRAA is gonna have a booth.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_03: Uh if they do, I will be in it.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think they do.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_14: Yeah, I think they have a booth up there, Richard.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_14: And uh so that's something to go by and meet Richard.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_14: Tell him you heard him on the podcast, uh pick up a pin.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_14: Uh I wanted to ask Richard and Wes, how often does that happen?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_03: Because you're well well the does a tow truck drive the the statistics state there's a tow truck driver killed every six days.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_03: For people not slowing down and move over and people don't pay attention.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: We we're out there.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_03: We w we're the people that are out there day and night.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we have families too.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_03: We'd like to go home to our families at night.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know, when something bad happens on the road, who do you call?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: You call the tower.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_03: Day, night, holidays, weekends, and they come out and they show up.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_03: So you know, it it's it's it's kinda tough, you know, because we try to encourage people to slow down and move over, slow down and move over, you know, and some people just don't get it.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_03: It it just it it don't happen.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_03: And it's even happens with truck drivers hitting tow truck operators.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_03: So it's not just pedestrians in cars.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and I think it should be pushed when people go to the driver training schools, the CDL schools.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_03: I think that should be a topic.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_03: Slow down move over.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: That should be taught to them and something that we take very serious in our industry.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_17: The the podcast people take uh timing very serious as well.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_17: It's a bad segue.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_17: I don't mean to cut off with such a serious subject.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_17: But we we already gotta take a break.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_17: We'll be right back.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_10: Coin equipment correctly, nine.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_10: That's 910-747-9000.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_10: We look forward to serving you.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_14: Welcome back, listeners.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_14: Of course, you know you're listening to the number one podcast in the towing and recovery industry, Towing News Now podcast.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_14: It's coming from TowingEquipment Direct.com Studios.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_14: And it is my pleasure to remind all of you and to thank the rest of you for letting your friends and neighbors know.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_14: We have over 20,000 listeners on a regular basis.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_14: Remember to like, review, and share everywhere.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_14: And if you're an association and you want to put news on a podcast that people listen to, just style our podcast center, 706-409-5603.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_14: And we would be happy to put association news on the podcast so that we can send out the news to our brothers and sisters.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_14: All right.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_14: Without further ado, let me pass it on over to Wes and April Wilburn.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_17: Thanks, CJ.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_17: I appreciate that.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_17: We have several different stories.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_17: This is the two-part of an April reference.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_17: From the landline media.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_17: The title of it is One Token Records.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_17: State Fight Back.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_17: Well, that's a sensational headline, isn't it?
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_17: The truck is on.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_17: The bill keeps growing.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_17: States are now moving to stop killing companies from turning roadside trouble into a financial truck.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_17: Again, very sensationalized.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_17: North Carolina Arizona lawmakers are making the new making new rules to stop unfair telling practices and give truckers a fighting chance.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_17: The owner operator Independent Drivers Association has been pushing for those changes to goals that stop truckers from getting trapped by that.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_16: The two states mostly that are in this article are Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: And they're very similar in what they're trying to do with the very similar what they're they're very similar in what they're trying to push.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_16: Um really against the tow operator.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_16: Um and they both will say, you know, most towers are great towers, but there are few but they're their few that they're talking about is going against everybody in these articles.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_16: In my opinion.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_17: One of the things that I I think as far as crowd is some trucking companies don't get proper insurance and they're taking a chance that nothing will happen.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_17: When something happens, they have getting no money to handle the incident.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_17: That's what the the irresponsible reporting fake news is calling financial trap.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_17: It's not a financial trap, it's simply business.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_17: It's stored, and that's what they're talking about.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_17: And nobody no tow would want to go to the apple.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_17: You know, they're they're sympathetic to it.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_17: But the fact is that if somebody has somebody traveling down the highway, they're inconveniencing thousands of people.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_17: Which I don't know why I'm talking as a freaking fire listening to them.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: Although somebody would write a practice as well.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_17: Um standard business practices anyway, they have a private telling company.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_17: So it must also tell the driver where the vehicle has been taken and how to get it back.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_17: That's no problem.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_17: It gets explained ten times in some cases.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_17: What paperwork to show up with.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_17: It's a pretty standard procedure.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_17: April, you worked at a telecompany, somebody called up to get their uh truck back or their car back, it was a matter of telling them how much the truck car charge were and what to bring, wasn't it?
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_16: Yeah, it's absolutely number one, the tow company gets paid for the storage.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_16: Um and they and the owner gets their vehicle or their truck back.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_17: You know, another thing they got used to provide an itemized bill is prohibited.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_17: I've not not worked.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_17: I've never seen a regular telling company that does not provide an itemized bill.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_17: They just don't write a number at the bottom of the page.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_17: Now if you get to a telling company that just writes a number at the bottom of the page, it would yeah, they would call that clue, wouldn't they?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_16: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_17: So the the things they're pushing for are things that are in my opinion, some of the some of the things, let me make the word myself careful.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_17: Um North Carolina, which is where we're being able to, is cracking down on predatory telling as well.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_17: The rule protect records from illegal booting private fees are still being held out.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_17: But lawmakers say that the fight isn't over yet.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_17: Illegal booting.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_17: That is that is not a standard practice of a decent telling company, in my opinion.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_17: Booting is a punishment.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_17: Telling is solving a problem.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_17: Declaring their property, booting is taking advantage of the situation.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_17: And uh we've got some other stories about the caliber of some of these private property sellers in North Carolina.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_17: And I've seen aggressive telling in my days, and it's nothing compared to what they're doing.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_17: That'll be an upcoming story, won't it?
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_16: Oh yeah, we've got uh I think we've got Q in our state, you know.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_17: And these aren't one time situations where there might be a misunderstanding.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_17: These what from what the reporting says, I want to be careful how I word this, but from what the reporting says, these are cases of very aggressive, if not borderline legal operations, selling cars and whatnot.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_16: And then I have an opinion about and this is his opinion of what we're talking about right there, they're putting in language of common sense.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_16: So when you're reading it, you're like, yeah, that you know, that makes sense.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_16: That makes sense, which you're already lost.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_16: It makes the rest of it sound like it's more palatable.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_16: Um doing uh doing an invoice for a toast that you're telling somebody where to pick up their vehicle, and then they put in the rest of the stuff that's bad.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_16: When you put it all together and you read it, you think, well, this is not that bad.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_16: That's why I think that they're putting that in there.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_16: They're they're dressing it up a little bit to make it seem like it's not so bad.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_17: Oh yeah, that might be okay.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_17: They do have another bill, H199, that's creating the telling the recovery commission.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_17: Handle properly, that could be a good thing.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_17: I've seen that handle properly in some states in other states or that's what's going on out there.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_17: We do invite a representative from the owner operator independent association.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_17: If they'd like to come on the program, we'd love to have them come on and talk to them.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_17: As a matter of fact, I think we've reached out to them if we have them as well.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_17: We'd love to have them come on and talk about their side.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_16: And that one bill that you're talking about in North Carolina, that's gonna be in the uh 2026 coming legislation report.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_16: Yeah, so we're trying to keep up to date with that.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: In Pennsylvania, they're taking a model.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_17: What must happen after vehicles?
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_17: Uh Democrats thought about legislation and aim that small number of bad actors damage the reputation of the industry.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_17: That's a great thing.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_17: I can see within the North Carolina Pennsylvania right now.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_17: They're laws that are being violated and they enforce the laws on the public.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_16: Exactly.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_17: That's my two cents for it.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_17: What else we got?
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_16: Well, we have a dovetail uh listen to about a trucker talking about how they raise the insurance the insurance limit for the trucker that I think kind of goes with us a little bit.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_17: Yeah, this is kind of what I was talking about earlier about you know there's gonna be an incident.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_17: You don't have proper insurance to uh take care of the incident.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_17: In other words, there's there's very uh companies that are out there running around with very, very minimal amounts of insurance.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_17: One minor incident and then they're 20 times over their policy limit.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_16: So it's almost like a liability, they only have liability as little as they can possibly get a pilot and be on the road at the same time.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_17: I don't I think it's cars only, but New Hampshire I think they that they just changed the law that you're gonna have to have some kind of insurance.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_17: In New Hampshire, if you I think you have to stay in the state of New Hampshire, the vehicle's gotta be registered.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_17: You're allowed to drive around with zero insurance.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_16: Or a seatbelt.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_16: No insurance and no seat belt.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_16: I didn't know that was those two things don't make any sense.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_17: New Hampshire is definitely low free or not.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_16: Yeah.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: So let's go ahead to that clip by the Invest in America Act that was just recently passed by the House.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: And why this is so detrimental is it's going to raise the minimum insurance liability requirements from$750,000 to$2 million.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of guys carry a million bucks.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: It it allows them to work with more brokers, but imagine going from a million bucks to two million bucks.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason this is so serious for those who don't understand, uh insurance for a lot of companies is almost single-handedly one of their biggest expenses.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: Insurance companies have a massive cookhold on the owner-operator and the small fleet owners.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, insurance is make it or break it for tons of small fleet owners and owner operators.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so many of them right now are striving, barely keeping their heads above the water because of the massive insurance uh rates that they're having to pay.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: And now, can you imagine all of those guys potentially having to double that amount?
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is absolutely insane.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I want everybody to understand this is a bipartisan thing.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: It takes bipartisan agreement to pass an act like this.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: So all of the Republicans out there that believe in the Orange Messiah, if they've all voted in favor of this, the majority of them, and all of the guys out there who support the Democrats, I don't care what side you vote on, okay?
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: They are all in this to screw us, to screw the little guy.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm no longer an owner operator, thank God.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so this isn't going to affect me necessarily, but it's going to affect companies.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: It could very well affect my current employer.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: It could very well affect um quite literally the vast majority of owner operators and small fleet owners uh to the point of putting them out of business.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: But let's be honest, that's what the mega carriers and the ATA, that's what they've been wanting for so long.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: They want to clean the small fleets and the owner operators out of this industry so they can continue growing like the cancer that they actually are on this industry.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I just thought you guys should know that and be aware of what's happening behind closed doors uh from the government officials who we pay the salary for.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they just continue to grow.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: The government is a cancer, mega carriers are a cancer, and both of them working in unison to put the small guys out of business is exactly what we're seeing.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_16: So that's what I was talking about as far as the dovetail goes.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_16: This guy is small fleets, I'm sure, is gonna really have an impact on how much of the insurance costs because insurance is crazy for tow truck operators.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_17: Right, but hang on a second.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_17: Yeah, it's going up, but there's been a lot of reasons it's going up.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_17: And that needs to be a part of the cost of doing business.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_17: If it can't be absorbed, then maybe they need to get out of business.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_17: And why not the megaplects and I am all with moderators companies?
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_17: I'm also for the worker.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_17: And a lot of mom and companies, the worker doesn't have a retirement with health insurance, etc.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_17: Some some of the megaplates are brought to the world is making it a real career, a job.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_17: A real career instead of just being a job.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_17: I'm not saying it's the right answer, but come on.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_17: Megaplecer cancer, cancer.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_17: What kind of hat do you think?
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_17: What kind of little do you think is happening?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_16: Well, I cannot say that word that you just said very well, so I'm not gonna say it, but uh one of the biggest problems for towers is for the for the big trucks, when they tow the big trucks is the insurance.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_09: There's not enough when there's a big bill.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_16: Th the insurance, there's not enough insurance to cover it, and then the trucker talks about how much the storage costs because they couldn't afford to get the truck out of storage because the bill is so high.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_17: It's a catch twenty two because the truck they think their insurance only thinks that they should have to use the local tow company.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_17: They're so expensive to the local citizens to use the local tow company.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_17: So they get somebody close and quick with resources to get out there and get it out of the way so they can go back to home.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_17: And that's one of the things people don't consider is that they trackers think that they should be doing whatever to save money on the bill and the intervention.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_16: And I'm gonna say this one thing, I'm gonna say this I say this about equipment for for tow trucks who are not promoting us.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_16: You spend this much money for the rig that you're driving.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_16: If it's a tow truck or if it's a if it's an 18 roller, you spend that much money for that thing, and you're gonna complain about a tow bill.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's human nature.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_16: It is human nature, but the the equipment towing towing that thing costs money too.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_17: Sure.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_17: All right, what else do we got?
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_16: We've got the two uh clips to listen to from our great state of North Carolina.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_17: This is state the state authorities are getting aggressive on some people, and the people they're getting aggressive on some of their business practices appear to be uh suspect.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_17: So everybody's innocent until proven guilty.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_04: This story has left a lot of people stunned.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_08: Yeah, and it was still shocking to me.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_08: I interviewed Ardell Olive back in 2024.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_08: He had a horrifying story to share about two men who tried booting his tractor trailer and took things way too far.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_13: That's gonna be with it for the rest of my life.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_08: Ardell Olive was briefly parked in this gas station lot when he says two men booted his tractor trailer with a thin wire and tried charging him for$10,000.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_08: They weren't wearing uniforms or an out truck, he took off and they chased it.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_13: He dumped up on the side of my truck.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_13: That's when he hit me with the butt of the gun.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_08: The two men in that incident are Rodney Grayson and Robert Fraser.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_08: They claim to work for PCR, owned by Tim Davis.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_08: But the criminal case against them has been plagued by delays after the attorney representing both men recently had her bar license suspended.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_08: While Grayson appears to have kept quiet since the arrest, court records indicate Fraser has been busy.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_08: He has numerous infractions out of Gaston County for driving with a revoked license and 60 days for most recently was arrested and accused of trying to strip and steal copper wire from a utility pole.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_13: I don't like that to happen to me, but I don't want it to happen to me.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_17: Well, sounds to me like several existing laws of American and again that will have their day in court, but that's I don't really think a fair representation of a member of the towing industry.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_17: That sounds like someone that I don't know.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_16: Pir I mean pirates is what it sounds like.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_16: It sounds like Grand Theft Auto to a certain extent.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_16: I worked in Northern Virginia for a few years for a tow truck company, and I didn't know of any companies that did any booting.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_16: So that's a that's a new thing for me, I guess.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_17: Again, booting's making it a punishment for for financial reward.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_17: Towing is solving the problem.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_17: Yeah.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_17: Removing the vehicle from where it's not supposed to be.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_02: We got one more out of this is also out of Carolina.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_11: Continues to expose the wild west of towing.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_04: Tonight, investigative reporter David Hodges reveals yet another tow truck driver facing serious criminal charges whose escaped consequences for years.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_11: He joins us now live in studio with more on that.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_04: So, David, last week he gave us an update about David Satterfield and the charges he faces after towing Carl.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_04: Two women were still in it.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_04: So, what are you looking into tonight?
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_08: So, tonight we're talking about Tim Davis, owner of Precision Collateral Recovery and a host of other towing companies that have switched names over the years.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_08: In February of 2024, he filed a temporary restraining order against me to try and stop our reporting or reporting.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_08: A judge quickly shot that down.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_08: But otherwise, police and the judicial system have done very little to slow Davis down.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_08: In 2023, Charlotte Mecklenburg police executed a search warrant at the PCR tooling lot on Old Statesville Road.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_08: Turns out it wasn't wrong.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_08: Case against him hasn't progressed in years.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_08: The person you called has a voicemail box that hasn't been set up yet.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_08: I tried calling Davis but couldn't get a hold of him.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_08: That is the literal number for his own business.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_08: So I asked Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather why the case is stagnant.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_08: This case has gone absolutely nowhere.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_07: Why is that the case?
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_07: Uh it can appear that people uh that who are outside of our courts that it aren't moving.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_07: What I can tell you is that there's a lot of work that's going on under the water.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_07: Many times there are actually things that are being investigated that will further uh investigation.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_07: I determine whether or not we can actually make cases better.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_08: A spokesperson for U.S.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_08: Attorney Russ Ferguson's office also said, quote, do not disclose but confirm whether there's an active investigation or not.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_08: But in March 2026, Davis found himself in handcuffs again.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_08: Court records alleged that Davis was part of a conspiracy in which four men hotwired a U-ball from this lot on Steel Creek Road, then drove it to this warehouse, and were caught on camera, cutting the lock to a fence.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_08: Davis is now charged with felony larceny of a motor vehicle, a conspiracy to commit felony larceny.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_08: He's now been arrested again and accused of more theft and yet another case.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_07: And we will deal with that as it happens.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_07: Every effort that we can uh take to protect the public from further harm in every single case, I promise you, we will do it.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_08: David says next court date for the founding conspiracy case involving the U Hall, the allegedly stolen U Hall is August 12th.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_08: It does not have a court date scheduled in the Other states involved in 2023.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_08: One of the things that I've left are often like black holes.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_08: It's hard to prove exactly who the imposition of those guns.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_08: And then, of course, the other thing is that North Carolina state lawmakers have failed year after year after year to pass any new towing regulation.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_08: So so often when you have police interact with these tow truck drivers, they just say it's a civil matter and throw up their hands.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_08: It's not their business.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_17: Well, well, a couple things.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_17: They talked about going to the tow lot and having an an X number of guns and five of them were stolen weapons, I believe they said, out of 12, maybe whatever the numbers were.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_17: I'm not sure about that part of North Carolina, but I know this part of North Carolina and every other state I've been in, stolen guns are illegal.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_16: It seems like every one of the things they charge them with if I get it, I would probably you'd be in jail.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_16: You'd have to become the the only out.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_16: Individually.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_17: That that there's something wrong there.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_17: That doesn't happen.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_17: Having one stolen vehicle vehicle on a lot is is rare.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_17: And there better be a good darn re my experience has been there better be a good darn reason why there's a stolen vehicle on your lot.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_17: Now if you tow the car to the county police, the paperwork was done, and then thirty days later it was discovered it was a stolen car because it when they went and the reason it wasn't discovered for thirty days is they went back to the paperwork and one of the the VIN number was wrong.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_17: Something to that effect.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_16: Understandable.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_17: But there better be a chain of custody like that, uh a a chain of explanation like that.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_17: Or they're gett there's problems.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_17: So these are again the existing laws of the book can solve most of these problems.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_17: Oh yeah, five billion dollars worth of solar.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_17: That just I don't even you know, that's just illegal in any any county province.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_16: I'm sure there's like additional like there's a certain amount that is misdemeanor and then there's a certain amount that's felony.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_16: Even California is not that bad.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_16: You know.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_16: There's a certain amount that you gotta get to that five million dollars.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_17: I think five million dollars is gonna be a felony.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_16: Might might be there, yeah.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_17: Again though, if you better have a good darn reason, there better be the state police had you tow that truck and trailer.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_17: Nope, they didn't realize it or something to that effect, some kind of something going on.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_17: So again, I think if they just work on exit, they don't need to make new laws, they need to enforce the laws on the books.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_17: But that's my two cents anyway.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_17: Want to thank those listeners, we're over 20,000.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_17: Please hit that like and subscribe button, share, we appreciate that.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_17: Want to thank April for all the work she does behind the scenes and helping put it together.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_17: DJ, you always do an excellent job.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_17: Richard Brant's our guest today.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_17: We appreciate him taking the time to be with us as well.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_17: It's summertime, it's hot, everybody's busy.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_17: Remind all your operators, pay attention to people out there.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_17: Don't get don't let the heat get you hot under the collar.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_17: Stay cool to stay calm when dry.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_17: Y'all have a good week.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_17: Be safe out there from the and from the towing equipment direct.com studios.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_17: Have a great week.