Latest / Towing News Now / Transforming Towing: Snowy Challenges, State Police Standoffs, and Industry Innovations

Transcript

Transforming Towing: Snowy Challenges, State Police Standoffs, and Industry Innovations · Towing News Now

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Today on Towing News.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Now there's news updates from across the country, including an update about what happened in Connecticut with the standoff with the state police.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Also, towing is busy across the United States with snowy conditions.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: We have an update interview with Jose from Big Valley out in Vegas.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: What's going on out there with that company?
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: They've joined.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: What's going on in the state in general?
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Also a great interview with our rescue guru, ron Moore.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Ron's going to talk to us a little bit about training later in the show.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: So sit back, relax.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: We've got a great show.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: If you're driving, of course, pay attention to what you're doing.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: We're glad you're here for the ride.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: The team at Towing News Now would like to take a moment to remember our 39th president, jimmy Carter, who passed away on December 29th 2024, at the age of 100, and was preceded in death by his lovely wife of 77 years, rosalyn Carter.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Jimmy Carter's presidency was a complicated one, coming on the heels of Vietnam, nixon and statuation.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Notable events during his presidency the Iran hostage crisis 444 days created 20% interest rates which crippled the economy.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Interest rates which crippled the economy.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: The Camp David Accord peace summit of Egypt and Israel.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Grant China diplomatist status for the first time ever.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Gave away the Panama Canal.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: He also deregulated trucking, the airline industry and other various types of businesses.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I know personally of two things from his administration.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: The trucking deregulation changed the towing industry quite a bit.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Before you had to have permits to make certain moves and tows depending on how your state handled it, and things were handled differently at all the different states with assigned routes etc.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: It limited who you get in the towing business, especially the heavy towing business.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: It also indirectly created a category of towing that basically just started about that time.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Voluntary repossessions Traditionally, up to that point repossessions had been their own part, own segment of the towing industry.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: You're not really interacting with the tower that was trying to do police towing, public towing, dealership towing etc.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: But because interest rates got so bad, big corporations like GMAC had tons of customers that couldn't afford the cars, realized they couldn't afford them and just wanted to give them back.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Sometimes they would break down and need a tow truck.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Sometimes the tow truck was just used for the convenience, but the GMAC rep would be there, the customer would be there handing you the keys and it was a very similar tow-to-tow in a car to a service center back in those days.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: So, inadvertently, his high interest rates created that whole category.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: And then the trucking deregulation, like I say, changed things a lot, allowed a lot of people to get into heavy towing again, depending on how the state handled things.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: But it was his post-presidency that was his legacy.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: President Carter dedicated himself to alleviating human suffering, in addition to promoting peace and human rights Through the Carter Center, president and Mrs Carter led the Jimmy and Rosalind Carter Work Project for Habitat for Humanity for over 30 years.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: Together they've worked alongside over 108,000 volunteers, who have built, renovated, repaired more than 4,447 homes in 14 countries, all while raising awareness of the critical need for affordable housing.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: May he rest in eternal peace.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the new season, season four, episode one of Towing News.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Now You're going to have industry news, tech talks, fantastic guests throughout this whole year.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Welcome to 2025.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: This is DJ Harrington, your co-host.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I'll now pass it over to the real host of the program, april, and Wes Wilburn.
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: Hey, jake, glad to be back with you on the show, really happy to be more involved.
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: I started towards the end of last year with you guys and I will roll out the new year with you as well.
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: How is your year looking so far, dj?
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Fantastic April.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: It has been a good one, and of course, we're getting ready for bad weather here, just like you, and Wes are up there.
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so far we are lucky we have cold weather, but that's about it.
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: A little bit up north, our northern friends are really having some experiences with the snow and the ice.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: And out west too, boys, there's been some serious winter conditions and I wore my hats off to all the towing professionals and all the other people out there keeping America moving, but especially the towing professionals, the unsung heroes out there.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: If it wasn't for them, America would be totally shut down right now, with a large percentage of the country under snow conditions.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they said that this started off in California, northern California and just spread throughout the country.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: So you know.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, boy, speaking of California, the day we're recording this, there's wildfires getting terrible out there.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I've got to choose my words carefully because it's a horrible, horrible situation.
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: Horrible event.
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: I was watching it last night and Pasadena High School, which apparently is a historical high school, is on its own.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: The whole thing's blown up.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're praying for everybody involved, with those affected by those fires and, of course, everybody across the country putting themselves in harm's way to keep American roadways and America's roads moving.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: So definitely the days we're recording this we're definitely thinking of those folks.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: We took a weekend off for a week off for Christmas, so to speak.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: So it's the first of the year.
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: Well, today is Elvis Presley's birthday, January the 8th, and we'll drop this tomorrow, so we yeah, so there was a little gap there, but this is our new weekly program, bj.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: We've got some good feedback about the new format with the news and, and, you know, focused on getting this thing.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: You know, focused on getting this thing.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: When I say live, folks don't have to listen to it live, they can still listen to it as a podcast.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: But we're getting good feedback from the new format.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: What have you heard?
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: So far, having you select Wednesdays as your day.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: It really has added more to it, because there's a lot of co-shows that are on weekends and people travel to those shows, and having it on Wednesday, so Wednesday is your day for Towing News.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Now, this is a great idea.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Wes and April, you've tuned in and we want all of our people to tune in and get turned on with telling news.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: I agree with you.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so so we're going to still do the interview format.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, we're going to do more interviews.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Today we have a returning guest.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: We had him on.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: It's been two years almost since we had him but Jose and big rally toes going to tell us out there in Vegas.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: We're going to tell us what's going on out there.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: They've joined one of the consolidation groups, so he's going to tell us a little bit about that.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: I haven't heard all the details.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: I know the big pieces, but he's also going to let us know what's going on in the state of Nevada with their state association, their Association, their trip program.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Then we have Ron Moore.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: That believes in us and the concept of the podcast greatly.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: He's been a great mentor and friend over the years.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Ron's agreed we think it's going to be weekly or every other week.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: We're trying to work on the scheduling right now to make that happen.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: What do you think DJ Getting him on regular would be a good thing to talk about interest to both groups and whatnot.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: You're not kidding.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Ron Moore is one of the finest human beings and to get him to be on the podcast Wes is a real plus for the program, and you're going to get more cross-training with first responders.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: You're going to get a lot of firefighters on the podcast because of Ron Moore and doing cross-training with our excellent professional towers that listen to us every week.
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: A lot of towers are.
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: I don't know if it's 25% it might be a little bit less than that but it just seems like about 25% of towers are.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: Also is a volunteer or they work for the fire department, and to me that's just a great crossover.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: He's also going to kind of speak to somebody like me.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: As far as what my insights are.
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: I'm not as sophisticated with some of the stuff that mine and Wes is, so when he's explaining this he's going to even make it where maybe something is that even I can understand.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: April.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: I agree with you and all our listeners.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: This is DJ Anderson, the Toe Doctor, and I have news for you.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: I wrote my very first article called Keep them Stable Till we Get them to the Table, and it's because of Ron Moore, wes Wilburn and doing cross training yeah absolutely.
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: You never know who you touch whenever something happens.
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: You have no concept of that.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: So Ron's going to do, I think, a real good subject today.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: He's just going to talk about training in general, whether it's a selling organization, a fire department, et cetera.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: So we're looking forward to having him on.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: So we're going to have two great interviews on today's podcast.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Like I say, a week now, wednesday the 15th, I guess it will be yeah.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Thursday.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we also have a update on sound equipment.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: We're gonna.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: We I know I've needed to do it for a while and we have everything taken care of.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: The weather got us delayed slightly, but next week we hope to have a new studio sound going on as well.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: And again, god bless you.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: I know a couple of you have mentioned it to me that I need to do this for a while, so I'm a little dinosaur and I move slow sometimes, but we're getting that done.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: So two years off is a good start, dj, we're excited.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: We're excited about many things.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: We entered an agreement with the Statewide Towing Academy, which is a division of the Statewide Towing Association out of Massachusetts, todd Chase and Nate Buckler and Michael Spacey, which is their education committee and they volunteer a lot of time up there for that association.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: In about 2006 2006 they adopted our light medium duty program and I did a train the trainer program.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I worked with michael esposito and todd chase at that point, especially todd he did, he did most of the classroom, um, but they adapted our training program.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: The association modified it slightly to fit their needs.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Up there we did a series of classes together with their trainers where I trained with them and that's worked out real well.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: It's gone on for years.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: We've traded some notes back and forth.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: They just made a deal and they have bought a franchise agreement to provide our electric vehicle training and testing and certification.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: There's some interest.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Some of the authorities in that part of the country are interested, very interested, to operate our electric and alternative fuel vehicle training.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: So we're going to do a series of courses in the middle of February.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Dates haven't been exact, city locations haven't been announced yet.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: What is that February?
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: 18th, 19th and 20th, and that's in an effort to make it more accessible to people throughout the state also.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well it's commendable.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, again, the three gentlemen that I named, nate, michael and Todd, and there's others too.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: There's the three that I'm working I've started the process on this program with, but there's several other people involved up there now, which again many people doing the work makes it a little easier on everybody, but they've taken control of their own destiny as a tow association, provided good quality research information delivered professionally.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: So it's not a waste of, you know, wasting half the time at a class, it's delivering a professional format, which is what we always strive to do.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: And they've delivered the light and medium for years.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: We've done several heavies up there.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: It might be up there in the fall for heavy.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: We're working on that now, but we'll definitely be up there in February.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: We've done three electric slash, alternative fuel vehicle classes, promoting, of course, the EV Clever app.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: So all the answers you need to a electric or alternative fuel vehicle, all the information you need to buy a good alternative fuel vehicle, all the information from the manufacturer.
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: And that app is available on Google Play Store and Apple and it's a 30-day free trial.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, yep.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: So we'll be up there in Massachusetts delivering that information with them in February and they're going to, as I understand it, work diligently to get that information around the state, like they have with the light and medium duty program.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Again, it's a good arrangement because it allows the hotelers to provide it for their members, hotel association, rather provide it for their members, get classes close to home for folks that don't have to travel as much and classes specific to their region of the country.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: So, that's going on, DJ.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: We're real excited about that program but also the last program we talked about, Connecticut.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: There was coming up to our head between the tellers not wanting to respond to heavy state police calls, heavy-duty state police calls, because many issues between them and the state police that did get resolved.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: It broke down in communication and this coming to a head has brought the communication back to the forefront and to a better level than before.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: That's what I've been told.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: I don't know if everything's totally resolved, but things are on a better platform.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: So the toys did not strike the week of Christmas like they had been talked about.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: It came to some sort of resolve.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Also an interesting side note the state of Connecticut.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Apparently you tow an older car.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: It's worth under $1,500.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: The requirement for keeping it, the amount of days, the requirement for keeping it is relatively short and that's come under the scrutiny of two different newspapers.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: I guess they're kind of the same newspaper organization.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: One's an offshoot of the other one as far as I can tell.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: But now the state authorities are looking into why it's only 15 days it's only worth $1,500, and how much shorter of a time span that that is in most states.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's right or wrong.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: It does seem to make some sense with the car being such low value.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: But anyway, the newspaper reports the state legislature is looking into this issue and they'll tell us as things progress.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: So we'll try to keep our listeners progressed as well.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: All right, we're going to take a moment.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Go to a break.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: We've got a great guest after the break, so hang around and come on back after the break.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: so hang around and come on back.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: For electric and other alternative fuel vehicles, we have developed an app that gives you all the manufacturers 411 for when that 911 happens, whether you are a fire tow or police, we got you covered.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: To find the EV Clever app, go to your Apple or Google Play store for a 30-day free trial.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: To find the EVClever app, go to your Apple or Google Play store for a 30-day free trial.
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: We also offer the National Tow Operator Certification, an independently sourced virtual testing program covering light-duty, heavy-duty electric and alternative fuel vehicles.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: You have been listening to Towing News Now with Wes Wilburn and April Wilburn, dj Harrington, the Toe Doctor, every week.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: We do our best to bring you the very best we're available on Spotify, itunes, pandora, stitcher, iheartmedia, amazon or wherever you get your podcasts.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: I can't thank you enough for listening to our new season four, episode one of Towing News Now, wes, I'm going to turn it over to you because you know Jose a whole lot better than me, but he is a fine returning guest that a lot of our listeners love listening to.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: Before Wes, I'll turn it over to you.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: Thank you, dj.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we have Jose from Big Valley out in Vegas, a returning podcast guest and a longtime friend and supporter of the Institute.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Jose, give yourself a brief introduction if you would please.
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: Sure.
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: Thank you, wes.
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: Thank you, dj.
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: My name's Jose Nerina.
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: I am the general manager of Big Valley Towing here in Las Vegas, nevada.
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: I've been in the towing industry about 36 years and love every minute of it.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: I know you're part of a group of companies out west and some of them are in California.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: With what's going on with the fires, I've got to start by asking is there any companies that are in your group at this point affected by any of the fires there in the Los Angeles area?
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: Well, none of our companies are affected in a negative way as far as the fires within our platform.
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: Obviously, we have a broad customer base in Southern California within the platform, and so we are doing work for several entities that are involved in firefighting, but nothing affected negatively in the sense of no loss of property or life, so that's a good thing.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: It is, and of course we pray for everybody affected out there.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Of course your personnel is helping assist.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: We earn our thoughts and prayers as well.
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: So some things have changed.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: It's been almost two years since we've been on the podcast.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Yes, it has.
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: Yes, it has A couple things have changed.
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: Well, just to give you a little bit of background for the listeners, valley Towing was owned by two individuals, debbie Collins and myself.
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: I was literally the minority owner.
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: Ben Dan Collins passed away on a roadside accident.
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: So when I came on board in 2012, subsequently after that became part of the business side of it and we were able to, you know, hit a lot of goals and make a lot of things happen for a big Valley towing in Las Vegas area.
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: At which time Debbie, after the pandemic, you know, she kind of had kind of checked all the boxes right.
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: She did everything she set out to do within the towing industry and she kind of wanted to retire.
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: And it was almost like a birdie had whispered in everybody's ear and almost instantly we had a phone call from the people at First Line Road Solutions.
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: We had a phone call from the people at Firstline Road Solutions.
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: They were interested in purchasing our Opco, our operating company, to be part of the process, of the road solutions process, and it kind of came at a good time for everybody.
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: So consequently, as we know now, we did go ahead and sell to the Firstline Road Solutions platform to become part of Big Valley Road Solutions and it was great.
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: It allowed Debbie Collins to retire and reach her goals personally and it allowed me to continue on and carry the banner that is Big Valley in this new venture.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Now First Line Road Solutions.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: They're a company that has consolidated other telecom companies.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Is that correct?
• 21:17
  Speaker 5: That's correct.
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: So it is part of an equity-backed road solutions company.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: That's private equity, correct.
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: Correct, that's private equity and they obviously serve as the financial backing for Firstline Road Solutions.
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: But it's kind of like you know, we're trying to.
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: We're literally reinventing the wheel within towing because, as we know, other people have tried to do at other entities, like you know, road One and United Road Towing but something happened over the course of the last few years.
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: There's an entity that's very similar to ours on the East Coast.
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: That's very similar to ours on the East Coast, and it turns out that if you back up, if you fill in the gaps a little bit tighter, you're able to get the result that you need.
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: And so First Line Road Solutions took over companies in several states.
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: So we're in California, nevada, utah, idaho and Wyoming at the moment, and the beauty of it all is is, yes, we're all a consolidated company and we're all under the same banner, but we still maintain our entities.
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: And then we also have the ability to reinforce each other and to support each other for whatever they need, right, because we're close enough, we're all within about 200 miles from each other, and so we're really able to create this one entity with massive internal support.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: So who's the closest one to you in a couple different directions?
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: So, for example, we have our partners to the north of Cal, nevada Towing and Garino Sparks area.
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: Our partners to the southwest is a combination of statewide towing in the Fontana Riverside area and then 10 west towing starting to go into Bakersfield, and then to the north we have stoppers towing out of Utah.
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: That kind of rounds it out and we've kind of become this little middle sprocket, middle hub because of the things that Vegas offers, which is an up and coming solution for warehousing and logistics.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Right, yes, I know it's becoming a lot busier for those areas.
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's really something With everything going on with Amazon and as much product as they move, and obviously they've opened up their own point where you know it's really centralizing in Nevada.
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: You know you got people leaving California for one reason or another and they seem to be landing in states like Nevada obviously Arizona, but Nevada has a little thing called no inventory tax and so you can store inventory here and not be taxed, and obviously that's a great situation for warehousing and logistics, so we've been quite popular.
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: Obviously, we also have the ability or the facilities through Tesla up in the north and northern Nevada that create a lot of commercial traffic.
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: So we're really situated in a really sweet spot within our platform at Big Valley, and so we like to believe that we have a very important job to make sure that everything gets moving in the right direction.
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: So I have a question to ask, jose.
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: If you are a company that is considering being absorbed by one of these consolidators, such as yours, was there a fear, when this was happening, of your employees, drivers, office personnel?
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: A fear of job loss, fear of pay cuts, fear of any of that, and how has that worked out for your staff?
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: Sure Great question.
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: There's always that fear, right, because you see the movies of quote-unquote corporate takeovers.
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: But we're doing a different business model here.
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: Corporate takeovers, but we're doing a different business model here.
• 26:05
  Speaker 5: It is really a partnership between the corporate culture and the towing culture and we're coming together and part of the mantra is nobody goes backwards, right, and so everybody keeps their name, everybody keeps the employees.
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: Is there a shuffle?
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: Well, sometimes it's an organic shuffle, right, and the beauty is is that if you create this platform and you have employees that no longer want to be in Nevada, for example, their life takes them to transfer over and continue doing what they love without losing whether it be seniority, without losing, maybe, experience or having to start over, and so it creates this organic camaraderie amongst all of our Opcos that we help each other because we're so close.
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: You know, I think before the mistake was is that you had the outposts so far apart.
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: You know you had some in Las Vegas and then the next one would be San Antonio and then the next one would be Chicago, and you can't support each other correctly at that distance.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it sounds more.
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: This is more of a natural, um, like you said, organic, because everybody's so close together, even with California.
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: Everything is going on in Southern California.
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: If it, if it came down to it, you guys could send resources and help out with that.
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, that's.
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: One of the advantages of consolidation is that, you know, we have, uh, a lot of resources and area.
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: At one time, you know, I think we actually threw like 20 or 30 trucks at the problem and we were able to really just kind of move things along because we had the ability to share resources and everybody kind of pitched in.
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: You know, and again, if we have a situation where right now in the winter, let's say, there's a snow storm in Utah and our Utah opco can't handle it, then absolutely there's a call that's made to, you know, other opcos hey, can you send a truck or two, or can you send some drivers, and we can, you know, use their trucks.
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: You, a truck or two, or can you send some drivers and we can, you know, use their trucks?
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: You have options that you didn't have before.
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: You know you were kind of stuck in a hole, you know, because you can't, like you can't, buy a truck fast enough nowadays or train an operator fast enough to keep up with the, you know, instant demand that is, the roadway recovery.
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that sounds like an optimal situation too, and it also seems like the way they structured when they came and they made everybody comfortable with it and they seem like they have value in their operations and their employees.
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and that's really why it's important to the way they are doing the allocations right, the way they're going and inviting the companies in.
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: All the companies are very similar in scope, both in culture and in business practices, so we're all alike, so to speak, and we all have identities in our own markets.
• 29:43
  Speaker 5: That is important to keep, and I think that's one of the underlining factors that's going to lead to our success, is the fact that it's not an entity taking over a name.
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: It is.
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: The entities are specific to each area, because each area has a specific type of business, and what works in California doesn't work in Nevada, doesn't work in, you know, utah or Idaho, and so we're able to take the experience of the local company and imagine backing them up with some.
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: You know different financial situation, financial, you know help.
• 30:22
  Speaker 5: What can you create?
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: Obviously it's an amazing situation.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Well, that's good that that's working out for you.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: When did the transaction happen?
• 30:39
  Speaker 5: So we switched over to first line.
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: I want to say 6th, so June of 23.
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: We've been apart with them and, like I said, it's been everything has been transparent, everything has been what has been.
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: You know what has been promised has happened, and so that is good to know because, again, we see everything on, you know the movies and television and you hear it corporate, bad, and there are some instances where this can work.
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: And I really think that the people in play here, all the way down from the operators at the opcos to the board directors, are all in the same mindset is that let's create a better solution for our customers and our employees.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: That's a great mindset.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: It's nice to see that it's working well for you and working well for the whole group out there.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: I'd like to get you to come back on at some point and talk about that some more, but right now we're up against a hard break.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: I'd like to take a break and after the break I'd like to get you to come back and talk about what's going on with the Toe Association, the TRIP program and anything else at Nevada.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: Sure, absolutely.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: All right, we'll be right back after the break.
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: For all your ringing needs.
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: Give us a look at towingequipmentdirectcom or email us at info at amtowriorg.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: Also, you can give us a call at 910-747-9000.
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: Information in this podcast is made possible by generous sponsorship from Henry's Wrecker, serving the community with quality towing and recovery for over 40 years.
• 32:17
  Speaker 5: Henryswreckercom.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: Welcome back listeners.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: Of course you know you're listening to the number one program towing news now with Wes Wilburn and April Wilburn and DJ Harrington today from big Valley towing in Nevada.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: The one and only Jose is explaining everything.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: If you want another professional like Jose, by all means dial our hotline number here at the podcast center 706-409-5603.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: 706-409-5603.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: And we'll get that professional like Jose from Big Valley Towing in Vegas on the line.
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: All right, wes, I'll turn it back over to you.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: Thank you, BJ.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Jose, tell us what's going on with the Tow Association.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: Last time we talked, I think it was gaining some traction.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: What's going on?
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so we've formed the Nevada State Tow Association.
• 33:21
  Speaker 5: It's been two years now and we've had a lot of great success.
• 33:26
  Speaker 5: You know, what happens is when you don't have an association on your behalf, it's just a bunch of individuals going to say the legislature and saying, hey, you know, this legislation that you're proposing might not be a good idea, but when you have a whole entity that represents the whole state, that represents all of the towers in this case, then obviously I believe it has a lot more weight.
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: We've had a lot of success in the legislature, not only for towing but, I think, for many, many citizens, to make sure that the laws are even and fair for everybody, not just for the towing community.
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: And so we've been able to work with state legislatures, department of Motor Vehicles, law enforcement to make sure that the wording is correct and when we do lien fails, when we do auctions, you know the way the titles are given out, and so we made a lot of progress with that.
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: We had some progress.
• 34:29
  Speaker 5: You know, since we're regulated by the state of Nevada, in Nevada, or our non-consent towing, you have to go through some hoops to get increases on on pricing, on rates, for going in recovery, and usually it comes with a whole roll of red tape, and through the association, working closely with the Nevada Transportation Authority, we were able to get an increase, a substantial increase to our rates that we hadn't had in about 14 years, to deal with this inflation that everybody is getting clobbered over the head with.
• 35:07
  Speaker 5: So that was one of the biggest positives that we had with the association, on top of the fact that we are constantly gaining ground, constantly gaining more and more members, and so they understand that together we're stronger than we are individually.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: Well, that's good to hear everybody's working together.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Everything you've talked about is very important.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: I don't want to sound like a broken record because I've made several of those comments all the time.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: But the legislative issues that any group or association can address is very powerful.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: It's good to hear that's working well for you all out there.
• 35:45
  Speaker 5: Oh, for sure, for sure, and you know, because unfortunately we still have an image problem in our industry and so when legislatures go up there and you know, something gets proposed and it's all about the big bad towing company, maybe we're not so bad at the end of the day, right, because we are performing services that are necessary, you know, and that includes, you know, private property, stuff that can get a little murky, but it is still a service necessary to create parking control in these residential and commercial areas.
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: So they need a voice, we need a voice, and state associations create that.
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: Wait, april.
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: Sorry about that.
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: No, interrupted you.
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: I'm sorry.
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: Um the whole bad name thing.
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: It is still there and I don't understand it either.
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: But watching the news last week there were two, two events I won't go through them, but they involved vehicles and I asked what I was like.
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: When something happens like that with these vehicles, how do they get moved?
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: What happens?
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: Well, one of them was in Jose's town.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I asked him about it.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: Jose, there were Vegas operations.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: The one vehicle got moved.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: What did you say?
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Just one, by you know, when it was rotating months out there.
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: Jose, how does that work?
• 37:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so um, the Las Vegas incident was handled by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and they use their rotation to go ahead and transport that vehicle to their investigative services lot, um.
• 37:21
  Speaker 5: But what usually happens with that is whatever contracted tow company entity that it works with is, you know, very skilled in the way of not contaminating the evidence.
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: You know we work constantly with law enforcement to come up with ways to not contaminate evidence.
• 37:40
  Speaker 5: If it's it could be, could be in this case it could be criminal evidence.
• 37:45
  Speaker 5: It could be the corner that we're working with.
• 37:50
  Speaker 5: If we have an incident where we have multiple fatalities and we need to remove it from the roadway to stay safe, well, how do we do that?
• 37:58
  Speaker 5: So we're constantly working and training with these entities and that is part of elevating the industry.
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: You know Wes and I always talked about the way to, you know, get the industry to a better standard is through certification and education, and that happens at every level of public sector, whether it be, you know, dot, law enforcement, fire, ems.
• 38:26
  Speaker 5: It's all about certification and education and we've come a long way in the 36 years that I've been involved in towing, but we still have a long road to go, just because we need to really get everybody involved, every single one of us.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: Last question I've got for you only because we're running out of time.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: We're really enjoying the conversation, but we are running out of time.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: What's going on?
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: Was a trip program coming out there, that type of program?
• 38:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, so we have the trip program out here.
• 39:02
  Speaker 5: It's the uh incident.
• 39:04
  Speaker 5: Uh, you know quick clearance incident response program very similar to, I think trip is in georgia.
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: It's also in virginia.
• 39:12
  Speaker 5: Risk is in florida.
• 39:14
  Speaker 5: There's another program in washington, um, yeah, so it's a quick clearance program.
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: You see, a 2024 was was the beta test year.
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: Looks like we're going to move forward in 2025, cross our fingers and really it was a success.
• 39:33
  Speaker 5: Southern Nevada doesn't have as many incidents as maybe situations in Florida or Virginia or Georgia, but it's getting there.
• 39:42
  Speaker 5: It's getting there, it's growing by the minute and what it does is that it allows to identify an X amount of companies that are in the program and when that trip incident is triggered by law enforcement, there's a massive response to the incident so that everything can get taken care of, hopefully within about a 90-minute time frame and our roadways are open, not only preventing secondary accidents but keeping our operators and our first responders as safe as possible, because we're removing them from the roadway.
• 40:18
  Speaker 5: Now, that does not mean that the incident for either Eto'o company or the private response, whether it be Hazmat or whatever is done.
• 40:27
  Speaker 5: It just means it's clear from the roadway.
• 40:29
  Speaker 5: We could be working off the shoulder, we can be working in a different area, away from the highway, but again it allows us to work quickly, have all the assets needed on scene to open that roadway and relieve congestion, relieve secondary accidents which, by the way, are the most high probability for fatal.
• 40:53
  Speaker 5: And then, of course, everybody goes home at the end of the day, not only private sector but public sector.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: That's good to hear that it's working out well for you.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: Keep us updated on that, will you?
• 41:06
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, absolutely guys.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: Jose, thanks for being here.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: We look forward to having you back sometime soon.
• 41:14
  Speaker 5: Anything you'd like to leave our listeners with, Well, just thank you for everything you guys are doing.
• 41:20
  Speaker 5: I think these conversations that you're having with everyone in the industry go a long way to open each other's minds, to understand everybody's problems and their solutions.
• 41:33
  Speaker 5: I think that we always get stuck in the problem and we don't understand the solution or look at it, identify it, and your program helps us do a lot of that with everybody's processes, and I appreciate that very much.
• 41:48
  Speaker 5: I urge my community in towing to get on that bandwagon and to certify and to educate, because that's the only way we're going to get to the level that we need to be.
• 42:00
  Speaker 5: Thank you for having me on.
• 42:03
  Speaker 5: I appreciate your time.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Jose, and be safe out there.
• 42:07
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: All right, we'll be right back after this message with fire extricator expert Ron Moore.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: Weekly.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: Myself, april Wilburn, my wife and DJ Harrington conduct a weekly podcast.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: It's actually turning into a live radio show now.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: The Towing News Channel provides great interviews, tech talk, product reviews, also just a 411 on what's going on in the towing recovery industry.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Check us out.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Our podcasts are available anywhere you can listen to podcasts.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: We've archived over 100 of the episodes, so be sure to listen to them, and weekly we do a new episode, so stay tuned for those as well now listeners.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: You know you're all listening to the new season of Towing News.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: Now we have a guest who's been on before, who's been asked to be on again Ron Moore, our returning expert on cross training.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: So, wes, you and April, take it from here.
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: Not only is Ron Moore a returning guest, he's going to be a recurring guest and we hope to have a lot of his expertise in 2025 to help all of us be safer and have better relationships between fire and tower, because Wes and Ron do a wonderful fire tower cross training together.
• 43:40
  Speaker 6: Ron, welcome, Ms April, thank you.
• 43:44
  Speaker 4: You're welcome.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Ron we're glad to have you on board for this new format.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: As I told you, I just want you to talk about subjects that come to mind, et cetera.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: Of course, I think you and I both agree, I think, on the fact there's a lot of similarities between the training between two different types of organizations.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: So what would you like to talk to us about today?
• 44:10
  Speaker 6: Today my topic would be documentation and policies and also, with a reference, like you mentioned, Wes, like the fire department does.
• 44:19
  Speaker 6: My history is with the fire service, fire rescue service, not with towing and recovery, but documentation and policies are an element that appeals to both tow storage facility operators as well as fire department personnel.
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that seems like a kind of a universal application too, and when it comes down, if you have all that stuff together and something comes into speech or there's a question, then at least you have that basis to start off with.
• 44:57
  Speaker 6: Right and what I've found is, as I'm requested to do, fire service only training the fire service that is requesting me.
• 45:06
  Speaker 6: If I mentioned that my program is NFPA compliant or NFPA addresses NFPA components, it's automatically accepted.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: So I find an NFPA is National Fire Protection Association, so an NFPA is.
• 45:20
  Speaker 6: National Fire Protection Association, which is a big deal to the fire service.
• 45:25
  Speaker 6: I was going to ask I know what that is now because you know you went west, but just for our listeners to have that clarification.
• 45:39
  Speaker 6: Well, and if a trainer or a training program is NFPA compliant or NFPA specific in what it addresses, it seems to be readily accepted by the fire service.
• 45:52
  Speaker 6: So I don't know if the tow and recovery industry has anything equivalent to the NFPA, but it all talks about documentation.
• 45:59
  Speaker 6: What I got caught in recently was a legal situation where the fire service arrived at a traffic collision.
• 46:09
  Speaker 6: It was on a major highway and I went to the scene.
• 46:15
  Speaker 6: I went to the location later with the attorney.
• 46:21
  Speaker 6: The volunteer fire department was being sued by one of the civilians at the incident.
• 46:27
  Speaker 6: The fire department had not done what was required or what was NFPA specified.
• 46:33
  Speaker 6: What turned out is I visited with the attorney that was kind of defending the fire service.
• 46:42
  Speaker 6: It wound up being a small volunteer fire department that was really one bay in the station in a very small community.
• 46:55
  Speaker 6: Turns out the fire department fire service had recently trained on exactly what they were being sued for.
• 47:04
  Speaker 6: Except the fire chief told the attorney that was trying to defend them that they had done the skills, but the documentation was on the napkin.
• 47:31
  Speaker 6: Well, that didn't hold up in court at all.
• 47:34
  Speaker 6: So the case wound up being settled and it was like a seven-figure settlement, a big deal for a small volunteer fire department in a small community.
• 47:46
  Speaker 6: They had done the skills, they had the policy in effect, but they had not documented that they had done the training.
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: It really was the technicality that they lost on, but that's what it's all about in America today.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: An example that you can be right as rain and be wrong sometimes Right.
• 48:08
  Speaker 6: It was an example where they did everything right as far as I could see, but they were wrong due to the technicality.
• 48:14
  Speaker 6: Correct, correct.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: That's a real shame.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: That is a real shame, but that is the world we live in, boy.
• 48:22
  Speaker 6: So what I would recommend to tow operators and recovery operators and storage facility operators as well as I recommend to fire departments, is to have a policy, a protocol, and then document that you have the skills.
• 48:38
  Speaker 6: In the NFPA they refer to them as JPR, job performance requirements.
• 48:44
  Speaker 6: So if you say that you have the policy, the protocol and that you have documented the skills, you are kind of covering as best you can.
• 48:55
  Speaker 6: So SOG standard operating guideline versus a SOP standard operating guideline versus a SOP standard operating procedure.
• 49:03
  Speaker 6: If an employee of my organization tow and recovery or fire rescue is involved in an incident and they do exactly what is on the SOP, the SOP gives that individual, that employee, no flexibility.
• 49:23
  Speaker 6: As an SOG, as a standard operating guideline, potentially the agency, the employer, is saying here are the ramifications of doing it A or doing it B and we will practice both.
• 49:40
  Speaker 6: We have policies or guidelines for both and they both have ramifications.
• 49:46
  Speaker 6: But you, the employee at the scene, can make the decision to the best of your judgment.
• 49:51
  Speaker 6: So that's the difference between having a policy, sog and then SOP and then SOP.
• 49:58
  Speaker 6: The SOP leaves you no room for error.
• 50:01
  Speaker 6: You have to do exactly exactly step-by-step, what the policy is of the organization.
• 50:07
  Speaker 6: The guideline SOG the standard operating guidelines gives the employee some flexibility at the scene.
• 50:15
  Speaker 4: So I have a question to ask Ron.
• 50:17
  Speaker 4: When there is a situation and a potential lawsuit or a lawsuit, it's not only the entity that gets sued, but the actual responder, or the fire or tower, so to speak.
• 50:29
  Speaker 4: That also would be sued, correct?
• 50:42
  Speaker 6: employer, but it's the employer and their agency who was maybe behind a desk sitting in the chair.
• 50:45
  Speaker 6: It really has a ripple effect from the incident scene all the way up through In the fire service.
• 50:49
  Speaker 6: A firefighter on a crew may do something that is being sued for, but the firefighter is held responsible, the officer in charge of that incident is held responsible, and maybe the chief of the department, maybe even the mayor of the village or of the community.
• 51:08
  Speaker 6: So my experience has been that the lawsuits are to try to find the deep pockets, to try to find where the money is, so everybody involved with that agency.
• 51:23
  Speaker 6: Oh, and training officer, my history with the fire service has been as a battalion chief and then as a deputy chief, as a training officer.
• 51:32
  Speaker 6: So I would be called into question.
• 51:34
  Speaker 6: I had a case that happened outside of Buffalo where a fire department again did everything right but the 21-year-old patient victim died.
• 51:46
  Speaker 6: The chief, who was en route to the scene and arrived on the scene before he got across the field and across the creek into the actual action, the hot zone, the actual accident area, he was called into question in the court case.
• 52:08
  Speaker 6: He was the incident commander because he was chief of the fire department, but he wasn't really even on scene.
• 52:15
  Speaker 6: He was on the roadway and yet was questioned about his ability and his skills.
• 52:22
  Speaker 6: As a training officer, I found that not only doing the skill and not only documenting the skill, but then who was the person that trained the individual in that particular skill?
• 52:38
  Speaker 6: What was the training officer's qualifications?
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: So let's look at that Realistically.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: For the towing industry, hopefully, companies that are serious about education and safety do a monthly safety meeting.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: If you're not, you should be.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: I'm not trying to pass no judgment, it's just the best advice I can give you.
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: Just as a side note here.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: earlier interview with one of the companies that founded Consolidation.
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: This is the reason Consolidation is going to work in the towing industry for these kind of situations.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: You've got to be serious about what you're doing with safety and safety meeting Boy, it's hard to be the little business person.
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they call it the litigious society.
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: So let's talk serious for a moment.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: Hopefully you're doing that safety meeting.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: If you're not doing it, and they do that safety meeting, Ron, they need a brief paragraph about what they talked about, what they covered in the meeting.
• 53:42
  Speaker 6: Yes, and that's right.
• 53:45
  Speaker 6: That's part of the documentation.
• 53:46
  Speaker 6: So you can do the meeting, you can do the skill, but then the background who was a presenter or the instructor, whatever you want to call it within your organization?
• 53:56
  Speaker 6: What were the skills, what were the objectives that were presented?
• 54:00
  Speaker 6: And then what's the background of the presenter?
• 54:03
  Speaker 6: If they were unqualified, then that won't hold up in court as well.
• 54:08
  Speaker 6: So they're trying to find a weak link.
• 54:10
  Speaker 6: So not only doing the safety meeting west, but then documenting the safety meeting and the narrative that goes along with it.
• 54:21
  Speaker 6: Meeting West, but then documenting the safety meeting and the narrative that goes along with it.
• 54:24
  Speaker 6: If the fire chief in this situation that I talked about earlier, if the fire chief had simply put down in his narrative who was in charge and the fact that he was or wasn't on the scene at that time, that would have been read in court and that would have been very obvious to the jurors.
• 54:41
  Speaker 6: But in this particular case the documentation was lacking, the narrative was lacking and therefore get your checkbook out to pay.
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: I just want to be realistic for towing companies out there.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: Here's what I'm recommending folks, If you're not doing that monthly meeting?
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: do it?
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: I think I made that point clear.
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: After that brief summary of what you did.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: Who did it?
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: Ron makes a wonderful point about the level of training of the individual giving it, but something's better than nothing.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: At this point, we're not quite as evolved as the fire services industry.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: I think it's important for these companies to share the information that they have.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: They want things done the name of safety with each other, and then they need to have a statement that the attendee signs that they understand and understand the training, et cetera.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: Don't they, ron, understand the training?
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: et cetera, don't they Ron?
• 55:44
  Speaker 6: Yes, sir, if you get the individual employee's signature on a morning or afternoon situation, that is, on a dated document that can be placed at a location, that really is the best, because that shows if the employee is personally signed in for the course.
• 56:03
  Speaker 6: The employee then participates.
• 56:05
  Speaker 6: Better than that, with the signature you could have a review of questions, or it could be oral or it could be written.
• 56:14
  Speaker 6: It doesn't have to be too sophisticated, but you have a test of learning as well.
• 56:19
  Speaker 6: The one thing I've also found Wes that is important for tow as well as firefighters.
• 56:26
  Speaker 6: I was referred to my last position was a deputy chief of training, but they made me a deputy chief of professional development.
• 56:36
  Speaker 6: The training on the policies and the skills training went from the probationary firefighter or probationary employee up to and including the chief of the department.
• 56:50
  Speaker 6: So right from day one you can have what most fire service is relating to a task book.
• 56:57
  Speaker 6: These are individual skills.
• 56:59
  Speaker 6: You send a tow operator, let's say, out on the job.
• 57:04
  Speaker 6: These are individual skills that the tow operator must be able to perform and you've tested them on it, you've evaluated them on it and you've documented them on it through this task book.
• 57:16
  Speaker 6: That starts right from day one of employment right on through.
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: That's interesting.
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: We're developing something along those lines right now.
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: That's very interesting, but if you can't fight that, thank you.
• 57:30
  Speaker 6: Yeah, if you had a task book for employees that were assigned to a heavy, for example, or an integrated or a rollback, for example, the task would be different but they could be.
• 57:40
  Speaker 6: The first task could add to the second to add to the third, the system could build, but it shows that the employee out at the incident scene addressed at some time in training, addressed those topics and is really ready to go.
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: Good stuff, ron.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you, looking forward to having you back as a reoccurring expert.
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: Certainly appreciate the information.
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: Be safe out there and we'll talk to you next time.
• 58:09
  Speaker 6: All right, thank you, wes.
• 58:10
  Speaker 6: Thank you, I got some topics to go over with it that would be of interest to tow and recovery, as well as fire department personnel, so I'm available as you need me.
• 58:20
  Speaker 6: Thank you.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Ron.