Latest / Towing News Now / Blizzards, Big Rigs, and the Bravery of Tow Operators

Transcript

Blizzards, Big Rigs, and the Bravery of Tow Operators · Towing News Now

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the American Tone Recovery Institute podcast.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Remember, this is your podcast.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: It's to promote safety, education, positive public relations and networking within the professional and business-minded Tone Recovery Industry.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: The co-host, dj Harrington, better known as the co-doctor and I'm honored, like always, to have as the other co-host of today's episode a 40-year Towing Industry veteran, a founder of American Tone Recovery Institute, a dear friend of the industry and a dear friend of mine, wes Wilbur Wes.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: How are you today, dj?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: I'm doing well, I'm doing well.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Thank you for your kind words and your great introduction.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: I really appreciate that.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: I guess I'll be honest with you, I'm kind of cold.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: This mid-January day it's been full weather now.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: It's what everybody else is experiencing in the country, but we definitely had some cold with the normal temperatures here in the Carolinas.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Speaking of cold, weather boy, they really had that cold weather last week in Iowa for the presidential caucus, didn't they?
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: They sure did, but they came out.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah they sure did.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: People don't realize it.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: I was hoping to see a story from one of the someone how much of a part of the Towing Industry played in that whole thing.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: All kinds of folks from all over the planet traveling around rural.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Iowa and that kind of weather.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: We know there was a few incidents, more than a few incidents, that Towing Recovery had to help take care of.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: I mean heck, just vehicles.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: And that kind of weather, that kind of cold don't like to run.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: We all know that.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: I know the Towing.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Industry played a huge part.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: I follow several different Towing operators that I know from Iowa Mark Stockton's one that comes to mind, several of them up there, tony's Tire's another one, and just looking at their Facebook activity, limited as it was.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: You could tell they were very very busy, and again with all those extra folks in rural.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Iowa you've been to rural.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Iowa haven't you DJ.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Oh Lord, yes, and I'm the guy who always carries your blankets and everything else.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: And then I got stuck one time and I was so glad I listened to the podcast and had extra blankets in the car Big difference.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Well, that ain't no joke just how a year Anywhere any part of the country with this freezing weather you've got to be prepared for it.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: It's high, well high for the day minus six and stuff that they saw, whatever it was.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Man that takes some tough souls to endure that year and your outdoesn't DJ.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, showing them at minus 18.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, it was.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: It's no great work for the record.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: I've heard people call it snow record sunshine, but when?
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: I was in the business.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: I know we experienced more profitable, more condensed busy days when it really cold weather, as long as you're taking care of your trucks, had your fuel conditioned, et cetera.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: You could really do well in those type of situations.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: For the you know flat profitability of being in the telebusiness and that is why people do it is put bread on the table for their family.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: You've got it and I don't think enough.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry DJ but I don't think enough.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Americans really realize what shape this country would be in with it.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Telling took a day off, especially a tough day like they've had every day for the last few weeks, the most parts of the Midwest and whatnot.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I just want them all to know we're out there, pulling forward and praying for them and hoping they're out there being safe and profitable.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Well, if you remember, back 12 months from this date, we had all that snow blizzard up in Washington, Virginia area and we and our podcast, we had guys right from the field falling in saying with their clearing off at your state, at your 31, at Virginia.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: It was unbelievable, I bet it was.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's where I grew up in the parts of Virginia, the mountains.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: Of course they see some snow, but a whole lot of Virginia is really like down around.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: DC and you know an hour or two swath or a circle around DC.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, Really the folks don't get that much snow so they don't get that much opportunity to practice and whatnot.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: So snow can affect that area, especially as crowded as it is.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: It can affect it drastically really quick for congestion and whatnot.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Well, now that we gave the weather report, what's happening at your place?
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Well, we're out of moving forward with what we talked about.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: You know going to put a lot of different training online and whatnot.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: We've got our free webinar coming up first.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Monday is the month of February 7th.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: This time around that will be at 7pm Eastern.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Get our website wwwamcoricom.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: More information it's not always your right now.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: I don't need to say www anymore, but I guess it'll have it, but today we've been working with some video stuff.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: We've taken some information we've obtained from others and shot a bunch of our own.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: We're all footage.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: We talked about rigging, in particular chain uses we get down right there.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: How it was made, how it was first used in this country.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: All the way up to modern uses of it, including how it's made nowadays video footage of it actually being made, actually being tested, how to code it, et cetera.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: So we're working on that video DJ.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: People think this is easy, but it's not.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: You know, I can stand up for a group talk about this stuff for hours, but trying to get concise 20 or 30 minutes of video is challenging, challenging, you know.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Especially I don't have the education of an educator, where maybe some of that education might help me with layout whatnot.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: And I've been working with some different talent.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I'm very blessed to have a son helping with managing along with his mother doing a tremendous amount.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Kim, who is the glue that helps hold a lot of things together out here.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: She's definitely helping with this project, and, of course, april's involved as well.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: And then we had to have some what they call on-air talent.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Dj, have you worked with any of this on-air talent?
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Yes, and some of them were very, very good and, of course, some could use some help.
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: Well definitely I agree that we're all skill and talent.
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: That is there, it appears what I can tell, but I don't know it seems a little challenging, that's all.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Hey Wes.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: What's the story to this Toh-Thrukh Tanya?
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: Well, first off, what does not speak for me?
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: My name is Tanya Toh-Thrukh.
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: Tanya, Number one, number two, happy to be here from behind the scenes, and the new Oniir personality, and I'm awesome to say that his life must be a saint to put up with him.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Hey Meg Girl, I'm not the saint part and I apologize for mispronouncing your name.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: It's excusable, it's excusable.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Well, I will do better in the future, believe me.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: That's all we can endeavor to do.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: it's better, yeah, let's just say that Hi, wes oh gosh.
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: So you want to work with DJ we're trying to get some stuff that's out here and we're going off at little scratch down rabbit holes.
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: It's really hard to get these people to focus, like I say.
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: It's really hard to recognize talent sometimes, and when you get it, it's really hard to understand it.
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: So I understand Wes' perplexion in this situation.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: This must be challenging for him.
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: Well, it's going to be a big part of the training video.
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: We're working on that we're about to release.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: We'll let the listeners judge for themselves.
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: I'm sure they'll all be with you.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Anything to do it, but the permission says we're up against the hard break so we've got to take a break.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back, listeners, with more.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: The folks at Purpose Record are record specialists.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: They don't get bogged down with other types of sales like cars, assorted equipment or snow plows.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: Purpose Record exclusively specializes in towing and hauling From parts in service to financing.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: They remain focused on providing the best service and customer care to the towing and hauling industry.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: Even in these trying times, purpose Record works hard to meet the needs of its customers.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: They are the preferred distributor in North America for purchasing towing and recovery equipment.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: For more information, visit them on the web at purposerecordcom, or speak to a specialist by calling 636-639-9700.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: That's 636-639-9700.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: Celebrating 40 years in the towing industry that's PurposeRecordcom.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: Information in this podcast is made possible by generous sponsorship from Henry's Record, serving the community with quality towing and recovery for over 40 years.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: Henry'srecordcom.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Welcome back listeners.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the American Towing Recovery Institute podcast.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Dj Harrington West will burn the special guest right after I do this, please.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: We are on Spotify, itunes and Dora, google Play I'm sorry, google Play, stitcher, iart Media, amazon or wherever you get your podcast.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: I cannot thank enough of how many of you have told fellow toers to listen in, and that's why we've grown so much, with the largest listening audience in the podcast industry for towing and recovery, which is just great All right West.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Let me turn it over to you, buddy.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Thank you, dj.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: It is very humbling to be listened to and we try to bring listeners' information, not entertainment, although sometimes it's hard to tell, I guess.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: There's no crowd in my mind, it's good to mix both a little bit, and I'll get around aside.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Digging off schedule a little bit here we got a lot of stuff going on by the time this thing airs.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: We'll be just a week in front of our first classes here.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Columbus, Georgia boy, the thing, we got a good attendance, over 20 registered right now Every duty telling recovery, with some rotator hosting by Griffin Griffin.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: well, we had great time after a couple weeks ago, didn't we DJ?
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, fantastic, and those two are fantastic people and I'm going to tell our listeners if you're near Columbus Georgia, you need to be there, and that one's coming up, isn't it West?
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: February 34th, 34th, and then we'll be at Lake Charles, louisiana, as a matter of fact, our guest is our host there.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk to him here in just a minute, february 23rd, in February 23rd a Friday evening we'll be at Lake Charles.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: We're going to do a two-hour electric vehicle class.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: It's going to be free, geared towards firefighters and telling operators with police DOT, any roadside professionals welcome to attend for free.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: It's going to be sponsored by telling recovery professionals of Louisiana.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Look, we're going to be doing it at Lake Charles at Elite Service On the.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Saturday we're going to do a one-day heavy duty, that's February 24th, and on the 25th, on the Sunday, a one-day light duty, kind of a new approach we're taking this year DJ doing some of these one-day classes just trying to deal with what some of the customers are asking for and whatnot.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: We are going to still do two-day classes as well.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: March 23rd, 24th we're going to example that we'll be in Charlotte.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: North.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Carolina, working at a good friend, Hunter's record service Hunter was one of the founding members of the Seminary Controlling.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: Recovery.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Institute.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: They've been a great host many times over the years.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Two-day heavy duty to recovery with some rotator.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: That's going to be again March 23rd, 24th in Charlotte, north Carolina.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: We've got several other classes brewing.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: We've got I don't know three or four dates in the Midwest.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: We've got basically lined up.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: I guess a couple of them are missing.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: This detail or that detail boy, it's hard to get in touch with anybody or don't want to bother them all the different hours.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: I know working in the Midwest, working their butt off right now trying to keep America afloat though.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: So as the weeks go on, we'll have more dates for April and May, et cetera.
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: So, as promised, we've got a great guest, interesting guest, here.
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: I don't even know the podcast all the time ago but he had, so that's my bad.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: So introducing I guess to most many of us.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: There's some of them I've met before Adrian Benoit from Elite Service and Lake Charles Louisiana.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: How bad?
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: did that part of last date, Adrian?
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: No, you did great.
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: Thanks Wes.
• 13:18
  Speaker 5: Thanks DJ.
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: Appreciate you guys having me on Now.
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: You did fine.
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: There Wes.
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: Most people, if they call me, you know I already know that it's a solicitor and it's time to get off the phone.
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: There you go.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: Introduce us and tell us a little bit about how you know your background and how you no-transcript.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: We'll go from there okay.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: One listener is going to feel for who they're talking to, and then we'll talk about the event coming up that you're helping host.
• 13:48
  Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely so obviously I'm Adrian Benoit West has introduced me.
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: I joined Elite Services in 2006.
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: That's where my wife's father started the business in 1998.
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: And in 2006, I turned 21, so I was able to get on the insurance policy.
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: Finally and again, did I ever know that I was in the talent industry?
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: Right?
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Real quick.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: Met your wife, high school sweetheart, did I crack?
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Is that correct?
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, we met roughly around the year 2000.
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: And I had different ideas of what I was going to do in life as a career.
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: But I met her and things worked out and here we are today, so it's exciting.
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: But, yeah, high school sweetheart, I joined the company in 2006.
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: In 2006, there was a three-track operation with a well-known name in the community Elite Service.
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: They just did great things, especially whenever it was talked about the heavy duty side.
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: That's what he strived for.
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: So me coming in.
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: I was a young guy.
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: I had a lot of jobs growing up that dealt with customer service, so that was my niche right there.
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: So I was able to gain a lot of traction in that area.
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: But the side of knowing the equipment and knowing how to tow was just mind-blowing to me.
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: So I had some great leaders that I looked up to.
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: Coming in taught me a lot.
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: This was back in the tow for one-one day.
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: So I did a lot of internet research and learned a lot there, worked my way up through the light duty side that we had, which was one truck.
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: Worked my way up through the light duty side, got my CDL and then jumped into the heavy side of things.
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: Worked my way there and around the year.
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: 2010 is where I decided that we really needed to grow.
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: There was more out there for us.
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: Right, we could do a lot more.
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: The company name was yeah.
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: The image was amazing and I just felt like the opportunity was there and I didn't want to let it go.
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: So we started trying to figure out how to grow adding pieces of equipment to the fleet, adding employees to the company and that was probably the toughest thing, you know finding key employees, the equipment.
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: That was easy by then, just finding key employees to add for the growth.
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: So that was fun.
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: So 2010 is where we really started to take off and start growing.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Now, great information.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: I want to go backwards just to hear that Maybe.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: I don't have this memorized correctly, but your father-in-law got started.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: He'd worked for somebody and then started out on his own and a local body shop made a great gesture to him.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: If I'm not mistaken.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Am I getting to remember any of this story correctly?
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah, great, great point there.
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: That's a key thing I missed.
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: He had some help from a local paint body shop in the area.
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: So whenever Robert decided to jump into his own endeavor he bought a heavy-duty truck but he didn't quite have all the clients he wanted.
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: So there was a lot of slow days and the local paint body company, johnny's Paint Body here in Lake Charles allowed him to operate their light-duty wrecker whenever he didn't have any calls of his own, and as soon as he got a call of his own he was able to drop that truck off and go get his truck and go to the call.
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: So that really helped Robert get started back in 98, which Stanley, colorado was the owner of Johnny's Paint Body back then.
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: And that's just amazing that somebody would do that.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: That's what I was almost unheard of nowadays.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: And what timeframe was that?
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: He said.
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: That was in 98, 1998.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's amazing.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: Back then somebody did that.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Is Johnny still in business.
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: So Johnny sold out just probably about two years ago.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: Okay, you all had a business relationship with him up until that time.
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely yeah, he was just a small operation, one truck, so he mainly just did a lot of stuff for his body shop.
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: Didn't do a whole lot of you know outside the box stuff.
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: But yeah, anytime that he would need anything, we would definitely give him a shot at Envi-Verse.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's awesome you don't see relationships like that anymore.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: It's not as much anyway.
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: No, you sure don't.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: So give us a scope of where the company is today.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: And then we'll yeah.
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely so.
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: Where we're at today, we have a fleet of over 28 pieces of equipment.
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: We have about 35, 36 employees.
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: We have two rose headers in our fleet, which is awesome.
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: You had something that we've always dreamed of and had a goal of, so we're super excited about that.
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: We actually just took delivery of a new one a few weeks ago and Wes thank you again for all your help getting all the rigging and stuff together and getting it to us.
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: I really appreciate that.
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: That's what I told on that.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: Well gap-less.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you noticing that.
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and that we have.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: You know, as I told you too, I didn't enjoy your order Because, talking to you about rigging, we bounce ideas off each other and share a little excitement and I think both of our voices we talk is always a good thing and say that order a little bit more fun than usual.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Just, you know a couple of different things we tried and there's some things that you've adopted and whatnot that are really exciting.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: To help put that together to make all that work for you.
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's always a blast to throw one of these together.
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: You know, you take your experience and your knowledge and you throw it in there.
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: You try to figure out what you need.
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah, the last thing you want to do is overload your truck with a bunch of equipment that you're going to use every once in a while, you know, with the Premier Wynching chain, the slip clutch hook, all that stuff being able to make custom bottles out on the job site with ease.
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: I mean, it's amazing that the rigging out there is where it's at today, and it just makes our job a lot easier.
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: I can't agree with that.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: Strong enough With everything.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: They've got to fight on the road.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Any of you all got to fight on the road.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: You need all the help you can get in those battles, hey.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: I got a lot of stuff.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: I want to talk to you about.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: A we talked about yesterday.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: I also want to talk about the future a little bit.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: I want to talk about training event going on that your host and behalf of the association.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: I just want to talk to you a little bit about training in your company and how you know what your thoughts on that are.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: So can you hang around until after the break and we'll be right back, absolutely Thank you.
• 21:00
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  Speaker 3: Our representatives are knowledgeable in the towing industry, so for the best towing equipment and supplies, count on the team at towing equipment direct.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: Browse our catalog online at towingequipmentdirectcom or give us a call at 9107479000.
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: That's 9107479000.
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: We look forward to serving you.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Welcome back listeners.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Of course you're listening to the American Towing Recovery Institute podcast, west Wilburne, dj Harrington, adrian Benoit.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: It's easy for me to say the name Adrian, because at St Leo University the second largest dorm is called Benoit Me.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Let's just say it was easy to say for me.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: I want to remind all of our listeners please review and like.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Hit the share button and hit the like button, by all means, and if you want to hear another industry expert like Adrian, just dial our hotline number in the studio, 706-409-5603.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: That's the podcast studio line for American Towing and Recovery Institute.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: By all means, just give us a holler and West, and I will do our best to get an industry expert like Adrian Benoit on here with us.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: All right, wes, I'm turning it over to you, buddy.
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: Thanks, dj, I appreciate it.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: I do appreciate your listening as well, adrian yesterday we had you scheduled to be on the podcast.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: And every time I schedule tellers they always say well, what if you know I want to do it, but I got to be, you know, if something comes up and we always say you had no problem.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: And yesterday it happened.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: We had you scheduled and I guess maybe half and once or twice before, but I don't remember it exact.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: No, maybe one time before.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: But we had to post some.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: But tell us what you had yesterday.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: That was the major track record.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: I saw the pictures had me.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: Yes, I want to know what you got to experience yesterday.
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it was.
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: You know, anytime I plan something in my life you know that's what normally happens is a major track record comes in and then I go out, right, so I can only imagine how many listeners can relate to that.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: But go ahead.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry for interrupting.
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: That's right, yeah, yeah.
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: Yesterday you know, before the podcast is going to get kicked off we got a phone call about an 18-wheeler that went off the interstate and was in the trees and was loaded with paper rolls that got ejected out of the trailer.
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: So right off the bat we knew it was going to be a bit of a task to get handled.
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: So arrival out there on the scene and it looked like the tractor trailer had some kind of malfunction or a wheel, tire wheel bearing a blown tire, something go out on that side.
• 24:37
  Speaker 5: He actually crossed the median, crossed over on the incoming traffic from the interstate, let's see, didn't take anybody else out, but took out a couple of trees once he went off in the median and then spit the paper rolls out onto the ground.
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: Each of them weighed somewhere around the 6,500-pound range.
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: Pretty heavy carnage out there to the trailer.
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: It was pretty destroyed.
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: The tractor was pretty destroyed.
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: So it was definitely a pretty big job for us.
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: But luckily I got a great team of operators that are very knowledgeable.
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: We've done a lot of training in the past.
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: We still do just ongoing training every day and we went out there and just tackled this job.
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: We had to put a dolly under the trailer until it backwards chained it up to secure it.
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: We had to put the tractor on a low buoy and bring it back.
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: Then we loaded all the paper rolls onto our land off With the two rotators out there.
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: It just made this job easy, so easy.
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: Normally we bring one rotator out there and we have a couple of heavy duties out there helping out.
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: We're always playing hopscotch with trucks because they're always in different areas in the area they don't need to be in and we need the other truck in.
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: But with the two rotators out there, we were able to set these things up and let them go to work.
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: I think we had this thing cleaned up in a matter of six and a half hours, which was great, but it was exciting.
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: It was fun to get out there and tackle this job head on.
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: Everything went really, really well.
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: It was a major success and it just brings a lot.
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: You know all the training that we do.
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: Whenever everything comes together and something like this happens, it's just awesome to see the time and the focus that we put into handling these jobs.
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: A lot of my guys are like man, that went so easy, it was so smooth.
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: Hey, that's what the training is for, that's what we buy all this rigging for, that's what we do all this for so that we can handle jobs like this and make it look easy.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a big part of the game, isn't it?
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Being prepared is more than half the battle, isn't it?
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: It is.
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: If you can buy all the equipment in the road, if you don't have the proper rigging on it, your operator is going to fail immediately.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, part of the game is there's three or four levels of the game and one of them's mental.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: So that's where the training comes in.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: When it was physical, you need the big iron, but you also need rigging to correct that big iron to be able to touch modern-day trucks and whatnot.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: So it works game on many levels and it's good to see you playing it so well so you guys have definitely been involved with training with us and they get out of the training, which we always encourage as well.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: Talk just a little bit about how training's been important for your company and also about the association and how is that.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: But if you could kind of bring those two points together for me.
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely.
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: Training has always been at the top of our agenda, no matter what we do.
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: Just recently, we brought in a trainer for dispatching right.
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: That's one of the areas that most overlooks by a lot of companies, and we should even overlook it from time to time, but it's still always at the top of our priority list.
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: But I don't know.
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: We brought in Mike Porter.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Good things about him.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: And yeah, just real quick I'm going to add, with that dispatch it is overlooking.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: It is the first impression, many, many, most times, with the telling company, the first impression with the testwares at dispatch.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: Sorry for interrupting.
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: And you're absolutely right, wes.
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: We spend so much time and we spend so much money out there on search engine optimization to get our name at the top of that list.
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: When that person breaks down and they get on their phone and they search for a tow truck, right, and we don't finish on the back.
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: We don't get our staff in the dispatch office trained enough to where they can finish selling these calls.
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: Right, we're getting them, we're pushing them in, we're buying them, but we've got to finish.
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: So we brought in Mike Porter and he came in for a two-day session and my staff was just blown away.
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: He did an amazing job.
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: The atmosphere, the positivity, the attitude he just brought everything the light for them and several of my staff that was in that training have been with me for many years and they were just, they were blown away.
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: They're like this is awesome.
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: We're seeing it from a whole different point of view.
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: So we were super excited about him coming in and we think he did us a lot of good and we're just going to build off of what this training did for us.
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: That's awesome here.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: I've heard nothing but good things.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: As I said, it's awesome.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: Are you guys really involved in your state association?
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Talk about that a little bit, would you please?
• 29:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah, we are heavily involved in the association.
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: We have been pushing to try and get raises for the towing companies around Louisiana.
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: We are very heavily regulated by the Public Service Commission and it's been pretty tough to get increases.
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: Even with all the inflation going on, with the high rise of insurance and equipment, we're still seeing very low numbers on our regulation side and it makes it very tough, very tough.
• 30:01
  Speaker 5: But we have been working pretty hard, trying to knock on doors to get the information to the right people to work on getting some raises.
• 30:12
  Speaker 5: We were successful to get one 15% increase just probably about a year ago and maybe a little bit of maybe a little bit longer ago.
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: But uh, you know, that was, that was a success and we're trying to get another one pushed here soon.
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: But it's very hard to get things done.
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: It moves at snow speed and and toers aren't used to that kind of stuff.
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: You know, whenever we're called upon this rapid response and and then you go to the other side of the field where you got to deal with politics and and this good stuff and it's just no speed.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's why you need to be together in a group and be able to pay someone to help handle that kind of stuff.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: You know, I you lobby it and whatnot, and some people don't get it, but it's good to see.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: You see the big picture there.
• 31:00
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I agree with you a hundred percent.
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: I think that's where we need to aim for.
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: I think that's where the association needs to go.
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: Is, you know, trying to find you can pay to handle a lot of these things?
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: Because we're stuck.
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: You know, listen, we're stuck running our businesses every day.
• 31:11
  Speaker 5: Right, we're trying to make happen here and the vote in the time that it needs and that it takes to get some of that stuff done.
• 31:19
  Speaker 5: You know, we just got to really get somebody that we can hire in and pay somebody to do that kind of stuff.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, I agree that's part of the power.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: We're working together under the band over an association, so we're gonna be working with that association Coming up here.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: We had Jared Ronadale on last week talking about it, you're gonna.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: You stepped up to be the host of the event.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: So talk about that a little bit.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: You've hosted class before.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: Talk about that aspect.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: Good, bad and the ugly of all that too, not just pretty far enough.
• 31:53
  Speaker 5: Well, the bad and the ugly is I got to clean up and, you know, take care of everything there, but there's really no bad and ugly about it.
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: You know it's all good.
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: The good thing about it is we get the house that right here.
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: You know we're we're family owned operation.
• 32:08
  Speaker 5: I'm a people's person, you know, inside and out.
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: So I love meeting new people, talking to everybody and, yeah, I look forward to hosting this thing.
• 32:19
  Speaker 5: Hopefully I'll be able to throw up the big real history pit.
• 32:21
  Speaker 5: It's a big old meal.
• 32:23
  Speaker 5: Enjoy some good company and good training.
• 32:27
  Speaker 5: I know you said that there's some other other companies out there wanting to bring some equipment over here.
• 32:32
  Speaker 5: I think that's exciting and it's gonna be awesome, man, but I really love hosting these things.
• 32:38
  Speaker 5: I love meeting new people.
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: I love getting to bring you down here and hang out with you for a little while, so I'm excited.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you guys have done a great job hosting before.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: I'm always excited to come to Louisiana, especially your part of it.
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: No, folks about Lake.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: Charles Louisiana a little bit.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: I'll start out by what is it three hours?
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: west New Orleans two hours east of Houston.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: Just put in there.
• 33:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, you're exactly right.
• 33:05
  Speaker 5: It's a great small town.
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: We're constantly growing.
• 33:09
  Speaker 5: You know, I can tell that by the traffic jam we have, but it's constantly growing.
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: You know, we've been.
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: We've been Lucky that we're surrounded by several industries, industrial industries, that is, you know, plants, refineries, things like that we have.
• 33:27
  Speaker 5: We have a couple of casinos that really helped feed our economy.
• 33:30
  Speaker 5: So I feel like at times, whenever there's several other places that's filling a harder crunch in the economy than we are, we don't feel it as much Because we just have a lot of that here and it helps out a lot.
• 33:40
  Speaker 5: But it's a great town, man, it's a great town.
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: It's growing.
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: We've had a couple of hurricanes, as Whenever they come through, it's real painful.
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: They do a lot of destruction.
• 33:50
  Speaker 5: We got a lot of rebuilding to do.
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: The population declines, people have to move out, but I feel like we're three years past the hurricane Laura and and I feel like our population, I feel like people are finally starting to come back to the city, which is great.
• 34:11
  Speaker 5: So I feel like it's on the up hill column now.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah.
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: Last time.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: I was there at that place, saw improvement.
• 34:23
  Speaker 5: And you guys just did a mate.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: Rebuild a new build right built out of happening next door to what you were on.
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's exactly right with we.
• 34:33
  Speaker 5: So our building was destroyed for Laura.
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: Hurricane Laura and then hurricane Delta came about six weeks later and pretty much finished the job off, and so we worked out of a temporary office for About two and a half year.
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: Things, you know, finalized a lot of permitting with the city, a Lot of changing in the plans of the building, but we finally moved into our new facility September of 2023 and you know we did a lot of thinking, a lot of designing, a lot of changing throughout the process.
• 35:13
  Speaker 5: But every day when I come into work, it's like, man, this is awesome, yeah, it's set up perfect.
• 35:18
  Speaker 5: There's, there's really nothing I would change.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: Well, that's always nice to hear.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: I'm a certain, like your illness with yourself about the process and the changes in the middle of it, whatnot, but that's good to hear that you're at that point that you're satisfied with it like that.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: I already know the answer to this, but you'll be more and more willing to talk to, hope, the guests there about what you learned about building your building.
• 35:42
  Speaker 5: With you, absolutely be more than happy to talk about them.
• 35:45
  Speaker 5: Give them a tour of our facility, show them you know it's nice to share what we've learned, the past experiences.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: You know get a pad right with other pillars just to help them be more successful at what they're trying to do absolutely the At the pleasure of having you in many classes Kind of people that make a class special to tend to meet, network with.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: So we're looking forward to coming down there.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: Also another little trivia about Lake Charles Louisiana.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: I'm not mistaken, any young shelter things out there to help back me up on this Lake Charles Louisiana.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: Was this where young Sheldon's grandmother went to gamble, if I'm not mistaken?
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: Did you know that, dj?
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, good, you pay attention.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: I swear it's where she goes to gamble.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: I can't wait to see the answer, to get to confirm myself you.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Any comments on that?
• 36:41
  Speaker 5: Adrian, no, you got me stumped on that.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, who's young Sheldon?
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: Right, Right, okay, I thought so.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Let me add this, why we're talking about Lake Charles.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: Back when Hurricane Laura hit my family how he took destruction had 18 Wheelers, two of them.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: They filled the first one.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: They brought down the Lake Charles and they landed up with two 18 wheelers filled with clothing, water and generators that came out of New Jersey.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: They brought down the Lake Charles.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: I don't know how.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: So it's really a small world and Mike Porter, he's a very gifted guy.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: John Maxwell, the real famous guy, adrian, who teaches leadership, handpicked when they.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: You know he handpicked certain people in different industries and Mike Porter was one of the guys he handpicked in the throwing industry anything, I believe it he is.
• 37:45
  Speaker 5: He's an amazing guy.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, anything.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: A very, very good.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: He's a very good and he does phone skills excellent and you know, coming from me now feather in his hat because he he replaced I retired and he has done a phenomenal job teaching.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: But he also can teach leadership John Maxwell's program.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: So down the road, if he doesn't just do phone skills, he can do leadership training where West does all the training you know he does hands on and the equipment, where Mike Porter does like leadership training and does a fantastic job.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, he's someone we ought to.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: Mike, if you're listening, we'd love to have you on the podcast as a guest.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: Again there are definitely good things about the gentleman.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he listens to this podcast.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: He'll come on.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: Adrian will talk to him when I will too.
• 38:39
  Speaker 5: That's right.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: I sure will.
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: That'd be great, Adrian.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: We're just about out of.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: We actually filled our time-top class, but he's counting, but with all that being said, any closing words you'd like to leave us with, you know, don't be afraid to fail.
• 38:55
  Speaker 5: Just you know, pick yourself up, push harder, always fall forward, don't fall backwards, and you will be successful.
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: Good advice.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: Look forward to seeing you in just a few weeks.
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: If people want to get in touch with you, put the telephone number there.
• 39:12
  Speaker 5: Yes, so you can reach out to me at 337-433-3548 and just let my dispatch office know that you really need to get a hold of Adrian, and that sends you over to me.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: Tell me.
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: You need to talk to Adrian the podcast star.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: Is that okay, Adrian?
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: Am I?
• 39:32
  Speaker 5: allowed to say that.
• 39:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: That way, at least, you'll know what it's about.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm, sure anybody that's involved in business at any level.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: Understands the thousand calls anybody gets every day about buying this or buying that, yeah.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: So, adrian, I really appreciate you being on here and I look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks.
• 40:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you, wes Appreciate you having me on the show and DJ.
• 40:03
  Speaker 5: Thank you very much.
• 40:04
  Speaker 5: Appreciate you guys all the time for the industry.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Good, good guys.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: All right, here's my view for everybody.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: Make sure you're in Columbus, georgia, february 7th.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: You're down in Lake Charles, louisiana, the later part of the month, 26, 27, and by all means, I want all of you to remember you can't do today's business with yesterday's thinking and hope to be at tomorrow.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: And if you listen to what Adrian told you today, all it is about planning and working with a great company, like he has with his father-in-law and his family.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: It's a wonderful guy.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: You need more information on any of this.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: Just dial 910-747-9000 or go to amtowriorg and you'll get all the information you need and without further ado, I hope that we'll hear you next week on the American Tone Recovery Institute podcast with Wes Welburn and DJ Aaron.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: We'll see you next week.