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Rising Above: Personal Triumphs and Industry Unity · Towing News Now

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the American Towing Recovery Institute podcast.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Remember this is your podcast to promote safety, education, positive public relations and networking within the professional and business-minded towing and recovery industry.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I'm your co-host, dj Harrington, better known as the Tow Doctor, and my other host is Wes Wilburn, over 40-year towing industry veteran, the founder of American Towing Recovery Institute of Fayetteville, north Carolina.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: He has produced and conducted training and certification programs for leading towing companies, equipment distributors, towing associations, dot, fire departments, rescue, as well as military installations across the United States.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Wes has been published over 100 times in major towing publications published over 100 times in major towing publications.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Wes has developed many courses, including the most recent awareness-level course for all responders that specialize in electric vehicles as well as hybrid, natural gas and hydrogen vehicles.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Wes has provided insight as the main speaker for over 30 years at more than 900 training classes and has been recognized as one of America's greatest towing trainers.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: He is well known for his straightforward but down-to-earth teaching style.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: No-transcript.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Without further ado, here's my dear friend and a great guy for our industry, wes Wilber.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: Well, dj, as always, you're way too kind with your words.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: You're an absolute principle man and I appreciate your kind words and thoughts.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: Thank you very much and I want to tell our listeners I was telling him to say I think you should say I'm a prince of a guy.
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: Thank you very much, wes.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: It's good to hear your voice.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Years ago, up at Cherry Hill, one of Fred Schiaffi's employees I'm embarrassed, I can't remember his name, but it was 30 years ago would use that term lightly, wouldn't use it all the time, but if you're a principal in man and it's always stuck with me, is a good saying and definitely fits you.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: It absolutely fits you Well thank you, my friend, how are you feeling?
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: I'm feeling good, I'm feeling good, I'm on the rollator, which is a much faster walker, so I am walking through the grocery stores and through my granddaughter's basketball game and I'm doing very, very well.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Well, good, that is good to hear.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: So physical therapy is going well also.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: Yes, they got me.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: So our listeners know I have a nerve disease in my legs, so they have me, wes, back wearing my 40-pound stockings.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: And when I first went to the Shepherds Hospital, which is real famous in Atlanta, it's like Mayo Clinic, but it's strictly for spine damage and for Guillain-Barre syndrome.
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: So I have Guillain-Barre syndrome.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: So I was there and the guy said well, mr Harrington, you can wear 20-pound stockings.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: And then all of a sudden it was well, you could wear 30-pound.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: Now I'm up to 40-pound, so these suckers are hard to get on and hard to get off, but I am doing very, very well, wes.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: And it's good to hear that A lot of our listeners have been worrying, wondering and praying for you, so it's good to hear.
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: The prayers are working, my friend.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's also good to see your mind over matter.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: You know you're going to beat this thing and you're doing it that way.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: That's a big piece of the equation.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: A lot of times you give up.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: I say that all the time.
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: Wes.
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: I want to tell all our listeners when I get depressed or I get frustrated, I call you and you encourage me and say, hey, dj, you can do this and I do.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: I go back out and hit it and that's why you have friends that are around you that can help you in the touring and recovery industry.
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: The same way, do not get depressed in learning new processes and safety methods that are out there.
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: Just learn from the best and do the rest.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: Well, thank you, DJ, and I do want to echo that message somewhat.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: I do see some towing operators, especially ones that have been in the industry for a while, or maybe they haven't been in the industry but they're a little bit older.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: You know my age range I just turned 60, depressed about all the new things to learn with electric vehicles because the vehicle has changed and there's information you need to know.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Well, some people get depressed about it, but other people see it as an opportunity to continue learning.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: You know, the mind is a magnificent goal-striving machine and if you're striving for goals, yeah, that's part of what helps keep you alive and active and moving forward.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: So you know, one of the goals I would have if I was operating tow trucks every day is to become an expert on these electric vehicles.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's myself personally.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: I'm not saying that you should do that or you know people should do that listening, but I would do that and actually I've done that.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Between that and the train class, train recovery class we got coming up in Matthews.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: These are things that I've had to totally relearn and not relearn, learn about whole new processes, etc.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: It revitalized some inside growth in me and, again, the mind is a magnificent goal-striving machine and by giving it these goals to strive for, I think it's part of what's keeping me feeling as good as I am, and I am feeling pretty good.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: People ask about my health and I just want to make a quick comment, as I've talked about having Parkinson's.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: Some people think I'm dying next year or something which I know.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: I'm too blunt you should see my producer's face, as I just said that Muhammad Ali lived 32 years with Parkinson's.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: So I'm not.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: I'm while.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: It's slowing me down and I got to deal with some things, it's not stopping me by any stretch of the imagination.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: We're going to be here for a minute or two, and he didn't die from Parkinson's either.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: So but with all that being said, the being said, we're happy and excited to be here, and I know I kind of got off base there a little bit.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: Let's get back on base.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: As we're recording this, as you're listening to it, it's a week later, but as we're recording it, this is D-Day.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: So 80th celebration of D-Day over Normandy.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: Now you know years ago, before that movie Private Ryan, we talked about storming the beaches of Normandy.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: I always pictured the American soldiers coming in there and kicking ass.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: I didn't understand.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: I think it was eight out of ten people that stormed that beach died that day in that first wave.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: So you know, watching that movie Private Ryan gave me a whole different appreciation for history, gave me appreciation why we're not speaking German today because of those brave men and the women I've been on the front lines with.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: Women of that generation helped make everything happen too, with the Roseby, the Riveter holding down the home court and all that.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: So today, watching the celebration made me patriotic and proud to be an American, knowing what we've done for this world and what we'll continue to do.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: I mean, as we move forward towards the quarter-millennium celebration.
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: These are things the Americans should be focusing on, in my humble opinion.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: So, dj, I'm going to give you a brief rundown on our schedule and then we're going to do a best of today for the rest of the episode.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, we're excited to be real busy.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: This is, of course, a busy time of year.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: Everybody wants to do stuff in May and June, just like September and October tend to be very busy.
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: So when you're listening to this, if you're listening on the day it drops.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: We're about one week away from three training classes we're doing in St Louis.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: Let me back up.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: The electric vehicle on Friday night is a free class.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: We do ask you to pre-register because we're going to feed you dinner, we need to dominate to set the room for, etc.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: On Saturday we're doing the one-day heavy duty heavy duty towing and recovery with some rotator usage.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: On Sunday, the 23rd, one-day light recovery with some rotator usage.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: On Sunday, the 23rd, one day light duty classes, which is again hosted by Cardinal and by Bullet Services.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: Then we got the 4th of July.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: Of course don't have anything really coming up after that.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: So July 18th we're going to be in Lexington, south Carolina, july 18th with the Towing and Recovery Association of South Carolina.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: That's a free class, it's in Lexington, south Carolina, and that's July 18th.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: Call the South Carolina Tow Association for more information.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: Reach out to us if you don't have contact.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: If you're in South Carolina, you're in New York, you're in any of these states.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: If you're not a member of your state association, you're't have contact.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: If you're in South Carolina, you're in New York, you're in any of these states.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: If you're not a member of your state association, you're missing the boat.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: They're the ones representing you and sticking up for you at the state capital and doing many different good things.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: So we really want to try to support those good state associations like South Carolina folks.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: Then, august 2nd and 3rd, we're going to have a trained recovery class.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: That's at Mad Geo's in Rockford Illinois.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: There is a prerequisite.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: Classes are almost filled up.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: So if you're thinking of attending, you better get your seat or you're going to be out of luck.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Then we have the first weekend of September.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: We're going to be with the Rhode Island Towing Association.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: It's a private event.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: Attendance now is limited to their members.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: If they don't fill it up with their members, they're going to open up to other folks.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: But again, that's another association that's on the move, the rhode island tone association.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: October 19th.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: Oh, and then we'll be out in oregon for a private class.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: I do have one weekend open.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: I have two weekends open for the rest of the year, one in august, one in september.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: I got, uh, some quotes out so they may be filled up, but as of right now we have two weekends open until december.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: So if anybody's interested in having me in for a class, you need to contact us.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: October 19th and 20th we'll be back at one of our founding members locations wasco towing.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: Two-day heavy towing and recovery class 18th and 19th excuse me, 19th and 20th.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: On the 18th and 19th excuse me, 19th and 20th.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: On the 18th there's going to be a free electric vehicle class.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: That's at Lake Station Free class need to register.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: Or the two-day class.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: November 1, we're going to be doing a.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: We'll be back in Lexington, kansas.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: We're friends with Santa Fe Tow.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: We were there last year and had a great class November 1, friday a one-day light duty.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: November 2nd and 3rd two-day heavy duty towing with some rotator usage.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: We also have November 16th and 17th We'll be Sumner, south Carolina, for a two-day fire tow or cross training class with the great Ron Moore, so we're looking forward to that as well.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: So we're here at the show.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: I was going to have an interview lined up and logistics didn't work out, so what we're going to do is that we did what I consider to be a very important episode a couple weeks ago about what's going on in the industry, with the federal government and whatnot.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: We had Bill Johnson, the current president of TRAA, on, so we're going to run his interview again, in case you didn't hear it, because I believe it's a very important interview.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: Seems like some folks don't have all the facts straight and I think he's pretty straightforward on giving facts, so ask all our listeners to listen to that.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: I want to thank our listeners.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: We have over 14,000 of them now.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: We're the largest podcast, they tell me, in the towing industry.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: If you like listening to us, hit that like button, share, subscribe.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: We really appreciate that.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: Short of that, thank you for listening.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: Be safe out there and enjoy this interview with Bill Johnson To myself.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: Bill, do you mind introducing yourself, johnson, to myself?
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: Bill, do you mind introducing yourself?
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: How are you doing?
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: Thanks Wes, thanks DJ.
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: Basically, I'm just a tall guy out of Massachusetts that's been involved in the industry for 30 years now.
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: I was past president for STA.
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: I'm legislative chairman for STA and legislative chairman for the TRAA.
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: So, bill, just real quick.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: Yep, Just real quick.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: Statewide Towing Association just for folks that don't know is the second oldest towing association in the country.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: I believe it started in the 50s.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Does that sound right, Bill?
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: No, 1970.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: Oh, okay.
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think California might be the oldest I'm not sure or one of the associations, is it Michigan?
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: Michigan is at one and you all are two Is what I always yeah, I don't, but to me it is what it is.
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: It's like it's Just try to do your job.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: I got you, just try to keep our business.
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: I got you, just try to keep our listeners informed.
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: No problem, I don't know where you want to start with all this.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: Well, why don't you give us your synopsis of what's going on for the listeners that doesn't know what's going on or maybe hasn't had time to digest the 58-page report?
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: I?
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: Know I haven't, so I'm about halfway through it.
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: Well, it's deeper than that.
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: You see, you have to go back to the fall of 2022.
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: And the Biden administration gave charge to the FTC to regulate junk fees.
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: And what everybody needs to remember is this proposed rule had to be approved by Congress and rulemaking and when you read the original rulemaking, it was for ticket master, overdraft fees assessed by banks, airline fees, resort fees, warranties, you know, like hidden fees.
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: Towing was never, never mentioned.
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: Also, I've read there's a 66-page report from the Federal Register, volume number 88, number 216, that was put out November 9th 2023, on the proposed rules.
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: Towing was never mentioned.
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: So you have a lot of people in this industry running around yelling fire in the theater and they have no clue where the fire came from, or you know they're just hollering and they haven't done the due diligence.
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: So now, fast forward to February 7th.
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: So you got to remember Of this year, right?
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: So you got to remember it started in 22 with the FTC charge against the Biden administration, and that was.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: Just real quick, Bill.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: When did it start?
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: In 22?
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: Did you give?
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: a month Fall of 22.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: Fall of 22.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: No, I don't have a month.
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: I don't have an exact month.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: Just fall of 22.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: Just kind of put some perspective, thank you.
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: So towing was never mentioned, never mentioned.
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: So that's like somebody saying hey, wes, you did that recovery and that trucking company complained to the public authority about your recovery.
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: Why didn't you stop them?
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: You know what I mean.
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: It's ludicrous to say that because it was never on the radar.
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: You know, we know we have enemies, but we never know where they're going to strike.
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: And when you know, you follow something.
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: So what are we going to do?
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: Put a statement to FTCC and say hey, by the way, we know towing's not mentioned, but don't include us in this.
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: So towing was never, never mentioned.
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: So on February 7th, the last day, sue Lawless, who's an acting administrator, sends in this three-page, three-and-a-half-page letter.
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: Basically, you know that towers are the worst thing since.
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: You know whatever.
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: You know that we're just all bad, and blah, blah, blah.
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: When you read the letter, this letter was not written by a bureaucrat, you know.
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: So this was probably ghostwritten by the ATA.
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: That's my opinion.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: Bill, hang on one second please, just for a matter of record.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: We've invited all of us to come on the podcast.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: We've invited the ATRI, the Transportation Group, on the podcast.
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: We've also invited the Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg.
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: Buttigieg Pete, buttigieg yep.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: As of this moment, no response yet.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: We'll keep the listeners informed.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: Sorry about the interruption.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: Go ahead, bill.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Oh no problem.
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: So February 7th this got dropped.
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: We found out about it.
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: Our lobbyist group either found out about that afternoon or the next day.
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: We called up the lobbyist, called up Larry Miner, who is the policy and procedure guy, policy and regulation guy for the federal motor for the US DOT, to ask him what the heck was going on.
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: He did not know this letter was drafted.
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: So you need to.
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: You got to follow the votes, follow where the direction came from.
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: What we're finding out is this letter was authorized by the main guy at the legal guy at the DOT and it's a directive from Biden administration.
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: Elizabeth Warren I don't know if you guys have seen, she's a senator from Massachusetts here.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: She was a senator, wasn't?
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: she.
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: I will not say anything.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: She claimed to be I'm not her confidant.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, she's the right one.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: She's got her confused Somebody else.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: She's the right one, she's the right one.
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: I'm not saying anything, Wes.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: I don't follow politics closely enough.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: Obviously I apologize, gentlemen, Carry on, so yeah.
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: So she did a post basically I'm paraphrasing but she did a post the very next day that said you know, basically condemning the towing industry and you know that were predatory, blah, blah blah.
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: And you know the Biden administration is aware of this, you know.
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: So you're going to follow the votes and the Trucking Association, they, they, usually they vote republican.
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: So remember, in the midterms in 2022, when biden said he was going to forgive all the student debt, yes, and everybody said this is illegal.
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: He can't do it like but how?
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: many votes did they get out of that?
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: There was 25 million people that went to that website.
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: There were 16 million people that applied for forgiveness on their student loan and it's something they couldn't do, and I hate to say it.
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: As we dig into this and unravel this, this is what we're trying to find out.
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: This is kind of like a false flag.
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: The ATA they did a great job of a sneak attack.
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: I've been telling a lot of people whether, depends what generation you're in, you can either call this a December 7th Pearl Harbor or October 7th Hamas attack on Israel.
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: It's, you know, you have enemies, but this was unforeseen.
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: Nobody knew this was happening because towing was not mentioned.
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: And, number two, it's probably not even legal for what they're even talking about, because everybody remembers that Congress has ceded regulation of nonconsensual towing to the states and local authorities.
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: So how can the FTC now get ownership of that?
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: So there's a lot of layers to the onion we're unpeeling here.
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: The TRAA has been diligently working to unravel what's going on.
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: We've been working with our lobbyist group, tremont Strategy Group.
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: We've been working with our attorneys Baker, donaldson, berman and Codwell and Berkowitz PC and working, and there's been a lot of people in the industry, for whatever reason, been a lot of people in the industry, for whatever reason.
• 21:17
  Speaker 5: All they're doing is going around around hollering fire and they're not really quick.
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: They're not, they're not taking, they're not trying to find where the fire is coming from, they're just fanning the flames.
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: We as an industry I'm sure this will resonate with towers out there what happens when two towers are going at it in a community saying different things?
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: The public authorities shut down the elected and appointed authorities.
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: They just stop listening.
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: We've seen it happen with states that have two different associations.
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: What happens?
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: The legislature doesn't listen no more.
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: They just do whatever.
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: So we as an industry need to be very careful on how we react to this, because if we have two, three different groups trying to resolve this and we don't have the same messaging, this is not going to bode well for anybody.
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: This should be a wake-up call to the industry that we need to all be pulling the rope in the same direction and work together.
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: You know, I can assure you that TRAA is diligently working on this.
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: This is not something that anybody could have foreseen.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: Let's stop right there for a second Yep.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: American.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: Towing Recovery Institute joined TRA as a member in the fall last year.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: I don't think I've ever been a member before.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: It comes back to in the 90s Rackmaster and TRA battling it out about certification.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: I was on the front lines of that battle so many times.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: I didn't get treated fairly and again at the turn of the century when I started out on my own, so that's why.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: I stayed away from CRA for many years.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: Our staff decided it was in our best interest to join as a member in the fall, and we did.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: I will say I've always had an excellent relationship with Cindy Martineau, the executive director.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: She's always been super professional.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: I've always had a good I feel a good relationship with you as well, bill, so I'm just putting it out there as a to be fair about it.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: With all that being said, I believe we gotta take a break, but when we come back, can you start us?
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: out about the history of TIA.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Who?
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: y'all are and then we get into what your exact plans.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: Are you good with that Bill?
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: I'm here for you.
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: Wes Well, you too, dj, and then we get into what your exact plans.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: are you good with that, Bill?
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: I'm here for you, wes.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: Well, you too, dj, can't forget about you.
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: God bless you, bill.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: All right, listeners, hang around, we'll be right back after the break.
• 24:13
  Speaker 6: 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.
• 24:20
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• 25:18
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• 25:24
  Speaker 6: Go to ev-clevercom and download yours today.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Welcome back listeners.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the American Zone Recovery Institute podcast Wes Wilburn, dj Harrington and our special guest, bill Johnson.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Welcome back listeners.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the American Tone, the Discovery Institute Podcast Wes Wilburn, dj Harrington and our special guest, bill Johnson From TRAA.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: I want to remind all of you Every week we do our best To bring you new informative episodes Like this one with Bill Johnson.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Make sure you download and listen.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: We're available on Spotify, itunes, pandora, stitcher, iheartmedia, amazon or wherever you get your podcasts.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Without further ado, I'm bringing on right on back to Wes.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: Thank you, dj, and I would like to thank our listeners as well.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: We definitely appreciate your support.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: We had a great interview today.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: I want to come right back to Bill.
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: We're just starting to introduce TRAA, bill.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: I know they started I guess in the late 70s and Howard Koff got a group of tellers together in Kansas Tell us about TRAA where they're at today.
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I believe TRAA started in 1979.
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: I'm not 100% sure.
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: To me, you need to know history because if you don't, you're doomed to repeat it.
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: But, with that being said, I always try looking forward, not backwards, and so that's what I.
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: So, yes, I appreciate history, but me it's not important whether it started in 78, 79 or 77, you know whatever.
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: But I think TRA has, over the last decade, with Cindy Martinos as the executive director and the new I don't want to say new, but different people involved, we've really picked it up and we've had the lobbying firm now, I think, for like three and a half years, psg, and that's really changed the direction of the TRA.
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: We reimagined the Hill Day in DC and you know we've made huge strides to reach out to our elected officials.
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: I mean, I think last year I'm going from my memory, I think last year we met with 59 or 61, you know congressional and senatorial offices.
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: It's been huge.
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: And, like I said, to pivot back to this whole report, from Susan Wallace to the FTC, towing wasn't on the radar at all, not in any of the proposed rules.
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: I've read through the 66-page report.
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: That was in October of last year, november of last year, I apologize November of last year and it was kind of like just a bombshell on this February 7th and we've been dealing with it to get meetings with the appropriate staff at the Federal Motor Carrier and and the Federal Trade Commission.
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: You know and you can't how can I say this?
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: You can't put a fire out.
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: You know where the origins are.
• 28:47
  Speaker 5: So that's what we really really did the first.
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: The first four or five days was really just kind of like okay, how did this happen?
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: Where did it come from?
• 28:57
  Speaker 5: We all know the ATA wants to destroy the towing industry.
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: They don't want to work with the towing industry.
• 29:06
  Speaker 5: And same thing with OIDA.
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: Actually, probably a lot of your listeners don't know this, but Mike Matusik, who worked with OIDA, left OIDA and now is working for the ATA and he was no friend of the industry.
• 29:19
  Speaker 5: He wouldn't even listen to the issues within the industry and there's a lot of false things in that report that Sue Lawless sent in.
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: You know, like how the heck can you have all your charges up front?
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: You go to a wreck, you know.
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: You know, is it leaking fuel?
• 29:40
  Speaker 5: You know, especially a truck wreck is leaking fuel.
• 29:43
  Speaker 5: Is the trailer loaded?
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: Is it empty?
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: Is the?
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: trailer compromised you know.
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: I mean, there's so many things, there's no way you can give a one price for everything and we need to educate them.
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: And then, like I said, it gets back to.
• 29:59
  Speaker 5: What I said is, congress has ceded the authority to regulate non-consensual towing to the states and local government, so there's a legal issue here too so you're saying it would take an act of Congress to change this.
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: Possibly that's one of the things we're looking at.
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: The other thing we need to remember is this is a good banking.
• 30:26
  Speaker 5: So a lot of the people that are yelling the fire in the theater make it sound like this is going to be implemented next week in the theater, make it sound like this is going to be implemented next week.
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: This is at the minimum at the minimum, probably six months out, before anything happens.
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: I got to hold you right there, bill Yep.
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: I grew up outside of Washington DC.
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: I know some of these people that work in the federal government system.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Now I'm not a huge political person, but I do pay attention.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: They don't get anything done in six months up there and that kind of split a hair, I'm just saying.
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: So a couple different things here You're saying six months to regulate.
• 31:14
  Speaker 5: No, what I'm saying is that before this saying is, before the federal, it's going to be six months at a minimum before they weed through all the comments of this proposed ruling and come out with any thoughts to where it's going.
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: Six months at a minimum they have to go through.
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: So when they do, this gets back to.
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: I forget I think it was in the 70s or 80s Congress took away a lot of the Federal Trade Commission's clout.
• 31:51
  Speaker 5: Do you remember in the 70s when there was a nanny state, when that phrase got coined?
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: That was a result of the Federal Trade Commission and their overreach.
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: Congress pulled back on their authority on what they can do, and that's why they have to submit proposed rulemaking to Congress for approval.
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: And towing was not even mentioned in that proposed rulemaking.
• 32:21
  Speaker 5: So there's many different angles this is getting looked at.
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: It's getting looked at legally.
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: Well, even they can do it, you know, because the Congress has already ceded the authority to the states for non-consensual.
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: Then there's a question well, can they get involved with consensual towing?
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: You know, underneath the junk rule, junk fee, you know they're trying to propose.
• 32:47
  Speaker 5: Then there's a question of whether they even can add us on.
• 32:52
  Speaker 5: I mean, am I the only one that finds this ironic.
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: Think about this the Federal Trade Commission puts out this proposed ruling because they want to get rid of hidden fees and junk fees and fees that are added on after the fact.
• 33:08
  Speaker 5: Towing was not mentioned in any of the proposed rulings and now, all of a sudden, they're going to add it on because an administrator submitted a letter on the last day of comments of February 7th.
• 33:21
  Speaker 5: Am I the only one that finds the irony in that?
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: It's like here's this group that is tasked with saying that, all these hidden fees.
• 33:30
  Speaker 5: You have to be transparent to the consumer, but yet the bureaucracy doesn.
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: You have to be transparent to the consumer, but yet the bureaucracy doesn't have to be transparent and give forewarning.
• 33:40
  Speaker 5: So there's a lot of, a lot of.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: I absolutely agree, bill.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of it.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: I'm glad you cleared up the comment that towing wasn't mentioned originally, because one of my first questions, if we do get any of these interviews with the lady that wrote the letter etc.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: One of my questions was going to be if this involved the towing industry and we were supposed to be notified.
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: Give me one example where you told any towing related organization or even towing company about it, but obviously that number is zero.
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: But you explained why it was zero for a different reason it gets deeper.
• 34:23
  Speaker 5: Wes the ATA like again.
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: I believe it was back in 2000 American.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: Trucking Association, ata.
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: Yes, kta, like again.
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: I believe it was back in 2000.
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: Go ahead.
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: American Trucking Association.
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: KTA yes, I'm sorry, American Trucking Association.
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: They had some sort of committee back in 2020, I believe it was that.
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: I was on and actually Quinn Penning was on it and Jeffrey Godwin was on it and actually Quinn Penning was on it and Jeffrey Godwin was on it and I participated in two meetings and I said, you know, I'm not saying there's not any, you know, maybe bad actors out there or some bills that maybe you know a lot of the towers wouldn't support.
• 35:06
  Speaker 5: But I goes please send me the carnage.
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: I want to see the tow bills.
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: So they sent me six tow bills out of like a three or four year period.
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: So the very next meeting, I went through them and and uh, there was, the biggest problem I saw with all of the tow bills was the lack of a proper narrative.
• 35:27
  Speaker 5: So I think that's one thing that I need to get across to the towers throughout the country is, if we want to be treated like professionals, we need to act like professionals.
• 35:38
  Speaker 5: Spend the time, write a narrative, explain what you did.
• 35:42
  Speaker 5: Don't just put truck rolled over, sent six trucks, you know 10 guys, whatever.
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: Write a narrative, explain, paint a picture in words of how you did that recovery and bill accordingly.
• 35:57
  Speaker 5: You know, support your rates.
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: Whatever rates you have, make sure you can support it.
• 36:04
  Speaker 5: You know, like headsets for example, when I bill out my headsets I submit, submit a sheet.
• 36:08
  Speaker 5: I show what the cost of the headsets were.
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: I do a ROI return on investment.
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: I called up the manufacturer.
• 36:17
  Speaker 5: They said normally last three, three years.
• 36:20
  Speaker 5: I did the amount of times that I use them per year on average.
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: Then I divided it up and I come with a price and I submit that documentation with the bill.
• 36:32
  Speaker 5: So we as an industry, we have created a lot of these problems because we just we're all busy, we don't take the time to do the due diligence and really dial into our numbers, to explain our numbers and really dial into our numbers, to explain our numbers.
• 36:52
  Speaker 5: And we get frustrated when we get challenged on our numbers instead of taking the time to explain to them why you derived that.
• 36:58
  Speaker 5: Think about if some guy showed up and fixed your washing machine and sent you a bill oh, fixed washer $683.
• 37:06
  Speaker 5: How would you feel?
• 37:07
  Speaker 5: You'd want a little context to what you're getting billed for.
• 37:11
  Speaker 5: So that's one takeaway here.
• 37:14
  Speaker 5: I think we as an industry.
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: The industry is matured.
• 37:18
  Speaker 5: We need to be treated like professionals.
• 37:21
  Speaker 5: Since the TIMS quick clearance has put a lot more pressure on us to have excess equipment, excess personnel to respond to these roadside incidents and we also.
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: We need to remember that if we start dividing ourselves, that old adage divide and conquer is going to take hold.
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: You know, think about that.
• 37:44
  Speaker 5: What does anybody do?
• 37:46
  Speaker 5: They try to divide the people.
• 37:48
  Speaker 5: You know whether it's.
• 37:49
  Speaker 5: You can look back through it.
• 37:50
  Speaker 5: You're talking about history, west.
• 37:52
  Speaker 5: Look back through history.
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: Through any dictator, any.
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: They try to divide the people.
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: So if our industry gets divided we're going to lose.
• 38:00
  Speaker 5: So we need to keep that in mind and I can assure everybody the traa is the voice ofers.
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: We do have a handle on this issue.
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: We are making, doing the right moves.
• 38:14
  Speaker 5: We're getting appointments with the proper people at the USDOT you know the FM, the federal motor carriers and we're trying to get an appointment with the FTC and we're working on getting this resolved through multiple angles through a legal challenge we have to politically and through the administrative side.
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: Well.
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: I have to tell you one of the reasons that we did join TRA this past fall was they have it does appear they have a toehold pun intended in politics in Washington DC.
• 38:53
  Speaker 3: Again, growing up in that area, I have a lot of it's very hard to do, so I think that's one of the things that TRA offers as TRA goes forward.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: What are the forward-thinking plans, Bill?
• 39:10
  Speaker 5: It gets back to what I'm and I guess this will do a little sales pitch.
• 39:13
  Speaker 5: You know, everybody says there's what.
• 39:16
  Speaker 5: I've heard different numbers.
• 39:18
  Speaker 5: Everybody says there's what?
• 39:18
  Speaker 5: 30,000 towers out there in the country.
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: Somewhere between 30 and middle 40s, depending on who you believe.
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: So let's just I always like to look at conservatives let's just say there's 25,000.
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: We don't have, and this is.
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: I think this goes back through state associations, national association.
• 39:41
  Speaker 5: The towers are not getting involved involved.
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: The towers do not understand the value of an association.
• 39:51
  Speaker 5: Think about any state association.
• 39:54
  Speaker 5: They're all struggling for membership and the National Association is also.
• 39:59
  Speaker 5: I mean we should have the National Association should have 4,000 or 5,000 members.
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: So, bill, tell me how much is TRA membership for a towing company?
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: let's say $500 a year.
• 40:12
  Speaker 5: It's money well spent.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: And an associate member.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: I believe that's what we are.
• 40:23
  Speaker 5: I believe that was $600 a year, but I'm not 100% sure.
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: I think DJ Piped in it is $600, correct DJ?
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: Yes, I want to tell all our listeners just go online to traaonlinecom.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: It tells you everything about the $500 right on down to an affiliate member.
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: How much is an affiliate DJ.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: Affiliate runs $500 to $1,200 a calendar year.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: Now everybody got to remember.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: Traa is a nonprofit, so it's a 501c6.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: And every time you give a nickel to TRA it's tax deductible.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: That's another crazy thing that co-workers don't take advantage of.
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: I just want to clarify one thing.
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: You're not getting paid.
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: You're a volunteer, aren't you Bill?
• 41:20
  Speaker 5: All the cabinet members.
• 41:21
  Speaker 5: The only TRA only has two paid employees.
• 41:26
  Speaker 5: That's the executive director and then the I don't know the fancy name the media and fulfillment for the certification programs.
• 41:38
  Speaker 5: There's only two paid positions.
• 41:41
  Speaker 5: Everybody else works for free.
• 41:43
  Speaker 5: And the other thing I want to mention is the lobbyist has been paid by contributions from members.
• 41:52
  Speaker 5: There's not enough money in the budget to pay for the lobbyist, so I don't like myself.
• 41:59
  Speaker 5: I committed I think I forget what that was.
• 42:04
  Speaker 5: I think it was $9,000 over three years and many other people have stepped up and contributed to this.
• 42:12
  Speaker 5: So that's why I guess I get a little frustrated with these people that are going around yelling fire in the theater, and I'd be guaranteed I don't think any of those or many of them have donated to the TRA lobbyist fund.
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: I don't know how many are members of the TRA and a lot of people.
• 42:34
  Speaker 5: It gets back to what you said, wes, that I'm not trying to rub salt in an old wound.
• 42:39
  Speaker 5: What did you say in the beginning of the show?
• 42:43
  Speaker 5: You didn't get involved with TRA because you had bad feelings because of what happened 20 years ago or 30 years, 25 years ago, with training and certification and everything that transpired through there and I can guarantee you that some of these people that are trying to create issues right now, they harbor, I bet you, if you look back in their history.
• 43:14
  Speaker 5: They harbor ill feelings to the TRAA and it's not about what is best for the industry, it's just their personal vendetta.
• 43:29
  Speaker 5: That's the only conjecture.
• 43:32
  Speaker 5: I'm not mentioning any names, but I guarantee you, if you look back in the history there's a couple of those.
• 43:40
  Speaker 5: I think some of the people it's kind of like people get involved and they hear something and they don't have the time to.
• 43:48
  Speaker 5: So it's whoever gets the message to them first sometimes is where they go with the blue.
• 43:53
  Speaker 5: But all I can do is assure everybody the TRA is working diligently on this issue.
• 43:59
  Speaker 5: We have the lobbyist firm, we have the attorney firm, we have the ears of the agencies involved and we're setting up meetings and we're working on it.
• 44:15
  Speaker 5: It was a shock to all and I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, you know, I was very surprised when this happened because it was never mentioned.
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: It was never in none of the proposed rulings mentioned.
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: It was never in none of the proposed rulings.
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that really changes somebody's outlook on that.
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: Knowing those facts, let's take a quick break.
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: We'll be right back after the break.
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: Listeners.
• 44:46
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• 45:52
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• 45:55
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• 45:58
  Speaker 1: Welcome back listeners.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the American Towing Recovery Institute podcast Wes Wilburn, dj Harrington and our special guest, bill Johnson, the vice president of TRAA.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: Please remember to like, review and share everywhere.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: And if you want another industry expert like a Bill Johnson to be on this podcast, dial the hotline number 706-409-5603 here in the studio and Wes Wilburn will do his very best to get that industry expert on the line with you.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: Wes, I'll turn it over to you.
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: Thank you, bill.
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: Your current position is first vice president and also head of the legislative committee.
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: Is that correct?
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: Correct?
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: And as I understand it, you're running for president unopposed at this point.
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: That is also correct.
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: So more than you're running for president unopposed at this point.
• 46:50
  Speaker 5: That is also correct.
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: So, more than likely, you're the leadership that will be in place.
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: How long of a term is that?
• 46:58
  Speaker 5: Two years.
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: Do you plan on doing it more than one term?
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: Yes, one cannot always predict the future, but yes, Okay, yeah, all right, I want to make one quick comment.
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: Part of why I changed my mind and got involved with TRA back a few months ago.
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: Was listening to Michelle.
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: DJ help me with her last name Suco.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: Her podcast that she did on attending.
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: Legislative Day.
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: And that's coming up in March, isn't it?
• 47:35
  Speaker 5: Yes, march 5th through, I believe, the 7th.
• 47:39
  Speaker 5: Yes, you can go up online traaonlinecom and check it out.
• 47:48
  Speaker 5: I know it's getting full.
• 47:49
  Speaker 5: We had to move hotels because it's grown so much from last year and we appreciate the support.
• 47:56
  Speaker 5: That's what we need.
• 47:57
  Speaker 5: We need grassroots support.
• 47:58
  Speaker 5: We need more.
• 48:00
  Speaker 5: When you go to, when you speak to public officials, you can say we represent so many companies, x amount of companies.
• 48:07
  Speaker 5: That carries weight.
• 48:08
  Speaker 5: So it's really important that people get involved.
• 48:11
  Speaker 5: And the other thing I want to I know we're kind of getting tight on time is one thing I want to mention is the TRAA is the only entity, the only association recognized by, I believe it's, three federal agencies the DOT, the Highway Safety and I can't remember what the Federal Highway, I believe the Highway Safety and the National Highway Safety Board is just the two.
• 48:42
  Speaker 5: I can't remember the third one, but we're the only bottom line, we're the only association recognized by the federal government and that carries weight when we're trying to get appointments here with the various groups on this issue, on any issue.
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: Absolutely Well.
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: We definitely appreciate you coming on sharing the information with us.
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: Can we invite you back sometimes as things progress, to keep us up to date?
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 49:14
  Speaker 5: I mean, I hope I did.
• 49:15
  Speaker 5: It's such a deep issue and it's hard to try to par it down to this type of a conversation because there's just a lot going on.
• 49:24
  Speaker 5: But, like I said again, I'm repeating myself, but I want to assure the towers out there that the TRAA is working diligently on this.
• 49:33
  Speaker 5: We will get it resolved and I think I'm hoping that the industry becomes stronger out of this and unites and that we don't divide ourselves.
• 49:46
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 49:48
  Speaker 3: I can't agree strongly enough the whole part of a conversation that I wanted to have that we didn't get to is, I'm not so sure.
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: This isn't a good thing, because if some kind of regulation does come along, if they're going to regulate prices, they've got to look at doing a proper price study.
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: I truly believe in my heart that if a proper price study was done on what it takes to run a professional towing business, pay your employees a living wage, run safe trucks, pay your taxes, etc.
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: I believe if we looked at all those numbers the public would realize what a deal they're getting now on services.
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: And of course there's a whole other argument about prices.
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: Some of these big recoveries are so big because of the ones that don't pay.
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: So I think there's all kinds of good things to be looked at from this.
• 50:41
  Speaker 3: But, bill, could we have you back address some of those issues maybe?
• 50:47
  Speaker 5: Yeah, most certainly, wes.
• 50:48
  Speaker 5: I'm very transparent.
• 50:49
  Speaker 5: That's one thing you brought up.
• 50:51
  Speaker 5: I said it's so deep.
• 50:52
  Speaker 5: The tra requested the federal government through I believe it's the ago, the, the account of there's so many acronyms out there but we requested a study to be done because we heard rumblings about remember the van holland bill where they're trying to re-regulate towing.
• 51:10
  Speaker 5: The TRA worked to kill that and we said we need to do a study.
• 51:17
  Speaker 5: Everybody's saying there's problems, but please show us the problems.
• 51:21
  Speaker 5: You know, the only person saying there's a problem is the people paying, which that's always nobody likes to pay.
• 51:28
  Speaker 5: So we asked for a study.
• 51:30
  Speaker 5: That was.
• 51:31
  Speaker 5: That never took hold.
• 51:33
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 51:33
  Speaker 5: We asked for it.
• 51:34
  Speaker 5: We threw the eight.
• 51:35
  Speaker 5: I believe the AGO is the, the agency, and that was never done.
• 51:42
  Speaker 5: So we have that we're.
• 51:44
  Speaker 5: There's a lot going on, wes, you, there really is.
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: So we'll have you back.
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: Listeners, I don't want to cut them off, but we do have to go.
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: We're up against a heartbreak the next couple episodes.
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: We have some other groups coming on to talk about this, so we're going to be focused here.
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: Bill, I can't thank you enough for your time and we'll look forward to having you back on.
• 52:14
  Speaker 5: No.
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: I thank you guys for the opportunity to explain this issue, which is very important to us all.
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: DJ, take us home, buddy Wes.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: I want to remind everybody that TRAA represents all 50 states, the territories, over 35,000 members.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: We have over 210,000 commercial vehicles and we employ over 350,000 towing families and TRAA represents every one of them.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: It started in Kansas City back in 1979.
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: T-r-a-a is the voice of the industry and everybody should be a member.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: That's how I'm going to end this.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: And, Bill Johnson, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for everything you've done for this industry and for what you've done for the United States, and I look forward to seeing everybody on the next podcast of the American Tone Recovery Institute.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: See you next week.