Latest / Towing News Now / Training Together: Tow Operators and Firefighters Unite

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Training Together: Tow Operators and Firefighters Unite · Towing News Now

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Today on Towing News.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Now we look at different legislation going on around the country.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: We also take a look at cross-training in depth with Ron Moore.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: That, plus all the towing news around the USA, be right back.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: For electric and other alternative fuel vehicles.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: We have developed an app that gives you all the manufacturers 411 for when that 911 happens.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Whether you are a fire tow or police, we got you covered.
• 0:35
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• 0:40
  Speaker 2: We also offer the National Tow.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Operator Certification, an independently sourced virtual testing program covering light duty, heavy duty electric and alternative fuel vehicles.
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: Welcome to the new season of Towing News.
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: Now You're going to have industry news, tech talks, fantastic guests throughout this whole year.
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: Welcome to 2025.
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: This is DJ Harrington, your co-host.
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: I'll now pass it over to the real host of the program, april, and Wes Wilburn.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Thank you, DJ.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: As always, we appreciate your kind words and your dedication to this program and getting me involved in this medium.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Really appreciate your forethought and looking forward and convincing me this was a good idea because it really is Got a lot going on, DJ how are you doing, buddy?
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: I'm doing excellent, my friend.
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: Excellent, excellent.
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: Good to hear you say that.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Our first class, our high duty class that we're doing here in Fayetteville, North Carolina, is sold out.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: We can't take any more students.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Dj, we're absolutely filled up.
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: Oh, that's a blessing.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Excited about that.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Alabama's our next class on the schedule and that's not even until March.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: They're buying the tickets up for that as well.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: We always do get a good turnout there, alabama, you know we work with CP Records, cody and Heather Post and Griffin and Griffin, shell and Chuck.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: But both of those two great companies, two great teams in towing.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: Wonderful people.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so we're excited to be going back and working with them as well.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: And a week after that we'll be in Western North Carolina people, yeah, so we're excited to be going back and working with them as well.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: The weeks after that we'll be in western North Carolina.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: So things are bopping right along.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: But here's the big thing, dj.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: After working with the Florida Towing Association, professional Wrecker Operators of Florida to put on the largest trade show in the world for towing and recovery, they were in the world for tone and recovery First one.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: You know they were the first ones to be doing it.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: They have a show every year in the spring in Florida, which is the time which is a show that most manufacturers, if they have something new, they introduce it at that show.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: So we're excited to be going back there.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: We've done many things with those folks over the years.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: We're going to be doing a one-day heavy-duty school on the Thursday before the show.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: We're so fresh with this thing they don't even have the website set up to accommodate it yet.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Probably by the time this thing airs you'll be able to go to their website and register.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: It's a free one-day school, no fees.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: You know, dj, at the Florida show when you go there, the money goes back to the Daytona Association and everything they provide there during the show is free, free parties, free everything they can provide.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: As far as the show goes, they don't charge for seminars, they don't charge to attend.
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: They give back to the industry, obviously, because they use all that money for lobbying, but they also give back to.
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: If you just want to come to the show and walk around, you don't have to worry about being out of your pocket as much, because everything there is free to do.
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: So they think of everything.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: You are at a Florida resort now.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: You get a snack bar.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: There's nothing free, but that's you know.
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: It's really not free there.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, at any time you're at that convention center environment.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Things are expensive.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: The one thing I like about down there in Florida is the folks are nice to you.
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: I appreciate you being there.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Very nice so we'll be there on Thursday before.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: The registration will be through the professional record operator at the Florida Toe Show website.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: We're working on getting everything up there and running, but this is a deal we agreed to basically 24 hours ago, so we're excited about that.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Dj.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: We're going to be down there with you Friday.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Tell them what we'll be doing down there on Friday.
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: Well, I want to tell all our listeners we are giving away two vehicles to Tunnel to Towers.
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: It was announced on this podcast very first thing, and we had a very generous guy donate a vehicle.
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: Steps Towing is one of the people donating it.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: Another one's coming out of Colorado.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: One guy in Colorado actually donated a Tun of the towers in Denver, colorado.
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: But this is wonderful, on the 11th of April at noontime West in April and the whole team from the Towing News Channel will be over there helping us give the way the vehicles to tunnel the towers.
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: And you all see those commercials on television.
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: But this is to help eradicate veteran homelessness.
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: So the two vehicles are going to veteran centers that help eradicate homeless veterans.
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: So this will be a real fun donation and it's due to our good listeners.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: Wes, we started in here and it proceeded right along, yeah we're really thankful to be a part of that.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: We can't thank our listeners enough for participating as they grow their projects around the country for the homeless, for the vets.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll be able to connect some people that want to help some more.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: It's a great project.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: In case people didn't listen, I guess it was last week we talked about it.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: But talk just for a second about the van size they're looking for now.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: I know before we were looking for the big, full-size 15 passenger type van.
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: Tell us about that.
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: They're looking for six to eight-person vans, but it's vans that they can take veterans to doctor appointments, to Walmart to buy their toiletries.
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: What they're doing is they're taking over hotels and on the first floor they're going to be employment centers, there's going to be a PTSD center, there's going to be actually how to get a job center, job placement, and then the second, third and fourth floor of these hotels are actually being changed into little residences for these veterans.
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: So, like the one in Florida is going to take 96, one in Georgia, atlanta, georgia 104 veterans off the street and will be living on the second, third and fourth floor of an old Western hotel.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: So it's started.
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: So we're looking for six to eight and some of the people.
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: If you don't want to, if you don't have a van, of course, if you have a van, just give us a holler.
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: You can give a holler to the Towing News Channel, which is the same number as the American Towing Recovery Institute 910-747-9000, or myself, 770-301-4122.
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: Bill Johnson, up in Massachusetts.
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: He has turned around, had an old van that we could not use, but he and his family just made a donation.
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: So you may want to make a donation towards a van which is awfully nice too.
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: Those donations are going to be very helpful and instrumental and also in regards to having the resources at those hotels, slash apartments.
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: That's got to cut a lot of the red tape and a lot of the wait times down for those vets, because I think that's one of the biggest problems is the wait times for appointments, and just having the PTSD and having some of the medical things there at that building where they reside at has got to be a big game changer for them.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: Yes, very true, april, very very true.
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: Well, we are very honored to be a part of that here at Tilling Needs now, and we're grateful for you for helping us to be a part of that too, dj.
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: Well, you guys are good and it all started with.
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: You know, we said how can we help Tunnel to Towers?
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: And that's when that van idea came up and they needing a van.
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: And of course, just like Wes said, originally we were trying to donate 15, 17 passenger vans and then we found out in certain states, because they're building veteran centers all over the United States, they're building one in Nashville, tennessee, right now as we speak.
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: They just had a groundbreaking, but we found out that they need six to eight-person vans.
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: So if you have one, by all means give us a holler, or you have one that needs a little work done to it, let us know.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: We have body shops that will take the van in, work on it and have it ready for the next couple of months down the road, because this will be an ongoing project with tunnel-to-towers.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: It will be an ongoing project and again we can't thank you enough for being involved and bringing us our attention and letting us be involved with it as well.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Great job you.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: You do the DJ credit.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: Well, you guys are good guys.
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: I'm proud to be part of this team.
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: I'm like Ron Moore I'm proud to be part of the team.
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: Okay, good to meet you.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: We're lucky to have that.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: So we appreciate all the feedback we've been getting about the new format.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: We're serious about the news boy.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of news to cover this week.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Four different states have done something with legislative laws having to do with the towing industry.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: One of them looks to be kind of a little bit of a positive to me.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: It's Pennsylvania.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: A delegate has proposed a state law that allows towing combinations, and the language chosen is a little bit different than I've heard.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: It basically looks like it's changing to give a little bit more leeway to the owner of the unit where they want to tow to, and it makes sense.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: It's always been an issue in the Northeast, especially with towing combinations, and I say the Northeast but maybe it's been enforced more in the Northeast, especially with towing combinations.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: I say the Northeast but maybe it's been enforced more in the Northeast than it's been all over the country.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: In many cases you're only supposed to take the tractor-trailer combination to the safe haven, the nearest safe haven, and that can be with no clear description of what that is, so that can be a very vague term.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: So it looks like they got some legislation introduced to take that in a positive direction.
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: It says they're going to address toying regulations I guess at least that one person attended anything that the regulations are too restrictive on the towers.
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: And then DJ earlier said not to talk about politics, but politics permeates into everything.
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: Now, because this is, you're passing legislation, that's political.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that's a good point you made there about legislation.
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's very political.
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: There's no other way to look at it.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Well, I say good job, Pennsylvania.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: It looks like you're being proactive and getting some telling laws working in your favor.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: After the break, we're going to look at what's going on in Missouri.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Indiana and Connecticut.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back For all your reading needs.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: Give us a look at towingequipmentdirectcom or email us at info at amtowriorg.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Also, you can give us a call at 910-747-9000.
• 12:46
  Speaker 7: 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.
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: HenrysWreckercom.
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: You have been listening to Towing News Now with Wes Wilburn and April Wilburn, dj Harrington, the Toe Doctor.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: Every week.
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: We do our best to bring you the very best we're available on Spotify, itunes, pandora, stitcher, iheartmedia, amazon or wherever you get your podcasts and Wes I'm going to turn it over to you.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Well, dj as always, you're too kind.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: We appreciate you.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Missouri's got what two different bills going on April yeah, two different ones one of them is Missouri Department of Transportation would be responsible for setting procedures for non-consensual killing practices related to removal of commercial motor vehicles from roadways.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Oh boy, I don't know where that's headed.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: What's the other one, April?
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: That sounds very to me vague.
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: What does that mean to you?
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: Wes that?
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: sounds very, to me, vague.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: What does that mean to you, wes?
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: It means that they're telling you how to run your business.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: To me, per pound pricing has been around for decades.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Done fairly, it's a method that can be used to price recovery jobs.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: They're saying you can't do it that way and that's for the benefit of the trucking industry.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I don't think that's fair.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: I don't think they should be able to dictate that myself.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Was it release of vehicles?
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Was that worded about the?
• 14:31
  Speaker 5: release.
• 14:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's the release of vehicles.
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: The fees are disputed.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: So if you dispute a fee, then and was it they had to pay a percentage or was it a?
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: I'm trying to look through here right now.
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: No, the next thing it says is additional per pound charges for non-conventional tows will be prohibited.
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: So I don't think it says that and maybe if we read the actual bill itself it would say that.
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: But I do know that there is a thing called a tow and recovery tow and recovery review board and that sounds Creating one correct.
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: Creating one.
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: It's going to be a seven member tow plater's something that represents towing on there.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: And you know you talked about politics being a part of everything, at least from the Trucking Association.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: The independent owner-operator is what they're called.
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's very political.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Now that we have a proactive trucking government, we've got to be ready to get towing reform in Missouri.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: It also basically encourages them active trucking gun.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: We got to be ready to get towing reform in Missouri.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: The officer basically encouraged them to be ready to how did he word it?
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Ready to visit the state capital to testify and support.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: And they're getting aggressive there and I don't even know why.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Missouri has great towing companies that operate very fair businesses.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: From what I've seen, in that part of the world the organization is headquartered.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Fair businesses.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: From what I've seen in that part of the world, the organization is headquartered there.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: I think that's a piece of the situation when do?
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: they got going on in Connecticut.
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: Well, Connecticut, I had Indiana first Go ahead.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: You go with Indiana and I'll do Connecticut.
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: Indiana has two bills of note.
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: The first one would require a tow truck operator to provide an owner vehicle with a rate sheet if the owner is present at the time of the tow.
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: I know that those tows can go just different ways depending on situations, but I don't know how you assess that price sheet.
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: The second bill covers the invoices and our process to address towing companies.
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: So a verification will be required on invoices of actual towing charges assessed by a towing company that all equipment billed for was necessarily necessary and used.
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: I don't know if I disagree with that.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Oh, in theory nobody disagrees with that.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in theory you should be very the point that I would question is that that's going to start people questioning.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Did you need this piece here to do?
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: The job that's not healthy at all so basically it's an audit of every invoice that you do that every reputable organization.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: I know the towing industry.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: We include ourselves in that.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: We always advise our clients and always recommend and always suggest that you be very careful to build on it for what's used.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: People will tell companies they're already sensitive without being asked about it.
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: Yeah, build for everything that you use.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: But don't build for anything you don't use.
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: Yeah and then help us out across the board, even with insurance.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: And it's just a pride and reputation thing.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Connecticut is working on a bill to address non-consensual tolling.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: The bill would establish uniform rates and charges and consider the cost involved.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: The proposal is intended to ensure appropriate rates and charges for non-essential telling.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Cost and overhead expenses incurred by a telling company would also be accounted for.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: That's a healthy thing.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: If they're looking at it from a fairly logistical standpoint of what things cost, what it costs to do business, you can't ask for better than that.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: It's when the emotions get involved, setting rates in the towing industry that are challenging, and also interpretations of it too.
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: I would think Like how?
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: you interpret something.
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: There's a joint presentation committee and again there's something that we're looking at the community on that joint committee.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Interesting.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: We'll be here at Telling News Channel this program in particular the Telling News Now program.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: We'll be following this closely.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: We're also thinking about doing a special on the Tony News Channel about the different legislative efforts going on around the country.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Stay tuned, we'll give you details on that.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: There's more news for you as well.
• 18:58
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• 19:04
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• 19:10
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• 19:24
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• 19:28
  Speaker 3: From the American Towing and Recovery News Desk.
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: Here's Wes and April Wilburn.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Now here's a really positive story out of Northeast Ohio.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Way to go.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: King's Towing Good job.
• 19:41
  Speaker 9: Perry Village has honored a local business for its willingness to give back to the Perry community.
• 19:45
  Speaker 9: Members of Village Council and Mayor James Jessick signed a proclamation that expressed gratitude to King's Towing and Recovery.
• 19:53
  Speaker 9: The business is owned by Dakota Sanders and his wife, Katie Sanders, who reside in Perry Village.
• 19:59
  Speaker 9: They purchased King's Towing and Recovery who reside in Perry Village.
• 20:04
  Speaker 9: They purchased King's Towing and Recovery, which is based in Perry Township, in 2021.
• 20:07
  Speaker 9: Under the ownership of the Sanderses, King's has demonstrated its support for Perry Village in a variety of ways, according to the proclamation.
• 20:15
  Speaker 9: One example cited in the document is the assistance that King's provided to Perry Village during the severe and prolonged snowstorm that started Thanksgiving night.
• 20:23
  Speaker 9: King's towing was instrumental in keeping Perry Village's plow trucks on the road, including pulling plow trucks out of ditches during the height of the storm, all at no cost to the village, the resolution stated.
• 20:36
  Speaker 9: In addition, the document stated that Kings' towing and recovery has proven helpful to the Perry Village Police Department by arriving within 20 minutes on most calls for service and to assist with traffic control.
• 20:48
  Speaker 9: King's Towing and Recovery contributes financially to support the annual Perry Fall Festival.
• 20:54
  Speaker 9: The business also has donated cars to Perry High School for its mock crash demonstrations and to local fire departments and the Auburn Career Center for training purposes.
• 21:04
  Speaker 9: The resolution added that Perry Village's mayor and council members recognize the remarkable service of King's Towing and Recovery and offer their congratulations on a job well done.
• 21:15
  Speaker 9: Councilman Elias Koss read the proclamation during Village Council's January 23 meeting and presented it to Coda and Katie Sanders.
• 21:24
  Speaker 9: The couple attended the meeting along with their sons, three-year-old Grant and six-month-old Parker.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: This story tells us about something positive that came out of a very tragic situation.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: I wish more states would take action and allow towers to use these type of lighting situations.
• 21:43
  Speaker 10: House Bill 115.
• 21:44
  Speaker 10: If passed, it would allow tow truck drivers to turn on blue lights when responding to a crash.
• 21:50
  Speaker 10: Wkyt's Maggie Rigoby shows us why tow truck companies across the Commonwealth are backing this bill.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: If he can get killed, any of them can.
• 21:59
  Speaker 11: Tow truck driver Bubba Johnson is the man behind House Bill 115.
• 22:04
  Speaker 11: He says current safety measures for crash responders are not enough.
• 22:08
  Speaker 11: Even with Kentucky's slow down move over law responders are still getting hurt.
• 22:13
  Speaker 11: Others have been killed.
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: The solution I have a blue light in operation while they're sitting there working that scene, but they're prohibited from using the blue light when they're sitting there working that seam, but they're prohibitive from using the blue light when they're traveling.
• 22:25
  Speaker 11: But Representative Richard White filed House Bill 115 to change that.
• 22:30
  Speaker 11: Supporters of the bill say a blue light would encourage drivers to slow down.
• 22:35
  Speaker 11: For many this bill hits home.
• 22:37
  Speaker 11: Troy Caldwell was struck and killed on the side of the road while he was working on I-64 in Bath County.
• 22:44
  Speaker 11: This truck behind me was his.
• 22:46
  Speaker 11: Jerry Cantrell worked with Troy for five years.
• 22:51
  Speaker 12: We were like brothers.
• 22:52
  Speaker 12: We spent more time together than we did with our wives.
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: He came in every day with a smile on his face, he left every day with a smile on his face and everybody loved him.
• 23:01
  Speaker 11: When Troy died, Johnson decided to take action in his honor.
• 23:05
  Speaker 11: He calls House Bill 115 Troy's law.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: I think this might not fix everything we've got going on, but it will really help, and if it'll save one life, then it was worth doing.
• 23:18
  Speaker 11: Johnson's advocacy has gained the support of tow truck drivers across Kentucky and beyond on social media.
• 23:25
  Speaker 11: In Rowan County, Maggie Rickerby, WKYT.
• 23:30
  Speaker 10: Johnson says, the day House Bill 115 is presented to a committee, tow truck drivers plan to gather in Frankfort to flash their yellow lights in honor of Troy.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: This next story comes to us out of Portland, Oregon, as a follow-up to a story we did last week.
• 23:48
  Speaker 8: This hour, the man accused of stealing a tow truck with the driver hanging off the back has been found guilty.
• 23:55
  Speaker 8: You may remember we showed you this terrifying video of Eric Streitzel driving off with the tow truck.
• 24:02
  Speaker 8: The truck's actual driver, Travis Christ, immediately jumped on the back of the truck and hung on through downtown, hit a few cars on I-405 before that tow truck crashed into a semi and finally stopped.
• 24:16
  Speaker 8: Christ was seriously injured and Streitzel has been found guilty on several charges, including assault, reckless endangering and hit and run.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: The hijacker was found guilty on many different charges and is scheduled for sentencing on February, the 21st.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: We will report the outcome of that hearing.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Here's a story we've been following out of Canada.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Apparently, the violence continues in the Ontario towing community.
• 24:48
  Speaker 12: Shooting involving a tow truck in Scarborough last night.
• 24:50
  Speaker 12: Police say a tow truck driver was shot on Markham Road north of the 401.
• 24:53
  Speaker 12: He then drove himself to a gas station at Kennedy Road in Progress and was found just after 7.
• 24:59
  Speaker 12: The man was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
• 25:01
  Speaker 12: No word so far on suspects Police, though asking anyone with information to come forward.
• 25:05
  Speaker 12: The shooting, of course, follows the recent launch of a new Toronto Police Task Force focused on tow truck violence.
• 25:10
  Speaker 12: Earlier this month there were three shootings in Scarborough in a 24-hour period involving tow trucks.
• 25:15
  Speaker 12: Police have said the ongoing violence is tied to turf wars always.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: We will continue to monitor this story for any updates and further developments.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: You're up to the date on towing news now.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Stay tuned next week for more towing news.
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: We're going to be right back after this break and we're going to have some more good things to talk about.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: The American Towing and Recovery Institute is your home for great, up-to-date training supplies to keep your business in business and the latest information in the towing network.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: Now with today's guest here is April Wilburn.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: We have a great guest with us today, Ron Moore.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Hey, Ron, introduce yourself.
• 26:02
  Speaker 7: Thank you, Ms April.
• 26:02
  Speaker 7: I'm Ron Moore.
• 26:03
  Speaker 7: I'm a retired fire chief from North Dallas, and my specialty has always been the fire service and emergency medical.
• 26:12
  Speaker 7: I'm learning, though, that there is a great similarity between the tow operators and the fire service in their community, whether they're career or volunteer.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: I used to work for a tow company a long time ago and then, just going around with Wes a little bit to these classes, have noticed there's a lot of crossover with towers working for fire departments, either as paid or voluntary.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: So not only is there a crossover in what happens on the side of the road, there's a crossover sometimes in actual personnel as well.
• 26:49
  Speaker 7: That's a good point.
• 26:50
  Speaker 7: And then one of the things that I see as a firefighter is that the tow operators possess things that are of little value, minimal value in the tow industry, but they are.
• 27:06
  Speaker 7: They have firefighters in the local communities drooling over them.
• 27:10
  Speaker 7: Cars, for example, is and, and and firefighters are human as well, so they they don't like uh, classroom as much as they like the hands-on skills.
• 27:21
  Speaker 7: So I see, I see the fire, the firefighters drooling to to begin to work with the, the tow operators.
• 27:29
  Speaker 7: So in a community where the tow and the fire department already work together, that community is that far ahead of the game, in my opinion it's a much better, uh, working condition on the side of the road.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: The handoff goes a lot more fluently, the experience, even if you're involved still as far as being a person in the car or something like that it's just a much more professional handoff when that happens.
• 28:01
  Speaker 7: And as a responder, I remember watching a rookie tow operator and and watching the firefighters were at the scene.
• 28:08
  Speaker 7: When the tow operator shows up and the and the firefighters just shrug their shoulders and hold their hands up in the air Like, oh my gosh, we got this guy, this guy again, yeah, and and I want everybody to be to consider themselves responders and consider themselves professionals also if you can also think of it as a team, and everybody has like that position to play.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: You know when we, when we get there, when the towers get there, that those plays are already in motion, so to speak.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: So you have to respect what's already been done and some of the things that you don't even know that has happened before you got there to take into that consideration.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: Sometimes, like you said, everybody's human, so that might be not as easy to do sometime, but I think if we could just stay in that frame of mind it would be a lot better.
• 29:03
  Speaker 7: I think if we could just stay in that frame of mind it would be a lot better.
• 29:06
  Speaker 7: I remember hearing and seeing as a responder myself back in the day.
• 29:12
  Speaker 7: I remember hearing and seeing the teleoperators come on scene that are truly thinking of themselves as professionals and they're well-trained and well-versed in their equipment.
• 29:22
  Speaker 7: And they're well trained and well versed in their equipment.
• 29:24
  Speaker 7: And then I remember in my mind I still have the vision of the rookie that shows just a goober, but we're all human.
• 29:31
  Speaker 7: So it can happen within the fire service as well, as it can happen within the tow industry as well.
• 29:36
  Speaker 7: But, april, what you said working as a team that's the key.
• 29:41
  Speaker 7: That's what's going to really benefit the community.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: You know, if I could just jump in for a second, the team analogy is great.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: On the Federal Highway Tims incident management video they gave the example of the NASCAR pit crew and how everybody has a job.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: You know everybody has the same goal but they have different jobs, different things.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: They do to make it happen and they show you that pit crew with the safety guy watching the.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: You know the top level NASCAR pit crew and that truly is poetry in motion.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: And when you get a police department, a fire department, a towing company working together, I've seen some of the same poetry in motion and sometimes I've heard a tune that wasn't so good, if you know what I mean.
• 30:27
  Speaker 7: One of the things that does happen on that video is you have the pit crew go over the wall.
• 30:33
  Speaker 7: So we're not saying, Wes and I are not saying that you should be timing yourself.
• 30:39
  Speaker 7: We're not saying that you're running a race per se.
• 30:44
  Speaker 7: But when you do go over the wall, you are committed and you are working as a member of a team.
• 30:48
  Speaker 7: Everybody knows their responsibilities.
• 30:51
  Speaker 7: Everybody knows what's coming up.
• 30:53
  Speaker 7: So if you have 14 seconds, you're going to lose the race.
• 30:57
  Speaker 7: If you have 12 seconds, you're going to potentially win the race.
• 31:00
  Speaker 7: If you're're Formula One, you got 21 people in a pit crew with two or three seconds of stopping.
• 31:06
  Speaker 7: But one thing that really impresses me is everybody that's over the wall, that's on the job, that's doing something, is professional and they are a part of the team and focused.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: absolutely.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Good point too about the time.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: It's the fact that they're focused and each one's got a job to do and they're focusing on doing that job with safety of everybody in mind.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: But that's a great point.
• 31:33
  Speaker 7: One of the things I wanted to mention to the tow operators that are listening is about what can we do to bait in the fire service in your local community?
• 31:43
  Speaker 7: What can we do to bait in the fire service in your local community?
• 31:45
  Speaker 7: One of the baits that they just can't pass up is to say that we will offer you props that are essentially junk to us in the tow and recovery and storage industry, that they are hard to find in the fire service and storage industry, that they are hard to find in the fire service.
• 32:08
  Speaker 7: So the teleoperator says to the local fire department we will provide you with an acquired vehicle, a junker.
• 32:15
  Speaker 7: Once a week or once a year or whatever interval is appropriate for that community, we will provide you with whatever Class 1 or Class 2 vehicle you need, which is essentially up to 10,000 pounds.
• 32:26
  Speaker 7: The fire departments if the fire departments are smart they will take advantage of that offer figure out a way to have the acquired vehicle, the junker, brought in and removed.
• 32:40
  Speaker 7: They will do everything they can to preserve that relationship.
• 32:44
  Speaker 7: In the meantime, the tow operator for that community gets to know the fire service responders in that community on a face-to-face basis.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: So just right there, ron, I totally agree with all that and one of the things that the towers need to think about and we're not accountants, of course, but a lot of times they can write off donating that car.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Dj, you can tell us a lot about that, can't you?
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, wes.
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: Let me add to that what Ron Moore is talking about.
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: In Florida we had a tower donate four or five vehicles to a firehouse and the chief at the firehouse would give a letter back thanking him for the five vehicles.
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: He would list the five vehicles and he was allowed to take the value of the vehicle off his taxes as the tax write-off.
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: So each and every one of you, depending which state you're in and who your accountant is, just go over it.
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: But all it is is a letter of receiving the vehicles for the cross-training that was done at the firehouse, and it was a great way of thanking the toer for the vehicles, at the same way, taking value off your taxes.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Thanks, DJ.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: That's great advice.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: So keep that in mind, toers, when you're talking about these cars around.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: Sorry to interrupt you, but it's just a great point you make and I just want to emphasize it's something with the proper checking with your accountant can be not a total drain on money, like people think it is.
• 34:31
  Speaker 7: Now one step up.
• 34:32
  Speaker 7: We talked about Class 1 and Class 2 vehicles, but one step up that is also a resource that a tow or storage facility operator may have would be the Class 3 up to the Class 8 vehicles.
• 34:46
  Speaker 7: So you can do joint training between the fire department and the tow operator.
• 34:53
  Speaker 7: You can do joint training on these larger, what what is referred to as large heavy vehicles so yeah there's a lot of different directions.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Well, we need to take a quick break and we come back.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: Can we break that down a little bit, ron, yeah go ahead.
• 35:10
  Speaker 7: I I have a couple of scenarios in mind that would be easy for the tow operators to set up and very valuable to the fire service.
• 35:18
  Speaker 7: So I'd like to emphasize at least a couple of scenarios and then maybe a teaching point of one of the scenarios at least.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: And they call that a great tease.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: That is.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: So come back and listen to the rest everybody.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: Be right back.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: DJ, as always.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Thank you for your kind words and as Ron was continuing to give us this information, ron, you want to go ahead and lead that back in?
• 35:46
  Speaker 7: The large and heavy vehicles are part of training, that would appeal to a fire department that really is on the on the top of their game.
• 35:55
  Speaker 7: If you, if the tow operator mentions it's nfpa compliant, national fire protection association compliant, that's a volunteer organization, standards making organization based in Boston, massachusetts.
• 36:09
  Speaker 7: And if you tell them that we're going to offer you some props and we're going to offer you some training but the training is NFPA compliant, a fire department that is worth their salt will say that we're in what day and what location that we're in for that, what day and what location we're in for that.
• 36:29
  Speaker 7: So for the tow and storage operator, you want to do the underride scenario.
• 36:35
  Speaker 7: You want a class one or class two vehicle that is underneath, against the duals, whether it's the rear duals or the drive duals on the tractor.
• 36:44
  Speaker 7: You want the driver door obstructed.
• 36:46
  Speaker 7: You want the trunk, the back end of the car, sticking out.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: And then you just say so, Ryan, slow down a little bit.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Slow down a little bit.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: So Most of us Hang on a second.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: Most of us understand what you're talking about, but I'm not sure April does.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: I don't mean that's no disregard, but the picture you're painting is a car that's run up under a tractor-trailer from the side.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Is that correct?
• 37:10
  Speaker 7: Tractor-trailer would be ideal, something with enough space underneath.
• 37:14
  Speaker 7: It could be a tanker truck, tractor-trailer, tanker truck as well.
• 37:18
  Speaker 7: But the drivers, the car.
• 37:21
  Speaker 7: It's like the car didn't stop at a T-intersection.
• 37:24
  Speaker 7: The large heavy vehicle was driving through the T-intersection and this car wedged itself underneath it.
• 37:31
  Speaker 7: Gotcha, the class 1 car or class 2 car, you want to have the drivers, you want to have a smokehouse dummy or a mannequin or something to resemble the shape of a seated and belted driver, seated and belted driver, and you want the driver's door to be obstructed by by the dual tires, for example.
• 37:56
  Speaker 7: So typically you would.
• 37:57
  Speaker 7: You would put the car whatever you do ahead of time is up to you, but typically you would put the car as if it crashed from the passenger side of the 18-wheeler.
• 38:06
  Speaker 7: The 18-wheeler was driving from our left to our right and then the car was coming straight down the hill and went right underneath it.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: So let me jump in real quick for telling friends One of the best ways to stage that is to pick up the trailer, winch the car up into position, put the trailer back down and drive or winch the trailer forward.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: We just did a school in Sumner, south Carolina, where he had a live tractor and an old donor vehicle trailer that we had been using and training already and we used there and it had some load in it.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: So we put the car in it with a live tractor up front there.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: You know it was a good road tractor they were using in their daily operations but with a good tractor we were able to put the truck in gear and drive forward to get that car not perfectly wedged, as hard as it would be in the real world, but close, pretty close, and a real good simulation and something, something for the to give the rescue personnel a little challenge when you would you agree with that, ron?
• 39:17
  Speaker 7: yeah, as long as the driver's door is obstructed, that means the passenger front door, the passenger side of the vehicle is not obstructed.
• 39:26
  Speaker 7: So to work the passenger side of the vehicle, the rescuers would have to work the passenger side of the vehicle.
• 39:30
  Speaker 7: The rescuers would have to use their extrication equipment and be under, literally underneath, the tractor trailer truck.
• 39:35
  Speaker 7: So there's a lot that comes into play setting up that.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: I have one question to ask really quick that class in Sumter, south Carolina is that a class that you and Ron did together?
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: Wes, yes we talked about a couple podcasts ago.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, fire tower that, a class that you and Ron did together.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: Wes yes, we talked about a couple podcasts ago, yeah, a fire tour cross training class that you guys did together at.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: Sumter Fire Department with Hal Watts.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for clearing that up.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: I just kind of jumped in the story there.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Go ahead, Ron.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: Sorry for interrupting you.
• 40:04
  Speaker 7: So all this is done without the fire department actually watching it.
• 40:09
  Speaker 7: So Wes mentioned if you have a heavy, for example, that lifts the butt end of the trailer up, sets it back down sometimes it doesn't get the effect crumple the roof along the windshield header along the driver side, passenger side, a pillar to get it, to get it to fit well enough under the, under the large heavy vehicle, the truck which is especially if the you know, if you don't have a fully loaded trailer, even with a fully loaded trailer, you have to do that.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: But if you, if you don't have a fully loaded trailer, you're definitely going to have to do that.
• 40:49
  Speaker 7: That's a great point, ron, and we recommend that the seated and belted mannequin to resemble the driver of the vehicle because the fire service and maybe even you're working with law enforcement, maybe even you're working in a joint training effort with with emergency medical.
• 41:06
  Speaker 7: You need to give them a target that, no, you can't stand on the front seat, no, that that, because that's where your patient is.
• 41:14
  Speaker 7: You have to give them some reality check of what they are dealing with.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: So this, the smokehouse dummy, seated and belted, where the seat is pushed all the way forward, it just seems to work out very well for that one of the things ron's taught me is, if you have your choice between cars and you have a two-door and a four-door, and especially if you have multiple dummies, get that four-door, because if you can put multiple victims in multiple seats with working seatbelts and working doors, it gives your fire department personnel, your rescue personnel, more activity time, more activities to do during the hands-on.
• 41:55
  Speaker 7: And keep in mind that these are the personnel in your community, so giving them that extra practice time is good for everybody, I would also say Wes that the large and heavy vehicle scenario that I'm mentioning would be done after the fire department works with the tow or storage facility to do some basic what's called operations level skills training as well Doors, windows, windshield, that kind of thing, kind of thing.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, your first involvement.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: If you haven't done anything with your fire department, especially if you're initiating it, ask them if they just want to come to the yard and cut up a couple cars, or we'll take your cars.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: Everybody's heard me talk about this before in the podcast, but I'll say it again Give them complete cars.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: Check with your accountant you can probably write the whole thing off but don't give them pieces of cars with exhaust systems falling off because you had to have that catalytic converter.
• 42:52
  Speaker 7: I know there's one, and all the fire service is going to do is change the shape of whatever you give them.
• 42:58
  Speaker 7: You don't want the fire service to start running a parts supply?
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, they're not.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: The issue is we're not giving them a real victim to practice on.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: When we've taken the radiator, taken the seats out of it, the tires off of it, this, that and the other Doesn't have an engine.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: So yeah, we're not giving them real weight to play with.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: You know, without the engine there it's a whole different dynamic of working with a vehicle, whether it's a car or a heavy truck.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: So I'm just suggesting to my tellers the best you can Check with your accountant, you can probably write the whole thing off.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: Give them complete vehicles when possible.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: Give them four doors with working seatbelts.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: Well, I know you can't control that, but I'm just saying, if you're picking out cars for them, that car with multiple stations and multiple seatbelts is a good thing.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: And I say cars, suvs and pickups and all that.
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: Firefighters need that stuff to work on too, because there's a whole lot of folks driving.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: That it's depending on where you live especially.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: I have a silly question to ask.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: This is going to be silly.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: When I ask it, for some reason, I'm thinking about gas tanks with gas in it.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: Is that something that should be emptied out?
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: If there's gas in that, the gas should be emptied out before it's handed over or does that matter?
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: Normally, my answer would be no.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: That what the car?
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: As is ron.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: What do you?
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: What do you have?
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: How does fire services feel about that?
• 44:21
  Speaker 7: we'll work with what we're given.
• 44:22
  Speaker 7: But if the fuel tank is leaking, that's a that's a hazardous material incident.
• 44:26
  Speaker 7: If the fuel tank is full, that's an that's a problem as well.
• 44:31
  Speaker 7: So one of the solutions is to surgically have that the fuel tank removed before the car is even made available.
• 44:39
  Speaker 7: But the bottom line is, the fire department will work with with the with the vehicle as it is.
• 44:44
  Speaker 7: You don't have to have it uh prepped any any differently right, the.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: Uh, I can't suggest this strongly enough for so many different reasons.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: What else can you tell us about that scenario, ron?
• 45:01
  Speaker 7: one of the things that you want to do when you put the class one or class two passing your vehicle with the simulated patient or patients underneath the tractor, trailer, truck, have the trunk of that car, that vehicle, sticking out.
• 45:14
  Speaker 7: Because one of the options for the fire service is trunk tunneling, where you simulate a commander would say I want you to open the butt end of this vehicle up to bring the seated and belted driver out the back end on a longboard.
• 45:31
  Speaker 7: So if the back end of the car is accessible, it gives the fire service another realistic solution to deal with in that scenario.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Well, that's great advice, something else that you've taught me working with you.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: That's great advice Something else that you've taught me working with you if you're going to do a large group and you're going to do the same exercise more than once, if you can get the same kind of vehicle, very similar vehicles, that's a benefit, isn't it?
• 46:03
  Speaker 7: That would be important as well.
• 46:05
  Speaker 7: If you're duplicating the scenario, try to keep everything the same.
• 46:11
  Speaker 7: To duplicate everything the same, that's for sure.
• 46:13
  Speaker 7: One of the things that I do like about this scenario is it is typically reflected by both the fire service participants, the emergency medical, the law enforcement participants and the tow operators.
• 46:28
  Speaker 7: It's referenced as something that is very realistic to their community.
• 46:33
  Speaker 7: Yes, it could happen.
• 46:34
  Speaker 7: Yes, it could happen tonight.
• 46:36
  Speaker 7: Yes, it could happen tomorrow.
• 46:37
  Speaker 7: Now, because we did joint training at the tow yard, we are better prepared for the reality.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: It is a super realistic accident that happens all the time.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: The tow operators really shine at this point where they can take and work with the firefighters and whoever else they're working with in the group and show them some different things about the heavy truck the frame of the truck, the suspension, how the weight is transferred to the ground where the weight sits, etc.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Suspension, how the weight is transferred to the ground where the weight sits, etc.
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: One of the things that I've always found really popular is if the victim truck, the truck and trailer, especially the trailer, that the car is underwritten, if it's air ride, which a lot of stuff's air ride nowadays air ride ride.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: Suspension by showing the rescue personnel the leveling valve, how to disengage it from its automatic position and use it to use the springs to raise weight, is always a very popular thing and it's very good information for the rescue personnel to know, in my opinion and that would also meet the NFPA standard for learning about the anatomy of a heavy-duty truck.
• 47:51
  Speaker 7: And to show the joint training, joint part of the training effort.
• 47:55
  Speaker 7: After the fire service has done maybe the trunk tunneling and they've torn off the passenger side of the vehicle, have the tow operator pre-position or position in.
• 48:09
  Speaker 7: Now we're going to go through this in slow motion.
• 48:12
  Speaker 7: Bring the tow operator back up to the, let's say, tractor, trailer, truck or the large heavy vehicle, lift it, but also using a winch on the tow vehicle or a fire department winch, it doesn't matter, you can do a change of direction.
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: Ron, we're going to pick this back up after the break, so come back and join us with the great Ron Moore and Wes Wilborn and we'll go more into cross-training and joint training.
• 48:39
  Speaker 7: All right, thanks, dj.
• 48:40
  Speaker 7: One thing I want to mention is don't assume anything is over the head of the fire service.
• 48:50
  Speaker 7: There may be a firefighter, particularly in a volunteer fire department, that is very familiar with the anatomy of that large heavy vehicle, but chances are there isn't Everything is valuable to them.
• 49:01
  Speaker 7: Point out any feature that you feel they could potentially want to know about or use at an actual incident.
• 49:10
  Speaker 7: If you have Wes mentioned a working tractor, you could ask them to go in one side and go out the other.
• 49:20
  Speaker 7: It really is amazing how many times the firefighters that respond to truck wrecks have never, ever in their life or in their fire service crew have been inside a tractor, trailer truck, let alone a sleeper cab, let alone a tanker truck.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: Ron, that's a great point.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: Just showing how to set the brakes and different things like that is huge.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: A lot of them have never seen that.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: I didn't think about that point, but that is a great point, Ron.
• 49:51
  Speaker 7: Well, even for stabilization, the fire department may ask the tow operator that's there as a subject matter expert well, can we just lower these legs, these dollies, can we just lower these legs, and what will that hold?
• 50:06
  Speaker 7: Lower these legs and what, what will that hold?
• 50:12
  Speaker 7: So you, as a tow operator, ought to know what, how the dolly cranks down, what it does, what the red line, what the blue line, how to disconnect air, disconnect the electric, how to chalk the wheels.
• 50:21
  Speaker 7: Things like that just anticipate all kinds of questions from the fire service people that are participating now, that's a great point, it really is what I usually do then to finish up the scenario is to have the tow operator lift the butt end of the vehicle, of the large heavy vehicle, and then, either using their winch or a fire service winch, do a change of direction to pull, move the vehicle, the class one or class two car out from underneath the trailer that exposes the driver's side.
• 50:54
  Speaker 7: Then you let the fire, then it's all hands on deck.
• 50:57
  Speaker 7: The fire service goes at it that way.
• 51:00
  Speaker 7: That's a realistic solution.
• 51:03
  Speaker 7: That's a realistic scenario and what you want to hear is thank you very much.
• 51:07
  Speaker 7: I learned, I learned.
• 51:09
  Speaker 7: I learned.
• 51:09
  Speaker 7: I'm now better prepared for what it lies in store for me in my career yeah, it's a great thing to be involved in that.
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: It really is, and um, it's good for many different reasons, many reasons so I have a question to ask Ron and Wes when fire is on scene, that the firefighters can do to help, or are they better off just standing back?
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: Is that a case-by-case basis?
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: And then part b of that is once that happens, once the towers um remove the, the tractor trailer, whatever it is that's holding the car down, is there anything that the tow truck can do to help the fire operator?
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: Or is that just the standalone, two standalone things?
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty much two standalone case-by-case cases.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: Many times the fire personnel has plenty of manpower and plenty of direction, so it would be seldom that they need help, but there are cases in any situation, and especially in a small rural department.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: Again, that's a case-by-case is the only answer I see.
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: Do you have any thoughts on that, Ron?
• 52:43
  Speaker 7: The NFTA does say in their 1006 technical rescue training standard that the fire service should be familiar with the operation and the capabilities of the local tow and recovery, but the NFDA does not require the fire service to know how to actually do the job.
• 53:04
  Speaker 7: I think this type of joint training will help, but it really is a case-by-case basis.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: And that's a good point.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: Though that brings us to a good point.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: This standard is not about the firefighters doing the toer's job, the toer's doing the firefighter's job.
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: It's not about that at all.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: The way I look at it is.
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: In my opinion, it's about the towing industry becoming a resource, a tool at it is.
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: In my opinion, it's about the towing industry becoming a resource, a tool, a machine that can be a resource that the fire rescue services can call on and work with and, because of the prior training, have some understanding of.
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: You know how things should go and what's supposed to happen and how to make it happen.
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: You know the advice you give Ron.
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: You know when we're doing the hands-on to the firefighters about creating that footprint.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: If you've called for heavy tow to solve a problem of lifting weight, the next thing you start doing as a firefighter is to start thinking about the footprint of that tow truck and clearing some room and some space for them to be.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: And boy, you see, the light bulbs go off on that and sometimes even some of the rescue will put up their hands and say, yeah, we had this situation and you're right.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: Nobody thought about it until Toe got on the scene and there was nowhere for him to be.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: So all of a sudden it's moving a bunch of apparatus to give them a little channel to slide into little channel to slide into.
• 54:32
  Speaker 7: So I think you know, I would say know the capability of the local toll and recovery operator and their equipment and then, and you do that, you learn that that capability through the joint training, and then just be able or willing for, for whatever your discipline is, to be able to assist the other discipline, because that's that's the teamwork effort, that's the team effort that gets the job done absolutely, speaking of team effort, we really appreciate you being part of this team.
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: We're going to have you back on.
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it'll be.
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: I think it'll be a week in, two weeks from now.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: Um, we got to figure that out, but we're going to have you back on.
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: To break down another piece of this exercise, and there's also been some requests for some information, let me back up.
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: There's also been a request for someone to talk about the TIMS program a little bit.
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: We all know you were intimately involved in that, so can we plan on having you in in a future episode to talk about that a little bit as well?
• 55:29
  Speaker 7: Yes, plan on having you in in a future episode to talk about that a little bit as well.
• 55:32
  Speaker 7: Yes, the TIMS program the Tow Operators Struck and Killed or Injured While Working in and Near Moving Traffic is very close to my heart and I would be more than willing to help explain what I've learned as a fire service as a responder to Tim-related incidents.
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: Excellent, we'll look forward to it.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: Thank you for being here today.
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: If anybody has any questions, call the hotline.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: Dj has given the number out.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: I'll give it out here at the end and we'll be happy to answer them when we look forward.
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: We thank you for being our first regular contributor, regular interviewer, and I always appreciate your interest in the towing industry.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: So thank you very much for being here, ron, and we'll see you.
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: My producer tells me it's going to be an every other week program.
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: So I don't know if my producer's gotten with your time, director, but that's what we're going to aim for.
• 56:29
  Speaker 7: My dog, that's for sure.
• 56:30
  Speaker 7: So so I I I appreciate being able to participate in the program and I'll help you and the tow industry in any way that I can, because you are truly a resource to to your discipline.
• 56:44
  Speaker 7: Your discipline is truly a resource to the discipline that I grew up with the fire rescue and medical.
• 56:50
  Speaker 7: So if we all work together, we all will be a team.
• 56:53
  Speaker 7: I want to be part of that.
• 56:55
  Speaker 7: Thank you, wes, thank you April, thank you DJ.
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: Thank you Ron.
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: Thank you Ron.