Latest / Towing News Now / Revving Up Tow Industry Standards: Safety, Education, and Community Engagement

Transcript

Revving Up Tow Industry Standards: Safety, Education, and Community Engagement · Towing News Now

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the American Toe and Recovery Institute podcast.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Remember this is your podcast to promote safety, education, positive public relations and networking within the professional and business minded toe and recovery industry.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I'm your co-host, dj Harrington, better known as the Toe Doctor, and I'm on it, as always, to have as the other co-host of today's episode a 40 year toe and industry veteran, the founder of American Toe and Recovery Institute, a dear friend of mine and a wonderful human being.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: To kick off the new year, west Wilburne.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: How are you, my friend?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: I am doing wonderful.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I am so happy to be here, excited about the new year and all the possibilities that it's bringing to us already and just feeling good about life.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Life is good.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Yes, a little cold here in the Carolinas today.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: We're just into the new year first podcast we're recording in the new year.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Of course you folks are listening to it a week later.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: So I hope everybody had a good, happy holidays etc.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: And we did our first webinar of the new year last night.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: We did a talk about first Wednesday of every month.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: We did this in December.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: We did it again last night.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Last night we did electric vehicles part three and four, which, of course, a month ago we did electric vehicles part one and two, did it in the webinar format and it worked out pretty good.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: We took some of that some other of the same PowerPoint presentation that me and Ryan had done before.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: We recorded some voiceover with that and we have them all available on the website wwwamtowriorg.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: That's the shortcut link to our main webpage, you'll see the banner with the easy webinars.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Click and you can watch them download and whatever you do.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: I don't know how that all works exactly, but it's out there for you all to watch.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: And, as we talked about through the earlier podcast, one of our missions or goals for the year is to take the information that we have and get it out there, get it into the hands of people easier and quicker and when they need it.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: So we're breaking it up and breaking our information up to smaller modules.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: And last, night's webinar completed module three and four, so we're really excited about that, dj.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Well, you should be.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: This is an exciting 2024.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: You got the webinars going.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: You got a lot of classes going, so this is going to be a great year.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: And we're going to work on taking information from the classes and content we're going to create outside of the classes and getting them out there on our webpage and YouTube et cetera, and in the end I'm going to be in Wesley, my son working on a project right now where I've always explained chain and how it works and the strength of it, talked about a little bit of how it's made, how it's treated, different things I've shared over the years, which has all been good information and of course, we've gone a long way since the early nineties.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: When I started with the Rackmaster, that was one of the subjects I covered, because I was selling it before I worked with them and do something about it and I understood the different working load limits and the different design factors.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: Safety factors et cetera.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: But now, instead of talking about, chain and how it's made.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I got videos showing them from the raw product, the finished links of chain, how it's made, video destruction, testing.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Different video clips we've cut together and spliced together to make it interesting for the tele-operator.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: In other words, what I say cut together and whatnot.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: One of the chain videos that we took a lot of information from was Pureless Chain, who we're a distributor for, but some of the video talked about the chain, how they make the chain for putting on tires for crossing mountain passes, which some operators do work with those type of chains.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: But we're talking about studying about recovery chain.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: We don't need to get off into different science subjects of the different types of chain.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: So we just made the video real concise, focused, cut some of the fluff out, just have the information that matters to the tele-operator, right to the point.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Right, right and for 2024, you're always I call it a canai constant, never-ending improvement.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: American Toeing and Recovery Institute is always getting better, so in 2024, you should share with our listeners the new techniques that you have for training.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Like we're saying, more video and less pictures.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and then you know, being realistic, that attention spans to know what network they once were.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: You know, one example is not exactly an answer to your question, but maybe it is.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: One example of the different types of training we're going to do this year is to offer one day courses.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: We've offered that somewhat in the past, but we're going to focus on that more In short courses, just about electric vehicles.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Of course we're going to start the year.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: I'm going to sidetrack into my schedule because we're all tied together.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: You'll see where I'm going.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Got you.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: We're going to start the year with Griffith and Griffith down in Columbus, georgia, and that's going to be on February 3rd and 4th.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: There are hosts.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: There are guests today on the podcast.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: There's a host for the class.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: There are also guests today and after the break we'll have them come out and introduce themselves and talk to you folks.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Great, great company, great couple with a great thought process about how they run the company and their culture, that they're going to share some of that with us today.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: After that, the second class we're going to do in the year, which is the one going with the new format we're going to go down and work with our friends at the Towing and Recovery Professionals of Louisiana, the statewide Towing Organization in Louisiana.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: This is a great organization.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: I've had a relationship with them for 30 years.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: It was 29 or 30 years ago I did one of my first old classes for that organization at the Louisiana State Police Barracks.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: So we're going to work with them.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: We're going to be down at Lake Charles, Louisiana, at this time.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: The Leak Services, the host great company there.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: But, DJ, what we're going to do is on.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Friday night we're going to have a two hour course about electric vehicles, and that's going to be the course that me and Roland teach.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Ron won't be there, but we've got to run him to life, with video recordings on the PowerPoint now.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: So we're going to do that presentation Friday night.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: That's going to be free.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Freddie Towing operators, fire, dot et cetera.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: That's going to be sponsored by the association down there.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: It's going to be a free course, two hour course we're going to offer Friday evening.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: This is sponsored by the electric vehicle app eevee-clevercom.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: So on Friday evening we're going to be at showing the app teach the course about electric vehicles that they don't want to try the 30 day free trial on the app they don't have to.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: They can still come and take a few notes and learn a lot about electric vehicles.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: On Saturday we're going to do a one day heavy duty.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: This is a big difference.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: We used to do two days.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: It's hard to get people to commit to two days for anything anymore, much less training on a weekend.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: So just trying to deal with that whole change in our world we're offering a one day heavy on Saturday and a Sunday at one day light duty, and I know that some people say that's a little bit backwards If you do the light duty before the heavy duty.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: This course is really designed for people that are already doing one or the other job and we only want to affect them which order they go to.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: And the reality is the days of the week where the average company owner would work out better, with the heavy off Saturday and the light on Sunday.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: So that's what we're going to try down there.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: So that's one example of how we're changing things up.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Dj, Try to meet the request of the customers.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: That makes sense.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Share the dates again for Louisiana February 23 is going to be the Friday we're going to be down there, 24th for heavy duty, 25th for light duty.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: So that's one example, and then we're going to still do the two day class, like just a couple weeks later we're going to be down in.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Charlotte, north Carolina.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: One of the founders of the American Towing and Covering Institute.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: One of the founding companies was Hunter.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Records Service out of Charlotte Great outfit.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Rick Hunter has been a tremendous supporter of the Institute, tremendous supporter of the industry operates a third.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: He's a third generation.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: The family started right after World War II.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: I think they started in 1945 or 1944, but a continuous operation serving the city of Charlotte since that time.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: They've hosted many classes over the years.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Been a couple of years since we've been there, but we're excited about going back there March 23rd and 24th and that's going to be our standard two day heavy duty towing and recovery course, with some rotator.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: You know, for the most part that's the training that we're going to offer the heavy duty this year.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: There might be some exceptions where I do a specialized heavy lifting course or heavy recovery course.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: The standard course I'm going to do is heavy towing and recovery with rotator.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: You got a rotator, you can learn some information If you don't have a rotator, you can learn some information.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: A lot of it crosses over to either any which way.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: So that's the main course we're going to offer around the country.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Again, we're looking at some specialized stuff.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: Talking to a friend, of mine about maybe a heavy, super heavy recovery course with some training recovery we'll talk about with Marty Matiel, so I'll keep everybody informed of that.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Now Wes.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Can I ask you the best way to get all the information, like if I'm interested in the Wednesday webinars, just go to wwwamtowriorg, or if I have any further questions about any of this stuff, just call 910-747-9000.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: , All right, dj, one of those two we're going to take care of.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: We don't even have a call, just text that number.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: You got it Fantastic.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: So we got a great interview lined up after the break Again, folks are going to be our first hosts this year for a public class, if you haven't heard them before.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: They were thinking of podcasts with us before.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Back in August of this year, podcast number 112.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: A great podcast there.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: You ought to go listen to them Today.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: I expect nothing less than greatness out of them.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Great couple, proud to be here working with us for our first school To hang around till after the break.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: The folks at Purpose Record are record specialists.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: They don't get bogged down with other types of sales like cars, assorted equipment or snow plows.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: Purpose Record exclusively specializes in towing and hauling From parts in service to financing.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: They remain focused on providing the best service and customer care to the towing and hauling industry.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: Even in these trying times, purpose Record works hard to meet the needs of its customers.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: They are the preferred distributor in North America for purchasing towing and recovery equipment.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: For more information, visit them on the web at PurposeRecordcom or speak to a specialist by calling 636-639-9700.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: Celebrating 40 years in the towing industry, that's PurposeRecordcom.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: Information in this podcast is made possible by generous sponsorship from Henry's Record, serving the community with quality towing and recovery for over 40 years.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: Henry'srecordcom.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: You have been listening to American Tone Recovery Institute podcast with Wes Wilburn, dj Harrington.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: We do every week.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: We try to bring and download good information to each and every one of you.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Please make sure you download and listen.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: We're available on Spotify, itunes, pandora, google Play, stitcher, iheart Media, amazon or wherever you get your podcast.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: So, without further ado, wes, let me turn it over to you so you introduce our guest that has been on once before and loved it, so you go from here.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Right yeah, returning guests, as we mentioned in the first segment they're also hosting the first class of the year that we're doing this year.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: First, live hands-on classes.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: You know not the webinars that we're doing, that I talked about as well.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: But we have Chuck and Michelle Griffin as returning guests on the podcast.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: If you didn't listen to episode 112, which was done August 7th of this past year, go back and listen to it.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: It's a great couple, great culture they built at their telling company.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: And it was very insightful.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: They shared some really practical tips that anybody can institute in their operation.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: So, without further ado, I'll let you all to say hello to our guest and ask you to introduce yourself before we introduce ourselves in the world.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Please, ladies first.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: Michelle, if you don't mind, yes sir, hello everyone, my name is Michelle Griffin and again I'm with Griffin and Griffin Toyne out of Columbus, georgia, and I'm the vice president of the company and we've been in business since 2012.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Welcome back.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: We're glad to have you, chuck.
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: Hello everyone.
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: My name is Chuck Griffin, President of Griffin-Gryffin Toy.
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: Let me see how I'll say I've been in business since 2012.
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: Glad to be here.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: We're glad to have you back, just past the holidays this is actually just into the new year, the first podcast we recorded in the new year.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: Did you all enjoy the holidays?
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: We did my daughter.
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: She was out of school, for she's nine years old.
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: She was out of school for two weeks, and so we got an opportunity to spend some time with her and her cousin, and we had a few family members that joined us for Christmas.
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: So, and then, actually, I worked on Christmas Day at the toy yard.
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: I wanted our team members to have an opportunity to have the day off, so we, myself and Chuck, we went in and we worked and we allowed our office team members to be off.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: We did have a different crew that came in at night, but so we, we, we, we brought the family to the toy yard and we had Christmas at the toy yard.
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: You know, people say it's not a job, it's a lifestyle, and that isn't a classic example of it.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: I don't know what is.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: I worked for many different telling operations.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Only a few of them have the mentality that you, you folks, do about working on the the really tough times yourself, and that's awesome.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: Great leadership lesson, there, isn't it?
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Dj?
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and see, I know the people that listened to the past episode of the Griffin Family.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: They talked about how did the culture get created.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: So do you mind if I asked a question to Chuck and to Michelle?
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Is it because of your background in the boys and girls clubs that that you started Is what created this culture that you have to stimulate and motivate your people?
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: You know because you really are.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: There's a saying you develop them within, so you never go without, and you guys are a living example of that.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: So, Chuck, what do you did?
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: He come from the girls and boys club background, or where did it come from?
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: I think it's a combination of both of Michelle background and mine.
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: Yes, with the boys and girls club.
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: You know that that job right there is a very a serving, serving type job.
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: I'm serving the kids and parents in the community, but Michelle, her background even in banking, that's, some of that culture definitely comes from her as well and we really try to take the things that work for in both these industries and bring it to this industry and help create our own culture.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Well, it's a phenomenal approach and if more and more people in the touring recovery industry had your philosophy, had your thinking.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: You know West Wilburne, in his classes, does so much of that, trying to say, try to do this, try to think this way, but you carry it with you and you exemplify it excellently.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: So and I and I have to comment to both of you, if people ever get a chance to go and look at their website, they have the pictures of all their trucks out in front of a main building in Columbus, georgia, and the man who did the calendars, the famous guy, did all the calendars for the touring industry.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: I had him and I told him at a tow show we were at, I said well, there's a family in Columbus who took your idea and exemplified it themselves.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: And he said that's the, that's the nicest form of honor to give to somebody.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: When you saw how you displayed your trucks, it was wonderful, so I'll pass it back over to you.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, Michelle, can you talk about community involvement, why that's important and how that works hand in hand with your business model?
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: So my my majority of my career.
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: I was a, I was a banker.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: And.
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: I had the opportunity to work for a local community bank as a manager for about eight years and that was really one of my most memorable experiences with company culture and the culture was, as a as a manager, one of the things that they talked to us about when we were going through training.
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: Actually, it was the first day that.
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: It was the very first day they started embedding in us.
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: It was something called servant leadership, and what they describe servant servant leadership, as is, is it's not about our team members serving us, our team members and our customers serving us.
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: It's about us, as leaders, serving our team members and our customers, and I was a part of that culture for eight years and the colors of the company was red and white.
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: So I would tell people all the time I believe CBNT red and white because I just believe in what they did so much and how they treat, how our executives treated us as managers and how they mentor us to treat our team members.
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: And so years later, when we had the opportunity to start Griffin and Griffin towing, that was one of the things that that was embedded in me.
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: That was one of the things that I knew I wanted to be able to give back to our company.
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: And so when you think about major company, usually they have a vision, they have a mission and they have core values.
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: And that's exactly what we wanted to do at Griffin towing.
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: We wanted to create, we created a vision statement, we created a mission statement and we created core values, and those things are what make up our culture, and we have six core values that we go by, and one of our core values is community service.
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: And I'll tell you real quick what our core values are is being safety conscious, customer focused teamwork, strong work ethic, respect towards others and community service.
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: And so we knew that, whatever we did, we wanted to be able to give back to a community that has given so much to us.
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: And so we sat down and we started thinking okay, how can we be a part of the community?
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: What are some of the things that we can do to be a part of the community and who do we want to impact the most?
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: And because Chucks background is Boys and Girls Club, we knew we wanted to give back to the Boys and Girls Club as an example, and so, throughout the year, we spend time at the Boys and Girls Club and we spend time with other organizations, and the majority of the body of work that we do is focused on children and community service, and so that was kind of how, one of the ways that we grew our business too because of that name recognition, people like, okay, yeah, I remember them or I know them, they came to my child's school or they spoke at this event, and so we just wanted to be able to give back to a community that has given so much to us, and so we are a part of our community and our community is a part of us, is one and the same, and so the core values that we have community service being one of them we hold those near and dear to our heart, and so when we hire people, we don't hire people based on their experience.
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: We hire them based on are they gonna be a culture fit?
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: Is this the one that wants to give back to the community?
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: Is this somebody that fits in with what we say our core values are?
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: And if they don't, and if we think they're not gonna be a good fit with our culture, then we don't hire them, even if they have, if they're a strong candidate with many years of experience, because you can bring somebody like that into your environment and it can mess up everything that we try to work for, which is being a place that people want to come and work.
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: And I know, you all know I don't have to tell you Tone is part of our life, it's a lifestyle, so we want it to be a place where it's a home away from home.
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: It's a home away from home, and so-.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: I'm happy to be there.
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you're right.
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: You're right.
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: We want people to be glad to be there, and so we created our culture and our core values.
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: We knew that community service had to be a part of it.
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: I know that's a long answer, but that's kind of a-.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: That's a great answer, Michelle.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: And I'm sorry to have interrupted you there, but that was what I noticed when I was there, every person that.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: I interacted with was truly happy to be there.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: It was on a Sunday during training, which we'll talk about in the next segment, but I apologize for stepping on you there, but that was a great answer.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Michelle Vision.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Vision, mission and core values.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: That's something that's a DJ and.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: I'm far from that front of you.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, it's a golden nugget you can take to the bank.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, folks, we're gonna take a fast break and we'll be back.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Live with Griffin and Griffin out of Columbus.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Hang tight, we'll be right back.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: The best towing companies offer a combination of great training, efficient operations, along with quality supplies.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: Towing equipment direct is committed to help your towing company stay ahead of the competition by providing the best quality of towing equipment and supplies.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: Here's why you should choose towing equipment direct for all of your towing supply needs.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: We provide affordable towing supplies and equipment.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: All towing supplies and equipment are made from the latest technology and we supply products from the most respected brands in the towing industry, offering the widest variety of towing supplies and equipment in New England.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: If you're not using the latest towing equipment, there's a good chance your company has fallen behind.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: Savvy consumers can quickly tell which towing companies provide the best service.
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: In many cases, the quality of your equipment and supplies can make a huge difference.
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: Our representatives are knowledgeable in the towing industry, so for the best towing equipment and supplies, count on the team at towing equipment direct.
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: Browse our catalog online at towingequipmentdirectcom or give us a call at 910-747-9000.
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: That's 910-747-9000.
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: We look forward to serving you.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Welcome back listeners.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: We're listening to the American Towing Recovery Institute podcast, wes Wilburne, dj Harrington and Griffin and Griffin out of Columbus, georgia A great operation.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Remember to like and review all these episodes.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: If you'd like to hear an industry expert or a family in business like the Griffins, by all means Dial the podcast number 706-409-5603, and Wes Wilburne and DJ Harrington will do their best to get the industry expert.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: On the next podcast, wes, I know we want to ask them about the upcoming seminar, so I'll turn it over to you.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: Thanks, dj.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: I'll let our listeners know what's going on.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: You know, when we do a hands-on school, we promise you a real-life experience.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: When we do a podcast, we promise you a real-life experience.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Real-life chunks just taking some information, might have to leave on a rollover.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: You with us for now, chuck, is that correct?
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, all right.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Well, not wishing anybody any bad luck, but if this was an unfortunate incident, we Now you'll go take care of it.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: So if you got to go, we we all understand, including our listeners, and they stand more than anybody Great great first segment interview.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: I really appreciate you chair with us so deeply about this company culture and how you create it by sharing rocks out steps of how you did it with people.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: I really appreciate that shell.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna talk, talk to you folks about training a little bit.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: You folks bit the bullet and had me come down to do a private school.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: When I say bit the bullet, you know we're not cheap and what we do with training as a private sound drone, but you know, we command a fair dollar, that many people pay our price, that I was to a private session.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: You know I've done it for many companies, but it's not every company that will do that.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: And I really saw that culture and that's why we had gone to podcast.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: Previous was I really appreciated what I saw, what you folks are doing, you gotta ask the big question it's been six months, I guess that was down.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: There Was the investment in training for your company.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: What did work work out well for you and I know what was hasn't been perfect, but good.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: One of you two Expand talk about that a little bit, and then we'll talk about our upcoming training after that.
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: Absolutely.
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: It's definitely on investment that was worth on every dollar.
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: You know, anytime that we can bring more Awareness and safety for our, our drivers, team members and even the people we're dealing with in our community, you know, helping out, that's always a plus for us, so it's been actually great.
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: That's one of the reasons.
• 29:16
  Speaker 5: When we was after we had we was wrapping up that Training you was going with us.
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: My six months ago, I said I wanted to get you guys back to help help us focus on the heavy side as well, because we don't want to know neglect no part of it.
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: Well, there'd be the light portion of the heavy side of it, but no, we definitely continue though need the growth.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate that and we're excited about you hosting their class that we do in every spring.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: We go to Southeast class In that region of the world.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: We definitely appreciate y'all stepping up and taking responsibility and putting it together and, as you know, we're very excited.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: We were as this recording.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: Today we're recording this podcast.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: We're month one month away from the class.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: We have, I think it's, 21 people signed up, means there's a lot of interest.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: You folks have really stepped up with everything to help put it all together.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: We're just excited about it being our first stop of the year.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: We're working with a great company.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: You know, one of the things People that have never been to a class don't understand Coming to the class is great.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: There's a whole lot of race.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: You know we feel confident.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: There's a fair amount of information they've learned from the course content, but there's also a tremendous amount of networking and Relationship making that happens, that information gets exchanged five ten years down the road, you know, with different contacts you make around the industry.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: So that's another reason we're so excited to see such a positive turnout.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: As of anticipation for the class and as we talked about earlier in the first segment, it'll be a new format, so I'm gonna be excited.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: We're you know Entune with the new generation shorter attention span, plus pictures, more videos.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: So we've got a hyped up presentation that we're gonna be excited to be really presenting to the world for First time in a class format I might one or two of those things we might release before the class, but we're super, super psyched about this and feel like starting out to 20, 2024 with just a first-class company that has the great culture is gonna be a great foundation for us to have a great class.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: So we're excited.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: I'm a show like I'm ram one on at this point, yeah well, let me ask this question.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: I know our listeners remind our listeners of the date and I also want to ask Is there a chance that Michelle and Chuck Do a classroom segment during that weekend?
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: That that data February 2nd through 3rd Is that the correct date, am I right?
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: February 3rd before 30 and 4.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: Saturday, sunday, today have we do the class?
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: Have we do the telling recovery with some rotators?
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: The main course I'm doing nowadays you folks who heard my opinion on that earlier that's what we'll be in Columbus, georgia.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: So as far as put them on the spot, I'm teaching something we can definitely talk about that.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure that's a comfortable situation and I'm kidding as I say that, but I I definitely.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: You know, I was a west.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: But I was thinking I would love if I, if I knew that Michelle and Chuck, why we were eating our lunches, our box lunches, if Michelle and Chuck you know Griffin were talking why we were eating lunch.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: That's another incentive for me to bring a couple more people.
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: We can do what.
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: We would do that for you, we would make it happen for you All right awesome.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: That would be a plus.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: That would be a plus.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, I would think about it.
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: We, we would do that for you, because we do For everybody that we hire we do.
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: They have to go through orientation before you know they, they go into their training and so, excuse me, these are some of the things that we talk about with them.
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: So we would be more than glad to, during the lunch hour, to be able to share some of that information with other companies.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: It sounds like a date to me.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: We'll tell them they don't have to listen, they just have to be quiet.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, it be worth it If you were kidding, but that is what I'll say to you.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: So no, but that will be awesome.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: That's a good idea.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a real good idea.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: I think that's you know again, people coming to a class.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: All the information you go home with does not come from one instructor, one one workbook, one PowerPoint.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: Come from a group of people working together.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: That sounds awesome.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Well, I see myself.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: I want to tell Michelle and Chuck Griffin when I went to.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: I've gone to a couple of West's classes and I learned as much on the hands-on class from other Attendees who were sharing with me.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Well, here's another better place, here's a safer way of doing it and West would say yes, and if somebody did something different, west would come over make a comment.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: But you learn from all Participants.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: So when you go there, you learn from everybody and how to improve and be Safer so that every six days we don't leave one of our brothers or sisters on the white line.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: So this is training like you're doing down in Columbus.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: It would be excellent and I can't thank you for letting me be on the podcast.
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: Sir, I mean as an industry we are, we are family.
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: You know, really, you're in Columbus, georgia, or somewhere up north on the West Coast.
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: We, we are a family in the toy industry.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: Well, what's?
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: What's the best way?
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: If somebody wants to come to this class in February in Columbus, what's the best way to get a hold of?
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: What should we be doing?
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: They can call the office.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: I know many people don't call, but if you use call, it's 910-747-9000.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: I've got our website.
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: Short cut to our website is wwwamtowiorg, wwwamtowiorg, wwwamtowiorg, and they can sign up online or call the office text the office.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: Whatever they want to do, we'll help them any way we can.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: And they're better hurry, because this thing's going to sell out.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: We don't cap the number of classes this year like we were doing last year.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: We're going to draw some complaints from people, but the class is going to get so big.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: So, with that being said, we're looking forward to a great weekend down there, Michelle.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: Chuck, I can't thank you enough for taking the time to share with us today about class.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: Any closing words you want to share with us?
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: We truly wish just really just thank you for, you know, for welcoming you guys back and just coming back and step by step no, no, the original class that we've taught you guys taught.
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: It was just for our team members, so, but this time, no, we were not.
• 37:20
  Speaker 5: It was such good information.
• 37:21
  Speaker 5: Not only did we wanted to make sure our team members are there, we want to offer it, to open it up to other people in our communities and to surround the area and the way they might come from, just so that they can all we're going to learn and grow together.
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: So thank you again.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: You're welcome and I do want to dress up and tell DJ about this we worked with another company there, as a matter of fact he came down, I guess last year, the year before DJ, I came over with your CP record and they came to the class of CP record and I truck.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: You attended elsewhere but you came to that class as well, and now CP record is going to attend this class.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: They're going to.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: They will offer help as well.
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: It's real nice to see the towing companies.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: What do you all?
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: How far apart are you guys?
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: 20, 30 miles, 30 miles.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: So nice to see towing companies that are.
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: You know they're not head to head competitors.
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: But they compete, I'm sure, to work.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: They treat each other with respect and the name of safety and the name of the good for the towing community, they're willing to work together.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: Chuck and Michelle I can't command you all enough for your attitude to supporting a previous class at another place and then working with.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: You know accepting help and you know what.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: I'm saying I'm stuck with them.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but yeah, and I want to tell all our listeners the reason why you may want to go here.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: We're listening to this podcast and West has the fastest growing podcast in the industry and I have to share with you.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's because here's a toer, chuck, who is married to a banker, who's bringing in another toer 30 miles away, who's married to a pharmacist, and everybody works the industry.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: The pharmacist is the one driving the truck, the pharmacist is the one working with the people, the banker is the one heading up to culture and all of a sudden, you start thinking why can't we do this together?
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: And this is wonderful.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: This is this going to be one hell of a class, guys.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: Absolutely so.
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: We're looking forward to it.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: Thank you, guys.
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: Much Appreciate all of listeners.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: Thanks for the like.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: You know, of course, if you like the program, hit the like button, subscribe share.
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: That's what we're supposed to say to them.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Yes, it is.
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: And remember, first Wednesday of every month is training webinars.
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: That our website to get that information as well.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: Be safe out there and God bless.
• 39:58
  Speaker 4: Thanks, y'all, thank you.