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Transcript

Staying Connected in the Towing Community · Towing News Now

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the American Towing 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 towing and recovery industry.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I'm your co-host, dj Harrington, better known as the Tow Doctor, and my other host is Wes Wilburn, over 40-year towing industry veteran, the founder of American Towing Recovery Institute of Fayetteville, north Carolina.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: He has produced and conducted training and certification programs for leading towing companies, equipment distributors, towing associations, dot, fire departments, rescue, as well as military installations across the United States.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Wes has been published over 100 times in major towing publications published over 100 times in major towing publications.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Wes has developed many courses, including the most recent awareness-level course for all responders that specialize in electric vehicles as well as hybrid, natural gas and hydrogen vehicles.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Wes has provided insight as the main speaker for over 30 years at more than 900 training classes and has been recognized as one of America's greatest towing trainers.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: He is well known for his straightforward but down-to-earth teaching style.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: West Wilbur and his American Storm Recovery staff have developed an electric vehicle phone app, wwwev-clevercom, with over 700 passenger vehicles and over 100 heavy-duty vehicles, bringing you a new level of convenience for information at your fingertips for all responders and their groups.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Without further ado, here's my dear friend and a great guy for our industry, wes Wilber.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Well, dj, as always, I appreciate those kind words.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for that introduction.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: We're in the middle of summer here, so how are you doing today, dj?
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: I am doing excellent, excellent, excellent, good.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: That's good to hear.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Hopefully the heat hasn't been too extreme down there in the greater Atlanta area.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: No, it has been good.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: We had rain the last two days so it kind of cooled it down some, but it's been nice, it's been very good.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we've got some much-needed rain as well.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Our first podcast since past president and possibly future president was an assassination attempt.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: We prayed for the families of everybody involved.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Horrible, horrible situation, wasn't it, DJ?
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: It sure was.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: But as we're recording this, the lady who was the head of Secret Service is no longer there.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: She has resigned.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: So that's good news.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, imagine that.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I just felt as an American, I should at least address that situation before we move forward.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: So we're sorry for the family of the people injured and killed.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Yes, so we're kind of in the doldrums of summer getting ready.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: In a couple weeks here I've got a train recovery class of Maggio's up in Rockford Illinois and DJ, I've got to tell you, working on the presentation.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: It's so exciting to be building something new and fresh.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I can't tell you how excited I am to be working on this program.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: That's good news.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Well, that happens all the time, Wes, when you're doing something new, just like you've improved your programs so much from a year ago.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: So you're, like they call it, KANAI constant and never-ending improvement.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: We all know the Japanese used that philosophy after World War II to build themselves into the powerhouse.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: They became Yep, can I?
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Yep, I absolutely agree with that.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: We've also done some additions to the National Tow Operator Certification, our online certification program.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: We've added a whole section on electric vehicles for the testing part of that.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: So that's another addition that we've made recently.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: And the app is just about to be released.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: We've got a major announcement coming up for that here.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: I can't say it today, but hopefully by the next episode we'll have a major announcement about the app.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Hopefully by the next episode we'll have a major announcement about the app.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Fantastic Also, we're at just what a couple shy of 15,000 subscribers for our podcast.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: We sure are.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: We're just a couple shy of 15,000.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because a lot of people have liked and reviewed and shared everywhere.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: So it's been good.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: You know we started in February 2021, and I'm amazed as I look back.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: We've done over 150 episodes.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Hitting another milestone.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Very minor.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: But eBay I've been an eBay seller since just before the turn of the century and we've done over 26,000 transactions.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: But we're just about to come up on our 10,000 for positive feedback and you know people don't leave feedback anymore like they used to, so that number's growing very slowly.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: But very shortly, 22 more items and we'll be at 10 10 000 positive feedback on ebay.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: So little, little accomplishment we're kind of excited about as well.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: We're getting ready for this train recovery up at maggio's.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: It's august 2nd and 3rd.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Uh, there are a few seats left, but you do need to register ahead of time.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Many reasons why also.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Uh, we're going to be with the Rhode Island Towing Association, johnston, rhode Island.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: They're putting on a light and medium-duty class, two-day class.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: They're putting a lot of effort into it.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: That class you need to register directly with the host.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Registered directly with the host, that's Adam Branch, 401-248-1600.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Members of the association they have a discounted seat program.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Then, september 20th, we'll be in Lynchburg, virginia.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Beeline Towing is our host.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: They've already got sponsorship for all the meals.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: They got a sponsor on the Saturday night dinner.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: That's kind of an extra thing.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: They got door prizes.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: They started gathering all that already, that's going to be in.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Lynchburg, virginia, friday, september 20th, the electric vehicle class.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: That's going to be free on Friday evening.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: And then September 21 and 22, lynchburg, virginia, for heavy-duty toe and recovery with rotator.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: And then two weeks later we'll be out in Oregon private class we're doing out there.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Then on October 18th we're going to be in Lake Station, indiana, which is right next to Gary, indiana.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: That'll be the electric vehicle course the 19th and 20th.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Heavy duty, two day tow and recovery with rotator.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: At Wasco Towing is our host looking forward to that.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: They're always a great host.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: They're going to get us a real steel quarrel, probably in the 40,000-pound range, and show us a lot of techniques for handling, picking one of those up, turning one of those back over when they're sitting flat on the road out in the sky.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: So that's always a great class up there.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: In November we'll be in Kansas at a Santa Fe show.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: One day light duty on November, the 1st, the Friday, and then a two day heavy towing recovery with rotator.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: It's November 2nd and 3rd and that will be up in Kansas City, kansas, november 16th 17th.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Sumnerner, south Carolina, two day fire toe cross training with myself and Ron Moore at the Southerner, south Carolina.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: We'll be in Southerner record, who's a big YouTube star.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: That's been very good to us.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: So for more information about our training, you can visit our website, wwwamtowriorg, or call us 910-747-9000.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: So, dj, that's where we're going to be.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: We're excited to have a full schedule schedule and things are perking on pretty good here, so we probably need to go ahead and take a break, and after a break, we got a great guest coming back in give us an update on what's going on in their part of the world.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: So hang around until after the break.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: The EVClever app is an app created for all responders and emergency service personnel.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: The EVClever app is the only app containing easy-to-navigate quick links to access manufacturer-suggested instructions for emergency situations dealing with electric and alternative fuel vehicles while on the side of the road.
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: That includes hybrid, fully electric fuel cell, compressed natural gas and hydrogen buses and heavy trucks.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: These quick links are a convenient way to access information quickly.
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: To date, we have a total of 789 passenger vehicles, over 181 heavy-duty trucks, and adding more every day, thanks to our research team.
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: You can go to evclevercom and use the code podcast 2024, get a free 30-day trial and then after that you get 20% off.
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: Information in this podcast is made possible by generous sponsorship from Henry's Wrecker, serving the community with quality towing and recovery for over 40 years.
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: Henrysweckercom.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Welcome back listeners.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Of course you know you're listening to the American touring recovery Institute podcast with Wes Wilburn and DJ Harrington, better known as the toe doctor.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Every week, we do our best to bring you informative episodes.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: We're almost at 15,000 listeners.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Please make sure you download and listen.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: We're almost at 15,000 listeners.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Please make sure you download and listen.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: We're available on Spotify, itunes, pandora, stitcher, iheartmedia, amazon or wherever you get your podcasts.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: All right, I'm passing it over to you, wes, because we got a great guest who's been a host on this program and he's been phenomenal, so I'll pass it on over to you.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Thanks, dj.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: You know I'm sitting here thinking as I go to the break.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: We have several other things going on and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention at least this one, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention at least this one.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: You know Wesley's here on his last summer break from college, working for us, as he has every summer since before he was in high school, and one of the things that me and him are doing is well, two things he's straightening out, cleaning up, finding all these different chain assemblies and things I made up that I made, put and used in a class one time, put in a corner, etc.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: He's finding that kind of stuff and getting it into the inventory system, uh for sale, blowing some of the stuff out to help him clean up and straighten up around here, which, you know, I'm a bit of a pack rat, so that's very helpful.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: But but I digress the main thing, one of the main things that I'm super excited about is we're working together to take a lot of our information that with that I've uh training information and whatnot, and putting it together in the video format as an educational video format, basically putting all of our educational stuff on our YouTube channel.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: So we've been working together in the afternoon putting this information together, you know, recorded and putting it out there on YouTube.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: So that's another exciting thing that's going on For people that are interested thing that's going on For people that are interested.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Please visit our YouTube channel American Towing and Recovery Institute.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: It will pop up and we plan on please subscribe to that.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: We plan on populating that with a whole lot of information.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Your son's a great guy, so I'm glad you mentioned it and it's very, very nice.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Me and him are getting to spend the time together as well.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: It's an added bonus, so we have a great guest today.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: As you said, been a guest before, also has been a guest host before.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Jared Varnado from Varnado and Sons, denham Springs, louisiana, is here.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Also serves in a volunteer position as president of the association down there.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Jared, come on and introduce yourself to our guests at home and tell us a little bit about yourself and your family business you're involved in, if you don't mind.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: Well, thank you for having me back, gentlemen.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: As many of you know, I'm third generation in the family business you're involved in, if you don't mind.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: Well, thank you for having me back, gentlemen, as many of you know, I'm third generation in the family business.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: My grandfather started in 1957.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: My dad is semi-retired, so it's pretty much all in my lap.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: I also serve as president of CRPL, which is Towing and Recovery Professionals of Louisiana.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: It's Louisiana's only towing association.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: So before we get to the association, tell us a little bit about the family business how you all started and how you evolved, and where you're at today as far as scope of operations and whatnot just to give our listeners.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: A good footprint to listen from.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: A quick synopsis was my grandfather was in the military and when he got out he became a mechanic, built some tow trucks to just tow for our mechanic shop and through the years it's evolved and we've got a full-service repair shop motorhome repair, diesel repair, small gas repair, diesel repair, small, you know, gas repair tire store.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: Um, and then we've got 12 tow trucks.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: Uh, just growing every day.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: God bless, that's a hot going on.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: Yes, sir, it's a full time job.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, is there a next generation?
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: I hope my kids are smarter than this.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: But yes, sir, I have three children.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: My cousin runs the repair shop and two of his boys one handles the gas side and the other handles the diesel repair side, and then I've got three boys, but mine are much younger.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: My oldest is Liam, he made 13 this year.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: The middle is Waylon, he'll be six in August, and the caboose, mr Emmett, is Liam, he made 13 this year.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: The middle is Waylon He'll be six in August, and the caboose, mr Emmett, is three.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow, good for you.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: That's a fun age for all of them and I have total appreciation about it.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Hopefully they find something else.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, if they're interested and they want to do it, it's awesome, and if they don't, that's fine too, is the way I look at that one.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: So you're president of the association.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: What's?
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Um, that's a volunteer position just to keep all listeners focused.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Um, tell us about the association and what's going on with that.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: Well, we had a pretty productive year.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: So we had a training earlier in the year with Adrian, elite Towing and you, and we had the EV class on Friday, heavy recovery on Saturday and a light duty on Sunday and pretty record numbers for Louisiana.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: I think we had what less than 30 people in the class.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it was mid-30s on the heavy and 31-ish on the light, something to that effect.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but yeah, good numbers, enthusiastic numbers.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Had a diverse group.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: We had some folks from the New Orleans City Police Towing Division or parking enforcement and had someone show up from the.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Where was the one fellow from?
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: The public service commission.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and that gentleman showed up and took virtually all the training.
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he even did a little hands-on.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: I was very impressed and pleased to have him there.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Yes, I was very impressed and pleased to have him there.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: Yes, he represented the commission well and participated in the class well, and that's exciting to see.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: So we had a House Bill 850, which state police relinquished their duties at the permanent scale houses.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: Dot police took over that and so we were having some issues with you know what's exempt, what's not, just getting a lot of a lot of tollers, getting a lot of violations that were really out of our control, and so through.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: So through.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: Our house bill made it to the Senate and they decided that it was just too.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: It wasn't clear enough.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: Um, it wasn't enforceable.
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: There was some legalities of maybe losing some, uh, federal funding if we made us 100% exempt.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: But through that I made a lot of connections, was able to get in touch with our new chief of DOT police, who is very helpful, trying to help us resolve this issue or what we can do to make it where we can just do our job day-to-day without having to worry about going through the scales and getting a $3,000, $4,000, $5,000 citation.
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: So I'll cover that in just a second Coming up.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: We've got a general membership meeting in September 14th in Alexandria If any of our members or non-members in Louisiana are listening, if you would like to attend, it is open to members and non-members.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: I ask that if you plan on coming, please call the office and talk to Ms Deedee and let her know that you're coming.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: Also, for those that are members and non-members, we have our membership dues renewing in August.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: If you're not a member, we'd love to have you.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: If you have any questions about wanting to become a member, feel free to call me at any time.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: Some of the other things we have coming.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: I just caught word this morning that the fourth version of the Tim's training module was released this week.
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: So I'll be reviewing that next week with the instructor.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: He wants me to become a TIMS instructor so I can kind of share throughout the state on the TIMS program.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: I don't know exactly what all has been added to it, but he said the little bit he's looked through.
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: It looks pretty good.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: That's good to hear.
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: That's very good to hear A little side note since 2012, over 600,000 first responders have been trained in Tim's program.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: He gave me some literature of the number of incidents.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: So, just for towers, in 2021, there were 22 deaths.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: 2022, there was 18.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: 2023, there was 20.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: And so far as of July 1st, there's been seven deaths.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: So I would have to say those numbers are coming down slowly, not fast enough, but it is getting better.
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: So there's some positives to it.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: You touched on public service commissions so, for those that don't know, louisiana is regulated by the Public Service Commission.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: On their nonconsensual towing, we have a constant battle with trying to get to them, getting them to give us a raise.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: We've had one raise in 10 years.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: We had an emergency raise.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: We went to them last year end of last year and said hey guys, we've got to do something.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: These rates are way too low.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: Other states are.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: Some states are double what we're making per hour.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: So they handpicked five companies from the state, me being one of them, and sent in an auditor.
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: He came and did a full order on our books of what we're making consensual versus non-consensual, what we're losing on storage and without sharing numbers.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: Their jaws dropped and said why are you doing this, why are you even doing police towing?
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: We're losing substantial amounts of money because of the retention rate of people not coming to get their vehicle, because of the retention rate of people not coming to get their vehicle.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: So they have a meeting August 14th to meet on that.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: We're going to push for another emergency raise until they get us the actual, true numbers of what we need and so they can put it up for vote and see where we're at.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: And who did the utility commission?
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: Yes, the public service commission.
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: We actually had to hire an auditor.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: The five of us got together and hired someone to come in and do it and provide them with the numbers.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: That's interesting.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: I'll be very anxious to hear the final results from that.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: We're up against it.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: We need to take a hard break.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Can you hang around until after the break and share some more information with us?
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 23:11
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• 24:18
  Speaker 5: That's 910-747-9000.
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: We look forward to serving you.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Welcome back listeners.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Of course you know you're listening to the American Towing Recovery Institute podcast with Jared Varno and from Varno Sons.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Great guy.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Hey, remember to like and review every time you can with a fellow toer.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: If you'd like to hear another professional like Jared, just dial 706-409-5603 and let Wes and I know who that is, and we'll do our best to get them on your podcast, because this is your podcast Now.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Gary, right before we took a break, you were talking about the emergency raids.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: How long does that go into effect?
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: So we've had one emergency raise already.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: They gave us a 14% increase and that was around four years ago, and they've never come up with another study, or a tariff raise is what they call it.
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: And so, because of insurance rates going up, because our retention rates are so high, we're losing such a large amount of money on storage rates are so high, we're losing such a large amount of money on storage we're going to ask for another emergency raise.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: So essentially, that raise is indefinite until the actual tariff is put into place.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Gotcha.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: All right, that makes sense.
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: Go ahead my friend.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Thanks, DJ.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: So I just want to expand on that just a hair more so for that to become permanent, what has to happen?
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: It has to be voted in through the Public Service Commission.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: They've got to do essentially with the numbers that we've provided them.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: Now they have to do a study to compare notes on, you know, costs of doing business with insurance and vehicle repairs and all that.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: So legally they have to now pay for a study to have this, to compare the, to see if our numbers all compare and what they come up with and what is a fair and compensatory rate.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: That's a lot to go through.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: I guess Folks that are not in regulated states on one level should be thankful.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Although, if this system works correctly and they do their study with the due diligence, it should be good for the towing industry.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: I think it is I met with.
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: So we were invited to the tow show in Texas recently.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: So we were invited to the show in Texas recently and we met with the coalition and had some good conversation with them.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: Being that we've been regulated for so long, if it's done properly I don't see anything wrong with it.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: But that's a broad, broad topic.
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: A lot of times we do some recoveries that we can get done in two or three hours.
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: That should still pay a larger amount, but because we're regulated, we only get by hour.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: So it's a system that needs to be tweaked so that we can afford to buy the rotators, we can afford to pay our employees you know what they're worth and so it's a very touchy subject around the nation because, as you know, the federal government has stepped in and tried to say that predatory towing and so there's no real numbers yet.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: They're still doing studies.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: There's talk of them coming in and saying, okay, nationwide, this is what you're going to charge, you're only going to be able to charge XYZ.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: In Texas they're having some issues with some absorbent bills.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: Some people feel that they're absorbent and that you're going to have to if it's over I think it's over $25,000, they've got to if they get to lay reports and then they've got to pay to have it reviewed and explain why.
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: So you know the towing industry and the pricing is very.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: It's a very touchy situation right now.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's putting it nicely.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: There's no doubt, and let's face it in my opinion, part of the problem is caused by the people who are in control the trucking companies and the insurance companies.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: This is a Zone episode and we've talked about this before, but they're causing their own problems.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: What did you call it?
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: The ones that you're left with?
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: What are you calling those?
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: Oh, the retention rate.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: The retention rate.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're causing it by the retention rate that they leave on tellers around the country.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: It's not just a regional thing that's going on all over the country.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: Thank you for a clear explanation on that.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Let's move on.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Let's circle back to something you said reference towers and scale house, and I assume what are we talking about Checking for monitor by the pound or overweight, or what are we talking?
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: No, we're talking weight.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: So in Louisiana when state police had the scales, it was kind of an unwritten rule.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: You didn't really need to stop because state police understood that towers can't make weight.
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: You've got tow trucks that are heavy and you're towing, you're picking up the front axle of the tractor.
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: It weighs the truck down.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: If it's towing a trailer, they say that that's a combination weight and no matter what it weighs.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: If it's over 80, trailer, they say that that's a combination weight and no matter what it weighs.
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: If it's over $80,000, they're writing tickets.
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: So a loaded tractor trailer, you're looking at a $3,000 to $4,000 ticket.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: What was the suggestion for how to move them?
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: So we were fortunate that the chief of DOTD is very good at reading law and interpreting law and so he dove into it.
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: He and I have had some good conversations.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: They included state police in this conversation to get their views and whatnot.
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: So what we found is there is a federal exemption.
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: So the federal code is 23 USC 127, section M, and what that reads, and I'll read it to you it says transporting a disabled vehicle from the place where the vehicle became disabled to the nearest appropriate repair facility and has a gross vehicle weight that is equal to or exceeds the gross vehicle weight of the disabled vehicle being transported.
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: It's very broad.
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: It doesn't specify very much.
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: The way they interpret it is a tractor trailer is two separate vehicles.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: So your tractor is the disabled vehicle, the trailer is not disabled.
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: There's still some clarity issues on how far it goes like.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: For instance, I'm starting my uh 25 miles from the, from the um house.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: If I have to tow a tractor trailer that's disabled on the side of the interstate to slide out to the freightliner dealer, there's nowhere for me to drop the trailer.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: So that's kind of one of those things.
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: If you get a pass, what they're trying to say is because of the bridge law.
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: It's putting too much weight on the interstate, damaging the interstate.
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: Now, this is federal highway only.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: This does not cover state highways.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: As of now, there's nothing for state highways.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: There's no one that's going to that.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: I'm aware of that's enforcing anything on state highways.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: This is only federal.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: So basically what he's saying is a non-divisible load.
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: As long as the tow truck weighs more than the commodity it's towing, it's exempt.
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: We brought up okay, what about a loaded dump truck?
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: What about a gravel truck?
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: That can't be because a loaded gravel trailer can't be separated, the legs aren't strong enough.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: What about a loaded garbage truck that's got to go to the repair facility?
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: There was a lot of.
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: Well, we'll just take it case by case.
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: As as of now, no one if they've got a citation for it.
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: They presented the case and he made the citation go away.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: I think essentially, what they're trying to put into place is it's going to be a separate Louisiana will be a separate state.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: You'll have to separate the truck and trailer.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: It just means that the trucking company is going to have to either send a truck or be prepared to pay for a power-only unit to go get the trailer.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: There's many areas of the country where that is the standard.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: So if they're a nationwide trucking company, they know about that standard.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: And I've got a mixed opinion.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Sometimes that does make sense.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Sometimes, where you're at trying to break them down or reconnect them, doesn't make sense.
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: And that was my argument was where is a safe place for us to drop the trailer?
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: Your truck stop?
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: Well, his first idea was bring it to a truck stop.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: Well, a truck stop's not going to let you drop a trailer and leave it there.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: We have legal obligation because we've taken possession of that truck and trailer.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: If we drop the trailer, someone steals it, we're responsible for it.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: So there's still a lot of what ifs.
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: They're still working diligently.
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: They've reached out to other states to see if there's some form of an exemption.
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: We all agree that the easiest thing to do would be issue us an annual permit that's affordable.
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: That would just exempt us in general.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: As of now, there's no state that has that.
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: Florida has one.
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: It's a pretty good model they're looking at.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: Alabama has one, but in the verbiage it says emergency permit, whereas in Louisiana they look at it as an emergency.
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: We're exempt already.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: So they're working on it.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: We're staying on top of it.
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: I stay in communication.
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: I talk to the chief at least once a week just to make sure there's nothing that he needs, nothing that I need.
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: Super nice guy.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: He's very involved and wants to solve this issue the best way he can, without causing any problems or losing any federal funding.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: Well, good, that's good to hear that the association has a good working relationship with people at state government like that, that's very good to hear, and finding someone that's willing to look at the situation and try to help solve it, that's excellent to hear as well.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: Anything else going on with the association you want to tell us about?
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: If folks want more information, how can they get in touch with you?
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: They can call me on my cell phone 225-620-7452.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: I have my cell phone on me 24 hours a day.
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: The joy of the vulnerable towing company, um, the.
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: Our next step is obviously to continue the fight for the public service commission to get us a raise.
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: Um.
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: Continue following up with DOT police to see what can be done.
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: Um following up with DOT police to see what can be done.
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: Our goals for the remainder of this year and starting next year was obviously to get more training.
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: That's one of the things I'm hearing the most from our members and non-members is you know when's our next training course?
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: So we'll be talking more on that.
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: One of the big hot topics in Louisiana, really around the nation, is our insurance crisis.
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: Louisiana's probably one of the worst.
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: I spoke with one of our members in New Orleans.
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: So the insurance, their new I'm going to call it a gimmick because to me it is they're going off crime statistics on how they can raise our rates.
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: I talked to a customer last Thursday that they raised his insurance to $50,000 a year per truck with no incidents, with a clean five-year history, and they said it's due to crime statistics that they're raising the rates.
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: He's never been broken into, he's never had an accident, he's never been robbed, never had a truck stolen, and so that's what we're faced with.
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: It's just a free for all for the insurance companies just to do whatever they want to do.
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: How much was the increase.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: It's pushing a lot.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: How much was that increase?
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: Jared, I want to say it was about $25,000 per truck.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: Wow, I just wanted to put perspective on it.
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: I know our insurance has doubled and since 2020, our insurance has doubled.
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: And we have no losses.
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: One of the other things that we're going to try and fight in the capital this year is getting paid for vehicles that were in an accident that had liability-only insurance.
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: So in Louisiana we're not allowed to put liens on vehicles or anything like that.
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: Our complaint is if they've got liability insurance and have a property damage, whoever's property they were damaged is able to make a claim on the insurance.
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: But we're providing a service for the police department and we're not getting paid.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: You know South Carolina Toe Association.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: I was just in a meeting with them and they're looking into that same thing.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: And Florida has one of the best pieces of legislation in the country.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: You can't put a lien on somebody's driver license.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: But if you have a vehicle registered to you and it's a police tow, all the paperwork's done correctly.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: In other words, it can't be all private property or some private third-party arrangement situation On a police-authorized tow.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: You do your notifications properly, et cetera.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: People don't come and pay you.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: You can put a lien on their ability to get any tags issued or renewed.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: It doesn't affect their driver's license.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: You can't affect people's driver's license.
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it takes a year or two.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it still means no payment at the end of the day because there's people out there that don't do the right thing.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: Sure, no payment at the end of the day because there's people out there that don't do the right thing, but it has increased payments quite a bit from people who now have this lean.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: Rent operators lean against their tag, their ability to get tagged.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Mike Seaman I spoke to him on the phone with PWF and on the podcast before indicated me that he's willing to help people different state associations around the country with that, proposing that legislation in their state.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: He indicated that's part of what they do with some of the funds they get from the Hino truck Miller Industries truck they wrap off every year.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: I'll put you in touch with him, jared.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: I didn't mean to take over your comment.
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: No, please do.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: This just happened one day last week.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: I think it's a great thing.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Mike was very open.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: From the meeting I got a clarification on one of the points from him.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: He's very gracious to supply the information and again he indicated that their association, pwlf in Florida, is willing to help other state associations around the country.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: I'd love to speak with him.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll get you in contact with him, Jared.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: So, as a closing comment, what can you leave us with, Jared?
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Did you give contact information, your cell phone or how you want to contact them?
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they can contact me on my cell phone.
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: They can call TRPL and talk to DeeDee.
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: She can put them in touch with me.
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: If you prefer to email, I can give you my email address.
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: It's Jared J-A-R-E-D M, as in Michael Varnadoe at Gmail.
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: Awesome.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: Well.
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: Jared.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: I can't thank you enough for being here and sharing some great information.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: We need you to come back on and every so often, tell us what's going on down there.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: It's a very informative interview and I appreciate it.
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm always pleased to do it Anytime you need it.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Thank you, cj.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: You want to take us home, bud?
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this was a great one, jared, and I thank you and all your people there at Varanos, your good people, good association and Wes, I'm with you.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: We want all of our members to come home safe and sound.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Teach your loved ones goodbye in the morning, be home safe and sound at night and we'll see you on the next American Towing Recovery Institute podcast.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: See you next time.