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The Kansas City Towing Crisis · Towing News Now

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: you're on the train to success with april and wes wilburn.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I'm dj harrington, the co-host, better known as the toe doctor.
• 0:12
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• 0:21
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• 0:56
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• 1:10
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• 1:14
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• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Let's make 2025 our best year ever.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I I will turn it to April Loomis.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: As always, dj, thank you for your kind words, and we have a great guest with us today, jared Ennis from All-Star Towing.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: He's got a lot of good information and a lot of good conversation with us.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Jared's also the president of the Missouri Co-Truck Association and if you're following on social media at all, they've got a whole lot of stuff also president of the Missouri Co-Trust Association.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: And if you're following on social media at all, they've got a whole lot of stuff going on relevant to Kansas City and the towing industry.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: So, jared, thanks for being on today.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Would you mind introducing yourself, telling our listeners a little bit about your background, and then we'll get into the subject today?
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I just want to get an idea of who they're talking to.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Sure, my name's Jared Ennis.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: I've been in the towing industry 31 years.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: I've been very active in our tow association.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: I've served every office in our association over the years.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: I think this is my eighth or ninth time I've been president throughout the years.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: I think this is my eighth or ninth time I've been president throughout the years.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: I haven't been for a few years, but a couple people wanted me to run and asked me to, so I did and was elected a few weeks ago to the position again.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: We run my companies are, you know, the northern edge of Kansas City.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Then we run all of northwest Missouri as well, so we cover a pretty big footprint.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: So how large of a company is it?
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: I have a total.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: We have 35 trucks with three major locations, and then two satellites as well.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, that's impressive.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: That's a pretty good operation.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: As well as Missouri, you also cover some of Kansas, is that correct?
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: That's correct.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: We cover East Central Kansas, you know, whether it be Kansas City or St Joseph, with the river being right there.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: I mean the state line's only a few miles from our location, just very, very close.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: One of them.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: We're only less than a mile away.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: So we go over into Kansas, up into Iowa, nebraska, a lot, and then you know all over the country for different things, but I mean on a day-to-day basis.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: We're in those areas all day, every day.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm sure that keeps you more than busy and gives you plenty of time for a volunteer job.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: That's right it doesn't pay very well, but it's important work.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: Thankfully, we've gotten more people involved the last couple years.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: I think there's some guys stepping up and doing a good job.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: Associations across the country don't have great participation as far as percentage of companies, but I think for a small association we've always gotten a lot done and done a good job for the towing industry in Missouri.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, unfortunately, towing associations never get the credit for what they put out, always get asked what are you doing?
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: And they don't understand that people are volunteering their time like you and other folks around the country to make a whole lot of stuff happen for the industry.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: Oh, for sure, definitely I mean the time, and you know you don't think about the hours and the gas driving to the Capitol and things like that.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: I don't care about it.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: But you know a lot of people over the years have put a lot of time and effort in and have what we have today in the state, and that's a good point.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: You're not only not getting paid for your time, it costs you money being involved.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: I've been involved with several organizations and my hat's off to you.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Again most people don't realize the volunteer effort that people put into this Sure, and especially now because there's a situation going on.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: It gives you all a formal footprint or stance to address it.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Tell our listeners that aren't familiar what's going on in the great city of Kansas City.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: So we have two issues right now One at the state level.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: OIDA, the Owner Operator.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Independent Driver Association has been trying all over the country to regulate heavy-duty towing and especially recovery.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: They've used different tactics and presented different things Basically what they come in, as these tow companies are putting our small trucking company members and presented different things Basically what they come in.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: As you know, these tow companies are putting our small trucking company members out of business, which is not true.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: What's happening is, when there's a major accident rollover, they underinsure them with a $5,000 towing cap.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: So you have a rollover tractor, trailer liability on the truck and trailer only the cleanup and recovery far, know, far exceeds five thousand dollars, and so so they're already out of the truck.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Go ahead, hang on one second if you don't mind.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Uh, what I think is reasonable to say far out sees it by 10 times that amount in some cases, not all.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Is that a reason?
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: oh absolutely you know the cost of.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: You know, look at, look at trucks insurance in the last five years alone they're up 50 to 60 um, let alone other external costs that we and we just can't absorb.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: We run a at a low um profit percentage.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: It's not like towing companies are making a 50% margin.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: You know, it just doesn't happen.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: So we run on thinner margins and there's.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: You know, like I always testify as yeah towing.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: Recovery is absolutely expensive, there's no question.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: But you don't see the average tower out there living in million-dollar houses.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: You know in the state it just doesn't happen.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: I mean they put in a lot of hours for really thin margins.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: Many people don't see that.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: They see that it's built at the end of the day, but they don't take into account running safe equipment, paying the living wage for your employees and usually, usually transportation committees.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: When you know, after I testify, they'll ask a lot of good questions and all they hear is the horror stories the bill is $40,000, and, oh my God, it's horrible.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: Well then they ask a lot of good questions and they start understanding your cost and what equipment you have out there and a lot of it you don't need very often.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Often, but you have to have it when the time comes.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: And then, and when you tell them, like my insurance, I pay 575 000 a year and we have really good rates they're floored at the cost we have involved with doing our job, and so then they get a better understanding of why it is expensive.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: Um, and I think you know, most of them have common sense and obviously there's always bad apples in every industry and we have some of that.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: But you know, for the most part it's just yes, it's expensive, but it's just what it costs to do the job and make a fair profit.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: I'm going to ask one question too, too, because you're a good company, you've got quality equipment.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's not that you want to have it.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's that you have to have it.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: To do these jobs, you're required to have a minimal amount of equipment and when they make you have that, they need to understand that there's a cost associated with it.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: That is correct, absolutely, and you know, missouri is not very regulated with um equipment minimums, like some states are.
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: But um, some of the you know, maybe city or county contracts do have equipment requirements, um, but the simple fact is they want, even even though it's not required, they want you to have it.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: They want the roads because of traffic incident management.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: They want the roads cleared as fast as possible so there's not secondary accidents.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: And could you do the job with two traditional 30-ton wreckers?
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, you're going to be out there twice as long if you're out there with 50 tons and rotators.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: Public safety is a very important part of this and getting the road cleaned up and open as quick as possible is a public safety issue.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Yes, and those very same people that are complaining about the price of your bill are the same trucking companies that were complaining about sitting in traffic for hours now?
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Yes, in my opinion.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: So another subject, or another subchapter of the same subject you guys are going out cleaning up these roads they're not even being guaranteed that you're going to be paid.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: I've seen that's.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: I was going to bring that point up, but I've seen in the last, let's say the last 10 years, especially the last five years.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: Used to we didn't have much problem.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: We'd go work, a tractor trailer wreck, we got paid to come pick the the damage units up and got them out of there.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Um in the last five, five years.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: Um, we between 30% and 40% of every law enforcement tow is not getting picked up.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: We're seeing they have cargo only and liability on the truck and trailer and we're getting trashed trucks and trailers In our area.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: It's hard to get rid of them.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: There's not a lot of salvage buyers, Even though we're in a major city.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: You get an older truck and trailer, no one's interested in them, and so it's become more of a challenge because you're getting paid for basically a third of the bill and getting stuck with junk.
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: But our title process is a little bit slow.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: We're going to have it you know, 90 days minimum, but the reality is you're probably going to have it 5 months to get titles for stuff, unless everything goes perfect, and then, before you can get rid of it, you get.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: I mean very little money out of it, absolutely speaking of getting very little money.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: If I don't run some commercials here, I'm going to get very little money.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: So you hang around until after the break.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not a problem.
• 11:32
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• 11:34
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• 11:40
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• 11:44
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• 11:50
  Speaker 4: We also offer the National Tow Operator Certification an independently sourced virtual testing program covering light duty, heavy duty, electric and alternative fuel vehicle.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome back listeners.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: You know you're listening to the new Towing News channel.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: This has been a great one with Jared and Jared 31 years he's in business.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: So I want all of you to remember we are available on Spotify, pandora, itunes, stitcher, iheartmedia, amazon or wherever you get your podcasts.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: So, without further ado, let's listen to the president of the Missouri Towing Association and April.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: I'll pass it back over to you and Wes Wilber.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to sneak a quick question in for you, just to kind of finish the train of thought.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I want to sneak a quick question in and just kind of finish the train of thought.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: You said, just to be clear, here, over the last five years, 30% to 40% of big rats don't get picked up.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Correct?
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're seeing that they'll have cargo and at times we're even having trouble getting paid through the cargo insurance.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: If they have a really low value of cargo I use paper rolls, for example.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: We get those probably one a year and I've gotten stuck with several of them Because the value is so low.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: The company will just pay the paper itself and not turn a cargo claim in.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: And yeah, so we just had a lot more issue in the last five years with liability only and not getting paid on the truck and trailer and only getting paid on the cargo.
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: In some cases, not even that, and I think that's probably everyone.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: Seeing that I don't think it's exclusive to our area?
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Oh no, it's definitely not exclusive to your area.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: It's happening all over the country, not exclusively in your area.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: It's happening all over the country and I'm just trying to highlight it.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: So we have good facts on record for people to work with.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Any other company, target or anyone that would experience that rate of shoplifting would completely change their business model.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: Well, and that's one thing I explain to the legislator a lot of times you know that's one reason that not just our costs have gone up, but that's a major factor in why prices are what they are, because we have to look at the whole picture.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: You know, when we don't get paid on a job, it increases everybody's cost, just so we can stay in business and make a fair profit.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: And that's just the reality of the situation.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's unfortunate but it's true.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Yes, it's modern economics.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: One more point I want to sneak in real quick, also on major truck wrecks.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Would you agree?
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: There's a lot more burn jobs nowadays because of the DEF fuel systems et cetera.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: I know some more.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: We get a lot of them.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: I guess we don't.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: I think we get more break or bearing fires.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: We do get some tractor stuff with the DEF, but I mean, in our area it seems like we get a lot more bearing and breaks.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: We're in more of a rural area with a lot of interstate and that's what we see more of than than we do tractor fires okay, fair enough.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Many times when you've seen those brake fires, you've seen the load and everything being destroyed.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: In other words, a lot of work to clean up very little value sitting there, yeah, and we've had situations where we use some, even though we have roll-off containers ourselves.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: Skid steers there's.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: Sometimes we'll use an outside vendor but they've got grapple trucks.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: Especially when it's a small food product, they're so much faster at cleaning it up with the grapple trucks and hauling it.
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: You know I've spent you know $12,000, $14,000 or more on jobs them picking up the burnt cargo and taking it to the dump so that you know you hope you get paid.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: But we've had deals where you know, I'm out that kind of hard money, plus all of our costs on a job and don't get paid.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: Unfortunately, it happens.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: I think it doesn't happen real often, but I know towers and other states that are friends that, um, one of them got off the high patrol rotation list because they're they're capped at their fees and he was getting stuck all the time without getting paid and he's like I'm done with this, it's just, it's a losing, there's no profit in it.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: It's a losing, losing, there's no profit in it.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: It's a losing thing for me to do and there's no point in doing it.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's stories all over the country, no doubt, about Jared, I know that you're really active in the Association and you're the president and you're also active in legislation.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: Can you um go into some of that and what recently has have you been involved with?
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: um, yeah, so we were monday.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: We were at the capitol in jefferson city, um, satisfying an opposition of a bill, and it's in several different bills or forms that's been added on to.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: But, um, basically there are several points that are really bad for the towing industry.
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: Instead of capping the fees, what they've done is try to get a towing recovery committee to review towing bills.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: Well, what they have proposed is there seven people on the board, only one.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: One of them is a tow-er.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: You know, we've got trucking industry, insurance, police people that have no idea what it costs to do the build, to review it just no qualifications and no expertise.
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: And so we're for a board like we've recommended, like what Arkansas has.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: Their board has nine members.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: Seven of them are towers from different disciplines, and we're all for that.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: That way, if there really is a legitimate issue, you can have someone review it and make recommendations, because we want, you know, the bills to be fair for people yeah, they're expensive, but they need to be fair and just because it gives us a black eye when they're not.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: It sounds like sometimes that's an overreaction and just jumping the gun as far as what they want to regulate.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: you guys with too, yeah, but they've kind of come up with this the last few years that they've pushed very similar legislation.
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: There's a little bit of a change.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: The next big issue if someone disputes a bit that they is proposed, if they dispute the bill, we no longer.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: Or if there's a dispute, whether it's genuine or substantiated, they can come get truck, trailer and cargo at no charge.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: And there's then you're stuck holding the bag how you ever gonna get paid.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: It doesn't have to be, yeah, it doesn't have to be substantiated or anything.
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: It's just if they file this, that's in there.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: And there's also a section that takes away a lien when we do a non-consensual tow for the police department.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: Two problems there A, you can't hold it if someone wants to come get it because you don't have a lien on it.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: And B if we get stuck with it, there's no way to title that through our titling laws.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: We can never get a title for it and do anything.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: And the last problem is it prohibits price per pound billing and people have different thoughts on it.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: Myself, I'm a proponent of it because the same job, no matter if you have the best equipment, the best operators and trained.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: If you go out and do it in three hours and the work takes 12 hours, you get paid the same.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: It should.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: There has to be incentives for people to invest in equipment, invest in drivers, operators, training, um and being proficient and be rewarded for it, where, if you go by the hour, it's just incentive.
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: You know to be the best.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: I mean you can milk the clock, get paid more where I like it, where, hey, you get paid with the jobs worth.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: Whether it takes you four hours or five hours.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: Everybody's on the same playing field, and so my personally, I like it and I've used it for years and it works well.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Well, you touched on several things there.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: The price per pound method, when employed fairly, is a very good method.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: We've had the original creator of it, stormy Norman out of Alabama, on the podcast about a year ago and he talked about it and explained it in great detail and it absolutely is fair to everybody involved.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Going all the way back to the beginning of this conversation about the towing board, um, I'd be more worried about having seven out of the nine people on the account.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: That's where this, this game, is one of us so I'm not a simple matter of one-off.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: So I had a simple matter of six expenses paying a decent way to living wage to people that you know.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: You want good people on the job site, common people that have technical skills that can do the job.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: You also want good people that are being compensated well in life doing well in life as they're handling other people's products and merchandise and vehicles.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: There should be a premium paid for that.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, People don't look at all that.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: It's about accounting.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: It's not about what the insurance or the law enforcement officers or whoever thinks we should be charged in credit Exactly, and you know I've always been one.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: I mean I want I want you know everyone and my employees to get paid well.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: I want to provide the best benefits we can and it took a lot of years.
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: You know where we've been able to provide more and you know I want people to stay, I want to be able to be a career and I'm not working you know about the amount.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: I mean I want it to be able to be a career and I'm not worried, you know, about the amount I mean.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: Obviously it has to be within what you can afford and still make a profit and stay in business.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: But you know, I want people to make a very good living and have a good home life and until they've owned a business, people don't understand the cost of doing business, especially ours.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: People don't understand the cost of doing business, especially ours.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: I can show them a, you know, a PowerPoint and it shows the cost of light duty but some of the heavy duty things for regular towing, sure, but it's so hard to for them to understand all the equipment we have and sometimes we use it once every two or three months, sometimes once a year, but you have to have it setting there, ready to go when you need it um, and and these are the people that are complaining about it the same people that will complain about the road not getting open.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Yes, for sure, for sure.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: So tell us more about the towing board and uh where that's at right now so that's just.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: It's proposed legislation this year.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: Um, the hearing was kind of late in the session.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: This this um week the senate will be going doing budgetary items.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: Um, there's only about another week of sessions for debate and things.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: Um, I think we're going to.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: We'll have pre-filed legislation ourselves next year.
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: That's clean, that's fair for both sides, because currently I'm sorry, just real quick.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: It's almost the end of the session.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: You don't think it's going anywhere this year?
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Is what you're saying, right?
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: It doesn't appear so.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: It has a very low chance.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: I mean you never say never but it doesn't appear.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: So it has a very low chance.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: I mean you never say never but it doesn't appear like it's going.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: We're out of time.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of opposition to the omnib of what bill it's located in.
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: I don't see it moving.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: But you know there can always be an amendment that it's thrown on another bill, but there's only a couple transportation bills that it can be on this year.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: So I think we're in pretty good shape and we're going to craft something for next year that looks good for both sides of the issue.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Awesome, that's very good to hear.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you to hang around for another quick break and then we're going to come back and I want to dig in deep to what's going on there locally in Kansas City.
• 24:45
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• 26:04
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• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome back listeners.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: This has been a great one.
• 26:10
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• 26:17
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• 26:22
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• 26:23
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• 26:29
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• 26:32
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• 26:37
  Speaker 1: And let Wes and April know who you'd like to hear on the podcast next.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: So without further ado.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: I thank you very much for listening and I'll pass you back over to Wes and April Wilber.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Thank you, dj.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: We've got Jared Ennis on from Kansas City giving us some great insight on what's going on out there on the state level.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: There's also a bunch of stuff going on on a local level out there, so Jared, tell us what's been going on locally out there in the Kansas City area.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: So, jarrett, tell us what's been going on locally out there in the Kansas City area.
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: Well, so we've had a lot of news stories that what they consider predatory towing, which is private property tow-offs.
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: It's always a hot topic anywhere around the country and we have our problems with it here and there.
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: But what's happened?
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: There was a company that was accused of doing it improperly, um, and there's been I don't know how many uh felony charges against him, um, just recently.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: So it has been the number one news story for about two weeks every day on every tv station in kansas city.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: So it's been in the spotlight um.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: The way the Missouri law works with private property tow-offs.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: I'll touch on the one that's used the most.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: If signs are posted and it has to have maximum fees and a bunch of information on it, a tow can be done immediately.
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: The property owner, manager, leasee or security company needs to be present and sign when the tow is done.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: And what they're alleging is that the company was towing these and had pre-signed forms and the authorized person was not.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: There is what law enforcement alleged and what they're being charged with.
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: They say it doesn't have anything to do with the timing of that, but in the last week, with the timing of that, but in the last week, and the city of Missouri and Jackson County have proposed ordinances that strengthen their ability to enforce the laws, which I don't know that we need anymore.
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: I mean, we have people charged with 15 or 20 felonies.
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: I think our laws are very aggressive, but it's a hot item right now.
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: What the city is causing the Kansas City, missouri, it wasn't that bad.
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: I just I recommended a stair-step punishment approach and not hitting someone with a hammer the first time.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: The Jackson County ordinance had a lot of problems.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: The Jackson County ordinance had a lot of problems, I did not know, but so about 30 years ago the state of Missouri made a law that a city cannot charge a tow company a license fee whatever for any reason.
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: If you're registered with the USDOT, however, the county shall issue your license, and so guys weren't having to get 20 licenses.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: You buy one county license and that's all you have.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: Well, jackson County, I guess, did never adopted this, which I'm not in Jackson, but I didn't know.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: So they have a proposed ordinance.
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: Their ordinance is $1,000 for the company and $250 a truck is $1,000 for the company and $250 a truck.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: Surrounding counties are at $75 or $100 per company and $25 a truck.
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: So they're 10 times what any surrounding county is.
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: So that's the first problem with it.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: In my case, I would spend $9,750 a year for a business license yeah, that's substantial.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: And again, we need accountants involved to explain to these people that that simply gets passed on to the consumer at the end of the day.
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: That's our argument and thankfully we had a meeting it wasn't sanctioned by the Tow Association A bunch of Jackson County Towers and I was involved Monday night to talk about the issues and two of the Jackson County legislature's elected officials came and were very, very good.
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: They listened, they want to understand and they don't think it's right the way it's proposed anyway, but to work with us and get something that's fair and doesn't hurt a bad company.
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: I mean a good company if they make a minor mistake.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: So in the punishment phase right now, what it says, they can suspend your license for 30 to 45 days.
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: Basically, if you have one driver, owner, principal violate any of these provisions.
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: So if you had 50 trucks and what a driver does one thing, the whole company could lose their business license.
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: The way it's written right now and they're progressively much worse so you have one guy that makes two or three mistakes and they could be honest mistakes in a week.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: The way it's written, business could lose their license for a year, and so I think it's very far-reaching and it's going into regulating consensual towing as well, which it you know it's preempted, but there's legal problems with it as well.
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: But it's just a knee-jerk reaction to a perceived problem, or even not a perceived problem, but one we already have laws in place for yeah, and you know many of these situations where they try to create new legislation and whatnot, new ordinances, whatever.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: There's already laws in place that the yeah, and, like I say, you, the people that are alleging that broke the laws, they have I think it's nine felonies apiece against them.
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's very serious penalties and charges already levied, and so, again, I don't think we need new laws.
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: It seems to me there's plenty of laws in place.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: When someone breaks the law, if they're convicted this is the mother-son coming yeah, they've been accused of breaking the the private property tow off laws is what they went after them for you know I've seen private property tow-off laws is what they went after them for.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: You know I've seen private property towing all over the United States.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Many times it's handled properly and professionally and it's a needed service.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: And there's times I see that it's maybe not handled in that same manner.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: But many times you look at the problems they're very simple to solve.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Many times it's criminal behavior that's already on the books.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, if you go back to the 1960s when the TV show Dragnet looked at the whole towing company issue and how to interact with towing companies and wildcatters one truck operators out there they spelled it out exactly then and today the problem is the same and to be handled the same way by enforcing existing rules on the books I couldn't agree more.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: Um, and I look, I see both sides.
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: It's a necessary thing because in a lot of cities around us I know that the city will find the apartment complex if there's cars with expired tags there, because it's an ordinance violation and so they do enforce it.
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: It's in their leases and when the tags are expired they'll have the cars towed and it's very legit and legal.
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: I mean, you have to do the paperwork correctly, but still everyone gets very upset when their car gets towed.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: And it's very legit and legal.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: And you have to do the paperwork correctly, but still, you know everyone gets very upset when their car gets towed, even though it was their fault.
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: People don't want to take personal responsibility, but you know it's not fair for the property owner to deal with those those situations either that's right, and in america the property owner still has rights.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Thank god for that.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: Anything else you want to tell us about what's going on out there?
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, those are the hot topics we have going on right now.
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: Our association we're trying to have meetings.
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: You know it used to be met just in one location.
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: We had a meeting earlier this year in Columbia.
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: We have our meeting.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: We meet the third Tuesday of the month.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: We're going to Springfield, missouri, for our May meeting to try to get, you know, reach more members and, you know, get in front of people and say, hey, this is what we do, this is why we need your help.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: You know, join us for the to fight.
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: You know, all these things affect you and, just like the towing business, legislation and things are about relationships.
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: Everybody knows someone different.
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: Someone might know the governor very well, someone might know a different legislator, and they respect the opinion of the people that they know.
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: And so it's critical for people to be involved because everything, whether it be on a city or state or county level, affects you and your business.
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: So so, you know, get involved and do what you can do to help.
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: There's, you know, ideas from from everybody that are, that are good, that can be used.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: So I just wish more people would get involved in the associations across the country and help out for a better, better business environment.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: So you said, the second Tuesday of each month we meet the third Tuesday of each month other than December.
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: Then we have just a holiday or Christmas party then and we don't really have business going on.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Where can people find out more information about the association?
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: It is motowtruckcom, motowtruckcom.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Motowtruckcom yeah.
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: And there's our website.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: We're trying to be better about our Facebook.
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: That's one thing that we've always lacked.
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: I think we do a lot of good things.
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: We've never been perfect, because it's all volunteer about communicating and getting our message out, and so we're trying to be better.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: We've added zoom to our meetings.
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: That way people that live a long ways away if they don't want to drive the meeting, they can still participate and get the information.
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: That was something Matt came up with and got everything set up.
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: I was very glad to see we did that and we're working on maybe a training opportunity here this next year.
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: We don't have anything firm, but I know Matt's been working on that so we can provide more content to our members, things that are helpful to them in their everyday business.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, great, thank you for your time, great interview and be safe out there.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: We'll probably come back when you have some updates and more information.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: Okay, it was great talking to you too, and you guys have a good afternoon.