American Towing and Recovery Institute onThe Go
American Towing and Recovery Institute onThe Go
Towing Training and Advocacy Unveiled
Unlock the secrets to staying safe and competitive in the towing and recovery industry with insights from veteran Wes Wilburn. In this episode of the American Towing Recovery Institute podcast, we explore the vital importance of continuous education and collaboration among towing professionals. Wes shares his firsthand experience from a recent training class in Virginia and highlights exciting upcoming opportunities, including a free electric vehicle class in South Carolina and an innovative train car recovery class in Illinois. Together, we emphasize how ongoing training and vigilance are key to ensuring the safety of our industry's professionals.
Join us as we dive into the vital advocacy efforts transforming the towing industry. Learn how the Towing and Recovery Association of America (TRAA) is building strategic relationships with federal agencies to tackle complex industry challenges. With insights from Bill Johnson, we discuss the importance of accurate data, informed discussions, and state-level regulation to advance industry standards. Discover how TRAA's advocacy and top-quality equipment solutions from Towing Equipment Direct can help towing companies stay competitive and compliant with advanced technology. This episode is a must-listen for anyone committed to excellence in towing and recovery.
Welcome one and all to the American Towing Recovery Institute podcast. Remember this is your podcast to promote safety, education, positive public relations and networking within the professional and business-minded towing and recovery industry. 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. 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. Wes has been published over 100 times in major towing publications published over 100 times in major towing publications.
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. 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. He is well known for his straightforward but down-to-earth teaching style. 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 Without further ado. Here's my dear friend and a great guy for our industry, wes Wilber.
Speaker 3:Well.
Speaker 1:DJ.
Speaker 3:Thank you for always for your kind introduction, your kind words. I sincerely appreciate them, try to live up to them every day. I have to tell you I'm feeling pretty good today. I just got back from doing a class in Virginia, a private class, with some people that I've known for years and years and years when I was selling tow truck parts before I ever got involved with Rackmaster two of them. One of them was a student in the first Rackmaster class I ever helped teach in 92, and a second individual in that room this weekend came to the second rec master class I ever helped teach in 93. So it was exciting to be there in the Shenandoah Valley working with a couple of students I'd known for over 30 years.
Speaker 3:In the Shenandoah Valley working with a couple of students I'd known for over 30 years, we had a really good class, did a one-day class part of their requirement for the TRIP program for continuing education and it was Brown and Suntowing, fat Boys and Rick Boardwine, a Hiltz Crane service out of Abington. The three different companies combined together to do the class and it was hot and rugged out there but they had a fire department meeting room so we had nice meeting facilities. I'm a little tired. It was only a week since I got back from st louis and I'm trying to do that every other week, the only training every other weekend to be able to give these weekends my all. But it was a one one day and Chris Haley came down. He's from the northern part of the state of Virginia. He came down to help, had the pleasure of having his two sons in the class DJ, a 16-year-old and a 14-year-old.
Speaker 1:That's good too.
Speaker 3:It really is. It's very nice to see young people motivated and want to attend something like this and be involved with something like this and step up the plate and be a mature adult and take the course. I've had that happen many times over my career so it's always nice to see that happen. Those are very serious, gentlemen. Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good, a little tired, feeling good.
Speaker 1:Well, my friend, we're glad you're back. You're out there helping people work the white line. That's most important. You know you believe in that philosophy. Train them so they come home, they kiss their loved ones goodbye in the morning and they want to be there that night safe and sound. So training does that well.
Speaker 3:It helps with that but constant vigilance is the best thing I can describe to help with that situation, and for me, training is not the answer to everything and anything. It's just one step that I see many successful companies taking when they do what happened here this weekend, where it's companies that work together. The two of them share a zone together and all three of them uh, the one company is about 100, over 100 miles away from the other two, so they they're far enough away there that they trade a little work back and
Speaker 3:forth that way and then brown and sun and fat boys there in salem roanoke area they share a trip. These companies work together so by training together everybody gets on the same page, so there's some real value. As far as training goes, we were in the break of the summer. We generally don't put classes together in july, uh, for you know, hands-on outside activity type classes. Uh, we just found that it's not easy for the towing businesses to send somebody during those times, so we traditionally don't do any training in July.
Speaker 3:We are doing a three-hour electric vehicle class for the Towing Recovery Association of South Carolina. That's basically an inside class. We're outside for a few minutes. That's a free class. That's going to be July 18th in Lexington County. The Towing Recovery Association of South Carolina is hosting the event. You can get more details at their website, trascnet, or call 803-361-6887. And then August DJ. I'm really really excited about this one. You know at my point in my career, most of the time you're not doing anything new and different and this is something new and different, which has caused me to have to do a bunch of research, investigation, networking.
Speaker 3:So it's really exciting at this point in my career to be involved in something like this. We're going out to Maggio's in Rockford Illinois. We're going to do a train car recovery class, working with his RR450, which is a Miller 75-ton rotator boom mounted on a John Deere 450, a huge escalator, and he works train wrecks all the time. As a matter of fact, they've been on Facebook posting where they've been on a big job for two days I think it was Iowa or something. So Marty Maggio is going to teach a class with me helping him.
Speaker 3:I'm going to help facilitate his information and that's going to be August 2nd and 3rd. You can go to our website for more information. Then, september 7th and 8th, we're going to be in Rhode Island working with the Rhode Island Towing Association. It's a private class. Registration goes to them. You can call Adam Branch, 401-248-1600. And then we just got this confirmed the other day and this is going to be a good one. We're going to be at Beeline Towing in Lynchburg, virginia, september 20th for that free three-hour electric vehicle class for firefighters and towing operators. That's from 6 to 9 on the Friday night. They're going to have a sponsored dinner. Then, september 21-22, heavy duty with the rotator.
Speaker 2:They're going all out.
Speaker 3:They've already got a bunch of local sponsors. They're going all out. They've already got a bunch of local sponsors. They're not only sponsoring something to eat in the morning and lunches, they're sponsoring a Saturday night dinner. They've got all kinds of door prizes. Kevin Jones and his group there at Beeline are going to do a wonderful job. Like I say, they've already got so much stuff set up. Then we'll be out in Oregon for a private school first part of October. We'll be out in Oregon for a private school first part of October. So the only place we'll be in a public school in October is Lake Station. That Friday night, october 18th, electric vehicle class. Saturday, october 19th and the 20th on Sunday, the heavy duty with rotator. And then we got two more dates November in Kansas light duty on Friday, the first, second and third for heavy duty rotator, and then November 16th and 17th, sumner, south Carolina, for fire tow cross training. For more information go to our website wwwamtowriorg or call our office 910-747-9000.
Speaker 2:DJ.
Speaker 3:I have to tell you interest in schools has gone up dramatically. We're actually booking. We've got four dates in 2025 booked up already. You know, maybe a piece of it is I'm not quite doing as many as I was a few years ago. I'm only willing to go every other weekend. It's the only way I can show up with energy at the next class. So the interest in schools has skyrocketed for us. You know, I won't say all of a sudden, I guess it's been building, building, building. So we're super excited about that. Again, at my age it's exciting to be relevant and still be, you know, in the game.
Speaker 1:So you got it. Well, before we take a break, can I repeat the website and the phone number. It's wwwamtowriorg and then the phone number 910-747-9000. For more information about all those classes, please just contact them. It's on the website, A lot of the information is right there, so how about we take a break? We've got a great guest right after.
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Speaker 1:Welcome back listeners. Of course you are listening to the American towing recovery Institute podcast with Wes Wilbur and DJ Harrington, better known as the toe doctor. Every week, we bring you informative episodes like this one here. Make sure you download and listen. We're available on Spotify, itunes, pandora, stitcher, iheartmedia, amazon or wherever you get your podcasts. So, without further ado, let me turn it over to our dear friend industry expert Wes Wilber.
Speaker 3:Thank you, DJ. I certainly appreciate that. Would like to take a quick second and thank our listeners. Keep hitting that subscribe button. The number's growing every week. We're approaching 15,000 is what I understand. So we're really thankful for all our listeners. And again, if you like what you're listening to, hit that like button, but really hit that share and get other people to subscribe. That's what we need is people to subscribe. So, with that being said, we're walking back. Previous guest on the podcast, Bill.
Speaker 3:Johnson current president of TRA is going to come on. We did an episode with him, probably six weeks ago now, where they talked about what was going on at that point with the FCC. So, bill, we're going to walk you back. Take a moment and introduce our guest, if you would please.
Speaker 6:Sure Wes and thank you, dj. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the industry and speak to the hardworking individuals of this industry. As Wes said, my name is Bill Johnson. I've been in the God I hate to say it close to 50 years. Time flies when you're having fun I hate to say it close to 50 years. Time flies and you're having fun and we're here to.
Speaker 6:I guess the first thing is talk about the hot button issue, the Federal Trade Commission and the DOT, fmcsa, and I just want to give a quick recap for those of you that are not aware the Biden administration. He gave the Federal Trade Commission a charge to seek out junk fees and as part of that charge, they had to give a report to Congress to get authorization. Then they had to give an update to Congress about the progress, so the first report was in 2022. Progress so the first report was in 2022. The second report was in 2023. There was over 12,000 comments to the FTC and none of the comments involved towing. And what precipitated the issue was the acting administrator, who was put in place January 27th, sent a letter to the FTC requesting that towing be underneath the FTC predatory fee scheme and the TRAA was made aware of it that day.
Speaker 6:We took time to kind of find out where it's coming from. Like I've said many times, you know, when a fireman shows up at a house, they just don't start spraying water on the smoke. They try to find out where the fire is coming from. Like I've said many times, you know, when a fireman shows up at a house, they just don't start spraying water on the smoke. They try to find out where the fire is coming from. And that's pretty much what we did. There was a lot of people in the industry that went around without the facts saying you know, this is going to be terrible. And the TRA took the time, the due diligence, the staff of the TRA, the lobbying team for the TRA and we had the I guess they called it a public hearing or a public comment session on this issue, and there was many people that responded to it. I think the towers did a great job. Everybody said that, gee, this is going to be a bloodbath with the DOT, that the trucking industry is going to really come down hard on the towing industry.
Speaker 6:And really what it went into is the towers really highlighted. The real core issue is the underpayment of all the commercial motor vehicle wrecks and the lack of proper insurances, and that really was what came out of that meeting. Dj and Wes, I just want to kind of take a breath here and see if you have any questions before I continue.
Speaker 3:Yes, Just to clarify for some of our listeners, and you probably already did but just to clarify.
Speaker 6:TRA is a 40-year-old organization, a ballpark, whatever TRA is actually TRA. This November will be celebrating the 45th anniversary of the TRA as a federal lobbyist, lobbyists and the ability of the TRA. With the federal lobbyists and being there, we were able to dive into this issue and really find out the true source of it, which we all know was the ATA, the American Trucking Association, through their self-funded research arm, which produced this bias report. Once we dug into it we found out they only contact roughly 490 trucking companies throughout the country and there's 55,000 registered trucking companies and it was only 20 companies that actually reported. So that's been kind of like.
Speaker 6:The TRA's theme all along is that this was a bias report and they really don't have the correct numbers. Like when I had one of the meetings with the DOT, I said to them I goes, how many non-consensual tows happen in this country per year? How many consensual tows? And of course they didn't know the answer. So this is why the TRAA has requested that the Federal Motor Carrier, the DOT, do a task force to try to find out these answers to these questions, find out really how big of a problem predatory towing is.
Speaker 6:I mean, I truly believe it's a very small problem. You know, am I going to sit here and say that there's no problems? No, but it's a very small problem and we've already made the DOT aware which they should have been aware that Congress ceded authority to the states and local municipalities to oversee nonconsensual towing. But we truly believe the TRA. You just can't go around saying leave us alone, don't bother us, there's no problems. That's not going to resonate well with the bureaucracy. So we need to, you need to have discussion and you need to listen to the other side. Actually, like Doug from OIDA, which I you know I bite my tongue with this, but you know OIDA has always been kind of like I don't know, not very favorable to towing, but when I listened to Doug that Friday, you know Doug was talking about the peril of the independent truckers.
Speaker 6:you know, no parking, lack of bathroom facilities, the tug-of-war they have with brokers, shippers, receivers, so we really need to kind of all parties need to get in a room and figure this out.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 6:I really feel that through discussion and learning from each other we're going to solve our problems. The TRAA is not I want to clarify, is not recommending that the federal government regulate non-consensual towing. Congress has ceded that to the states, the local government. When you start reading the laws, there is a possibility the federal government could re-regulate consensual towing again the way it was prior to 1993 and allow the states to do that too. So we need to have some discussion. We need to. Like I said, there's a group of towers that are just saying oh, just leave us alone, everything's fine.
Speaker 2:And that doesn't resonate.
Speaker 6:Well, you know we need to have discussion. Actually we've done several talks with the FTC and actually the TRA had a meeting with Commissioner Holyoke last week and educated her on the complexities of towing, because a lot of people they just think towing is you just back up to a vehicle, hook it up whether it's on a flatbed or a wrecker, move it and drop it. And we have to educate these people to the complexities of what goes on out there in the real world, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, go ahead Wes. No, you're making great points. We do need to take a quick break. When we come back, I want you to talk a little bit about the relationships that TRA has developed with different agencies over the decades. You sure need to take a quick break and we'll be right back.
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Speaker 1:Welcome back listeners. Of course you know you're listening to the American Tone Recovery Institute podcast, wes Wilburn, dj Harrington, our special guest, bill Johnson, president of the TRAA Hall of Famer. He's been around a long time, well-known, has spoken at a lot of industry events and I want to remind all of our listeners to like, review and share everywhere. You're always welcome to call the hotline and if you want an industry expert like Bill Johnson, just dial our hotline number 706-409-5603. That comes to the podcast center and let us know who industry expert you would like to have on your podcast. All right, without further ado, wes, I'll turn it back over to you. Thanks, dj.
Speaker 3:So, Bill, we were talking about TRA and the deep roots. We had Bob Gorman, president of the Empire State Towing Association, on shortly after he attended Hill Day and he ran and raved in a very positive way about the political contacts there. Could you talk about some of that type of stuff, political and otherwise, about what TRA? Has done and is doing.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I'd be happy to Wes. Can I name off every agency that the TRA has dealt with? Probably not because it's too broad of a list. I can't remember. I'm getting old, you know.
Speaker 6:The TRA, like I said, has been around for 45 years and five years ago really stepped it up with the federal lobbyists. But even prior to that the TRA has been instrumental. I believe it has worked with several different organizations, federal agencies I mean the US DOT is the biggest one. We work with the Federal Motor Safety Carry Administration and it's all about relationship. You think about anything in business. It's about relationship and building trust and that's what the TRA has been doing and that's why we were allowed to I shouldn't say allowed, but that's why we were able to hit the ground and really dive into this and we didn't want to go out when this first hit in February 7th.
Speaker 6:We didn't come out and want to say on February 8th, oh, this is terrible. We wanted to take the time to find out what was going on. Like I said, you just don't go to recovery and just start hooking straps and chains and start pulling. You need to analyze the scene and figure out how you're going to. Just don't go to recovery and just start hooking straps and chains and start pulling. You need to analyze the scene and figure out how you're going to recover that wreck, and that's pretty much what the TRA did you know, because we've dealt with so many federal agencies.
Speaker 6:We understand how it works and that's what we've done. I mean, if it was not for the TRA, we would not have had this June 21st meeting. You know we've met with the FTC. I know the TRAA, through the training, has dealt with the I believe it's the National Highway Safety and other agencies. Like I said, I know there's several we've dealt with. I cannot name all the names off the top of my head but we've developed a deep bench of relationships you know we've had.
Speaker 6:Congressman McGovern has been a good ally to this industry out of Massachusetts, senator Duckworth, there's many more elected officials that are. Over the last years we've educated them through the complexities of the towing industry and that's pretty much what we're doing now with the FTC and the DOT. As you would think, the DOT, with their position they would have known more about the towing industry but they didn't and the FTC only knew what Sulava sent them. So now we've been educating them on the complexities of the industry and the FTC deals more with, like airline tickets. You know you buy an airline ticket, you go one butt that sits in the seat and either you're going to have one or two bags, you know for check-in and that's not how towing works and we've explained that to them. We had a really good Zoom call with the commissioner and I want to give credit where credit's due. It's not just me as the team.
Speaker 6:We you know, we have Cindy and Elizabeth at the TRA. We have the the law, the federal lobbying team, which has probably, you know, I think they have like four or five people working at sometimes on on our issues, and then there's a legal team. You know, I may be the face and I may be the guy out here saying all this stuff, but there's this whole team behind that is really paving the way for the ability for me to go to the DOT on that hearing and say what's on our mind. And actually Brian Stansbury, the general counsel he gave credit to the TRAA, you know basically said we wouldn't be here today if it was not for the TRAA. That's basically what he said. And so we've really opened up the dialogue and I think we're going to get through this. The industry's going to get through it. I mean, when you think about it, you know the old saying is you know you have to have a storm before the calm. When you think about it, you know the old saying is you know you have to have a storm before the calm. And I really feel this issue is going to help the industry. I really do. I think it was Sue Lawless.
Speaker 6:The acting administrator was misguided in sending that letter that was from the ATRI to the FTC. But it is what it is. And well, actually she's not even there, no more. They put in another administrator. She was only there for like two months. I don't know if you guys are aware of that. She's gone. I don't know if she's still working for the agency, but she's not the acting administrator anymore. I find that interesting. But I'm going to give a pause and let you guys it seems like I monopolized the conversation here, so I want to let you guys chime in.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, you're doing fine. I think you're doing a good picture of painting what's going on and whatnot, and I definitely agree with your comments about some members of the industry seem to react much differently to this news, and so I like getting this straight scoop from you. I think you're doing good, don't you think so?
Speaker 1:DJ yes, very much so. Well, he's a gifted guy and he's done a lot for the industry.
Speaker 3:TRA has a couple people on staff, but you're a volunteer taking time away from your businesses to do this. That is correct, isn't it, Bill?
Speaker 6:Oh, yes, yes, everybody, that Every cabinet member on the TRA board is a volunteer. The only paid positions is the education director and the executive director, well, of course, the lobbyist and the legal, but all you know, the president, the first vice president, the whole cabinet is just a volunteer, as with, I think, just about every single state association. Same thing the executive director and maybe some support staff gets paid, but it's all a volunteer effort.
Speaker 1:I believe that Bill Johnson and the team at TRAA have stood on the shoulders of the 46 years of leadership of people that have volunteered, given up their time to help our industry through TRAA. So my question, bill and I appreciate all the people who have served on the board of TRAA in the last 46 years, but I want to ask you Wes has a tremendous amount of listeners to ask you Wes has a tremendous amount of listeners what could our listeners do to enhance what?
Speaker 6:you're doing right now with GRAA the listeners. Get involved, join your state association, join the federal association. Read your emails. Be aware of the issues that are facing our industry. Talk to your fellow colleagues. You know that's that's what they in this industry and I don't know. It's because of the public authority they have. They've created islands out of the towing industry because of a fellow tower calls up another tower to help them out on scene. That public authority then says oh well, you shouldn't be on the rotation list because you can't handle it. But yet it's okay for the fire department to have mutual aid, the local police to have mutual aid, whether it's the sheriffs or state police and vice versa.
Speaker 6:But if a tower requests mutual aid, we're the bad guys. We don't have enough staff. We should have enough trucks. So we need to start talking to each other. We need to educate ourselves. You know, do you think you've ever gone to a dentist? You go to a dentist and you pretty much see the same pricing for all the services. I'm not saying they're all the same, I'm not suggesting we price fix, but we need to talk to each other. We need to all be on the same book and page. That's part of what is going on here.
Speaker 6:I look at a lot of tow bills and the biggest problem I see is not what is being charged, it's not the service rendered, it's the lack of a proper narrative explaining the service and the lack of a proper line item explaining the charge. And we need to as an industry, if you want to. We want to get paid like professionals. We got to act like professionals and we need to do a better job of explaining ourselves. We need to do a better job of explaining why we charge what we charge, not just get upset and say you know, things are freaking expensive and go off on a rant. So, and also, dj, it's 45 years this year, not 46, but anyway, we'll be around for 46,. But I just want to say this November will be the 45th anniversary. You're 100% correct.
Speaker 6:The TRA is what it is because of all the great people in the past. You know the TRA would not be where we're at if it wasn't for Joanne Blighton and Jeff Roscoff, two of our most recent predecessors to me. And it's all built upon and we're getting to the culmination of maturing and hopefully the TRA will be seeking some additional staff because you want to grow. It's like your towing business You're not going to grow unless you add drivers. You know you're not going to grow if you don't add support staff. And it's the same thing with the TRAA. We're at a crossroads where we need to add more staff to the TRAA to continue what we're doing, and that's something I'll be really advocating for.
Speaker 6:And if Towers want to help, like I said, join your state association, join the National Association of the TRAA. I know it's painful, but hit that little donate button for your legislative group on the state level, the legislative on the federal level, whether it's $10 or $1,000. People think I only can donate $50. Or $1,000. People think I only could donate $50 and they don't understand how that $50 times 100 or times 500 adds up. And that's what we need to do. The industry needs to fund what we're doing.
Speaker 6:Our lobbyists is approaching. I believe it's public information. I believe it's roughly about $192,000 a year for the lobbyists. It's money well spent, but it's still money and we need to pay for it and the industry needs to pay for it. The value is there because we would not have been able to react if we had not hired the lobbyists, whatever it was five years ago. We would not have been able to react. We'd be having a different conversation right now with what happened with the DOT and the FTC. We would have got walked over instead of working with our partners and our relationships that we built on the federal level.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. On behalf of the industry, I want to thank you and all the different people that are involved with.
Speaker 2:CRA.
Speaker 3:We are an associate member affiliate member, I'm not sure of the correct term but sincerely, on behalf of the industry, we thank you and the whole board.
Speaker 6:One thing I would like to. When we started, we had our first affiliate state assembly meeting on June 27th. We had there was roughly 30 people on the call, and our next affiliate state assembly meeting is Thursday, july 25th at 11. Cindy will be sending out notices to all the state associations. So my recommendation if you're a state association and you're not an affiliate member of the TRA, you need to join, because the whole idea to have these monthly meetings is to get the word out and find common ground, and we had a very good conversation with this last one. It was about because Brian Stansbury at the DOT requested some specific answers to questions. So we reviewed all that and actually they've extended the comment period until August 1st of this year. So things are good and we're making headway. That's about all I can. I guess I'll close with that.
Speaker 3:Well, how can folks get more information? And get in touch with the organization.
Speaker 6:TRAAonlinecom is the website. I'm sure you just Google TRAA, it will come up with the website. Okay, great.
Speaker 3:Well, Bill, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate what you're doing and coming here and talking to everybody. We'll look forward to having you on again soon. If things change, God is of now, we'll just get you back anyway to get an update.
Speaker 6:Sure, Feel free to invite me anytime and I truly appreciate it, and I hope I didn't bore you guys too much.
Speaker 3:Have a good day Exactly what we want to Bill.
Speaker 6:Thanks again All right, thank you Bye.