Go and get your crane ticket. Go to your crane and get a ticket. Sounds like a bad time.
Speaker 2What are we talking about today?
Speaker 1Just bullshit. Yeah, we're going to talk to. We're going to promote the PTAO show. We're going to talk some bullshit. Okay. I'm good with bullshit. Don't sell it as garbage Like it's good bullshit.
Speaker 2It's not bullshit, it'll be hot garbage it's.
Speaker 1We're two towers talking about what's going on in the industry.
Speaker 2uh yes, important, real, real hot garbage. Real hot bullshit. Yeah, it's real, I'll call garbage don't call garbage one man's trash is another man's treasure.
Speaker 1You just never know, that's why I look so good on this show. Show.
Speaker 2Hey everyone, I'm Brad from Calgary. This is Sean from Cambridge Ontario. I'm Terry from Cornwall Ontario. Hey, this is Larry from Pit.
Speaker 1Metals British Columbia and you're listening to the Towing Life Podcast.
Speaker 2Welcome to the Towing Life Podcast, where the ditches are deep, the trucks are loaded, but the drivers are not I'm your host, towman g, and as usual, I'm joined by my co-host, friend and former co-worker with man with very strong opinions, mr Plain Guy.
Speaker 1What is going on? G. What is going on?
Speaker 2Oh, you know, just another day in the life on the towing life podcast absolutely what a day it is.
Speaker 1It's a beautiful day. It's 30 degrees outside for our american listeners that's somewhere in the I don't know. Uh, it's warm and nice. Um, my igloo is fully melted. Um, the moose has been put into the barn and uh, we're here recording another episode, episode 146, of the towing life podcast. Getting close to that. 150, that's a. It's a decent milestone in its own right, I guess. What would it be? 156 would be about three years, um, uh, yeah three years.
Speaker 1Well, three years is in august. Three years. We are coming up on our three-year anniversary. Uh, I think it's time. We have not talked about this prior to the show. As most of the stuff happens, it's probably time to start looking at doing another live or doing something along those lines. It tends to be our anniversary tradition. Um, pretty sure we're making up words at the same time, yeah, but yes, episode 146 of the tone life podcast.
Speaker 1We got some great stuff to go over today. Uh, shoot the shit of the. Uh, you know two towers that have been at it long enough, just having a good time and talking about some fun. Before we get into that, it is a good time to mention if you want to reach out, have your voice heard on the show. There's multiple ways that you can do it. You can visit us at wwwtowinglifeca, you can email us at thetowinglife at gmailcom, or you can visit us over on Facebook by searching the Towing Life podcast. If you're watching over on the YouTube side, if you're one of the lucky few that can sit down and have enough time to physically watch us on a screen, there is the option to like and subscribe and leave a comment down below. It's always appreciated, and you guys really do help push our content in the direction you so choose, unless we don't like it, and then we'll move it whichever way we decide.
Speaker 2If you're watching on YouTube, your phone better not be in the gauge cluster of your truck while you're going down the road.
Yes, 100%. We do notone um nor encourage that kind of activity. So, uh, that being said, it's it's kind of exciting g? Um. We've announced recently over on our social media um, I don't think we ever actually did it on the show, but we will be. It is confirmed. We will be in attendance once again for the 2024 PTAO Tow Show, which is the Professional Towing Association of Ontario's Tow Show being held. I have it here September 13th and 14th at Bingman's in Kitchener. It's a venue that they've had to host this tow show for many years. It's a great little venue. There's a lot to show. For many years it's a it's a great little venue. Uh, there's a lot to do there. Like around there there's the boston pizzas. Uh, with bowling, there's all kinds for the family. You can camp right on site. They've got uh different. Well, they have like digger games and stuff.
Speaker 2Like they've got a bunch for the kids yeah, the only issue is that's outside of the actual like camping season, so I'm not sure if everything at big men's is open, but they got mini golf and I remember the mini golf was open, the water park wasn't.
Speaker 1I think, yeah, the water park might be a little chilly in september anyways yeah.
Speaker 1so if you are in ontario or any of the surrounding you know area, especially in the kitchener area I know there's a lot of some folks from Burlington, um, you know or or down Buffalo side Uh, it's pretty, uh, pretty close drive. If you're anywhere in Ontario, do not forget to attend, uh, ptao's toe show September 13th and 14th. Um, we will be there. We are doing this year so last year. Last year was funny. We brought merch to the show. We had brought the the shirts that the G is wearing right now to the show, not knowing what the consensus was going to be, what, what volume we needed to bring, you know no idea.
Speaker 1We just brought like 12 or 16 shirts, yeah, yeah, and some hats.
Speaker 1I think there was some hats and we said whatever sells sells and whatever doesn't sell, it is what it is. And my God, we had brought forms just in case we didn't have a size that somebody requested. And, my God, I spent the next two weeks filling out orders. What a success it was. So we thank all those that attended. We will be doing it again this year. The difference is this year to make sure that we have what you need.
Speaker 1We have launched a pre-order for the show, right? Last thing I want to do is is get there and not have the size you need. Um, you know some people. If they don't have it there, you know they're just not going to get it. I get it right. It takes time to mail it out. So if you are going to be at the toe show, you can can head over to our um, our Facebook page. You will see, uh, the link we shared for the pre-order. You can fill it out, get the pre-order done. We will deliver the shirts directly to the toe show. Uh, this year we are going with, uh, the same logo that is, on the front of G shirt the toe in life podcast and on the sleeve as well as on the back. We are going with our porn star t-shirts. They were very popular, um, I got called out for one in baltimore for having one on. I remember that. Um, so it's uh. A brief description is is you know, towing saved me from being a porn star?
Speaker 2now I'm just a hooker I'll put a logo up on screen if you're on the youtube side absolutely, we can also go.
Speaker 1You, like I said, you can visit our social media, find the pre pre-order page and go there and get it. You'll see the t-shirt right there. A lot of big sponsors, which is great to see for this year's tow show. Right, you've got your, your usual big players Eagle towing. You know Abrams, you've got. Tow soft. You've got. You know abram I think I said abram's rescue 51 big hook towing. A lot of towing companies have even supported to help make this show as much as of a success as possible and they've got a lot of great stuff going on this year. I was going through kind of the seminar, the uh, the itinerary, I guess, and you know I see ev training seminar panel discussion. They've got their yearly AGM.
Speaker 2That's for the membership side of it. Is Canadian going there?
Speaker 1this year. Yep, okay, you do not need to be a member of the PTAO to attend this show. So if you're out of province, out of state, whatever it is, you do not need to be a member. You can come. There's a $5 fee to get in. If you be a member, you can come. There's a five dollar um fee to get in, um, if you are a member. If you're not a member in the province, you probably should become one um and uh, it's free for them.
Speaker 1You've got a meet and greet on the friday night. We always enjoyed that down at waterloo brewery or brewery right. We've gone in, we have some drinks, mingle and shake hands with. You know a lot of the big big players in the industry and not, and not just you know a lot of the big big players in the industry and not, and not just. You know this isn't just where, like, sales reps are trying to wind dine in. You know just towers, just towers, having I don't know how many late nights we spent out at tables having drinks with people at Waterloo brewery, just, you know, discussing all the fun time we've had. So that is on the Friday night. Saturday they do a memorial procession parade. We had filmed a bit of that last year.
Speaker 1For the Fallen, the tow show opens. There's a show and shine contest, which has always turned up some great competition. There are some beautiful trucks that show up at the Ontario Tow Show. There's a seminar on RSLA, which is Leans, repair and Storage. Leans Act to help towing companies move forward with collecting payment on vehicles and how to put liens against vehicles and how to ensure you're going to get paid a silent auction. Uh, there's a speaker I'm not too familiar with it called unstoppable tracy. Not sure who that is. We will look into that.
Speaker 1Uh, there's a women's uh luncheon. My wife has attended that before, so it's. It's an event dedicated to women in the industry. Right, women supporting women in the industry. We know that this is a male dominated industry. Um, you know, I think we're seeing big changes and like shifts to that, like I think you're seeing a lot more women come into the industry. So it's a great time to get together with them um, discuss maybe any struggles they've had and you know how to overcome any issues they've ran into. All that good stuff. There's a weights and balance session and balances that. I think that'll be good in Ontario recently with the requirement to enter scales. A lot of emphasis has been put on how to properly scale your tow truck and and what your truck can legally uh do. And then later on that night there's an award banquet with bill nuvo, um, I don't know who.
This one is unusually entertaining. Last year they had a magician. You didn't go to the banquet last year, no, but last year they had a magician and I will. It was like a magician and a mentalist and I will admit I actually partook in part of the um the event. We were. We were tasked with chaining this guy up. It was me and uh derrick, uh derrick to down and two big lads and we were like I was trying to suffocate this guy and we tied this thing up and he was quite comical, like he was a comedian as well. It was a great time and he put on an amazing show. The entertainment was awesome, the food was great, the silent auction was fun. It was overall a really good time. So, you know, get your tickets to the banquet and have a good time.
Speaker 1Like I said, the EV will be interesting. Actually, yeah, the EV training seminar will be interesting. Maybe we'll see if we can get a little bit of you know, insight into that and see if we can get a little bit of recording from the show for you guys. Also, for those of you that aren't in Ontario, aren't able to make the tow show, aren't in Ontario, aren't able to make the tow show, most of the stars, most of the people from Heavy Rescue, 401, right, which is a popular show that unfortunately ended now for the last couple years, will be in attendance at the show.
Speaker 1If you know in advance that there is somebody that you want us to sit down and talk with, if you know there is some equipment that'll be there. Or or you know, even if it's not a heavy rescue but something that you want covered from the show, don't hesitate and reach out to us. We will do our best to based on and I know g did a phenomenal job of that last year or was the year before as well. No, but you went around and you found stuff that that I wouldn't really think of, right, you went out and you round, you found stuff I remember you did a couple years ago you did a great job with with bryce um talking about his rotators and that, that kind of stuff. So if there is specific equipment you guys are looking at. If you want a full rundown, maybe some nrc equipment, because ontario is big with nrc it's not as popular still in the states. It's growing um but it's not quite there should grow faster really, the equipment is absolutely um rika is there like there's.
Speaker 1There's vendors from everywhere. So if it's something that you know you have some questions about, whether it be a specific piece of equipment, a specific brand, or you know a question for a specific person don't hesitate, reach out to us. We'll do our best while we're at that show give me a to-do list.
Speaker 2I want to stay busy during this toe show I'll.
Speaker 1If they don't, I will. You can go get sandwiches. Make sure the coolers are stocked oh, that's.
Speaker 2That's why we're camping there this year, because last year, as always, someone's got to stay sober to get us back to the hotel, and this time we're camping on site. So all we got to do is stumble our way back across the hotel, and this time we're camping on site. So all we got to do is stumble our way back across the road and find our.
Speaker 1We've done that the first year that we did the tow show. Yeah, I don't even think the podcast didn't exist at the time. No, you and I rented bingman's has these c-can campers yeah like c-can, with, just like some bunk beds, a lamp, maybe a fridge I think an ac unit too an ac unit I remember we had. We had like hot dogs and we had cereal with no milk or no bowls or something. There was a weird thing that we had.
Speaker 2We looked like two college. I know you were already playing. I was like, hey, I want to come to that. And you're like, yeah, and I already had the cabin, the container cabin.
Speaker 1So we looked like two frat boys on a camping trip with nothing in life figured out.
Speaker 2Yeah, and that was some of the best nights. I think we're out shooting the breeze until like 1am, getting kicked out of the parking lot by security, the owner of said trailer that got pissed on pissed on his own trailer and that got good.
Speaker 1No, no, pissed on his own trailer and that got good. No, no, that was no. Okay, the owner of said trailer was there, I was the one that went to take a piss.
Speaker 1Oh, you're the one that got us kicked, yeah, so. So we were at a tow show and we were hanging out by the back of one of our trucks and again, we were staying on property, so we'd knocking down, drinking and driving, yeah, and, and we were just shooting the breeze with some towers and we had a cooler in the back and we were pulling out beers, keeping them low, just you know, hanging out having a good time, and security was eyeballing us, eyeballing us, eyeballing us, and we were with some of the board members, if I'm not mistaken at the time, um, who hired said security. And so you know again, we're not causing a ruckus, we're not anything. We're really keeping to ourselves and being respectful and causing a ruckus. We're not anything. We're really keeping to ourselves and being respectful. And then I gotta piss. You know, I've had a couple wobbly pops. I walk over to the tree line, there's a trailer there, and I go behind the trailer yeah, so you're out of sight out of sight the seal yeah, and I break the seal.
Speaker 1That security guard was so fast to come over and that was the final straw. Apparently that was what broke the camel's back. I've been letting you guys get away with this, but that's it, and I'm like what first of all, it's his trailer. He paid you and, like I, went in the bush behind the trailer so that, like what do you want me to just pee in the middle of the parking lot?
Speaker 2like that would be grounds to absolutely get me out of there right away let me just crawl, jump in my truck and grab a piss jug out of the back piss in the jug and then throw it into your parking lot so you can pick it up tomorrow.
Speaker 1Yeah, and then you know, we ended up back at the cabin and we stayed up to whatever time shooting the breeze and everything else. It is really a good time. I really enjoy these tow shows for that I find you can. You can see people you haven't seen in a long time. You've got. You've got you know. We know towers have stories.
Speaker 1That's the whole origin of this show, right, and, and we've got some of the tamer ones, can you know, compared to some of these people that we meet from like northern ontario and everything else, and you can just have a conversation, just towers having a conversation. No one's pulling it out and trying to be the biggest guy at the show. No one's doing any of that stuff. It's just wholesome towers getting together. That's why I think these shows are so important. Right, in an industry so divided, two days to get together and have a good time right, it's a good. You and I it's the one time a year we get to record in person together, right, and if you haven't seen last year's show, it was one of my favorites that we did from the hotel room. We were laughing, we had a grand time.
Speaker 1We're both under the influence a hundred percent, but we had a grand time the year before that. We did it from the same hotel but in, like the restaurant, because we didn't have a room big enough to to do a recording, and without sitting on our beds, um, so, yeah, so if you haven't already like, mark it on your calendar. September 13th and 14th uh, down in kitchener, ontario, bingman's resort it's like bingman's family camping and something. Um, there's a lot of hotels in the area. G was the genius that told me I had booked a hotel. I found it a little pricey. I went online at Airbnb. After he gave me the idea, I found an awesome little B&B nearby and so we'll be at the show all weekend.
Speaker 1Like I said, submit your stuff. You can email us at thetowinglifeatgmailcom. You can head over to the website towinglifeca. There's a comment section. There's a contact us section right on it, and you can also, like I said, down over on the YouTube side, send us a message on Facebook. Whatever it is that you want to do, we will be more than happy to oblige and be sure to get your preorder in for your t-shirt to ensure that we have your size when we get there. I don't know how much past the preorder we're going to bring. We normally bring a limited inventory. Again, we are a lower budget show. I am not going to go invest in $10,000 with a clothing to be one show per year, exactly.
Speaker 1So get your preorder in, we'll get that equipment ordered. I think it's going to somewhere be around the end of August that the preorder is going to close just due to the fact that we've got to get it produced and packaged and ready to go. So yeah, I'm excited for it.
Speaker 2I really am. Yeah, like I was. I was looking at the hotel and I was like, ooh, that's going to be expensive, especially since I wanted to bring my dog, right, right, that's what we want to do. Me and the girlfriend were like, oh, okay, so then not really fair to the dog, maybe we should just leave it. And I was like I do have that house trailer that I could drag down there and the cost savings to you're gonna get a site.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's like, well, the cost savings between the hotel, because I think the hotel is going to be around six hundred dollars for two nights and I need to stay for three, right, yeah, we should all should, really should stay for three, because the start of the tow show for us to set up is friday morning, so you want to be down there in good time and so you're looking at three nights. So you're going to be close to almost a thousand dollars in hotel stays, plus, if I throw a dog fee on top of that, it's going to be like twelve hundred dollars. Airbnbs are a lot cheaper around four, five hundred dollars for the three nights. But I could order a campsite at bigman's with electricity and running water, uh, for like two hundred dollars for three nights and the dog's free like you can keep the dog at the site, and he's not, even if I spend an extra two hundred dollars where the fuel and my commons drag in the house trailer down, which I'm not.
Speaker 2It's four hundred dollars for a three night getaway, for like a trip, plus your food and your everything else. But like it's just a great. You can make it a fairly low cost venture because to enter the show it's five dollars. You get to hang around with a bunch of towers and just shoot the breeze with people you know, people you haven't met. It's a great networking opportunity and it doesn't have to be an expensive getaway. It can be if you want it to be, yeah, but it doesn't have to be an expensive getaway. It can be if you want it to be, yeah, but it doesn't have to be. You can do it on the cheap. They've got containers there that I think are like 75 a night, 50 a night, um. You can even tent camp there if you want. Like there there is options.
Speaker 1There's options for it and it's in september. It's still early enough in the year. The way the weather goes nowadays in september like you're more than I've camped plenty of times in september you can make this a cost-effective trip. To head down, one of my biggest complaints I had over the previous years and this didn't just go for myself, it was multiple people was the food on site. There was never food on site. Remember that. Well, this year they've listened. They brought in food trucks. There will be food on site oh, that's got me excited.
Speaker 1Yeah, there was alcohol on site last year too. Remember they opened up that little window. They had pizza. They finally convinced I don't know how they pulled it off they had pizza and they were selling beer and everything else. It's a really good time. I can't explain enough. It is an annual tradition. We have been doing for at least the last four years. Five years we've done, I think last four years, five years we've done. Yeah, um, I think covid might have played a little role on one of them, uh, one or two of them, just like it did everything else, yeah, uh, but yeah, no, if you're in the ontario area, like I travel, what's the travel for me? Seven hours, something like that, I think it's like seven hours for me to travel, to go, and I still make sure to to go every year.
Speaker 2It's almost far enough for you that you could justify a flight oh, yeah, yeah 100.
Speaker 1It's right on that borderline. If if our airfare prices were similar to the states, I would be fine, yeah yeah, I know some people who actually own airplanes fly to this event yeah, so do I.
Speaker 1I end up having to pick them up. I picked him up a couple of times, seeing him walk off with a suit over his shoulder, walking away from his little Cessna and like you're, you're, we're in different tax brackets. All I'm saying I'm still trying to, I'm trying to get you know. I want to take my company truck just to save my fuel cost. But yeah, no. So head over to the website. If you want more information, you can always head over to the professional towing association of Ontario's website, which is P, t, a, o, dot O R G. You'll find all the information there, with all the different seminars. Our logo is down there. They have once again called us on their website toe life podcast. I mean close enough, I'm not going to split hairs over them calling me the wrong name. They've been always very good to us. They've taken care of us. They missed the I-N-G.
Speaker 1It's just Toe.
Speaker 2Life.
Speaker 1What is a couple of letters among friends?
Speaker 2You can be toe life and I'll be the ing. You'll be the ing, yeah.
Speaker 1I'll be the ing. You'll be the silent partner in the back that nobody sees. Yeah, no, it is a good time to head over to that. There was a story that I said I wanted to save for the show and I don't remember it. Right before we started talking I said, never mind, I'm going to tell it on the show. Oh, I remember Crazy American Road Sides, remember. Right before we started talking I said, never mind, I'm gonna tell no show. Oh, I remember crazy american roadsides.
So you haven't been around as much gee, but there has been a surge of. I have never heard of towing company or like towing roadsides that are popping up everywhere. Some you've probably heard of. Right, I've, I've seen posts online. Nation Safe Drivers is one who recently has been reaching out to us Urgently, has called, but they're always state to state, which is obviously something we can't do. Being a Canadian company. I've never actually seen them have a call in Canada, not to mention all the things I've heard online about them. I do not want to deal with them with payment. It was a post that brought this to my attention. I was, you know, on social media the other day and I seen a post about someone complaining about roadsides, which is. I mean you can find those posts everywhere on the internet. Every other day you see one. Yeah.
Speaker 1And you know the post was a little jarbled and I felt uneducated. But, that being said, they were like you know, we can't keep doing these roadside calls and they were referring to these companies, these nation safe drivers, these urgently ina.
Speaker 1I think is another one, um, there's a couple of them and they just it seems like they're multiplying yep so you can do these roadsides, and we do these roadsides, but we do these roadsides at a retail rate, right, like if you call me for a tow out of the blue, I'm, it's at the retail rate. So I had a roadside recently which did not make sense to me. They gave us a call and they said we've got this vehicle broken down in this city and it's going about a kilometer or two down the road. This city is an hour away from us. So, like a good dispatcher, our dispatcher took the information and said we can gladly help you. Let me put together a price for you on that. So he puts together a price, right, don't forget about a hundred and like a hundred and some kilometers on route hookup fee, flatbed fee, tow two kilometers, yeah, comes back with a price.
Speaker 1I don't remember what it was, let's say 400 and some dollars. Roadside accepts, no problem. It was for like a, a transit, a small little transit van that is for like a massive chain corporation, right, one of those ones you would rent per day, not u-haul but something along those lines. My dispatcher, you know, accepts the call and goes what do I do? I don't have anybody available to go that far away for that one right at this moment said no problem, I make a call to a local company company that I deal with plenty said hey, this is what I got, are you able to help me out on it? And he goes no problem, I go give me. Give me a rate like charge me what you got to charge me. He gives me a rate that's about a quarter of what I charged, no problem no consider it paid.
Speaker 1Right, you want, you want check you, transfer.
Speaker 1How do you want to be paid? And he goes and he does the call for me. He's like why are they calling you? I'm like I don't know, but you made your retail, you made your money and he had a truck not far around the corner. Like he made, I made sure he made good money. I made good money, yeah, and roll a truck and it's.
Speaker 1I looked up this, this roadside. They're like kentucky. So these people are looking at a map. I have no goddamn idea who, who and where. Yeah, and and I mean you know there was nothing negative about what we did. I gave them my cost to get that call taken care of for them. I included the mileage because of how far away we were.
Speaker 1I am not willingly going to tell you there is a like. If it was a retail customer, I'd be like 100. Hey, you know what call these guys. They're much closer. They to help you out. We've talked about that before. That can really help build your business. But these roadsides that are being built to try and profit and everything off these things, if you're going to call me for a call two, three hours away, I'll give you a price. And I got and I was worried. I'm like now the fight becomes getting paid by this roadside. The call was paid before we were ever on scene, nice, before the truck ever got there. Like they were really well to deal with. I have to give it to them but like for them to accept those like. That is where the networking in the towing industry is important. That is where you say as much as we're competition, we can work together if I have a customer that breaks down somewhere that I like doesn't make sense for me to go service.
Speaker 1If it's a customer that breaks down somewhere that I like doesn't make sense for me to go service, if it's a customer, a charge account customer, I will build my customer and I will get him a truck up there. Right Like, I will contact you, know you, and say, hey, gee, I got this truck here, can you go tow it? Yeah, send me the bill, I'll build the customer. And I'll build the customer, just like the small markup above your rate, right Like. I'm not trying to my charge account customers. I'm not trying to take advantage of anybody. I want them to be paid Like. I want them to get a fair price for their services and I will coordinate it. They don't have to, they, they don't have to. You know you're going to get paid by me, yep, so you're not like concerned on and you know I'm gonna pay you if I'm calling you, and then you get to run your trucks at your retail rates and still you know, make your.
Speaker 2Make your money. See, this is something that I've always dealt with in the towing industry is I could never really wrap my head around advertising for towing right, um, you can support your local teams. You can have well-cleaned trucks and have your driving billboards going down the road so you're in the public's eye that you service their area. I've always think that's probably the best thing to do. Keep your advertising budget local, if you even want to call it an advertising budget.
Speaker 1A hundred percent Right. I have a straight-up advertising budget. I have a marketing budget. Yep Right.
Speaker 2So most companies have facebook pages. I've never really seen and you see it in the towing groups a little bit and like the big toe talk where guys will advertise their towing company in there, which that doesn't make sense to me because you're you're preaching to other towers, but anyways, it starts to make me think so okay, you have this pop-up roadside service provider out of the States and they have no idea what Canada even looks like. They just know that we're America's hat. And when they type in towing in this area, well, if you have sponsored Google Ads running, you might be top of the list. So that could be something where what happened to you?
Speaker 2They call you for a tow that's an hour away because the other guy doesn't have their website set up to where it shows up on google correctly, because a lot of people will just type in towing near me if they need a tow truck and they don't already know who to deal with. If they don't deal with a roadside, yeah, and then they'll get like the big guys that pop up who have the advertising budget. But then at the flip side, as a consumer, if I see that I call this towing company because I typed into Google towing companies near me. They give me a price. I'm assuming they're local, but since it's a sponsored ad, they're coming from three hours away and that's going to upset me and it's probably also going to reflect in the bill or the wait time.
Speaker 1Right. But you know what's weird is like, and that's right. I can't see it being that, because I just Googled towing in the city in which this call, this call was in question, and I must have gotten, and I even filtered my search, thinking maybe it's along those lines. I filtered my search to 4.5 stars and above. I am about the 30th on the list.
Speaker 2Yeah, and it's yeah, like I'm about the 30th on and you have your search history revolving around your company anyway, of course I've.
Speaker 1I've. You know it's a good time to mention, I have a 4.8 star on on google with a 446 reviews, um, but yeah, I know like, so I you know what I mean. If anything, google would would push towards my company and I'm still so far down, so I don't know how they came out like. I do not know, but this is where, again, benefits of things like the tow show you network with these. You network with companies in your area or companies from different parts of the province. You get to know them, right.
Speaker 1I don't know how many times I've got a customer out of toronto that'll call us and say, hey, hey, my guy's broken down here. You guys able to take care of them. It doesn't make sense for me to send a truck down. No problem, who am I billing? Am I billing you? Yeah, bill me directly. Okay, no problem, right, I'll even go out on a limb and any towing company like that that we've. You know that we've got some sort of contact with, like, if you're just joe, blow out of the blue, uh, maybe not, but I'll give them 30 days on the on the payment. You know, I mean like as if they had a charge account, because it's we, we get the industry, we do the same thing. I kind of expect in return. Um, but you know what I mean.
Speaker 1It's like hey, my guy's broken down there. I don't want him to get screwed by some company. Can you go take care of them? What's the rate? Send me the bill and then they'll take that bill, add 15 percent, charge the customer, right and the customer. It's good for them, because the customer knows every time if I get broken down, I'm gonna call like I'm not trying to steal his customer. I don't want his customer to call me when he's in that area. That is his customer, yeah, right. So the best thing you can have for your customer is when they call you and it's not an area you can service or it's not. Whatever the case may be, it isn't just hey, call these guys, it's no problem, I'll get that taken care of for you. Do the extra legwork. That way, every time the customer has somebody broken down, he's gonna go through you, right, because he's like hey, I know that if I call a one, two, three towing, no matter where I'm at, they'll get me sorted out.
Speaker 2Yeah, and you don't have to be a massive company that can service six hours away no Right, but you've built this relationship with your customer.
Speaker 1And so what if BCD Towing shows up in your ACB Towing right, yeah, a lot of times they know that, like we don't hide that from our customers, that we're going to sub it out. We're going to sub it out and make sure that you know it's a company that you're not going to end up with a six hour travel bill for nothing. It'll be a company in that area and it's got to be a company that you trust and it's got to be a company that you know what I mean set up a tow for them and have one of your. You know, a company that you know take care of it, only to end up with a damage claim or to end up with a. You know, like I mean, shit happens, no matter what. Shit happens. Right, I am, trust me, I'm the king of that. Right now I have the month of july. I have had so many damage claims for stupid things.
Speaker 2Is that why you want me to come to work with you? So bad? No, no, not at all. Even though I've got like a Ford story the other week.
Speaker 1I had a booster cable so surprisingly you ever run into this. No co, big fan of the no co booster packs.
Speaker 2Yep.
Speaker 1I still say there might be operator error on this one. I have yet to confirm it. It is what it is. Guy goes to tow of our booster vehicle, puts the no-co on. He turns it on, puts it on but does not override it. That's the statement. But turns it on, puts it on, sits there for a second wires start smoking, shuts it off. Now the no-goes are built in with like a polarity protector right yeah so the simple thing would be is that we overrode it goes.
Speaker 1I swear and I and I know this operator and I trust this operator. He's a great operator. He's like I didn't hit the override.
Speaker 2Yeah, you got to hold the override. For what?
Speaker 1three seconds, three seconds and then you hear the relay click and yeah, next time put it on before turning it on, just as a safety maybe, because then I put it on backwards without turning it on. Right, because they'll read voltage without turning them on. Yeah, and it gives me the alert. You know the red light lights up, nope, flip. Yeah, and it gives me the alert. You know the red light lights up, nope, flip it around, it gives me the voltage.
Speaker 1Okay, so the no-go, the system's working. The problem was is that the car that he did this on was a 64 Corvette, oh, and there's an engine wiring harness that is melted, just the main power wire going through it, yeah, which looks like you could just cut it out and put a new power, like run a new wire, it's not complicated. It's a simple system.
Speaker 1Being that old, it's a very simple system. It looks like it's wrapped in electrical tape. Apparently it's not electrical tape, that's actually a GM thing. The problem is this guy's car is pristine. I mean, while we were towing it because we ended up towing it to the garage of his choice to get it fixed and we're taking care of it I look and there's three marks underneath on the car like paint drips, and I go what is that? Like cause everything else in this thing looks like the paint is beautiful. Like even you know had to. Like did the paint the old school way.
Speaker 1Like he has rebuilt this thing, but rebuilt this thing to spec of its time. Yep, I built this thing, but rebuilt this thing to spec of its time. Yep, you always see these three lines here and these two lines here. What is that? He goes, those are the shim marks. He goes when they would assemble the cars in the plant, the guy, before they put the body on, would mark how many shims. Or when they mount the body, would mark how many shims it's going to need on the front and the back for the body. They even went into detail to making sure those were on there. Wow, so it wasn't a simple fact of we'll just pull this wire out and retake it back up, go to crappy tire and grab a yeah.
Speaker 2I mean, I've got.
Speaker 1I've got a lot of guys that do electrical in my shop that are like whizzes and the cleanest finishing work I've ever seen. But at the end of the day it's the customer's choice. I've got another one right now for a guy who wore his keys hanging on his key ring left the scratch. It looks like in a 1982 one owner ford f-150. Oh, like just the, just like things that you don't expect and bullshit.
Speaker 2That happens and again, that's why I know a lot of people will tuck their shirts in to look more professional. A I don't do that because I got a bit of a gut and that just accentuates the gut when you got your shirt tucked in. But if you got a longer shirt that also covers up your belt buckle, which is a good scratching hazard if you do have to lean over a fender right or if you have your keys hanging out right, it just gives you that little bit more protection it's, it's.
Speaker 1It's not a terrible argument you can make. I think that argument can be made for, um, a work shirt on tux, providing it doesn't look like a dress on you because it's so long, um. But yeah, no it it's. It's little things like the key hanging and it's like man just rubbed up against it while he was reaching in to steer it, while pulling it onto the bed with his remote, like little, and it's one of those. It's such a faint scratch that I couldn't have proved it was there before. Even with photos I couldn't have proved it was there. Yeah, you know the first photo he sent me. I can't even see the thing, but you can assure you it's a 1984. So I think it was 84, 82, ford F one 50. The guy is the original owner of the thing but he's taken care of it.
Speaker 2He's got pride in it, yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, and I'm sure he washes this thing, him. He's a great gentleman, it's not something he's just looking to come after us. Yep, and those are the worst because, again, it's all right. Well, you know, especially when it's classic stuff like that that people take pride in, it's not all right, we'll bring it to my shop, we'll get a paint. No, no, it's all right. Who do you deal with? Well, I deal with One in town, of course. No, no, no, not quite, but that is true, it does happen. Yep, right, and it's just all right. Well, get it. And you have to. So many companies, I think, will fight to get away from that stuff, which, hey, I'm not happy to be paying out these claims, but, any stretch of the imagination, they absolutely burn my ass. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1When I look at the budget at the end of the year and I see the damage claims and I go and especially stuff where it's not training, like the booster pack. This guy that did it. This wasn't a train thing, he's been trained on this booster pack. He knows this thing Well. It was, I don't know I, you know on his. I don't know I have an idea that the override was on.
Speaker 1But I trust this operator wholeheartedly. He's never given me a reason not to, so I take his word for it. I go all right, it's a fluke accident, but it's frustrating because at one point, like I said, the key's off the side. That's just to smarten up, that's just to hey, that's a learning curve for you.
Speaker 2Put your keys in your pocket.
Speaker 1Put your keys in your pocket. My keys are in my pocket. If not, they're in my truck like little things like that can cost you my keys on a lanyard.
Speaker 2So whenever I'm working I make sure that lanyard isn't hanging out, because when you're working around these things you don't want anything that can grab you and hold you back right a lanyard it's easy to get caught on, especially doorknobs coming in and out of places. I've had my lanyard get hooked in one of the actual handles and my keys come flying out of my pocket and you're like shit. It just looks unprofessional. So shove that down in your pocket. Most of our work pants have the cargo pockets down on the thigh. Put them in there, because if you're kneeling you're not going to be kneeling onto your keys. Even if you have to lay down, you're going to be laying down on your back or your side the cargo pants. You might feel the key a little bit or just leave it in the truck right.
Speaker 1I have guys that are so bad for that they leave, like they'll leave their wallet in the truck, which I'm like no, that's crazy to me. But like I have, yeah, the pants, I have my wallet on my right side because I've got the. I've got my wallet right side, I got my smokes on the left side and there's a little pocket on the left side as well where I keep my wireless earbuds. And, like I've been upside down in ditches, I've never dropped it, like I've never had them fall out my side pockets, but, like these cargo pockets, I've never lost something and and, trust me, I've been in some weird upside down situations where, you know, a lot of times I take the stuff out if I'm gonna be crazy, only because I don't want to get wet. Yeah, isn't because I'm worried about it falling out, I'm worried about it getting wet.
Speaker 2I personally love breast pockets, so you just put your hey breast pockets you hate them, I love breast pockets stuff all the time oh yeah, shit falls out of them all the time, even just been over to put your dollies on. But I just love it. But the fact that I love breast pockets so much is the fact that I leave my keys, my wallet and my vape in the truck.
Speaker 2When I get out of the tow truck to do work, very rarely do I even have my phone on me, unless I'm dispatching at that time, right, I keep my pockets empty.
Speaker 1How are you documenting stuff? How are you taking photos? How are you doing?
Speaker 2all that, I would grab the device that's in the truck. I do the full corner pictures. I'd put that back in the truck, right? I use a lot of older android equipment to where the battery life isn't that great anyway, so it just always stays plugged in take it out with a new one comes out yeah, yeah, oh, you got a new update.
Speaker 2Your battery is now 50 percent lower. Um, take the four pictures, or however many pictures document it, put that back in the truck, grab my gloves and then start hooking up the vehicle. Unless I am putting a customer in my truck to where they would be able to grab my wallet is the only time would I take my wallet and I put it in my cargo short or cargo pants pocket yeah, 100.
Speaker 1I've definitely had customers in a truck where I go like, yeah, taking this out of here because I don't really trust you like the phone. They're not stupid because the phone is sitting up normally on a dash mount or something yeah, and that's I noticed. We're not leaving yeah, like we're not leaving until we find this phone, so like, but your wallet I mean, yeah, you leave in a set of console. You you're hooking up, they go. You may not notice it until you go grab lunch later on that day.
Speaker 2Or even just take money out of it, Because, as tow truck operators or drivers sorry now, because of the Ontario laws we normally have a lot of cash. You might not miss $20 right away, you might not miss the $50 right away until you actually look. I know you and myself, we know pretty much how much cash we have in our wallets at any given time? Yep, but when you're just getting the truck, you're not counting the bills every time you get in and out of your truck.
Speaker 1You just know what's there it's funny you say that there were tow drivers now because of the ontario law. Yeah, um, it makes me think I had a fun. I had a fun encounter the other day, um, so I I responded to a uh, a police call for a 14 day stunt drive suspension. So upon arrival I knew the officer. Uh, she's been around for a long time. She's temperamental at best some days. Okay.
Speaker 1So I got there and I bring her my binder which has all my stuff in it and my DL, my driver's license, and I go to her I say, hey, would this be easier for you? I've been working on this system for our drivers that when we respond exactly in this situation that you would give, if you give me the incident number as well as the email, which is they're all Ontario or, you know, police email, so they're not the driver then like it's quick, you go instant number email driver clicks the truck he's in and his name. It sends them an email with the dl, the tow certificate, um, all the truck, the vin, the cvor, the plate, all the information that they would need. And she goes nah, I'm old school, I'd rather have it paper. No problem, it's something I'm looking at. I'm kind of judging what the police feel about this before we, you know, we fully integrate it.
Speaker 1She goes, so she goes to me. She goes do you have your, your tow driver certificate? And I go, yeah. So I pull it up and on my one drive I show her to her and she goes well, you, you know you need to physically have it here, like physically have a card, and I'm like I don't, I don't think I do, and she's like, yeah, you need to physically have a card. She's like, obviously, I know you and everything else. So like I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not gonna write you a ticket for it by any means, but just so you know. Okay, whatever, hook up the car, get it all done. She comes back to my binder. She goes you're also missing your vehicle storage certificate. So for the storage facility, it's not in the binder that the operator for the company is the cvor. All my other stuff is in there, but but the storage one is.
Speaker 2Oh my god doesn't that need to be at the office where the storage facility is?
Speaker 1A hundred percent. That's what I'm under the impression she's like. No, I had a customer the other day that you know we impounded, was well-versed in the new to see act and said that you know and um and requested to see it to know where his vehicle was being towed. And I was can kind of see the point, sure. So I get back to you know, I get back, I, I do the impound, everything else and, uh, good night.
Speaker 1Someone mentioned music. Why don't you email to see ya, because they have an email. So that's a great point. So I write out an email and I go. I have a little bit of confusion and I want you know some clarification is a digital or an electronic copy of a tow driver's certificate, tow operator's certificate and vehicle storage certificate acceptable when requested by police or customers? The response was very clear and simple that the tow operator and tow driver's certificates are completely acceptable in an electronic format. The vehicle storage has to be a physical paper posted at the location. So, being the nice guy that I am and to avoid that and keep that as with your electronic documents.
Speaker 1I absolutely forwarded that email off to the officer and I said hey, look, you know. Going back to our conversation this morning, you know that we strive to make sure that we are on top of any regulation, whether it be police, whether it be mto. We want to make sure that we are keeping in compliance. Yep, like I, I'm not hiding this, I'm not trying to cheat the system. You tell me how the rules work. I'll work within the rules, but I thought you'd be interested in the email. I, I, I, I. You know I reached out to them for clarification. Um, and, and this is the response that I've gotten I attached it and I said like you know, it's a learning curve for all of us.
Speaker 1Um, I'm like, so, like I'd hope you know, like, if you can, let me but, like you know, we made sure to do it in a professional and polite way, and it's like hey it's okay, we're all figuring this out. This is new to everyone. Yeah, you know you haven't gotten adequate training on it. I've had to go find my own answers. You know what I mean. Like I know, the police officers have not received training on this. No.
Speaker 1So it's kind of a tricky one, right, because they still are those police officers still have the power to call whoever they want to call when they feel like it, like there's limitations that were put in. They have the authority to monitor.
Speaker 2They have the authority to take it in pound whatever on the roadside that they deem necessary, even if it's not justified.
Speaker 1And you can go and find that information directly from the horse's mouth after the fact right yeah, so I've kept the email, like I said, handy and yeah, you're right, I, because I have a. I have a photo saved of my tow operator, my vehicle storage and my, my driver, and I've told all my drivers go grab a photo of it, save it an album on your phone. Don't leave it that it's online somewhere, because if, if you're in a dead spot and you can't produce it, you could, you could get hit with failure to produce a tow driver certificate yep, you see that a lot with the insurance slips when officers yeah they're online now oh, the app needs to update.
Speaker 2Just give me a second. Well, the cop's not going to sit there all day waiting for your stupid app.
Speaker 1No, you have to be able to produce it upon request within a reasonable time. Yep.
Speaker 1Right. So, yeah, it's not. Oh, follow me to a non-dead spot so I can get. No, no, no, no, yeah, so I have mine to see a compliance in a folder with my certificate. I thought about putting all my employees in because I have access to all of them just that way, like I have access to them all through the one drive. So, like, if I am you know what I mean but like I want, like each driver needs to have theirs offline ready to go.
Speaker 1So, for companies that are looking because we were one of them we were looking to get little laminated cards because they're also an odd dimension if you just print them off a certificate. So we're looking little solid cards like a dl that they would keep right. They can have information on the back. I'm still waiting for my price. I still kind of like them, but you don't need to. You know you can. For you guys out there, you can get away with with having it on your phone. You don't have to carry it because the piece of paper you can laminate it's going to get all folded, wrinkled, everything else. Yeah, having it on your. Here's my certificate. You want me to send it to you? Perfect, send me an email or send me a text.
Speaker 2You still have to have a driver ID in the truck, don't you? So why wouldn't you just put all that information on the back side of the driver ID on?
Speaker 1the plane? Why do you need a driver ID in the truck?
Speaker 2For a lot of roadsides. You need a little picture.
Speaker 1You know, I don't have any of those I know, I never had one either I did, I, did I did not. I did back when we worked together. I had one, I don't have one here.
Speaker 2I think that's the reason, because we put up such a fuss when we work together. Is they never asked for my picture?
Speaker 1again. Yeah, when they started sending your picture in full name to customers without telling you, and they're still doing that. I bet they are, I bet they are. Damn those roadsides, damn those roadsides.
Speaker 2So full name and picture. Yeah, that's a slap.
Speaker 1Maybe bring it up to them at the if we get set up at the provincial uh professional towing association Ontario neighbors last year. Exactly If we're neighbors with them. Again, maybe we will. We will bring up the id.
Speaker 2I got my truck towed a couple months ago and I I showed the driver that showed up and I was like this is all the information I have on you and as soon as you click dr, I now know where you roughly live, because that's where the map starts from. I'm not sure if you live there and he was like no, that's my boss's house, but I'm never taking the truck home ever again. If that's way it is is like it's pretty indepth, like it updates every like 10 seconds.
Yeah, it's kind of scary infringement on our rights with an association with towing clubs. So, um, anyways, that being said, don't forget head over to the website towinglifeca. You'll find all the info for the tow show, when we'll be there, how to get your pre-order done for your t-shirt, um and uh, maybe I hope we have the same neighbors and we can have a little more fun. We're a little more established this year and as our show gets longer and, and you know, um longer run out, I am less worried about getting canceled for saying something to them. Um, so I've got a little calm, a little confidence, um, with them.
Speaker 2So and they gave away a lot of free stuff last year.
Speaker 1So and we got a lot of free stuff from. So, on behalf of myself and my wonderful co-host, mr toman g, we cannot wait to see you at the show. Take care, see you next week, toodles.