whistling diesel video where they back the cyber truck off the flatbed.
Speaker 2No, I keep seeing screenshot posts, but I haven't actually watched the video. And then they did the same thing with the ford f-150 like were they trying to back it off the flatbed to see if it would like? What was the concept?
Speaker 1well, it's the um durability test whistling diesel's doing. He's doing a durability test between an f-150 and the cyber truck so two pieces of junk?
Speaker 2okay, two pieces of junk. Let's see which is the bigger piece of junk yes.
Speaker 1So all right, man, they back the trucks off of the flatbed and of course, the drive shaft got all pinched on the f-150 so they couldn't even do the test, so they had to put a new drive shaft in. It makes sense. The one test was they're driving up a dirt ramp over some big, uh concrete conduit, right. So they're going like this and coming off cyber truck, did it? The f-150, since it's got a longer wheelbase, got up and got stuck and hung up centered on it, right? So then they hooked the cyber truck up to the back to pull it off and it ripped the whole rear bumper off, the cyber truck frame and all, just ripped the frame pinch welds right off, and they weren't pulling hard. Yeah, it pulled off after it was already snuck, which is kind of concerning, since that thing has like an 11 000 pound toe rating or some damn thing.
Speaker 2Clearly they were over it yeah I guess, yeah, I guess.
Speaker 1Hey everyone, I'm Brad from Calgary. This is Sean from Cambridge Ontario. I'm Terry from Cornwall Ontario. Hey, this is Larry from Pit Metals, British Columbia, and you're listening to the towing life podcast, where the ditches are deep, the trucks are loaded but the drivers are not. I am your host, tome Angie, and as usual, I am joined by my co-host, friend and former co-worker man with very strong opinions, mr Plain Guy.
Speaker 2What is going on? G. What is going on?
Speaker 1Oh, I had a couple drinky poos last night around a bonfire burning some brush, so nice it was a nice night. And uh, now it's pouring down rain, so I'm glad I didn't try to do that today yeah, no, we.
Speaker 2Uh. You sent me that photo. I thought it was pretty cool having a nice little bonfire on a on a 40 degree humidex day.
Speaker 1Um, probably a great idea I made it a white man fire too. The planes were like eight feet nine feet tall.
Speaker 2At some point I don't know if I'd refer. I'm not going to reference that term again, um, but hey, you know what? No, it's, it's a Canadian long weekend. Uh, not really, it's a civic holiday in Canada. Fun fact, um, we have what's called family day, cause I don't know if family day is celebrated in the U S? Um, there's the family day in the August long weekend. Um, as a company, you have to pay vacation pay for one or the other. You do not have to pay for both? Um, so a lot of companies will choose to either pay the August long weekend or they'll pay the um family day long weekend, which falls somewhere in February, I think. Which who needs a holiday in February? Yeah, um, when there's nothing to do, when it's cold, it's meant to go tobogganing and everything else, I guess skating with the family, yeah, so we are on a long weekend. We are in the midst.
Speaker 2In Ontario, at least of you know, we had quite the heat, the heat all week. Uh, you know, when you're talking like 99 to a hundred percent humidity and and plus 30 weather, without the humidity, it got hot, you, you walked outside and you started sweating. You didn't have to do anything, and that's not just because I'm fat. That was just the effect of humidity overall. Like the grass was damp constantly because of the humidity I've been waiting to mow my lawn for, like, dry up a little bit, make it easier on the mower, and then it's pouring rain today, so my poor, my poor mower and my poor lawn is going to have to suffer when I eventually get to cutting down the hayfield. I'm honestly inquiring about goats. If you have any goats for sale, please contact me directly. I'd love to buy them.
Speaker 1No, you don't buy goats for that, you just rent them. You can rent goats, you can rent goats, yeah you can get a lot of customers, however many goats you need for a certain acreage and they'll drop the goats off and for say, okay, you're gonna have eight goats to do this, two acre per plot of land. You're probably gonna need three, four days and then, as long as it's fenced in, they come in, scout the area you, they'll graze everything and then they'll come pick up their goats no way.
Speaker 2Yeah, I'm okay. I need to find me a goat rental company. Um, I feel like with a lot of my clientele it shouldn't be very hard. Um, I did not know that was a thing. Yeah, now how, what's the limit? Like I don't have acreage, I've got like yardage. Is there like a minimum requirement of yardage?
Speaker 1or acreage.
Speaker 2That would be a company to company thing. But isn't it one of those things where, like isn't the whole point of buying these things that they walk and they graze and then by the time they're done they start back over again and like it's not the whole point of owning goats?
Speaker 1well, you I mean there's other areas so you can do rotational grazing right, which is you got one field, you put them on there, they graze it all down, move to the next right. So that's what these companies are set up to do. Is they have people that they've got a lot of overgrown brush, not very desired or desirable grasses or legumes? They'll send the goats in there, they'll clean up all your shit and then they take the goats and send them over to some other guy's property that'll pay them to feed their goats for free, type thing, right jesus, it's a genius business model.
Speaker 2I thought towing was a great idea, but grazing or grazing goat rental, um, I mean, I could see our next business venture highland cattle is actually a little bit better.
Speaker 1Uh, they're a bit bigger, they'll eat a little bit more, but they got a lot of higher reach. So if you got like low hanging branches, they'll pick stuff off the branches and, since they came from, the highlands is kind of wasteland, especiallyy especially in the wintertime. They got pretty good at eating sticks and twigs and stuff too.
Speaker 2Hmm, they'll have to pick those up before mowing the lawn. Exactly. They mow the lawn and take up all the brush at the same time. I'm worried that they'll eat my dog's toys that are all in the yard.
Speaker 2Well, you've got to watch out for the horns. Yeah, yeah, my dog doesn't play friendly with others. I don't think it'd be. I think a goat she could mess with. I don't think she's messing with a Highland cattle. No, I think it's a bad idea. So telling stuff, yes, before we get too far off pace if we haven't already, it's a good time to mention your questions.
Speaker 2Comments concerns everything for the show, opinions, especially moving forward with the big announcement coming this episode. Where can you send them? Where can you reach us? It's very simple. You can head over to our website at wwwtowinglifeca. You can email us directly at thetowinglife at gmailcom. So thetowinglife at gmailcom. Or you can find us over on Facebook at the towing life podcast. If you are watching over on the YouTube side, do not forget to hit the like and subscribe. There's also an option to comment down below. Every bit of input that you guys give really helps us push forward the show, whether it comes to new ideas, topics for the show and whatnot. We always do appreciate it.
You are the true, the true reason why the show continues, um, into episode 147, uh, currently today. So quite the milestone coming, um. That being said, great time to announce we have decided that we will be doing a live for our 150th episode. As you know, 150 normally comes up. It's right for our 150th episode. As you know, 150 normally comes up. It's right about our three-year anniversary. We normally aim for about 50 episodes a year. I got to remember when the first one is. That might be trivia for the night of the show.
Speaker 1I think it was trivia for our last live too.
Speaker 2It might be trivia for the next live. The longer it gets behind. I don't even know what it is, so we will have to have it ready. Um, but yes, we are going to be live um august, sunday, august 25th, 6 pm. Eastern time est. So that's 3 pm over on the west coast. Uh, g, didn't know the time before this. Uh, probably thought we were doing about seven o'clock, but I decided we're doing six. Okay, um 6 pm, eastern 3 pm on the west coast. Uh, you can check in.
Speaker 2We're going to reach out toa lot of our supporters of the show, like we've done in the past. Look about giveaways and prizes for you guys. Um, you know, have some little uh trivia contests, maybe have a little live interaction with the show. We've had great success. This would be. This is our third live. This would be our third live. Um, every, every one of them has been has been awesome with you guys. You guys have really shown up and come out and, uh, you know, help deliver the content, help have a conversation. We'll see about, maybe, if we can book a couple like, maybe, random guests that we can get on for that show as well. Um, you know, know, come on and talk with the people and everything else. So mark your calendars now. Sunday, august 25th, 6 pm. Eastern the towing life podcast live 3.0 for 150 episodes. It's uh, it's our way to celebrate and have some fun with you guys yeah, we do have a couple of youtube comments.
Speaker 1We got one from toll pappy first. Like and view. Love you guys watch weekly from the seat of the f-550 and west ga. Thanks, tolpappy western georgia yeah, yeah, uh.
Speaker 1Joe came back and says he's currently in a battle with the big three-letter roadside in the us about having our first and last names and pictures displayed to the member. His, his picture is a 1976 photograph which they have requested he remove and he told them no effing way. I told them to remove my last name and they still have not. I told my area rep I will lawyer up because I never gave you permission and I don't work for you guys.
Speaker 2It's a, it's a fair right. We've talked about that, the, the, the roadsides, you know, kind of making decisions without even talking with operators. I don't know if that's what the, the three letter down the states did, but in canada, that's 100 what happened? It was not a conversation, it was not. It was, I think, like a week after they started doing it. Hey, by the way, you know.
Speaker 1No, I don't even think they told us.
Speaker 2I think a member was, I think there was something yeah, I think there was, but it was well after it this program had already started that they started doing these changes.
Speaker 1So no, it's like when you get a job, especially being contracted to one of these roadsides.
Speaker 2when you get a job, you don't sign any paperwork for this roadside and in for this roadside and in the fine print it says it's somewhere in there, like there's nothing, like no, but your employer might. And and then your employer is supposed to pass off that information which is very possible, even in our case when we work together that that just didn't happen no right, we never you know, they were never one to discuss any conversations they had with any of their which and and part of it is is they're right.
Speaker 2Right, like we don't need to know the inner workings of your business, but when it affects drivers directly, like something like using our full name and photos, it's a little, it can be a little, uh, uneasy for some yeah, and we also have uh derek here, exclusively for opp calls.
Speaker 1I prepared two small slips of paper with all the relevant information that a cop requires. Of course, I still have a binder for law and safety enforcement officers. The slips of paper are the same size as ownership slash insurance slip and I laminated them to keep them in a typical wallet size insurance folder. That's a good idea. I arranged the two slips of paper so when the folder is flipped open the information is full display for on both slips. In most cases the officer will simply use their cell phones take a picture of it, making it easier to process an incident report in their car rather than wrestling with the 11 inch three ring binder with multiple pages. I operate one of two trucks, depending on the shift, so I prepare to slip for each one separately and I alternate the folder as required. The officers of Dettla seem to appreciate the convenience of my method.
Speaker 2No, it is true. Right, we were talking about the SEA requirements and the paperwork that you've got to keep on board. I've heard of companies doing that where they the back page of a binder is every different employees, operator, like on a full sheet, and then just laminate the full sheet and put it in. The only problem I have with that is every time you make a hire you need to make sure you've gone through all the binders and added it again. I've really put the onus on my operators now that we do know that we can provide that electronically.
Speaker 2So here's what you do when you get it, take a screenshot of it, saving an album on your phone that's available offline. Yep, available at all times. When the cop comes, show them that. There you go. Here's my tow operator certificate. As for the company side of things, of course it's in all the binders, right. So, handling the binder, I like making it easier for the officers at the same time. I didn't build this program, you did. Yeah, so you get the information of how I'm going to give it to you. I know that's not the right approach to take with law enforcement, because anyone who's worked with law enforcement knows that if you make their job more difficult. They are not going to make yours easier yeah right like that is the understanding.
Speaker 2So there is a respect thing. I've tried reaching out to an officers. I have a simple app that I had built for my drivers. They pull up on scene, they get the incident number and the uh email of the officer. 15 seconds type that in select their truck, select the driver, send.
Speaker 1The officer gets an email, all the information, pdf copies of everything done now that might not be so great if they're in a bad cell service area 100.
Speaker 2so that's why, like I said, the photo is to me the ideal, because here is the photo I mean. Nowadays, with cloud drop, you don't need to like you know, you don't need to be in a good cell phone area, right, you can send files via Bluetooth or they can take a picture of it. Here's my screen. Take a picture. Here's my information. Have a good day.
Speaker 1But I do kind of like the idea of every truck has a binder and it's got all the driver's information that could potentially drive that truck.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, it's just like I said. The hard part is whenever you make a change.
Speaker 1It's easy for smaller operations with two, three drivers in a truck, very easy to do when you start Well, even if the binder has like the laminated slips and you just put in a new piece of paper every time. You get a new driver and just put it in another slip, right? So then each truck has all the information.
Speaker 2But again, until you get like I've got 15, 16 different drivers, yeah, I need to all be there in every in in, you know 15 16 trucks, yeah, and the one that you miss is the time that you know what I mean.
Speaker 2They go out, they don't have it with them and and that's when you're asking for it. I mean, I'm all for at the time of dispatch giving me an officer's email, and dispatch knows what truck and driver's going boom, it's gone, it's there before the truck even gets there. Yeah, right, I I think in the, the age of technology that we're in again, this applies to our area, not so much in the northern rural areas where again, cell phone reception is is, you know, spotty at times. Um, but I mean, if I send it right to the comm center, who's requesting me for the call, surely that would be acceptable here.
Speaker 1Boom, boom, the officer just got to confirm that's who showed up so then, why can't we just send all this information over to the com center and they just have it on file and you tell them what driver's showing up? Exactly right, like we have? We had that? Why can't they just have a database of all the tow truck drivers and whoever shows up like hey, I'm billy, bob joe, I'm tome ang. You should have all my paperwork already.
Speaker 2Just there it is before, to see when there was tso. Um, a lot of officers in our area had exactly that. Once they would get ours, once they would put a list together, we would send it off to the detachment. Sometimes it wouldn't get to the on-road officers but, like a lot of the on-road officers especially, especially the traffic enforcement, so ones that would be more likely to call us. Yep.
Speaker 2Had a list of all our guys and they knew so as soon as I showed up. Hey, you know. Hey, plan guy. Okay, got your stuff, no problem. Like they know who I am, they've got all my my numbers that they need. They've got all my information, all my information. The only thing they would take is the plate number off the truck, because from the plate number they can get the cvor number. You know that that those requirements that they had right. Like they don't need you to show you their cvor. They know if you have a cvor that is that is valid. It takes like a couple beep boops into a computer and they know that your cvor is valid. They know that your dl is valid. They know I imagine they might not know if your tow operator certificate and stuff is valid yet, because I'm sure the systems still aren't fully in place, because no government would ever rush a program into into operation without having all this set up in the background, I'm sure, um, but yes, they can. You know they have all that information. So no, like the ideas, like the comments, keep them coming. Uh, they're kind of interesting.
Speaker 2Western Georgia I'll be down your way, I think, sometime in November, heading down to Louisiana for a training course. So I feel, just based on naming states, I feel like Louisiana and Georgia are fairly close to each other. But I'm not a geographist, geographist, a geographist it sounds like a real word Geographist, a geographist.
Speaker 2It sounds like a real word.
Speaker 1I don't know, what it is it might be. Hey, Siri is geographist, a real word.
A cartologist or cartographer or map person, yeah. So, anyways, we wanted to get into a little bit of fun this episode and go over something a little, a little bit.
Speaker 1We wanted to give you ammunition for the live coming up yeah, 100 percent.
Speaker 2Um, I'm not a big movie person and I'm definitely not a big superhero person, but one thing that I've always heard is, um, across all these universes of movies and whatever is origin stories right, every bad guy, every good guy has their origin story. Um, and towman g and I are no different. Um, we want to go over kind of a little bit of our history. Um, as for the show, a little bit, but mainly where we come from in the towing industry. I think it's 147 episodes in. It is probably pretty good for you to understand what our actual experience and time in the industry and and kind of have a general idea about what it is um, who we are, what we do, um, how long we've been doing it, what our favorite color crayon is to eat, um, all that kind of stuff purple yeah yeah, tasting blueberries.
Speaker 2Yeah, these schnozzle berries taste like schnozzle berries. I don't know if you know that reference from the movie. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2I'm not a superhero movie person, didn't say I wasn't a movie person. So, g, we'll start with you. Where did you start in the towing industry? Let's go before you even start. I don't want to go back to the day your mom met your dad and crawled into the back of a 69 Chevelle. I don't want to go that far back. But we can go as far back as maybe a year or two before you started in the towing industry and what exactly it was you were doing.
Speaker 1Well, I'll do you one better. So I was a mobile DJ. I got that job when I was in elementary school, carried that through all of high school and outside of high school. In my later years of high school I started doing tree work uh, part-time and then what kind of tree work? So, like I was removing trees, pruning trees, I was the groundsman. I'm too fat to be a climber.
Speaker 2I was gonna say I cannot see you climbing a tree, okay yeah.
Speaker 1So stump, grind and that kind of stuff. Um, I did like an eop program in high school to get an extra credit. So every 110, 111 hours you get an extra credit. Okay, so I graduated with a lot of extra credits because I worked my ass off, I mean I fudged the paperwork but and I did tree work. For that I was getting paid. Well, I was 17, 38 an hour still in high school. I pissed all that money away and either food or my truck or women at the time. Um, it was a good time. After that I got into snow plowing, did that off and on, went to college for heavy equipment operator, spent 12 grand for a 12-week course, playing in a sandbox all summer long nice, nice.
Speaker 1Outside of college. I was like well, I know a couple of people in the towing industry. I was looking for work and I didn't really have that many bills at the time. Truck was paid off. So I reached out to one of the towing pages I think it was Towing in Canada. It's like hey, I'm a 20-year-old looking to potentially get into the towing industry. Pay me what I'm worth. I'm fairly mechanically inclined, but I I'd like to see if it's a fit for me. And a couple people reached out to me. I went and did a training day out on the other side of the lake for a small company, really like the truck. It was a f5 or, yeah, f550. It was regular cab, five speed with a 7.3. Beautiful looking truck but it just wasn't for me. And then Mr Plane Guy reached out to me over Facebook and he was like yeah, come on down. And I came on down and did I even give you a resume? I think I did.
Speaker 2I think you did.
Speaker 1I think I did. And he asked me. He had a car on the back of his tow truck already and he was like what's the issue with this? And I was like I think your chains need to be crossed. And I learned very quickly you don't cross your chains on a wheel lift that's still a debatable fact, but yeah, um, and it turns out that he didn't have his rollover pins in on a vulcan wrecker.
Speaker 1that's the thing that he was pointing out to me, wanting to see if I'd pick up on it, but obviously I didn't. Then, a day or two later, I came in and I actually had a meeting with the owners of the company and they hired me on. I had to move to town, so the girlfriend, me and her we started renting a place together. Now you got to think I was a 20 year old, did the training in the towing industry, had this girlfriend. We were dating for maybe three weeks prior to having to move in together because I needed to be in this town and she needed to satisfy her police contract, and that exactly no, I didn't live overly far away.
Speaker 1I think I was 30, 40 minutes away, but I was still just too far Right. So I moved into this town. I was paying $1,800 a month in rent for a little three bedroom because it was the only place I could find that had a driveway for a tow truck.
Speaker 2There's a good little spot.
Speaker 1It's a perfect little spot. It was the main intersection of town, was noisy as hell, but I was close to everything going on in that town. Ideal for a tow truck driver, um. But for me, coming from a farm in rural areas to living in the main intersection of town, it was definitely a culture shock. I lived right next door to a gas station and tim horton I'd like'd like to correct this.
Speaker 2Tomangia is saying he moved into the main center of town. It was a town of like 500 people.
Speaker 1No.
Speaker 2Maybe okay, 2,000, 2,000, 3,000 in the actual town itself. Yes, it wasn't bigger than 2,000, 3,000 people.
Speaker 1But it's still a big town to me.
Speaker 2Just for context, the culture shock was going from more cattle to people, the more people than cattle, and still like under two 3000 people.
Speaker 1Yeah, so uh, for me it's like a 10, 15 minute drive into a local Timmy's. Going to this place where I had a timmy's right next door yeah, you could walk. To be fair, it wasn't a full timmy's. They didn't have the wraps and stuff, they had the bagels and everything, so it was like a timmy's outlet. Yeah, in a gas station. You know timmy's gas stations anyways.
Speaker 1Um, so me being a 20 year old, new job, completely new industry, not used to the amount of hours that I'm going to be working, new house, first time living away from home, so that relationship didn't end well. I was young and dumb and just so many new things that it just didn't, it just didn't work out. I was wanted to be more free, I guess you could say, and I just didn't want to be tied down in that time, because the towing industry is a freeing job, like you're just out doing new things every day, and it's very easy to bring that lifestyle home with you of just wanting to go out and do things right, not not to mention when, when you and the girl you were with at the time had gotten together, you, you weren't involved in the towing industry, and I find that's harder for most people.
Speaker 2Most people that come into the towing industry with a partner already in tow no pun intended tend to have a harder time adapting to that lifestyle, like the partner definitely does, which puts a strain on the operator themselves, where meeting a partner when you're already in this industry tends to be a little easier, right, because they see it right from the get go.
Speaker 1Yeah, they. They know what they're signing up for from the get go. Now we weren't together for very long, like I said. So it was we were still getting to know each other, plus getting to know this industry, getting to know the town, because I just moved there. It was a lot of things. I don't want to say that it wasn't my fault that we broke up at 100%, it was. We are back together now. We did find each other again. So that's all's well that ends well. So, yeah, we split. And then I was fronting the $1,800 a month in rent myself and this company that we worked for. We were brokers, so that was a big learning curve as well. It ended up where I did just shy of two years there. The first year, tax time came around, I was fine. The second year, after having a full year worth of taxes built up, I didn't realize I would need to set away like 14, $15,000 for the year when 50% of my paychecks were going to rent to begin with.
Speaker 2Young and dumb, and not thinking about the future.
Speaker 1So then I was like, oh, I can't like, if I worked the amount of tax that I needed to pay, the amount of rent that that I paid, plus my insurance and my gas, I made no money this year. I did a breakdown and I think I technically made I think it was 7% or 8% for the year that I worked, after all the tax and all the rent and my other living expenses. That's not enough. So I decided you know what, i'm'm gonna move home, uh, back to the farm, uh, which worked out well, because we had a situation going on here and we had some people renting out the basement and they would stop paying, right, but if you have an immediate family member to move in, you can get you can evict.
Speaker 2You can evict much easier than yeah, especially in canada. Evictions are not an easy process right now they're not, um.
Speaker 1So it worked out good. Because the reserve that was in the town that I lived in. I was like you know what, I don't want to drive the 40 minutes to get my cigarettes, I'm gonna quit smoking. So I quit smoking when I moved back home and picked up the stupid vape, yeah, um. So then once I came home, I started working for the local towing company here. Uh, in my town it's just a small owner operator type thing. I was the second op and at this time I think I was 22, maybe going on 23, since I started when I was 20 19, three years experience ego the size of a boulder on your head.
Speaker 1Um, and here his insurance was pretty bad to begin with. So for me it costs like an extra almost twenty thousand dollars a year just to keep me insured on one truck. Yeah, so when covid hit in 2020 it was I said to said to him I was like, honestly, man, like I know you're not making a lot of money. You obviously make more money going out and doing the calls by yourself. If you want, I can just be on backup. You can take me off the payroll, whatever. We can figure out payment later when you bring me back on.
Speaker 1I just want to make it easy for you because I know you're a small business and the work's pretty well dried up right and especially since the traveling restrictions and everything and we live in a pass-through town for a lot of tourists in the summer like it just wasn't a great thing for the towing industry in my area, industry being a couple companies, but so a couple did a couple months of the ei and everything, and then a good friend down in the company that I ended up working for said, hey, if you're looking for work, we could use an extra set of hands.
Speaker 1And I was like, well, I can only do days I'm like that's fine, we just need some extra help. So I went down, did a full summer with them, I think I went and plowed for that winter just to have a bit of a change of pace and then went back in and towed with them for another three years and I got out of the industry fall of 23 due to medical reasons and I haven't gone back. So I haven't personally had to deal with all these new to see the regulations and I'm kind of thankful because I've talked to a lot of towers on the street and they aren't very happy about it. There's a lot of confusion, I think, a lot of not necessarily misinformation out there, just a lot of information that doesn't get passed through correctly or concise, especially when one tower talks to another the broken telephone thing a lot of contradicting information, yeah, and no one's really sure what the true answer is.
Speaker 1And yeah, but, uh, the towing industry has definitely taught me a lot over the years about, uh, just a lot of things um, working as a team and being able to work in high stress situations, being able to hopefully manage fatigue in a good way and like burnout, being able to pick up on signs of stuff like that, to be able to take better care of yourself, and just a lot of people skills because you meet just so many people and have so many different conversations problem solving skills and being able to think outside the box.
And if you're looking at it on a resume of just being a tow truck driver, you only put like three or four sentences about it on there. But if you actually have an interview with someone and you can convey some of the stuff that you did, and it is a really good hiring asset if you get to the interview stage. But on a resume it's not. It's not a jump out oh, look at this, we definitely need this guy because he's a tow truck driver. I'm talking about transferable skills into different yeah, no, no, of course um, but I I still haven't stopped.
Speaker 1I went out and I got my b license and I'm going for my z endorsement in a couple weeks weeks because with just a B ooh, look at you you can drive like a school bus or straight trucks, but no air brakes. So even if you're applying to different things, if you've got like a full DZ or BZ or whatever, you can apply for a lot more jobs. Hell, I can then even go to my local farmers and say I can drive your trucks and haul grain for you to the elevator right. It just makes your resume that much better.
Speaker 2On a straight truck. You can't not on a trailer.
Speaker 1Yeah, a straight truck I mean, which we got a lot of straight truck haulers around here.
Speaker 2Yeah, we have some of those agri-mart companies and that with the straight grain trucks and fuel trucks and different things like that. 100, a hundred percent.
Speaker 1Yeah. So the towing industry I'm not against it by any means. Obviously, I still do the podcast here and I'm still invested in the industry. I've seen a lot of old guys not like how the industry is going and I identify as an old man I always have, because it's 2024 and I can identify as that now but I've always had an old soul at heart of I just like to take my time and poke along and, you know, get it done at my own pace and yeah, it's just the. The glory days of towing from a lot of these old guys are gone and I'm seeing these regulations as kind of sort of the same thing, especially me being out of it from the outside. Looking in, it's like wow, there's.
Speaker 2It's very easy to take that approach up.
Speaker 1Yeah, if I was in the industry. It's just you adapt with it, right. But once you get out and all these regulations come in, and especially now with the towing license, I didn't grandfather myself in, which was kind of stupid, but it's like.
Speaker 2Yeah, you probably should have applied for one. Well, it should have, because it wouldn't cost you anything and just hoops you got to jump through.
Speaker 1Yeah but now to get back into the industry. Even though I have six, seven years however many years experience the barrier to barrier to entry is higher, because the one thing I always said is, once you have towing experience, you could pretty much move anywhere and you could get a job in the industry, because they're always hiring. And now, if you don't have your towing license, sure, that could still be the same, but it's going to cost more, right?
Speaker 2yeah, no, no, it's very true. Right, it's very true. Except I think early on in the phase of it, the more companies would be willing to help compensate that for somebody with experience, given the the shortage that we have in the industry. Um, but anything, it's a risk whenever you do that to the company, so not everyone is willing to do it. It's 100% true. I feel like I, you know, and we go back to when you, you know you, came and seen us at that small company. Like to point out at that point I was. I was nothing more than an employee at the time. I was just an invested employee that was trying to help, um, whenever I could.
Speaker 2That it kind of makes me think like you've bounced around from companies and I'm not saying that in a negative way by any means, but it's like you never found your company yeah you never found somewhere that you were like you were invested in your personal growth at all times, like you were always looking out for yourself and again I don't mean that in a negative way, at all times like you were always looking out for yourself, and again, I don't mean that in a negative way. But I found, like you never found a company like you felt, like you were. You know, the where we worked together was probably the closest because that was a very family-oriented company, yeah, and we did all feel very much like a, like a bunch of, uh, you know, like a little family, um, but that you were you know what I mean invested in the future of that company. Like, at the end of the day, if that company didn't succeed, you weren't hurt yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2Like I can go on and do my thing somewhere else. Like I said, if I got my tow license, I can go work anywhere. I don't know if that was a personality of just you overall or if it was just you never did find your, your place, your when we work together.
Speaker 1Uh, one of our co-workers, jeff, left a little bit before I did, and whenever you get to know this team and at that point I was the newest guy in, but I've worked with this team for a year and a half and we all got our relationships together of, oh, he's the fat ass, he's the cranky old man, he's the man with all knowing, wisdom and knowledge, right, uh, playing guys, just the poutine french man over there, right, we all had those roles and the stereotypes and we all had our relationships good, bad and indifferent and one of those people just drops out because of their own life commitments, it's like, oh, there's like a piece missing and you're like, will this fill the void of that good co-worker?
Speaker 1and I think once one good person leaves a company or for any job that you have a good relationship with it, it makes it harder to stay right especially in those smaller operations. Yeah, so then jeff left and then I left, and then you left not long after me, and there's 50% of the workforce gone out of the company of six drivers.
Speaker 2And the poor guys that did everything they could to hold on to it, which we did have right.
Speaker 1Right, and it's unfortunately the company is no longer there, which is just changing over time, so it's sad in a way, but I do have very fond memories of it, the times that it's sad in a way, but I do have very fond memories of it. Um, however, I think if I stayed with that company and they did succeed, um, I think I had a lot more growing as an operator to do um that company. They were small, they wanted to stay small. The growth potential they had a lot of potential. They just didn't want to pursue it. Right, and to no fault of their own.
Speaker 1However, they're not around anymore, right, they're not around anymore, so can you blame that way of thinking on it? Maybe I don't know, right? Yeah, but then when I moved up to the local towing company to me, I really liked the guy. I'm still friends with the owner of it, but he had a lot of older rundown equipment and robbing from.
Speaker 1Peter to pay Paul for truck parts and motor parts, and that's just the way it is in a small company. You got to do that because the money's just not there. And working 12 out of 14 days on call every night, that's just how it was and that wasn't really the thing for me. I loved it because it was close and I'd probably still be there because the money was decent. Um, and it's close to me, right?
Speaker 1Um, then, when I move or I didn't move, but I worked with the company out of town, I was driving there every day I would show up at seven or eight o'clock in the morning, depending on my schedule, and I would be there for 12, 14 hours sometimes, or 10 to 12 hours, and if there was no calls being on commission, I would just sit there in the parking lot not make any money. Or I'd show up to work at seven o'clock in the morning and just sit around for two hours. Well, that's not really good motivation, right? I love the company. I'm still friends with the company, love all the guys that are there um, great dudes but for me, just being an out-of-towner, it makes it harder to actually grow and thrive in that end in this industry, especially with the commission side of things right, definitely made it tougher if there was an hourly side of it.
Speaker 1There were some days where I lost money just in my fuel and food. It weren't very often, but the risk is always there. When you're going to work thinking there's a risk of me not making any money today, it's harder to be motivated. That's one thing in this industry is you've got to have that motivation in yourself, because the growth potential in the industry isn't always there. You can be a bang up good driver and you can maybe become a manager, an operations manager, one day, but unless you're going to buy the company off of the owners, the growth potential just isn't really there, depending on the companies you could become again most companies, yeah, most companies like most companies, I want to say, are 12 drivers or less really, in the grand scheme of things, and the growth in those companies, just, oh, you can tow a box truck now because they got a 5500 instead of a 3500 right.
Speaker 2Yeah, that was like your upgrade, that was your yeah, being able to go a little bit bigger. No, it's true. No, it's true. No, it's it's. I mean, it makes sense. It's hard to stay motivated in the industry. Um, it's definitely. A great point is that it's very hard to stay motivated in the industry and when you come in and you just sit around and stuff like that, it's even easier to become unmotivated. And once you become unmotivated, you become your own worst enemy. Um, some I've noticed over the years and experience I've had with different operators and different people. Yeah, my story isn't I don't want to say it's much different, it's very different, but very much the same in a lot of ways I was growing up one of those guys that if I didn't love what I did, I wouldn't do it, and so it took me a long time to figure out what I like to do.
Speaker 2Right, I moved around. I was one of those guys that work here a year. I'd leave work here a year. I'd leave work here a year, I'd leave Right.
Speaker 2At least you're given it a year though, yeah, trying to find what it was that I was passionate right through high school. Um, I was very much involved in the trades I was one of the first groups in our province to go through. While I was in high school I actually attended college for my universe or for my, my apprenticeship first level program, while still in high school it was a program.
Speaker 2It was the first year we had done it. Send, send a 17 year old off to college in a in a town with a border next to that it's 18, to drink and to do everything else and what do you think is going to happen? It was the best time I ever had. I'm 17 years old in high school, off in college, living out of town, going to class when I wanted to, um, you know, and then spending time at the casino and going out drinking. But you know, the college had a bar and, of course, you would get let in with a student ID for the most part, because it wasn't very hard to get fake IDs back then.
Speaker 1And college students are all over the age of 18. Yeah, 100%.
So anyways, definitely did not take full advantage of the situation. The opportunity I was given back then Ended up failing my program. It was one of those programs unless you pass everything, you pass nothing, and I failed in a drafting class of all things. So I was taking my plumbing apprenticeship. Like I said, I had a very good interest in the trades. I had done plenty of co-op.
Speaker 2My dad actually at the time it was an inspector with the Ministry of labor, so a health and safety inspector in the in the construction field. So it was very tough for me finding work in that field because either a company wanted me hoping that it would keep my dad off their back, or they wouldn't touch me with a 10-foot pole because they were worried. You know, your dad would come around 100%. My dad would come around more If I ever said something like. There was a lot of I very much was at that point in my career and very young career we're talking 18, 19 years old here was very much in his shadow and I did not like that. I've never been one to be in anybody's shadow. I hate the idea.
Speaker 1Has that caused a bit of resentment?
Speaker 2no, no, no not at all, not at all because hindsight I didn't want to be in. Um, I love new construction, like especially in plumbing. I was love new construction. Hated, you know, service calls and repairs and dealing with the pipes full of shit already, exactly, exactly right. So no, it was. Uh, it was good.
Speaker 2You know, it taught me a lot of work ethic even as a kid, 12, 13 years old, before my father was involved in the government. Um, he worked, uh, you know he worked a bit in the trades and I'd always go to work with him. You know I remember him paying me like 325 an hour, uh, and he'd round down um, whatever the total was for the day he'd round down. Yeah, I never knew by how much, it was always random depending on the day, but I'd put in 12, 13 hour days at. You know, 13 years old, 14 years old in the summertime. Uh, really helped me build that work ethic.
Speaker 2So, uh, coming out of the trades and everything coming out of high school, didn't know what I wanted to do, right, the trades was kind of a failure thing. Didn't really want to get into it. Um, ended up getting in. I think at the time it was auto parts. I want to get into automotive somewhere. So I sold auto parts. I worked in auto parts as a counter guy like a like a Napa or an O'Reilly's or whatever, but it was a smaller chain.
Speaker 2Um spent a couple of years there, built up some automotive knowledge between that worked at like a, an active green and ross at one point doing like as a lube tech. Walmart is a lube tech kind of thing, doing tires and oil changes, getting some, you know, very, very minor automotive experience, but perfect prerequisites for the towing industry. Right, it wasn't that I had. No, you know, I didn't know what a tie rod was, a control arm was all that stuff it was. You were gaining the basic. Um, tried my hand at selling cars. I was a car salesman for about a year and a half and I was a terrible car salesman. Um, again, this was part of the I'd try this. I did auto parts for a couple years. Then I did, you know, the walmart lube thing for a year or so. Then I and at this point just trying to find work to keep me busy, um, and in fields that I liked, um, so, yeah, bouncing around like crazy. And so, yeah, I, I sold cars. For a year I worked at a toyota dealership. I sold cars. Um, I was bad. Like I said, I was very bad at it.
Speaker 2Toyota back then too was, if you remember, the older Camrys. This was about 2011, I guess 2010. There was nothing to write home about on them. They're very old people cars and I'm like 20 years old yeah Right, like I'm like 20 years old trying to sell you know what I mean this grandpa Camry to a 70-year-old who's looking at me like what do you know? Like what? What possible common ground can I find with these people?
Speaker 2So sold a couple cars, never did really too great. Um met a lot of cool people doing it. Definitely like I have friends from this day from that. I'd sold vehicles to um try. They moved me into the service department to try and like save my working there. That went worse. You want me to charge how much to change a cabin air filter. I know what these cabin air filters are worth. I sold auto parts for years like I did not believe in screwing people and I'm not saying that dealerships screw people. There's a value for their service. The difference was is I was also 20 some years old and knew everything yeah, right, you knew everything exactly right.
Speaker 2I acted like I knew everything, yeah. So unfortunately that didn't work. I was out of work. I had a friend of mine whose father was an electrician and he said hey, do you want to come work with me for a little bit? You know I'm looking for you know, maybe we can look at your apprenticeship, let's. Let's start you off working and see where you go. He's an electrician, so I'm like I've done the plumbing, let's try the electrical. Worked for like a summer with him, enjoyed it Again. Wasn't my thing. So I had some friends that I met through the speedway Because I was always active, involved in the speedway in our town, and they drove tow truck and I started asking around hey, how hard is it to get into this? This is what you need, and this and this and again the bar for entry, like I said back when, it was very slim you need a G license, a valid license and a clean driver's abstract.
Speaker 1Yeah, can you do a?
Speaker 2background check. No, back then I don't think I needed a background check. Oh well, so they said, yeah, so you want to do some part-time work. So I got on part-time. I still remember being terrified when I was doing. I was doing my uh abstract online. I told them I had a clean abstract, but I knew I had tickets, but I think they had expired. And I'm terrified as I'm doing this online right in front of them and it pulls up, waiting to see if there's any tickets on it. Um, and it had none. So, god, after I got the job, started doing it part-time. So I'm doing electrical work during the week, working for an electric electrician, making good money, and then doing towing on the weekends and part-time and not making good money. There's two very different pay structures in those jobs. Yep.
Speaker 2And at one point I still remember going to you know the guy the electrician, and going I'm not going to do this anymore, I'm going to get into towing. And he looked at me like I had three heads. He's like you have the opportunity, because he's ready to sign me up as an apprentice to become an electrician, and you're going to throw that away to be a tow truck driver.
Speaker 1I went yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, like that is the you know.
Speaker 1And he's probably heard the stories of you talking about all about. You only made 300 bucks.
Speaker 2Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, the dumb shit. It doesn't pay worth a. So that was back. June 2012 is when I got into the towing industry. I worked for this company. I worked for this company for about I want to say it was like three months, and that was not my choice, that was theirs. The company ended up actually being bought out by the company that I currently work for. So, yeah, they got bought out about three months in. Um, so yeah, they got bought out about three months in. I remember being, you know, in a bad spot because I went I'm the least experienced guy here in a company buyout. There's going to be a reshuffling. I don't know if I'm gonna make that cut right. There's much more experienced operators than I am now. The company I worked for had a couple culture issues and definitely had some some you know bad stuff going on in the background. That is, you know, one of the reasons that they they got bought out is their management structure was lacking and everything else yeah so I'm three months in.
Speaker 2Company gets bought out. I believe I was full time at that point. A company gets bought out. I'm one of the few that gets picked to actually stay on. So I'm three months in this new company comes in, buys brand new trucks yeah and I'm sitting there going, wow, this is awesome.
Speaker 2Yeah, right, like I. I'm, you know, by the time it's all said and done, six months into the industry, driving a brand new tow truck one of a, one of three or four guys on this company and and we're doing like this company is is. You know, there was a heavy side of it as well. It was the light duty side that he bought out. So you're getting to go to some of these wrecks that they're doing and you're like your eyes are open to the world, you are going, holy Jesus. So I spent there. I was there from 2012 to 2015. And in 2015, me and the owner, who were both very young at the time right, I was. I don't remember how old I was, but we're, we're in our 20s. Yeah, he he's operations manager for this company and owner, but you know, family ownership, um, managing this company he doesn't really have a great idea what he's doing. I am the most arrogant 20 some year old you're ever going to meet in your life, because, again, you think he's arrogant now?
Speaker 1just imagine what he was back then, with all the piss and I have humbled myself so much over the year.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, I absolutely knew everything yeah and this guy that was my boss didn't know.
You know, I mean, I've been towing for as long as he had, yeah, and he didn't know snot because he was some, you know just little rich kid, know, you know, I mean, I've been towing for as long as he had, yeah, and he didn't know snot, because he was some. You know just little rich kid that you know, daddy bought him a towing company and like, oh I'm I'm pretty sure I had said that to him back then like we, we fell apart. Yeah, I, I was nowhere near mature enough to you know, keep that job. I was fighting with dispatchers, I was. I thought my shit didn't stink. I was. I was the was the king and anyone would be happy to have me. Yeah.
Speaker 2So I left for a couple months to um before I moved away from town and I went to the competition in town and who man, it did not take me long to realize that organization was not their strong point and I came from a very organized company. Right, it was a bit of a free for all shit show, like I remember you got beef with somebody, you guys go settle it off the camera, the winner gets half a day paid off. Like, like this kind of stuff, right, like you don't like it too fucking bad, like it was. Just, it was just a complete culture shock for me. I went, wow, this is crazy. Um.
Speaker 2So around that time, um, while I was still working for the first company, um, I started writing um blog posts. I had a passion for the industry and writing different things, which later on turned into writing for toe canada magazine. I wrote a couple articles from them and you know that was kind of getting my involvement into, you know, outside, outside of just being a tow operator. So one of those articles was actually read by a gentleman that lives in the town that we work together. He's seen this article reached out, wrote hey, really enjoyed the article that you wrote. Da, da, da, da da, my, you know it. Really, it was about relationships. Yep.
Speaker 2And my wife really enjoyed it and we're doing this thing and would you help us, we're doing like a scavenger hunt for her. Would you do a recorded video for you know a hint for or something like that. I said no problem, went and did it. They loved it. When I was traveling up through there, one time my in-laws or my sister-in-law lived up there. We stopped in for a visit, had lunch, everything like that. That got fairly close with this family.
Speaker 2So at the time when I moved from my main company to this company that I tried out for three months and realized it was a shit show. Um, we had been talking and they were looking for an operator up that way. Now this is about a four hour move for me and I know nobody in this area. And it got even better. I was going to live on like a couch and they had an apartment in their basement that their parents were moving out of that I was going to move into. Like I left on a whim. Wow, like this was like a month preparation, nothing really set in stone, just kind of flying by the seat of my pants. I went away from vacation with my wife. When I got back I wasn't going back to work for the company in my hometown yep so that was in september of 2015.
Speaker 2I moved away on the august long weekend or like the yeah, whatever it was. I think it was the august long weekend, so it might have been august that year showed up, went to the toe show I remember that because it was in august and then, from and on the tuesday or whatever, started working for this new company, living on this guy's couch, um, like a futon in a, in a, not the living room, but off, like no privacy, no, whatever yeah and started working for the company where you and I worked together and it was a very family orientedoriented company.
Speaker 2It was an awesome place. The original owner, bob, who passed away, was great. He had such an attitude on him. If he didn't like you, you were screwed, that's for sure. But it had a bunch of little Bob rules. I remember Bob always had his Bob rules right no blue pen and different things like that.
Speaker 1Yeah. I still follow that today I still only have black pens.
Speaker 2That's a bob rule. Yeah, um, really thriving. The company really enjoyed it, really had a good time. It was it was very much something my original company back home. Although it was a well-organized company, it didn't feel as as familiar or as family-oriented as it did when we were together. Not the company, we were together and guys.
Speaker 2The only reason we don't name companies is just to especially that company. They were very private company. Yeah, they really like they're out of business now so I really don't care overall. Um, but they just that was their thing. They always hated um, you know what I mean their name being talked about. So, out of respect, we've always done that. Um, so, uh, yeah, so we worked together or sorry, uh, got there, thrived at it, had a great time. Actually, the guy who ended up getting me in, I remember, started to have problems at the company. Um, that led to a little couple problems between him and I. I had a certain expectation that I kind of helped get you in here. You should have my back, which I don't. I'm a big believer that even yourself, when I got you in, I didn't get you into the company. I opened the door. Whatever you do with that opportunity is your business, not mine.
Speaker 1Saves your ass too, in case I turn out to be horrible, 100%.
Speaker 2Anyways, I worked for the company, spent five years there and I mean it's probably the best five years I've ever had. My wife enjoyed the area. We weren't married at the time. We got married while we were up there and I I remember, because we were going through, I was trying to put the timeline together before the show and we're going through and I'm finding like pictures from like a going away party that we had the night together before the show and we're going through and I'm finding like pictures from like a going away party that we had the night that I the, the week that I was leaving at the bar right, and like I remember, because I moved my my time frame up because I had to move um, and even that we had a going away party. I'm pretty sure like the owners paid for most of the drinks that night. We had a good time. We got a ride home in a tow truck because we were all drinking and everything else.
Speaker 2It was one of the things, but what happened there was burnout. Hit me hard, right, I'm eight years into the industry at this point. Uh, we're about 2020. I started in 2012. I'm eight years into the industry, five years up in this town and it was a lot, that town man, we went through some stretches where it was a lot yeah right and I really hit that wall.
I hit that wall of do I want to keep doing this? And same thing as you, where you come in, you do a couple years of it and then the taxes become a problem and then you know I mean, like you're trying to find solutions around things, like it just all it was a lot all at once and I finally said eight years. I'm not sure if I want to do this. I'm not sure if I want to be just a driver for the rest of my life. First of all, and at that company, that was the only opportunity there was going to be, because, you're right, they had all the potential in the world but weren't really interested in it. Right, I had a couple extra privileges that I had because I set up myself, like I worked on rebuilding the schedule with guys. I was, you know, very, very involved with the team and trying to be somebody that could bring everyone together to for common goals that we had.
Speaker 1But what was your? You got what? An extra couple of percent on your paycheck for.
Speaker 2I think that's what it was. Yeah, I had an extra couple of percentage on it and then know they'd pay me little bits here and there to do stuff. Um, I think there was no. I had a percentage increase and I also had a flat premium given to me. I mean minimal, like a couple hundred bucks or something like every two weeks I get like 200 bucks plus the actual percentage yeah um for dealing with what I dealt with.
Speaker 2It was nothing crazy. So I decided in um, yeah, so 2020, in february, that you know I probably I'd sound like January, december, something like that. But I had enough. At that time, good family friend reached out and was looking to hire at his trucking company, and so his town. So I was four hours away from my hometown. This was pretty much dead set in the middle between my hometown and where I currently was. So I decided to take that opportunity, take a break from the towing industry. This is in the trucking industry, so still somewhat relatable. Yeah, I helped you move.
Speaker 2Yeah, you helped me move with the CA call, so he offered me this opportunity and it was a very entry-level position with the final goal being uh, his, his operations manager was eventually going to retire. But he's big believer and you're not going to start off in management, you are going to start as a grunt from the beginning and that way you can learn the operation from the ground up yep fair, no problem.
Speaker 2So moved in, you know, moved back two hours closer to home, to the hometown, did this. It did not take me long to realize that there was a reason that I was in the towing industry and not in one of these other industries. The idea of going to the same place every day and doing the same thing, and and and dealing, and there was some miserable people in there and, and you know, it really taught me a lot. Moving away, four hours away, first of all, help me grow up. Suddenly, when I moved out there and and, and family and everything, just absolutely I still remember my sister saying you'll be back in a month, you'll be back to your hometown in a month. Yeah.
Speaker 2That was motivation for me to make it work. Yeah.
Speaker 2I'm going to go out, I'm going to make this work and we did, hmm, so we moved back into the. You know, it was about a year and a half I did the trucking spot. I was working in a drop yard. Covid happened while you're there, covid happened right as I moved in. That was the scariest time in my life, not because COVID scared me, but I remember we moved in, just moved in, and I remember, um, you know, we were hearing about COVID and everything else.
Speaker 1And we came down for a dinner um, me and the ex-girlfriend at the time, literally like two weeks before we went into lockdown.
Speaker 2Yeah, well, right, when we had moved in, I was offered to go on a snowboarding trip down to mont-ramlin, which we'd normally do every year, and I was, like we got the move going on with everything else, like it's a terrible time. I was like I just go, you've been working hard and everything's been tough lately, like just go and enjoy yourself. And the next day was lockdown, like we. We were on our way to the hill wondering if it was going to be open. Well, from the time we left the hill to get home that night, it had gone into lockdown well like lockdown started.
Speaker 2They had shut the hill for the year. They had whatever everything was starting to shut down, it was. It was crazy. So I had a big fear because in the trucking industry they took a big hit during that as well. Right, obviously, with all these stores closed and everything closed and I was again new man on the totem pole, what is gonna happen got a lot of expenses from all the move yeah, it was a very scary time.
Speaker 2Um, I remember I remember calling my mom and I was in tears because I was like I, I made this decision to better my life and get out of the towing industry and and do this. And then this happens like what? Like what did I do? So got through it, luckily, stayed on working the entire time, got through it, but realized again this wasn't for me, this wasn't for me, this wasn't for me Like the excitement of.
Speaker 2I remember my wife asked me at the end of the day, how was your day? And it would always just be it was fine or it was bad. Like what was the worst case scenario that I had? Oh, my operations manager. She's a cranky old thing. You know. What I mean Was was you know on my ass about something stupid that this guy did, like just the office drama?
Yeah, that was the biggest you know thing that I had for that day and I wouldn't call it excitement because I've always hated that stuff when the towing industry was like how was your day today? Oh, yo, I did a car down 100 foot embankment. We were doing some like I had to run twin line. I was like you know that excitement that you got from doing those calls. You did not get in an office setting, so I started looking around and there was a towing company that was hiring a small little towing company in the area. So reach out to them, put a deal together with them, got employed. They were a company and I they're still around to this day. I always felt bad because I had zero commitment to them. They were literally just a fill gap to figure out what I was going to do. Yeah.
Speaker 2Right, Like it was just keep me in towing, keep me working. I had no ties to this company, Like I had zero. You know, I was that guy that I I was not getting connected to them. I'd been burned by being connected from the company that we worked together. That hurt leaving I was not being connected to this well, even how they were structured.
Speaker 1It was set up to where the drivers couldn't really get that bond the same yeah, I remember you telling me stories where you only have to go to the office every week or two yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2Well, I was a little bit different too, because I was out like I was like a little second division. They were running of my own little truck out there, um.
Speaker 2But yeah, I know you went to the office like once a week yeah um, the truck stayed at the house and then, you know, we worked it was same thing, commission, but as employees, not as a broker setup, and it was decent. I had like a threshold that I wanted to make every day and you know they they definitely accommod that Like I made the money that I needed to make, but it was just a fill gap. It was no excitement. They didn't do police work, it was all roadside work, it was all like junk. You know, the nice thing was I get to drive an hour Like I was driving an hour away for service calls, paid mileage the whole way.
Speaker 2Yeah, cause we covered a very big area, a very big area. But again, I kind of, like it was rebuilding my passion into the industry. And once I got back to it, that's where you and I had started this show and my passion was a hundred percent, like it never really stopped. Throughout my passion, right, I was still trying to write different things. I was, you know, doing different ideas here and there once.
Speaker 2So I, you know this is back in- 2021 that I started back in june for this little company and then my wife and I started to question what are we doing? We've been in this town for a couple years. You know the first job, the idea that brought us there, didn't really work out, um. And then the um, you know the, the towing side that I'm at is just kind of she knew it was just, it was just a stop, like it was just a fill. And now I love my wife through all this because, don't forget, my wife is moving at all these times and she's starting new jobs and everything else. And every one of these moves has been to chase my dream, yep, to chase my passion. They have never been about chasing something she wanted yeah, ever. As never been about chasing something she wanted yeah, um, ever as selfish as that is, but no one. No one that knows me will be surprised by that.
Speaker 2Yeah, so then we get a call um, and it was from the original company from my hometown, where me and my owner, you know, disagreed and, and this is, you know, seven years later yeah almost we had always. We had always maintained contact here and throughout it. Right, we were better friends when we didn't work together than when we did he's a big figure in the towing industry now what's that?
Speaker 1he's a big figure in the towing industry.
Speaker 2He was even then, but he was a shadow. Then too, he was in a shadow, yeah, um, so he reached out to me one day and he called me and he said hey, would you ever consider coming back to work for me? And my answer was no, legit. My first thing that I said was no, I would not.
Speaker 3And he says okay, but I said I'm also not one to close doors.
Speaker 2So what do you got in mind? And I'll see if I'm interested, and he goes well, I'm not going to put together anything if you're not going to be interested. And I'm like, well, well, you don't know if I'll be interested until you put it together, right? It's kind of a reply to give a chicken here. We've known each other for many years throughout all this, you know, we've gone to toe shows together. We had, you know he'd stay to my place, whatever.
Speaker 2Um, and he said I'm looking for a manager, you know, and this is what I'm offering. And and I talked to my wife, I said, hey, it's an opportunity to go back to our hometown, which is probably one of the best things I ever did was move away from the hometown. I'm not talking shit on the hometown, but it was such a growth and maturing prod time. It was one of the best things I ever did. And then getting away from all the drama that you had back when, from everybody, knowing everybody, in a small town, and you come back and you're suddenly like not involved in it, it's great, yeah.
Speaker 2So he said I'm looking for a manager. And I said, well, let's put some numbers. And we went back and forth for a couple months and we finally made a deal that, okay, I'll come back. Um, I remember I came back in november of 2021 and I still remember the joke was is I was supposed to be light duty manager and the day that we're signing the paperwork, he was missing a spot to put the title in, because we this whole time we had agreed on light duty manager and he goes screw operations manager and I'm like it's kind of a different thing, but whatever it was, just to me it's, I don't care about title yeah right.
Speaker 2So um, I came back in november. My wife stayed up in um our original town all the way until February, until we secure housing. He needed me in for November to come in for the winter time. Yep. But I hadn't set up a place, so I stayed at an apartment in my you know, my mother's basement for a couple months, while my wife and I figured out where we were going to actually move to in the town.
Speaker 1Yeah, if you go back to watch previous episodes, there's a few laptop podcasts, 100 with the gold chairs in my background.
Speaker 2Yeah, that was 100 during that time and if you watch, if you go back and watch the towing life podcast, you will see every one of these moves that I've talked about and you can base the year on the last three years over it, because it started in the town two hours away and then you see from there, and then you see from there to the my mom's basement and then you see to the place that we're currently at now, so you can actually watch and just even thumbnails of every episode to spot really quick when it was my biggest move was from the kitchen into here, yeah, exactly your kitchen with your big bay windows behind you.
Speaker 2So, no, I came back here um, got involved in management operations and it was definitely a, a re, um, like, a, like a reinvestment in the industry You're seeing it a little bit of a different side of the industry.
Speaker 2It re re-energized me too. Right, it gave me something I always said I didn't want to just drive my entire life, I wanted to do something with my passion, which I've been given that opportunity to do with here. Given that opportunity with a company with a great reputation, a company that I never would have thought back in the day, being a family owned operation, would give control to an individual that wasn't their family. Like you know what I mean, I always believed that there was no point never met being a manager with this company because, at the end of the day, you weren't a manager, you were a puppet for their structure and their beliefs.
Speaker 2It's not at all the case. You are allowed to come in and make your decisions and make your mistakes and, and and make you know what I mean, find things that are going to work and learn from things that are not going to work. Yep, the company has always given me that. You know, and I've always, I've always held a soft spot for this company. Even through all the years that I was gone and everything like that, I always kept a spot for that company. Yep.
Speaker 2And I mean I left burning it to the ground. Yep. Right, you know they say don't burn your bridges. I didn't just take out the bridge, I took out the railway that went to it. I took out the like, I took out the river. Yep.
Speaker 2Like I, you know, and for a lack of maturity and and getting that opportunity to step away. Grow up, move away. You know, see what life is actually about, live. You know what I mean Like away from from that small town and all that bullshit and grow up into an operator that you know becomes the man with very strong opinions. The industry has granted me that Right now. Again, how is your day? Hey, we operated a tractor trailer that was rolled over fully loaded on a 400 highway. You know we pulled an excavator out with 13 lines to load because it was so buried down into the dirt. You know we did all these jobs.
Speaker 2Um, you know, I've I've gotten to grow and hire and nurture and watch operators with that passion that I had when I first started. Right, like seeing them go, and you know what I mean Watching the burnout come in because they don't know better than to go home. Um, you know, and trying to work on that kind of kind of stuff and truly building something, the way that somebody gave me that opportunity and everything, it's been a humbling experience. I still need to work on my dealing with people, I still am learning new tricks and tips on all that good stuff, but but that is it. So, you know, starting looking back now at where I started in 2012 and being in 2024, um, the changes that have happened in the industry, the you know what I mean the my views of the industry, how eyes wide shut I was when I was younger, thinking that I knew everything right I won't go on to, like you did, and and you know the importance on the lessons that you learned in the industry.
Speaker 2What I'd rather give is is advice to somebody that's starting off Um, and that is, you don't have a clue yet, and I don't mean that in a condescending way. I do not mean that these two, three year operators have no idea what they're talking about. They've obviously seen some stuff and put in their time, but there is so much more that if you stick with this industry and find the right place to land that you you have the potential to to see some wild stuff in this industry. But it's all about finding finding your spot. Mine was finding my spot back home in my hometown. Yeah.
Speaker 2You got to find the spot that's going to give you every opportunity to advance in the towing industry.
Speaker 1And make sure to tune in next week because we're going to go through childhood trauma of what sends people into the towing industry.
Speaker 2What makes people want to join the towing industry, short of lack of medication for their disorders. But yeah, so. Anyways, I hope that was a little enlightening. I hope it wasn't too boring and long drawn out.
Speaker 1If you have any questions, put them in the comments down below or save them for the live stream coming up at the end of the month.
Speaker 2Absolutely. If you want to know, you know anything that we didn't cover on our story. If you actually care about it, I think some people will. Some people will enjoy it.
Speaker 2It's nice to know, like this is where we're regular operators who went through a lot of the same struggles that you guys have at the end of the day. So if you do want to reach out to us, like you said, you can leave a comment down below if you're watching over on the youtube side. If not, head over to the website wwwtowinglifeca, email us directly at thetowinglife at gmailcom, or find us over on facebook at the toowing Life Podcast. Do not forget Sunday, august 25th, 6 pm Eastern, for our live episode for Celebrating Episode 150, live 3.0. We will be there. We hope to see you there as well. Until then, we'll see you again next week. Take care, toodles, you.