We only have one comment on the YouTube , and that was my great-great-great-grandfather was the inventor of marshmallow fluff .
Speaker 2I got a . Jeff Paquette will randomly send me messages . I can tell when he's listening to our episodes . It's a W , not a double V . The name itself screams woobly boobly . Also , I find it concerning that Canadians don't grow up on fluff or nutter sandwiches , which would be peanut butter and the marshmallow , I'm assuming . So I can always tell , because he always send me little . I do the same thing to him when I'm listening to his episodes . I'll send him . As I hear something , I'll send it to him .
Speaker 1Oh , that's from the Toe Business podcast . That's the Toe business podcast , the toe business podcast .
Speaker 2Yeah , you're a good dog .
Speaker 1I love the flannel shirt and the basketball shorts they're the only pair of shorts I own , okay okay I only own one pair of I mean I'm wearing- very similar shorts right now and just a t-shirt . It's uh , laundry day . That's the only reason why I'm not wearing jeans .
Speaker 2I gotta start my laundry before I leave after yeah , yeah , I have now got my rhythm down with my uniforms that as long as I do it on Saturday or Sunday , I always have enough for the entire week . Like I was doing it like Wednesday and then , like it was just all over the place , I finally nailed the routine down and then I keep forgetting about the routine .
Speaker 1That happens . It happens to the best of us .
Speaker 2Routines in towing are meant to be broken .
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 .
Speaker 2Columbia , and you're listening to the Towing Life Podcast . You're listening to the Towing Life Podcast .
Speaker 1Welcome to the Towing Life Podcast , where the ditches are deep , the trucks are loaded but the drivers are not . I am your host , tow man G , and , as usual , I am joined by my co-host , friend and former co-worker , the man with very strong opinions , mr Plain Guy .
Speaker 2What is going on ? G . What is going on ?
Speaker 1Oh , here's hoping my internet holds up this episode , because last episode it was dog shit yeah , it wasn't great .
Speaker 2Well , that being said and maybe it is a good thing that we aren't doing our live episode for the 150th episode I want to personally apologize for that . Um , that was completely a decision on my part . Um , unfortunately , in August , my family shares a lot of birthdays , like a lot Um and my family put together without my knowledge while we were planning this live , and we're unable to move a , a dinner , a get together for to celebrate all the birthdays , right . So there's the three that we celebrate here and then there's a couple that we kind of throw in there a little farther out in august , because all in the same month of august , we have myself , my grandfather , my nephew all about the same time . Fun fact , my grandfather is exactly , almost to the day , 50 years older than I am and my nephew is 20 years younger than I am , so and there's a 70 year gap between them , almost to the day , like we're all within like 10 days oh , so your nephew's ?
Speaker 2what 25 now easy guys 15 hardest working 15 year old I've seen in a long time . Um definitely doesn't take after his uncle , because at that age I was definitely not the hardest working 15 year old he'd ever find , and my grandfather is the hardest working 85 year old . Um only recently retired I think three years ago when he was like 82 , or four years ago when he was 81 , um from driving dump truck his entire life and it was only because he just didn't have the patience to deal with the drive test people anymore and he had to deal with them , I think , every year . So , um , happy birthday to them . Uh , happy retirement to my grandfather , who continues to not stop .
Speaker 2You know , or he's one of those guys . Unfortunately , once he stops he's gonna die . So he refuses to stop and at 85 years old , I mean , the guy is still in better shape than I am most days . So , um , props to him . So , yes , that is the reason that we canceled the live episode . We are going to look at reschedule . I'd like to do something , maybe around the toe show time , like you know , like we've done , where we recorded um , you know , maybe do a recording , but also do a live together right from the tow show , maybe on one of the nights .
Speaker 2That's kind of the idea that I've kind of been bouncing around just because scheduling prior to that is going to be very tough yeah obviously , like most towing industry , most towing companies , we've gotten to that little bit of a lull time I don't know if you you know , if you remember g . Normally this time , once school goes back until winter hits , it can be a bit of a downtime um . So we are seeing a decrease , especially on weekends and nights and everything . So it's kind of freed up a little bit um of time for for scheduling with the show .
Speaker 1In that my area would be during the week . The weekends are still hectic as hell because of all the tourists traveling .
Speaker 2Yeah , but so are we with the 401 corridor , but they're just not doing the like . The family vacations aren't going on , which is what we would see , I guess , a lot of our , our volume on see , for me it's a .
Speaker 1I'm up in cottage country , so a lot of people are still heading up there . As you're coming into the fall , a lot of them are going and closing the cottages until labor day yeah , until well , even after labor . A lot of people will keep them open to the end of September , into October , when they're actually closing it up , because some people are diehards , you're like I'm paying a second mortgage . I'm going to use it as much as I can .
Speaker 2I mean , and rightfully so .
Speaker 1I don't think I can blame anyone for that .
Speaker 2So it is a good time to mention , before we get too deep into it , questions , comments , concerns for the show , um , any opinions on things you might want to see in an upcoming live show . If we can get it done , uh , closer to the toe uh toe show in Ontario . Um , you can visit us at wwwtoeinglifeca . Don't forget you can also get your merch while you're there . You can email us at the towing life at gmailcom , or you can visit us on Facebook by searching at the towing life podcast . If you are on the YouTube side watching , welcome , and don't forget , you can always comment right down below . Hit that like , hit that subscribe while you're there . Get notifications every time a new episode drops every week .
Speaker 1So you've had a busy week , by the sounds of it , because you've got our show list all just jam-packed with stuff I've .
Speaker 2I've been motivated um mainly , you know , fun fact . A lot of the motivation that comes to this show and the reason that sometimes makes it hard and easier to record weekly is the fact that we experience so much in a week , every week , and that experience comes directly to this show , whether it be situations that we're going to talk about today , um , ideas for equipment , different things like that . So , yes , I have had a busy week , right , I have , in the most recent time , um had quite the terrible luck and I think we've talked about it with damage claims yep so one thing we are seeing in a lot of new vehicles is the going away with neutral releases .
Speaker 2Right bmws , there's like a skid plate underneath that you have to remove and put in an allen key . A lot of these new electric cars short of the teslas that have a tow mode providing you have 12 volt power . There's a lot of newer stuff that the engineers are really not taking into account on the towing and recovery side of things . That is making our job more difficult .
Speaker 2One personally has led to a damage claim . It was a fully electric vehicle that was locked up All four wheels locked up at a charging station not a good angle to get to it and it was an operator lapse in judgment . They ended up grabbing a tie rod . So fun fact for operators out there be wary , because new vehicles inner tie rods are becoming part of the entire rack and pinion . This is the second time that I have seen this . So if you bend or break an inner tie rod , you are not just replacing the inner tie rod , like you were back in the day , you are replacing the entire rack and pinion .
Speaker 2Ouch , yes , my most recent claim was on a 2024 Kia . I think it's a Kia EV6 . Right , I got this power generating station that just bricks these cars every time they plug in and I had an operator who made a terrible mistake and was not secured it was pouring rain , did not grab the control arm , actually ended up grabbing as well the control arm and the tie rod . When you've got a vehicle fully locked up , even with skates , and you pull on that , you're going to bend it . Fun fact currently rack and pinions for 2024 kia ev6s come in at about 7700 canadian oh , $7,700 .
Speaker 1Canadian . Oh yeah , Retail Ouch .
Speaker 2So , operators , the cars are getting trickier , the equipment you know required is getting trickier and trickier . So please do yourself a favor double check things like right . We've talked about advice on those Fords on how to avoid that skirt damage . You know , keep an eye out on these keysords on how to avoid that skirt damage . Keep an eye out on these Kias , because when they fully brick they lock . Now it got me talking . My owner and I were talking after doing this damage claim and went . You know , one thing we've never really looked at but we might want to inquire about is Gojacks .
Speaker 1Oh , you've never had Gojacks .
Speaker 2I've never had Gojacks . Now I have been doing my research on gojacks right , because they've become ever more popular and you're seeing you know off brands and different things like that . Like you know , we are one that I'd rather get good quality and get it once than buy them six times over a five-year period yep . But that being said , I see a major flaw with gojacks .
Speaker 2They aren't meant to get a vehicle onto a flatbed no , they're not they are meant to get a vehicle relocated into a position that you need , whether that be to winch it on the excuse me flatbed or um , in shop scenarios and whatnot . So my question is and and before somebody comes at me in the comments just use skates and and da-da-da-da-da , is there an off-road version of a Go-Jack ? I have looked and I have been unable to find anything , or unable to find people loading . Is the off-road version of a Go-Jack a dolly ?
Speaker 1You don't have the turning capabilities with a dolly .
Speaker 2You don't have the turning capabilities of a dolly . But if you're going straight on , you don't need the turning capabilities .
Speaker 1I have used a set of dollies to load a car onto a flatbed and that was just because I had the dollies on the truck from a previous call . I did that day Like we don't normally carry dollies on our flatbeds right , just because we never . When we we ordered the trucks , they weren't set up to carry dollies right and unless you from the factory , that truck has a plan to carry dollies , it's very hard to put them in after the fact 100 finding space on flatbeds .
Speaker 2We know we packed them full of everything oh , yeah , for sure .
Speaker 1And the downfall of it was it was a , a larger . I think it was like an older lexus suv , so it was fairly wide right . So I had to have the dollies out on the widest setting just to be able to get it on the car and you've got like an inch on both sides wiggle room to get it onto the bed . That's without rails on the bed without rails right so I was doing this in the dark .
Speaker 1I wasn't . I didn't have overly amount of like flatbed experience to begin with , um to at that time , and it was difficult to get it up there and to get it lined up because obviously if you got to put dollies on something to get it onto a bed , you have very limited control of that vehicle . To begin with , this thing didn't have the keys . It was locked in park like it was just a . It's a cluster and I think I had to load it backwards . So the dollies went up first for some strange reason , um , and it was pulled into a driveway . So with in between trying to winch it onto the bed and using the steering of the car to try to get it perfectly lined up and the front tires weren't spinning very well either . I think they didn't spin either . So it was a cluster , so steering is kind of irrelevant .
Speaker 1whenever front tires are sliding , it's more so to pick the bed up a little bit , move the truck right , just to get the front end to slide over . And then , once I got it up there , after I took all my straps down , strapping over top of the dollies with the eight-point tie down , the dolly tires got in the way of the actual straps , right , right . So it was a royal pain in the ass . Now , this particular call . Since I was doing it in the dark and I only worked days , I didn't finish the call . I drove it back to the shop and another operator finished the call because they were on the night shift and that was the truck they needed to go into , right , um , so unloading it . I can't remember how well they did it , but I know it was a pain for me to get it on .
Speaker 2And then well , and that's what I'm wondering .
Speaker 2I'm wondering if people have suggestions on things that I'm not thinking about , because I'm sure , and and again , some people come like , just skate it , no 100 , but you're , you're starting to see like aluminum a arms and all that kind of stuff and and even on on four skates , getting a vehicle up onto a bed with aluminum arms . You are starting to risk , you know , you know what I mean like we're starting to like a , a go jack scenario with a , you know , if somebody's modified one , maybe , and that might be the route that I'm looking at right , like I've thought about just getting an off-brand , cheap set of them to be able to , you know , cut them up and , and you know , apply what I want to apply to them um , you almost need a second set of go jacks for your go jacks , like a set of go jacks to go underneath the go jacks with the little caster wheels with bigger rubber tires that just pick the standard go jacks up off the ground a quarter of an inch , because you don't need much .
Speaker 2No , you don't need much , right , like I don't need a six inch rubber tire or a dolly size tire . I just need like a four inch with a little bit of air and some clearance on it so that when it hits that bed rail , it's not a hard plastic caster and it doesn't risk pulling the vehicle over top of the go jack and and kicking the go jack underneath the vehicle . I think it's something you and I had talked about . So if there is not some , before I start chopping up a set of go jacks , if anyone out there has any suggestions and this is what the towing industry is about is learning from others experiences and improving yourself so if somebody does have an idea for these , please let me know . I am open to suggestions , I'm . I mean , they have the robot that picks up the car and they can just put it on the bed . But and I'm not saying that's not a solution- but that's gotta be what ?
Speaker 1probably a hundred thousand dollar piece of equipment easily . If not , I would think . I would think , maybe even closer to 150 .
Speaker 2What I , what I get a kick out of and this is something topic wise that I wanted to bring up I this was the video I was referring to in the in the beginning is that I seen a video of a technician who was doing brakes on a vehicle and he had this handy , dandy little snap-on tool , and what it was is he would put the rotor on and the rotor would sit , would always slide out , kind of like a rim and tire would yeah right , and so he had this handy little tool that he would put on and it would clip on to the , the , um , uh , the stud , and just hold
, like .
Speaker 2It was kind of like a , you know just a metal thing that was click , click , click , click and it would hold the , the , the rotor , in place . It's all it was fancy , simple , simple little tool and what it would do is it would help while he was lining up the caliper bracket and everything , hold that rotor in place so that he's not trying to hold it with his knee or whatever . And one of the biggest comments he got every time he showed off a tool like that is you don't need that , right , and that is a comment that has been so prevalent in the towing industry for so many years , right , you don't need that .
Speaker 2You don't need that ball dog , you're right , you don't need that . You don't need that ball dog , you're right , you don't need that . Okay , you don't . You don't need impact guns to change tires correct , right ? You don't need battery powered ratchets if you're a mechanic right , you don't need .
Speaker 1You don't need a flatbed a record , could do everything absolutely all of these things .
Speaker 2You're right , you do not need to complete a job . However , I want to complete the job easier and more efficiently , and and that is it when he , when he said that , it stuck with me right away , because how many times have we seen on social media comments like you don't need a rotator ? Back in my day , we did that with two straights . You know two straight trucks and uh , and a little bit of ingenuity . And you're right , you don't need it . You don't need an air pump . You could use a bicycle pump . You don't need an impact gun to do your tire changes . You could use a tire iron . But , god damn , it makes the job easier .
Speaker 2So , before so quick to dismiss any sort of innovation , right , and somebody can come out . You don't need go jacks , you can use this . You can use a little bit of non-dish soap on your bed . You know what ? You're right , I don't need skates dish soap , a hundred percent , but it makes my job a little more easy and a little more convenient , right , you , you don't need and it's so frustrating because I find that as the attitude that the industry approaches in so many different ways , right , we talked about it back when we had the back bowl hitch .
Speaker 2You don't need that . You can fork off the off the the hitch . You're right , you can . And you're right , I don't need that . But instead of going and getting forks and everything else and ensuring I have proper sizes , I could use this tool . I want this tool . It's going to make life more efficient for me . I don't need skates , but it makes it easier . I don't need dispatch software like toe soft , but it make right . I could do every call pen and paper like we used , to a hundred percent . You don't need it , but god damn , does it help make your job more efficient and easy , and then you can focus on other things well , it also really depends on who you are like .
Speaker 1You always gotta weigh the pros and cons like the debate in between go or uh , skates and dish soap . Okay , you spread your dish soap onto your bed well , you got to clean that up afterwards , right ? Instead of go jacks , okay , well , it's not as much of a consumable as your dish soap would be . So you gotta keep make sure that you've always got the dish soap stocked up . You'll get that one call and you're like oh , I need to go to the dollar store first to get some more dish soap , but you always have a set of skates on your truck , as long as you don't lose them right or you can get them out right . So there is pros and cons to both systems . It's just whatever works out best for you as an operator or the company . Right , dollars to donuts , what is more efficient ?
Speaker 2right , but we see that and I'm okay with that , right , I'm okay if you want to stick with this . So I'm not going to sit there
and go . I might tell you , hey , you should maybe look at investing in some skates , but I won't tell you , don't need that , you don't even don't it's sometimes have a hard time crawling up the lip of the bed too yeah , you need it's not a full yeah , it's not a foolproof plan .
Speaker 1Right , you still got to think outside the bun sometimes and figure your shit out . But I do admit that the using gojacks to try to get up on the onto the bed itself is a nightmare and what if you have the same scenario with a vehicle fully locked up in a gravel parking lot ?
Speaker 2yeah gojacks aren't going to do anything no right , not the current setup , and that's what I'm saying . There's got to be something out there . There's so much innovation . If not , I'm giving somebody a million dollar idea , right , I'm not sure it's a million dollar idea , I don't know how many people buy it , but like an idea to run with . And if you have a product , I will test it . Right , we've been here before . If you have a product , I will test it . Right , we've been here before .
Speaker 2If you have a product that you think meets the requirements that I have , I will gladly test it and review it , because there is so much innovation in the towing industry as much as we are so behind in the times , and I think a lot of that was caused because of the old school mentality we brought into this industry , where you don't need that , you don't need to be fancy , you don't need to have a remote for your winch . You're right , you don't need a remote for your winch . But do you know how nice it is when you're turning a car out of a parking spot onto your flatbed and you can sit in the car or stand off to the side and steer the vehicle while you winch it ? Yep .
Speaker 2Think about how much easier that would be . Do I need that ? No , Think about how much easier that would be . Do I need that ? No , but that mentality right , People need to stop looking at it as a , you know , discouraging that kind of innovation . You know , I truly believe the companies , the towing companies that have become top line and I talk NRC , Miller and all that a rotating tow truck , a rotating boom at one point was you don't need that . And imagine if somebody would have took that one . You know what ? Yeah , yeah , I guess you don't . You don't need that in the industry . You're killing innovation , right ?
Speaker 2Listen to ideas that are coming out . Look at the new technology that is available and for , don't forget , you don't need it , You're right , but you can make jobs safer , more efficient . Perfect example Synetics . We run Synetic headsets on all of our heavy recoveries . You do not need Synetics . I did recoveries for years without Synetics . But my God , does it speed up the process when I don't have to walk 100 meters to go find a guy to tell him a little task that I need him to do or to check in on something he's doing , and I can just check right in on him . Right , it makes life so much easier . I believe I have a knock at my door .
Speaker 2No , maybe not might have been my dog's tail wagging outside the door . Um , but right , when , when you can communicate something that you need to communicate at a distance , at a decent distance , while working a recovery scene especially the scale of the one in which we worked the other day when you've got multiple scenes going on at one time , you don't need it , right ? That is going to kind of be the the . The mantra of this episode is that you do not need something .
Speaker 1Well , it was the previous company I worked for . We wanted to implement Toastsoft into the company , and when I say we , it was me and the manager . They did , by the way . Yeah , we did . But we had extensive conversations with you about this software and every time you showed us more we were like , oh , that's badass , Like we want that . That is cool that we saw the ability to streamline our jobs and make our jobs more efficient Well , not necessarily our jobs as drivers , but the back end and the dispatching of jobs and just make it easier so dispatch doesn't have to send us a text message about a call and maybe that calls for two days from now and then when it comes to time to do that call . We got to scroll back through all these text messages to try to find if you didn't forget about it if I didn't forget about it , that information to where ?
Speaker 1if , okay , I need a tow next week , all right , I'll just plug that into the system and schedule it for that day and it the dispatch gets a reminder . However , that actually works . But you've got that call already scheduled in and with all that information . We went to our owners and we were like , hey , this is what we want . Can you take a look at this ? We , we are on board with this , we want this , and they were able to see the benefits for it as well . And it's just once you figure it out and you can see a path and an avenue of oh , that's actually going to work . Let's follow this .
Speaker 2Well , if you look currently like I've actually just opened my Toastsoft , as you were saying that , how the scheduled calls works , in case you weren't sure on the other side and I got no problem plugging ToeSoft because again it's one of those tools You're right you don't need , but man you are going to want um , what it does is is there is a tab specifically to schedule calls , so it shows you scheduled calls within the next week and kind of a standby list . The day that that call becomes is scheduled for at midnight it auto puts it into the dispatches standby . So it auto . So , like I have , you know , a couple of calls scheduled for the 26th , I got three for the 26th . So on midnight of the 26th those three calls will go into the standby . Yep .
Speaker 2And if I have them , I can actually have them pre-scheduled to drivers , pre-dispatched to drivers on a set time of my choice . So what will happen is they'll get a little ding that says , hey , you have a scheduled call coming , like you know a scheduled call was just assigned to you so they can see all the details of the call . The day of it'll actually dispatch , depending on the time that I set for it . Dispatch to the driver automatically .
Speaker 1That's just bad-ass .
Speaker 2That's just saving company . You know that . That is the difference between forgetting about a customer and not forgetting about a customer yeah , like we've had it .
Speaker 1I want don't want to say many times , but it has happened before where a call comes in on the weekend and the weekend dispatcher takes it down and the weekend dispatcher where we work work from home , right , and she worked out of a truck a lot of times , worked with one of the drivers and come monday morning powwow at 8 am to hand the phones back over to the weekday dispatcher .
Speaker 1There was a lot of information that needed to be trans , uh , transferred , and sometimes things slipped through the cracks , right , and oh well , I , this guy called and asked for a quote and I gave him a quote and he was , he was pretty sure , but he's going to call back in and figure it out . No one actually calls the guy to confirm he's . He was just under the assumption that we were going to show up on the thursday to do the call , right , but it's just , you forget about it , right , and it's not pressing , it's four days away from now , I can do it later . It's not the thing on Monday morning that I need to take care of immediately . And things obviously slip through the cracks to where , if you have a system like this , you punch it into the computer once , and the computer will remember it for you 100% , like I legitimately have .
Speaker 2like your scheduled calls , you can do quotations and you give a customer a reference number for a call number and then that if they call back onto another shifts , dispatch they go . Yeah , I got this reference . You know one , two , three , four five and dispatch goes okay . One , two , three , four , five . Okay , john , like you're already taking all that information anyways . Why would you take it again ? But you're right , I don't need it , but I want it . Right , but it's going to streamline things and and again . Toast off to just one example of that .
Speaker 1We're not sponsored by toast off . No , absolutely Absolutely not we have done sponsorships with them in the past .
Speaker 2And that's because they are a great partner .
Speaker 1Yeah , we love what they provide , but they're not paying us to say this .
Speaker 2Now think about this too . So I have you know , as your fleet grows and again , we've had different views on this because you've come from smaller operations , I come from a little bit bigger , but even , that being said , even the smaller operation , hey , I got to book this truck in for a , a maintenance , for a repair on something , for whatever , I will go and look at the scheduled calls and see before I book this , do I have anything already booked on this truck ? Because there's nothing worse to a customer than rescheduling a customer . So if , hey , I can wait till Tuesday . Yeah , that's a good thing . I got a job booked for that truck on Monday , perfect
.
Speaker 2Now you , your dispatchers , coming into a fresh shift , can see hey , what do we got booked coming up ? What do I have have for guys ? They can start to schedule this stuff along . You know we're ones like I've got a bunch booked for some for monday morning . There's one or two for monday morning . I am not um booking them or or dispatching them or scheduling them , even until almost the night before , first thing in the morning . Right , I got a dispatcher in at six o'clock in the morning . Most jobs only only start rolling at 7 , 8 , 9 . So they will take care of dispatching those at 6 am , because you know as well as I do , the moment you try and schedule a guy , he's going to end up with something else and be gone somewhere else .
Speaker 1Well , the other thing is too , you have at this point it's a database of everything going on . So let's say , billy friday took six calls and they're all going to be scheduled for monday , okay , well , that's all your drivers pretty much booked , and over the you've got another two days on the weekend when tim's dispatching and he's booking calls on monday too , because he doesn't know that it's already been pre-booked . But with this database he's like oh no , sorry , I can't fit you in on monday , but I can do Tuesday .
Speaker 2Yeah , or I can do a little later in the day . Whatever the case might be A hundred percent , not to mention right again , and this is the needs , not wants . Right , I don't need it but I want it . Or sorry , it's the wants , not needs . Perfect example , and we have seen it many times in the industry . How many times has a towing company been inconsistent in billing ? And now the customer will tell you really quickly but hey , we just did this job last week for John and we charged $150 . And this time we charged $175 . And .
Speaker 2John wants to know what the hell Right this allows you to do that . Hey , I had you guys move this C can the other day . I'd like to get it moved again . No problem , open the old pass call . Create a duplicate . It'll link the calls . So while you're on john's new call , you will see that the call is linked and you can go back and look at john's old call . So when it comes to the point of billing , you can ensure that if I charge let's say I charged John last time one 45 an hour I'm not charging him one 35 this time . I'm being consistent .
Speaker 1You also you also see what truck did it and what driver did it . So you know , if I'm a new dispatchers and I'm coming in and my training was a little lackluster , this system can help pick up some of the slack because I don't know what truck can move a 20 foot c can loaded full of shit . Well , this truck did it before and this driver knows what the hell they're doing because they've done it before and there's no additional comments in the call . Well , I'll just send this driver with this truck again . It's almost idiot proof at that point 100 , 100 .
Speaker 2So it's really taking the thing and and we've seen that with tools , like I said , we can go back to the simplification with skates . You don't need skates , but hey , when I get that spot where I'm stuck and I don't want to drag a vehicle across because it's a nice car , I can pound a skate under that wheel and make it do whatever I want . You know what I mean . Like different tools or different innovations within the industry have different applications and different wow factors , that's for sure . But the skate was almost one of the simplest ones . It was one of them where I sensed the need . You know , somebody sensed the need and went oh , okay , what if we made something that went underneath these , that was softer than the ground it was being pulled on ? That is a wearable item because it's going to wear but would save , you know , and elevate to the level . How bad does it look ? Okay , customers and we've seen this have a a preconceived notion in their head on what a tow truck operator is . The general public has a preconceived notion of what an operator is and some of this is just going to be optics . Does it hurt dragging a car with its wheel dragging 10 feet ? You ain't gonna flat spot a tire . The optics alone behind it . Can it damage something ? Yes , will it . Probably not the optics behind it , though .
Speaker 2Right , you see a video surface and you see a tow truck . Just you know , winch down and something tires are going is they're dragging across the parking lot and up onto the bed . Everyone would go that is a tow truck driver . That is what my idea is now . You now , so you call for a tow truck and tow truck driver shows up and the guy just gonna drag it and whatever . No , and he sits there and he pounces skates under the tires and he winches it back and he explains what he's doing . At the same time he gets to his bed , he whacks another skate under the skate to get it up onto the bed and he skates it all the way up , secures the vehicle , flips around , gets to offload pounds of skates under the airside , offloads the vehicle nice and smooth . No , eat and no car hop in and and no , any of that kind of stuff . What does that do for the industry ? Holy shit , we've come a long way right . This isn't what I thought . This isn't sanford and son .
Speaker 2Hook a hook and just drag yep this is a professional industry , that is , is you know , and this this driver . You compare those two drivers in that same scenario . Which one are you calling again ?
Speaker 1oh , definitely the guy pounding the skates underneath . The guy who pounded the skates under . I actually got a funny story . Well , it's not necessarily funny , but I was doing my uh zed endorsement the other week , so now I'm I can drive things with air brakes . Lucky me proving myself . Anyways .
Speaker 1This uh hydro dick was there and I call all hydro dicks hydro dicks . And he was like I had a ford f one of the new ones , ecoboost . I wanted a 5 liter but they couldn't give me a 5 liter and it's got 5,000 kilometers on it and it shit the bed right in the parking lot , like right in the middle of an intersection , like it just shut off , locked in park , couldn't get it shifted into park . I was dicking around with it for three hours in the middle of this intersection and I finally just said you know what , screw it , I'll get in a toad . Right tow truck driver showed up and I'm assuming it was in the middle of the intersection and he just dragged it onto the bed .
Speaker 1Well , this guy said that he freaked out at the tow truck operator . It's like oh , that's gonna flat spot my tires and you're just gonna fuck something up . I said to him it's like well , it's only being drug . Maybe 20 feet , the back tires . You're not really going to flat spot your tires in that distance , but we do have these things in the industry called skates that you can pound underneath these tires to get it up . Now , is that going to stop the actual wheel pivoting back and forth on the parking pin ? No , is it still going to look not so great ? No , it's not going to look . Is it still going to look not so great ? No , it's not going to look great . But it's going to get most of your rubber up off the asphalt If you've got a big tire sometimes put two together , or whatever .
Speaker 1But that is a system that we do have Now , if you're in the middle of an intersection and now he's got a 20-30 foot truck blocking traffic I'm dragging , I'm dragging nine times out of ten .
Speaker 1Yeah right , yeah , depends on the off for the offload , you can pound skates underneath because you're in a parking lot . Right , you have more time available , and that's the other thing when it comes to inventions that we have in the industry the time factor . We're never hooking up the same car in the same spot , and if your nose is out onto a big , uh , busy highway , busy road , you got to be a little bit quicker . Right , so you might not be able to use all these tools that we do have in our toolbox , but you know , the chances are very slim of me causing damages just by dragging this car onto the bed . I need to get out of here because of the police are yelling at me blocking traffic right , Whatever ?
Speaker 1Yeah , of course . So as an operator , you're always going to diminish the way you look in the overall goal of getting the car , the customer and yourself into a safe spot again Right the car , the customer and yourself into a safe spot again right . Because I would rather make this one guy think a little less of me by dragging his car onto the bed than the 50 people stuck on the road that I'm blocking , that can't get to their destination . They're like , oh , look at that idiot .
Speaker 2Well , again there , there's risk evaluation and everything like that . Like , I'm not talking about a blocking road , mvc , everything like that . Yeah , 100% , I've done that with blocking roads , especially in MVC . It's like , okay , I'm going to drag it , get it out of the way and I'll redo everything once I get off into a safe spot . That isn't the argument that's being made here , right , we're talking about . You're just broken down in a parking lot . What happens on the road stays on the road . What happens in live lanes is a completely different than what happens in parking lots , driveways , etc .
Speaker 2No , so , yeah , no , it is . It is very important to you know . Keep pushing the innovation right . And and for you guys out there that you know are going to go ahead and comment on you know some , some guys post about whatever you know . Ah , you don't need rotators , you don't need , you know , whatever it is , the back bowl hitch . You don't need this fancy towing software . You don't need any of that stuff . You know what ? You're right , I don't , but it's going to make my job a lot more efficient and easier and is possibly going to help me with growth in the industry rather than being stuck with my mindset on . We've been doing it this way for this long . I don't need to change I .
Speaker 1I'm a firm believer , like I've I'm . I have the headset of . I've been doing it this way . I don't want to change . However , I know a lot of you guys out there you're no longer in the towing industry however , if a towing company that builds towing equipment or tries to interact with our industry is innovating , don't hamper them . The people you need to hamper is the government coming in and trying to tell you how to do your job well on that back to that change on that note .
Speaker 2So recently this week , um , I watched an episode . It was . It was aired on thursday . Uh , it's through a facebook page . If you haven't gone and joined them , go ahead and do it . Uh , called southwest uh tow operators . I believe is let me just pull it up to make sure I've got through it . Yeah , southwest tow operators . Um , there is a , a , a show that gets going on called Recovery Alley . It is with and I'm going to Jeff Neenstead I might have brutalized that name and he does very similar to what we do in a podcast , but it's a back .
Speaker 2I don't think it's every week along those lines , but he talks about a job that was recently done by an operator in the states I'm not sure where it was . Mike haynes was , uh , was his guest , um , mike haynes appeared on the show discussing a burnt trailer job that they did and it goes back to something that we have started to see in canada and I personally have experienced myself , um , and it was a tractor trailer where the tractor unpinned , the trailer fully burnt or good portion burnt , on the side of an on-ramp , off the fog line , meaning not in a live lane , and this operator uh , company owner , I believe attended to evaluate the job
. Now , the job , when you get into these burn jobs and what some guys don't know if you've never worked a job of that scale , 90 of that job is is just is salvage right , you are literally taking you know , excavators , roll off bins , whatever you have , and and and and , offload and load into it , because it's a write-off .
Speaker 2Yep , and one of the biggest problems with that is is , though we are equipped in the towing industry and even my company is very equipped for a lot of scenarios , a scenario of that scale . You are calling in contractors . Right , there's companies that are dedicated directly to this kind of stuff . We have one that we deal with locally who has , um , pumper trucks like sucker trucks and roll-offs . So anytime we get a major cleanup , like we did on that wreck that I shared , they are brought in with bins and their pumper trucks to . You know , we will suck fuel out of a tractor . We will not suck fuel on a tank that's been burnt and fire has applied water and and and solution and everything too , because it's gonna screw us contaminated . Yeah , yeah , 100 . So we call them in for that kind of stuff . So when you have that , the problem is when you call in a contractor , a contractor doesn't give a shit when you're going to get paid . Yeah .
Speaker 2Right . So this gentleman , you know , called one of his buddies who does this kind of thing and said I've estimated it's probably about 16 , 15 to $16,000 is what you're going to pay , because there's disposal , you know , plus the equipment on scene and everything else , right , and he had no guarantee of payment . He was not sure if the insurance , if there was any insurance on this trailer , and because the truck had unpinned , he had no collateral in the truck . All he had was this trailer full of chicken , like chicken breast , I understand , like processed chicken , and so he did what so many operators have wanted to do before and and I do apologize , mike haynes , if you do hear this , if I'm paraphrasing your operation um , you can go back and find southwest toe operators on facebook . Go back and watch the video . It's on youtube , I believe as well . Similar to us is that he . He told the officers and it was a rotation call that I am not equipped to do this .
Speaker 2I am not equipped to financially take a 15 000 to 16 000 risk and not get paid yep , you're gambling at that point you are and you are gambling a large amount , and even you are gambling with the opportunity to not double your money but have about in ontario's sake . It's normally about a 15 markup . It could be up to , I believe , 25 down in the states . Um , on , that bill is all you're making plus you're paying their bill up front , you're waiting to get paid , you're dealing with the insurance , you're dealing with all of that , yep . So we decided to turn the job down and that is something we have talked about . I've ran into that've ran into that exact same scenario , just not with a loaded trailer . I've done it with campers . I've done it with you know well , two campers that I've had so far . A motorcycle recovery nothing quite on that large of a scale .
Speaker 2And you're seeing this more and more in the towing industry because a these guys are carrying zero to little insurance coverage . You try and get through to an emergency line on a weekend it's damn near impossible or on a night , which is when these things happen . If this happened between Monday to Friday , eight to five , you have a chance of confirming something . With a couple hours delay , before you get to the job right , the trucking companies will tell you well , my truck's not pinned to it anymore . It's not my problem , it's my insurance company's problem . Deal with them . You talk to the insurance and they go well , we cover the trailer but not the cargo . You talk to the cargo insurance , like there's so many insurance companies that are involved in this , and so mike king's , you know , made the recommendation to , or , you know , made the decision to , not do the work . He ended up doing the job about four or five days later , after spending four or five days talking with insurance companies .
Speaker 2He didn't just say no and let it go . Yeah , he said I'm not . You know I'm a big believer . I'm not . It's not that I'm saying no , I'm saying not right now , not until I can confirm something , and that is such . It was a really good episode to watch . So I really do encourage again southwest toe operators on facebook . I really encourage you to go back and watch the episode . They had a little bit of internet connection issues . As we've seen with guests . Guests are not equipped the way we are , so the mic quality is not the greatest . Maybe there's little things like that , but that is what happens when we're , when you deal with the public .
Speaker 1Who's , you know , not doing a weekly podcast yeah , yeah , like you see that in a lot of different industries too , to where let's take farming with crop insurance . If the crop fails , they have at least insurance on this , to it's not going to go bankrupt , right .
Speaker 2We don't have any sort of safety net for these jobs that we do .
Speaker 1If that's an insurance company that wants to come out and say I'll insure you If you don't get paid on a job , I'll pay you out 80% , they would make a killing . Just off the hop they would make a killing .
Speaker 2Yeah , like we need to have an insurance company , like almost like a collection company , that guarantees our bare minimum rate that we set with them , and then they go after the rest and take a small percentage . Yeah , I mean , it's kind of what the insurance companies do .
Speaker 1We should do it too yeah , we need an insurance company to fight . The insurance companies fight on their level but ?
Speaker 2but no , it's true and and it was a comment that I made on that , and and it's something that I've seen before is that everyone else that responded , the state trooper that responded , the fire department that responded I don't think there was a need for paramedics because the truck had unpinned from the trailer before it fully engulfed . All of those people the highway roads , people that showed up to close the , the ramp or whatever may be needed all of those people showed up with a guarantee of payment , the only ones that show up to these massives . Look at that wreck that I did a couple days ago or a week ago , whatever it was . There was fire departments from three different stations , there was police on scene , there was ministry of environment on scene , there was the roads guys . There was all the like . Millions of dollars worth of resources were dispatched to this and the only one that showed up that wasn't guaranteed payment was us , and we are the you know , and we are equally is expected to perform and react in the same way that that . Some of these others are right , like I am . I am expected to , when I get the job , to start working on the job . I am not expected to sit back and ask questions hey , we need the road cleared . You want to do the job ? Okay , okay , we'll go to the job . Well , no , I need to make sure I'm going to get paid . No , next , right , we'll just , we'll just go next , because somebody will is not going to get paid and we have seen this .
Speaker 2The abandonment rate on light duty vehicles alone is 30 in ontario . Right on these trucks . I still have trucks and now I've got a burnt truck , I've got a burnt trailer and I've got a burnt cargo . The value in that is zero dollars . It is the scrap weight , if that , that you will get for that vehicle . So what is stopping a trucking company from just ? You know , especially if it's a small operation , right , if you're talking these trans fleets , these , these massive companies , little less concerned , their insurance company , because they deal with so many claims , is going to be a lot tougher on you . But there will be payment being made . A little mom and pop operation , right , with maybe two , three trucks burn .
Speaker 2This thing happens . I'm shutting down the company , I'm not putting a claim through my insurance and I'm reopening under something else . Because I'm not going to pay the 30 , $40,000 , right , plus the value of the truck and everything else , because my deductible is this is 50,000 and it's only going to cover me for another 50 . And at that point , my premiums are like it's insane , but we are still expected to respond . Like it's insane , but we are still expected to respond . So again , do I need guarantees to get payment ? No , but I'm really gonna want them and it's gonna make my job a lot more efficient and my company a lot more profitable when I get them yeah well , I've had it before , to where I've showed up to do police calls and you're like oh , oh , I'm not , the company's not getting paid .
Speaker 1Yeah , I'm not getting paid on this yeah , so I'm not getting paid for this . So then your quality of work goes to the shit because you're like I'm just doing this for charity , right , but see in light duty , though guy it never really like .
Speaker 2I know , but these stuff it's a mentality , yes , but if you actually look at the business and donuts the dollars , right , like you talked about dollars to donuts whatever . If you look at at the , the value of sending out a light duty resource to go grab a car that you're never going to get paid for and throw it against the scrap value of that car that you're going to get right , provided this isn't a you know , down a rock cliff and everything else we're talking like a you know you're going to lose maybe 50% right Off the profit .
Speaker 2Yeah , you go , so okay . So 50% off a $300 call . Let's say you're going to lose $150 , right , Companies can absorb that . They shouldn't have to . I don't want that being clear . But you know , as long as this isn't a hundred of these a day , the company can absorb that . When you're talking $15,000 in subcontractors . Yeah $1.1 million trucks . Yeah .
Speaker 2Plus the labor of the guy that goes with it , because you know again , you know these operators are paid more than guys that are doing just lighter duty tows , all that kind of stuff you throw , all that cost , your loss is exponential compared to doing a car that you have right , I think that's where we start .
Speaker 2I think that's where we start to push is on the little stuff , because it's just much more like it happens , much more often and again , depending on where you are like I am , you know if you're contracted with a , a police department , there could be clauses in there that require you to do the removal , no matter what Right . You may not have that option to opt out of it Right . So you got to know your contracts and have an understanding of them . When it comes to us , with provincial police , there is no contracts Unless you're in these pilot zones or there's contracts there . I'm sure I know there's contracts . I just don't know if there's an you know spec .
Speaker 1You know that , you , but you can also run into issues because I've worked for a couple of different companies to where the owners are kind of hands off , right . So as a driver , you show up , you are the one making the judgment calls , right , which is scary . It is scary to just . It's already scary enough to , as a business owner , to say I'm going to let you drive around at a $100,000 billboard and represent my company . You are the face of my company anytime you have an interaction with someone , let alone now .
Speaker 1You're making decisions and billing practices on how much company the company is going to be making , billing practices on how much company the company is going to be making right and it's . It's a lot to instill into a driver that could be new , might only be six months in . You don't know if they're a company man or not , or company woman . They might not have your best interests at heart and they could be like well , the company's not getting paid , so fuck it , I'm just not going to do it , which is the wrong way of going about it . Instead , you could , you know , dive into it , make a few phone calls before you do something right .
Speaker 2Well , that's it more information about it , instead of just saying , nah , fuck it , I'm , I'm out of here I think that's one where , yeah , no matter what , you can't make that decision on your own as a driver right , I have a I have a problem with , like you've got to put certain trust into drivers and employees to make decisions Right , but your , your decision-making ends at a certain point . Whenever it comes , your decision-making applies to how you are safely going to tow and recover this vehicle . That is what we've trained into our employees . The decision of walking away from a job or or having potentially major effects on a company one way or another is not up to the drivers or employees discussion . Right , that is up to management supervisors .
Speaker 1A lot of companies haven't drawn that line in the sand , or that's . That line is very murky right . A lot of places are just . Especially once you get into the smaller operations it's of course you put more trust in the drivers because , oh well , billy Bob Joe's not going to screw me because you know I I make sure he's got food on his table for his family , but maybe billy bob joe's having a bad day .
Speaker 2You never know when it happens , and that's always going to happen with operators . They have , um , they have bad days , just like the rest of us . Everybody has bad days and not everyone's always going to make the right decision
. So , that being said , we thank you for joining us for another episode of the Towing Life podcast , episode 150 . Again , on behalf of myself , I apologize personally for not doing the live . We will try and reschedule at a better time . It is a good time to mention .
Speaker 2Don't forget to head over to the website , wwwtowinglifeca . Find your merch . There's a contact us link there . Email us at the towing life at gmailcom , or find us on Facebook at the towing life podcast . If you are watching over on the YouTube side and you've made it this far , don't forget to comment down below . I am serious . I need recommendations for an off-road go Jack , and there is somebody in this industry that has come up with something and I want to hear about . So , on behalf of my on , and I want to hear about . So on behalf of myself and my wonderful co-host , mr Tomangie , we thank you for joining us for another episode . And don't forget , it's not what you need , it's what you want , take care .
Speaker 1Toodles . It's not what you need , it's what you want I don't know if that was right , but have you told that saying to your wife yet ?
Speaker 2listen . My wife had a massive steak like she sent me to do groceries yesterday while I was hungry oh , that's bad not like groceries , but like I had to get some stuff for dinner . I ended up with like these like three inch thick steaks , asparagus , this , these curry ball things that I bought .
Speaker 1You spent a hundred dollars , I spent a hundred dollars on like one paper bag . It was so good though .
Speaker 2It was so good .