Hey everyone. I'm Brad from Calgary. This is Sean from Cambridge, ontario. I'm Terry from Cornwall, ontario.
Speaker 3Hey, this is Larry from Pit Metals, British Columbia, and 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'm your host, Tomei Nji, and, as usual, I'm joined by my co-host, friend and former co-worker, the man with very strong opinions, Mr Plain Guy.
Speaker 3It hurts my feelings that you can't look me in the eyes while you say that what is going on, nji? What is going on? Look me in the eyes while you say that what is going on? G?
Speaker 1What is going on. I don't know where you want me to look, either in the camera, into your eyes on this screen, or, while I'm normally just looking at the other screen trying to figure out what the hell I'm going to talk about in one of these episodes.
Speaker 3He can't even look me in the eyes while he gives me all of those compliments. Yeah, do you do the same with your girlfriend? Uh, no, do you look her in the eyes? Occasionally when you want something or when you're in trouble both.
Speaker 3So most of the time, all right, I got you most of the time, most of the time. Yeah, my wife's the worst for that. I actually I'm I'm not bad, I'm great at making eye. I have this serious problem where she's apparently still having a conversation and I'm not. I just walk away and I think the conversation is over. And it happened at the office the other day, which is really funny. She brought a problem to my attention. Okay, so we're looking over it. Okay, cool, came up with a solution.
Speaker 3In my eyes, the conversation was over. And I walk away and I go talk to somebody and then I come back and and my dispatch is looking at me like they got a question. They're like oh, I can wait if, if you want to finish with her. And I'm like finish with her. And I'm like we weren't done talking. She's like no, I was like, oh, whoops, um, sorry, I'll get right back to you. Um, what's your problem? Um, of course you made your wife wait. Well, honestly, like I I I truthfully believe, half the time, and I don't know if that's because me and my owner have very sporadic conversations, so like we will literally like have a quick conversation and then off to another thing. Right Like it's, it's part of the job. Yeah.
Speaker 3Right, it's covered. Our little brainstorming that goes on. Sometimes something pops in your head, you say it out loud and then you're the conversation's over. It wasn't even a conversation, it was a monologue, and so I think I assume that with my wife and other people, yeah that with my wife and other people and so they're not done and my eyes it is, and I'm off and running and off to the next thing.
Speaker 1Yeah, I had that conversation last night. I was talking to the girlfriend about, oh, I need to go grab the dog food from upstairs and bring it down, and then we got talking about finances. And then we got what I thought was done with the finance conversation and I went upstairs to go grab the dog food because I already talked about that and as I'm going up the stairs she's still talking to me about financing. I was like you just started talking about finances again when I left. Okay, we were sitting on the couch not talking about anything for like a minute, so I figured it's done and as soon as I leave to go do something.
Speaker 1Oh, I'll start the conversation back no, so I don't know.
Speaker 3If it's a listening problem on my part, it is very possible. I've never been known to be the best listener. Yeah, um, or if it is, maybe that is. Maybe that is what it is. It's a a bad timing on her side, like it's too long of a delay, um, and so you know. The other person just assumes conversations over now. I think I'm the only person that does it with her. I haven't heard her complain about anyone else doing it, so that would lead me to really depends on the conversation too.
Speaker 1Like if it's a conversation that there's a fine line that needs to be walked, I need to take a little bit of extra time to like figure out exactly what I'm gonna say. Oh yeah, I have a tendency my mouth operates faster than my brain does, and I know that. So in those high, high tense conversations, I gotta like refrain and actually think about what I'm going to say prior to saying it.
Speaker 3I. I recently had a conversation with my owner and so I called him up and I had to talk about. I don't remember what it was about, but I asked him are you 10, 69? Right, which is is 10 codes for are you in private? And he goes yeah, and I go okay. So I go on to whatever rant it was that I wanted to talk to him about. Well, he made an assumption, which was a fair assumption in his part, that if I was asking him if he was alone, it's because I was alone. Now, obviously, when it comes to business things, there are certain things that certain things that you know I can admit there's things my wife doesn't know, but there's a lot of stuff that I can talk to my wife about.
Speaker 3Again, it's part of being a partner, right, um, that I wouldn't necessarily talk with other employees about, and so I don't even think about it. When you know, this specific matter wasn't one of those things. It wasn't a finance, it it? When you know this specific matter wasn't one of those things, it wasn't a finance, it wasn't a you know anything that was company trade secrets, it was, you know. I don't remember what it was, but I knew it wasn't anything like that. So when I asked if he's alone, he assumed I'm alone and he had brought up something I had said about my wife in confidence to him, with her sitting right next to me on speakerphone, and it didn't go over well.
Speaker 1That's when you always normally try to be in the habit of hey, how's it going? Okay, yeah, you're on speakerphone with so-and-so right, right, one of the beginning parts of the conversation 100, 100 and and the only reason in his mind it was okay to say is because he asked.
Speaker 3I asked him if he was in private, so he assumed that you were private as well which, which I was like for the information at hand, it wasn't, you know, I wasn't outside of company that could be, you know, involved in that information yep so he apologized and apologized after and I said it's like I can't even blame you for that one I can't, how'd your?
Speaker 2wife take it no, not, not, well not well, not well that day.
Speaker 3No, I bet not. Um, yeah, no, that was like outside of work, that was like we were at home. Yeah, it was oof, it was a rough one yeah, so on the couch that night.
yeah, lesson learned. Um, if you ask somebody if they're in private and you want to have a private conversation whether it be about your business, your towing practices and the ideas that you may have you may want to ensure you are also in private, because I would be the first person you don't want to talk on speakerphone to. G has learned this lesson many times. There's a reason that if you go back in previous episodes, he wasn't wearing headphones. Yeah, there is a reason now that he wears headphones and it is because of the things that come out of my mouth. So I cannot fault another human being for for being that person when I have been it so many times so is your wonderful wife still coming to the toe show with you, even though you're an idiot, uh, I I believe so, I hope so, I really hope so.
Speaker 3I mean, I booked a nice air and b airbnb and everything for her, so I'm hoping that she is um, but yes, it is a great time. Thank you for reminding me and getting us back on track. We will be at the ontario ptao professional towing association of ontario annual 2024 tow show being held at bingman's resort in kitchener, ontario. That's like september 13th and 14th what?
Speaker 1it's like two weeks away, 10 days away from the time this episode goes out.
Speaker 3Yeah, no, it's not next weekend, it's the weekend after. Next weekend's my wife's birthday and the weekend after is the tow show. I think I'm going to amalgamate them together and do her birthday at the tow show. That's a bad idea.
Speaker 1That's a bad idea. Don't do that. She would love it. No, she wouldn't.
Speaker 3She just wants to spend her birthday with tow trucks.
Speaker 1No, no, last year, your wife and my girlfriend. They went to the St Jacob's Market and saw the sights, and your wife took your credit card and bought some things, so that was the highlight of her weekend.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, that's going to be her birthday present this year, yeah, okay, no, normally what we do and unfortunately, again, my owner, who's going to be a topic of many conversations, apparently here. We normally go to a cottage in September for a birthday. We have this cottage. We go once a year and unfortunately he decided that that was going to be a good time to book his family vacation at Disney. So he's not around. We're not going to leave, we're not going to head out of the area because it can get a little chaotic, Um, so I'm trying to plan what it is that we are going to do, um, but I'm sure, I'm sure, why doesn't she?
Speaker 1just go out and do something for her own birthday.
Speaker 3Cause she's a strong, independent woman and needs her husband to do everything for her. Like God, she doesn't listen to this show, so if you want to tell her at the toe show, you can absolutely call her a strong, independent woman. It will be September 13th and 14th at Bingman's family resort in Kitchener, ontario, put on by the PTAO. They do a wonderful job, the hard work that they put into organizing this tow show, so be sure to check it out. We will have, by the time this airs, we will have our t-shirts in stock, our pre-orders for those of you that pre-ordered, and we may or may not have ordered some extras for those that will be in attendance at the show that didn't get their pre-order in because they were not paying attention, the show that didn't get their pre-order in because they were not paying attention.
Speaker 3Any of the shirts that we have on the pre-order are available as well on our website. If you head to wwwtowinglifeca, you will find a store merchandise, um. It'll give you a link to head over and you can get your um merch. There's all kinds of swag on that. The shirt g's wearing right now. Um, I'm not. I have so many of them yet I refuse to not refuse to wear them. I just I throw on a shirt for the show and representing some local dirt track racing this week.
Speaker 1We did get a few comments on the last video over on the YouTube side. We've got Wicked One. This is in regards to the dolly situation for flatbeds Right. Wicked One says just drag the effer and park with a smiley face. Valid.
Speaker 3Figured that was coming.
Speaker 1We've got a Chris saying they sell carrier dollies. We do a lot in exotics and you can get bigger tires for Go-Jacks. I did not know you could get bigger tires for Go-Jacks, alright.
Speaker 3Thank you, Chris.
Speaker 1And then we also have tonator towing llc. Shout out to you, tonator. Uh, we have collins, dollies cart on both of our flatbeds, good for electric emergency brakes or electric vehicles. They do have some limitations, but that's when you go for a wrecker and dollies yeah, okay.
Speaker 3So they sent me I don't know if it was them that sent me. Somebody sent me, um, that idea that there was a, um, a dolly out there, a dolly cart, a dolly cart. I and I had seen it. Once. I'd seen the photo, I went oh yeah, I've definitely seen that. Um, it was a, uh, it's a weird little wheel setup. It's got little ramp pieces that you put at the edge of the bed. Hmm, um, see, if I can find it, it's a Collins vehicle, dolly car, carrier, dolly system. Not sure if it's that, I will, I will find a little top and anyways, it's. I had seen it. Once they had mentioned it, I was like, oh yeah, I've definitely seen it before. Um, there it is. I'll share it over on a screen. Give me a second for those that are on the YouTube side. Don't forget, while I'm doing this, to like and subscribe and leave a comment down below.
Speaker 1Oh, okay, but see, I'm looking at a picture of it now. This guy, yeah, but those wheels don't turn. So you got to be straight on.
Speaker 3Exactly that is a straight on system as far as I'm I'm aware. But yes, they do have different configurations that you can get, and those I think are the little ramp pieces, um, for the bed right, because the lip of the bed, um, and it's got a nice center pull point that kind of can move around like it's interesting all it is go jacks without the caster wheels yeah, and like I mean, like I said for the front, yeah, yeah, so it's not like I don't understand the full purpose of the tow bar.
Speaker 3Why not at that point just hook on to the controlled arms? But I guess, if you've already got it, I don't know, I don't really fully see how these things lift up either, like I don't know what it is that you know. I mean, like, how you crank this up? Yeah I'd have to like it. Looks like it just scoop slides tight like you, jack it up and put I don't know, maybe I'm just stupid well, we all know that you're just stupid but, but I don't see any.
Speaker 3Maybe, maybe, if we will, we get flagged for this. If, if we play the video, I can turn the audio off, okay, so you put them close together.
Speaker 1Can you make it any bigger? Oh, so it's got a little flip over.
Speaker 3Oh, okay, so it's like dollies. Okay, that makes more sense now. Okay, so it's like dollies on the wheels. Really, do you, really? I mean, you probably should strap it.
Speaker 1Yeah, you probably should, especially when you're going to be pulling with them well, I mean, I do kind of like that toe bar because it keeps the actual toe point lower from the bumper right yeah, I like it because it's better than crawling underneath it up.
Speaker 3Wait, why'd you put it in neutral?
Speaker 1because the back tires are still on the ground so why'd they do the front tires? I don't know. It's just a demonstration. It doesn't make sense. Maybe the front brakes are locked up.
Speaker 3Maybe, but like what happened if this was? Oh wait, we're looking at new technology. Wait a second. Is this motorcycle?
Speaker 1Yeah, you can do the same thing.
Speaker 3You can use it as a motorcycle with the same piece my god, the poor audio listeners are not getting the full effect of this, but please head over to the youtube side and check this out. That is kind of sketchy as shit yeah this video also looks like it was filmed a very long time ago and they saw adapters for missing wheels yeah I mean collins has some stuff figured out. Man, I'm telling you they're not. They're not.
Speaker 1I mean like if you bought into the system it does seem like you can do. It's got broken ball joint things for your, just your brake pads and rotors. You can use it as a motorcycle carrier plus your generic emergency brake stuck on. I think if you already had set of collins dollies and you wanted to keep your loyalty to the said company, you could probably get some use out of it 100. But I mean to go out. And if your only thing was, hey, I've got an issue, I've already got the motorcycle transport figured out, I've already got a set of standard ball joint skates for anything else, I wouldn't go out and buy this system just for the emergency park breaks being stuck. I would. I think it's good when you can incorporate it, like if you didn't have a good method of loading motorcycles by yourself onto a deck and you're like, hey, this can do that Plus.
Speaker 3Yeah, what's a good method for loading motorcycles on your deck. Then, like, what do you do?
Speaker 1If you have a thing of um, uh, velcro, you wheel the bike onto the bed, vicro down the brake handle, put it over on the kickstand. Then you can slowly raise the bed up, put a strap on it before you slowly raise it.
Speaker 3It's still a little sketchy, but yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah. This thing's actually kind of cool.
Speaker 3Yeah, I don't think I'd use the motorcycle side of it, but it is cool.
Speaker 1Yeah. I mean for those big heavy bikes, it could be useful.
Speaker 3Except the tiny little part gives you to flip them over might be a bit of a pain, but no, I'd be, I might look, I might look at those, the whole system, system, um, with everything and, and everything is listed as uh, twenty four hundred dollars us on zips, um, I'm not sure if I can get just a like, I just want two of those caster wheel things, maybe four yeah I don't think I need to go spend um that on it. But yeah, on Colin's website itself.
Speaker 1The set comes with one pair of aluminum carrier dollies, one pair of tie-down straps, one aluminum tow bar, one pair of bed ramps and the specs. It weighs about 75 pounds for the complete set.
Speaker 3The dolly weights 25 pounds and it's got a 4 000 pound capacity per dolly pair yeah, so okay, so the set of four is 2400 on zips, the set of two is 1600. Yeah, and, like I said, you don't even need like that, that pull bar from, depending on your scenario. Right, you get two back tires that are locked up, you put the two on um, you get. It's something that I might look into. I'd like to like a little air. I'm curious to the bigger tires on the um. Uh, go, jacks that we were discussing. I'm interested in that as well, but it was at the. Was there any more uh comments on or any more comments on?
Speaker 2the youtube side that I gotta get to or no? I think that's about it.
Speaker 3No, so thank you, and do not just drag it in park. Um, whoever that was, tonator, actually I have a mug of theirs.
Speaker 3Yeah, they brought me a metal like stainless steel, like, uh, drink cup thing, yep water Water box thing, Okay, Uh yeah, like a tumbler, and I've had it at my desk since they gave it to me and I use it Cause I drink a lot of water in the day. I have the water machine and the other day I was outside talking to the guys with it, put it on the bed of my pickup truck left, um went up the road, went to make a corner. I was um went up the road, went to make a corner. I was in here, tink, tink, tink, tink, and I look back and I'm like, oh no, it's my tonator cup. And so I flipped around, stopped in the middle of the turning lane, put my lights on, got out, got the cup, um, nobody had hit the cup that's good um, it was a little scratched from going across the road and, uh, they broke the lid.
Speaker 3Somebody must have ran over the lid. Um, which was fine because they're so interchangeable, like they're all standard size tumblers, so I managed to get a new one. So, donator, your cup is still safe back on my desk, where it belongs, and not on the bed of my pickup truck. Um, so a couple other things. So we got to the toe show. We got into our YouTube comments. Was it last week or the week after that? We talked about the open letter to Tasia. Did we ever actually? We talked about that on the show.
Speaker 3I believe so About our inability to be able to Get training. Get training, yeah, and lo and behold, while we're looking about show topics, a news article pops up from August 19th. Hey, right around the time we were talking about it. New Ontario tow truck rules require training not available in the north. The government focused on the GTA and didn't care about anybody else as northern operator. We, the east, are with you. We, the East are with you. So small towing operators provide an essential service in Northern Ontario, where small communities are dispersed along highways that stretch across vast distances. However, some of them tell CBC they've been struggling to hire new drivers to assist with roadside emergencies since Ontario's officially imposed new industry requirements on July 1st. New tow drivers must now complete an approved training program involving online learning and a one and one in purse in person six hour session, but there are currently only two authorized training providers in Ontario, and one of them one of them, CA club group only allows those in its contracted networks to register in their course. That leaves rec master as the sole option for private operators that need to hire new staff.
Speaker 3This article is over on the CBC. We will link it. I will remember to link it in the episode description this time. So it kind of goes over the. You know we schedule them where the demand has been said. Company president Justin Cruz adding less than a dozen students from Northern Ontario have enrolled in the course. So RecMaster is kind of stuck in a hard spot Because they're like look, I can't go up to Thunder Bay and do a course every three weeks Because there just isn't the demand right. There's costs that come with doing this and we understand that.
Speaker 1But wasn't it when we first went over it? It said at your choosing of location, Wasn't that something in the TSEA?
Speaker 3Kind of yeah, yeah, but there's got to be an available course for you to choose. There might be three different locations they can pick. None of them are near you. Pierre Deforge, who owns Le T towing, a small tow truck operator based in north bay, said it's hard enough to recruit experienced drivers, let alone certified ones. Everybody's license is work. Who's like work whose license is working already. After a few weeks of trying, he eventually hired someone and paid them while they waited for the one of the few available spots for the in-person training in toronto wow, that's a nice guy saying, hey, I'll take a gamble on you and pay you while you wait until this training course comes available yeah, getting this person certified cost of four is fourteen hundred dollars in course fees and travel expenses, which he says a lot of money to pay for a new hire that might not even end up wanting to stay on the job.
Speaker 3They should give him a temporary six-month certificate so people can see the work really suits them. He said oh my goodness, I'm going to the north. They, you are my people.
Speaker 1It's almost like they listen to our podcast I doubt it was.
Speaker 3No, I think this is like common sense prevailed in this in many different areas. Yeah, um alifon's towing and recovery in Sturgeon falls. Owner Pierre Lafon said the lack of access to training in the North is proof. The province was thinking about this the South when it designed this policy. The government focused on the GTA and didn't care about anybody else. He said what about us small companies up North? We have to travel to do this. It makes absolutely no sense to do this. It makes absolutely no sense. Um legault said he wanted his company to become an approved training provider as he has several drivers with decades of experience on his payroll, but he didn't meet the criteria listed in the application package the province sent to him. So it's like the package states that a potential provider has to be a community college, a private career college, a business providing educational services, a government or a safety organization, so his company couldn't qualify under that to become a trainer for the course. Yeah.
Speaker 3Right, but it's not like you've built this program but you never set up the structure for it. Yeah, sure they can have a course in Toronto every three weeks. What is?
Speaker 3the rest of the province supposed to do Travel to Toronto. Yep, like, seriously, I've got to send a guy four hours away to do an eight hour course and and I mean we've all done it where you could do four, eight and then four back Right, it's not practical, most people aren't going to do that. So you got to know a hotel, stay in there, right, probably. Travel up the night before, do the training course, travel back that day, the next day, like kind of things. You got hotel, you've got meal expensive. Have to for a guy. You don't even know what's going to make it. So they're gonna say, well, that's fine, pass the cost on to him. Where is a new hire in an industry like this going to find? Like they don't come over with with savings built up half like no, the economy is already in a tough enough spot. It's not realistic. The government can sit there and go oh yeah, that's the solution. You know, that's this, that's that like.
Speaker 1you know everything's perfect, that like you know, everything's perfect, but even even the ideal situation. So let's say I myself have a safety net built up for a month, months to three months of my living expenses and I go and I try to get a job in the towing industry because I think it's going to be a good fit, and I lost my job, I got fired, whatever the reason, and I'm starting to eat away at my three month emergency fund because I plan for a situation like this. My living expenses might be, let's say, $1,200 a month, which is very low relatively speaking. And I come to you and say I want a job and you're going to say, okay, well, I'm going to need about $1,400 for you to go and do this training course and it could take a month. Okay, well, in the ideal scenario of someone with three months living expenses with a very low monthly expense, that's over a month of living expenses that they need to pay, plus a month of waiting period.
Speaker 1So that's just not in my eyes and a rational person's mind, that's too much money and too much time to risk for a job that I may not like because I've never been in this industry before. Like that's just absurd. I could go and get a part-time job at a McDonald's or a Tim Hortons or anything, even though I might hate that job, but get money coming in with a lot less risk while looking for a better job, right? So, like, what's the incentive? Yes, you, you heard in the story where the operator, probably like the owner of the company, was in a pinch and said I need a driver, I will pay you to do this training course?
Speaker 3Yeah, that's 100% what happened.
Speaker 1Because if he's up in North Bay, what's the population in North Bay? Like 6,000, 8,000 people, probably. No, it's bigger than that, I don't know but like the population that this company can actually choose from the hiring pool 2021, it was 52,600.
Speaker 352,000. 6 or 8,000 people, I don't know.
Speaker 1I always think places are a lot smaller than what they actually are. I'm always looking on the outskirts, anyways, but still 50,000, 60,000 people. How many people would actually be willing to become a tow truck driver in that population?
Speaker 3Yeah, no, it's not limited, but it's not high. And if you look, I believe they're probably the same distance give or take from Toronto as I am. You know what they're about, the same distance give or take from Toronto as I am. You know what they're about, the same distance. And they're not the most north. What's going on in Nippijan, Along these highways, around the Trans-Canada, Out in Wawa? These are real names for you guys listening in the States. These are real names real names for you guys listening in the States.
Speaker 1These are real names. What about if someone's in?
Speaker 3the Sioux Thunder Bay Right. The. Sioux, yeah, like, yeah, like, you know, like, if they're going to have these in, you know, let's say, toronto is going to be the hub of training. Mm-hmm. Okay, and you? You're a towing company out in thunder bay. We're not talking flights, because flights probably it's a 15 hour drive yeah, from thunder bay to um toronto.
Speaker 1I thought it was north bay from the uh article that you read?
Speaker 3no, the article. The article is from North Bay. Okay, so North Bay goes up like straight up from Barrie. Yep, and you got.
Speaker 3Sudbury near there, but it's a two-hour flight and it's a 15-hour drive. If you had to send somebody for training in Toronto, yeah, like are we? And there's again not the farthest. Now I feel like once you get up in like Petwinuck and stuff like north north, north north. I'm a big believer. I don't even know if there's roads up there, but if there is, they just ain't happening. There's no MTO up there. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1Like there's no you got tiny little towns like Kenora that's up by the Winnipeg border. Yeah, that would be exactly.
Speaker 3Kenora is another one, yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, how far away are they from Toronto?
Speaker 3They're even farther.
Speaker 1They're even farther, so um 19 hours and 30 minutes with tolls and it's in a different time zone. Yeah, no.
Speaker 3So there's all these towns and like there is a major highway that runs through there, right, like even if you go up through, um, north Bay and everything like that, the 11, like that's a major road, like, so you have towing companies along all these stretches and what are they supposed to do? So you know, we feel bad and we kind of you know, complain. We're down in the east end of it, but northern is is no better. You, you know, deep river, pembroke, petawawa, all those like Ottawa hasn't even hosted, of course, our nation's capital, which I had to explain to an American recently that he's like I heard there's no training in Ottawa. Didn't Ottawa pass the laws?
Speaker 3And I'm like, okay, we're going to do geography here and a little bit of Canadian politics on how this works. Um, yes, of canadian politics on how this works. Um, yes, ottawa is our national capital, it is not our provincial capital. Our provincial capital is where the tow trucks keep shooting each other. Yeah, and and and we're sketchy companies have created the introduction of to see, ya, um, I mean, ottawa was actually pretty sketchy for a bit too, but yep, besides, fact, so it's, it's nice to see that we're not alone in this fight. Right, the, the north, and and you know good on cbc, I find for covering something, yep, besides the fact. So it's nice to see that we're not alone in this fight Right, the North, and you know good on CBC, I find for covering something.
Speaker 3I don't read their articles all too often but yeah, it goes on to the show Like we're not alone in this.
Speaker 3So hopefully the government takes some of this seriously, some of these letters, and you know, can start either again bringing in this temporary license Cause again, if I can wait six months and get an eye on a guy and get a pulse and you know my thumb on the pulse of if I think he can be an operator it it lessens the sting. It doesn't eliminate the sting, but it lessens the sting of having to spend that kind of money to send them four hours away to do a course. I don't think that it's. That is even feasible still for the North, but it lessens the sting of it. Right now it is currently set up in a way where you, you, you just take all the risk and send this guy and hope and pray that he works out. I don't think that's practical for a lot of towing companies in Canada or in Ontario. And don't be mistaken, we are the guinea pig for what is coming for the rest of Canada.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's a cluster and I, when I went and did my z endorsement, I talked to that college because it's technically a college that does truck training. They could do the course. And I said I was like have you guys thought about hosting, uh, the stuff for the towing, like the towing training course for the new? To see a loss. And they're like no, we didn't, we, I don't think we can do it. I was like, well, have you looked into it? Like no, but we're a college so I don't think we'd be able to do it. I was like no, I you would be able to do it and there is a demand for it. The only downfall is you are a brick and mortar facility so you would have to have the people come to you. But there's definitely a demand for it. I would look into it because it could potentially be a good revenue stream for you and I think if we can get other driving schools knowledge about this and get them on board with it yeah, and have a training course that they can just put in once a month, whatever, if the demand's there would definitely help yeah
right no, absolutely, and get this going and, and you know, more trainers, less problems. Right, like, you can open the availability. It still doesn't cover the fact of these companies though, like rec master or like anyone who's providing course, have to provide, like, have to have a need to go into a region, have to have enough numbers to make this profitable. Again, they're not a non-profit company. No, they're not doing this training. If anything, you could say they're old training. They were doing more for the betterment of the industry. This they're doing out of pure necessity, yeah, but at the same time, they have to make profit while doing it, and if not, well, they're not going to be around.
Speaker 1I. They have to make profit while doing it. If not, well, they're not going to be around. I don't know, it's a, it's a cluster, and there's a reason why I'm kind of glad that I'm not directly involved in the industry anymore, just because no, you were stupid to not get yours before the deadline. Yeah, but I wasn't even sure since I didn't wasn't currently working with a towing company if I could even apply. Yeah, that's not one of the application questions what towing company if?
Speaker 3I could even apply. Yeah, that's not one of the application questions. What towing company do you work for? Oh well, I don't know. And the certificate or the license or whatever it is they call it again, it sticks with you as an operator, not with your company.
Speaker 1So once you had that, but did you need to provide proof that you were a tow truck operator? No, so anyone could have just went out and got a In theory.
Speaker 3Yeah, I had a new hire that I hired right before. Yeah, that I got in like right before and there was no, no, hmm, no, I'm pretty sure my my like health and safety rep, who comes out to our wrecks and takes photos, has a tow license, just in case we had to get her to drive a tow truck now to a scene for something, you need the tow license like no, there was no, which is really stupid like anyone literally could apply yeah before the deadline.
Speaker 3now they're like well, you'd be stupid if you want to pay this money and you're not a tow truck driver, so yeah, yeah, it's welcome to Ontario on terrible.
Speaker 3Worst case Ontario. Um, so I want to follow up. Remember a story we shared back when on the show about a company in San Francisco that was raided by the FBI? Oh yeah, forgot about that. Oh yeah, specialty towing down in San Francisco. Well, the list of charges. We found a followup, the list of charges have come out against them and I'm not going to lie, they're pretty clever. Hmm.
Speaker 3Um, they're pretty clever. Um, so if in a federal grand jury out in a federal grand jury, indictment returned august 20th, jose vincent, I'm gonna guess it's jose vincent. Uh, jose vincent badillo and kiro afanasaev? Uh, jason naraja and jamie respicio we're charged with. And Kirill Afanasyev, jason Naraja and Jamie Respicio.
Speaker 1You're trying to pronounce those names, not I.
Speaker 3Yeah, we're charged with conspiracy, mail fraud and wire fraud in connection with two schemes to defraud auto insurance companies. The US Department of Justice announced Wednesday so they were rated on all this fraud. Fbi, you know you need to put a little knocking on the door, FBI. Yeah, so a couple of them, badillo and Jessica Elizabeth Naharro, were arrested this month and charged with money laundering and fraud after federal prosecutors said they purchased a wrecked car, then put insurance on it, then cashed a $34,000 insurance check for it after falsely claiming they were in an accident. The couple own and operate multiple towing companies in San, bought a smashed car then put insurance on it and then claimed they were involved in a single vehicle accident and the car was a total loss by the sounds of the check. And then one of their multiple towing companies that they own submitted an invoice to insurance to insurance company for the towing and storage and recovery of said vehicle.
Speaker 3Nice, I mean, it's pretty clever yeah but not clever enough, because they got caught.
Speaker 1Um well, it's clever, it's just they didn't implement it in the correct way. Yeah, it wasn't executed.
Speaker 3Yeah, as part of a second scheme, badillo Raspiazzo are accused of submitting fraudulent insurance claim on a wrecked car that Afanasyev purchased in May 2019. The indictment alleges that the car was not drivable when they bought it. They obtained an insurance policy on the vehicle, then again reported they met, so it was multiple times that they did this. The insurance company approved the claim and sent Resposito a check for $47,856.34. They were arrested. A check for $47,856.34. They were arrested and released on $50,000 bonds. They're due in court September 9th for their initial appearance and arraignment. There is nothing yet on what they what is like maximums that they're looking at. Oh, yeah, the police launched an investigation into the company in April after a viral video appeared to show one of its trucks trying to tow an occupied car in downtown San Francisco. So, like it all came to light because they started getting investigated after they tried to tow a car with a person like man, you went on a rough, yeah, so we talked about that, like last week or two weeks ago.
Speaker 1If you're gonna do something dumb, you don't want to draw attention to yourself and that's just drawing attention to yourself 100?
Speaker 3no, it's, it's well, that was probably you know, a worker doing something stupid, and but no, it's true. Everyone. Every time we impounded a vehicle or you read it in the police blotter in our area would it be like you know, police sees like a couple kilograms of drugs, yeah, and it's like the vehicle was traveling 40, 50 kilometers above the speed limit on the highway and you're like why If? You're going to be dumb.
Speaker 1You've got to be tough.
Yeah, and you're about to find out if you're tough. Yeah, so no, it's. I mean, it's a bad look for the towing industry when we read these kind of articles like that was a joke we made when we were going through looking for articles right, we're like, hmm, we want to talk about this now. I'd rather not talk about a bad thing like that. And then it's like oh yeah, but I also can't find good, like I can't.
Speaker 1I think I looked through 40 different headlines and there was like one good one I found one that's decent, and I say decent because the headline and I will put a link in the description. The headline is CAA-Quebec to deploy first electric tow truck and I have a picture of it here which I am currently saving to overlay. It is ugly as fuck. It is like the ugliest flatbed I have ever seen in my life. And have you seen a picture of it playing guy, Are you pulling it?
Speaker 3back. I'm not sure. I'm not sure I can pull it off. I'll pull it up on the screen though.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's a cab over truck and it's got like a set of race ramps underneath the deck, which is cool, but it's got zero toolbox space other than the headache toolbox that it has on a for the light pylon, because it's got the battery where the toolboxes would be underneath the bed. So I'm not a big fan of that. However, the article goes on saying CA is deploying what it says is the first all-electric tow truck in North America, a Lion 5 that will serve the Quebec market. The move comes 80 years after the company introduced its first horse-drawn towing services. The towing platform was built by X-Pac Industries.
Speaker 1Roadside assistance the flophead portion. No, it comes 80 years after the first horse-drawn towing service, I guess for caa.
Speaker 3I want to know how many horses caa had roadside assistance has always been ca quebec's dna.
Speaker 1Well, obviously that's what the fucking company does. Uh, and it goes without saying that we are taking the lead in electric towing. We are have a responsibility to set an example and take leadership role in protecting the environment, said mary solely tremble, a president and ce a news release. The truck has a capacity of 210 kilowatt and a range of up to 310 kilometers, which I guess is okay for city towing, but it would not be, good where we are.
Speaker 1The 800-volt battery packs are designed by Lion Electric. Ca plans to put the truck through its paces in a variety of towing situations and weather conditions in the coming months. They also operate other electric vehicles, including a high and I uh I icon iotic that I think it's iotic.
Speaker 3I can't read it.
Speaker 1I don't have the article open, but yeah, yeah, ford f-150 hybrid and an f-150 lightning, oh an f-150 lightning.
Speaker 3They Ooh an F-150. Lightning they're starting to see more and more of those.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean we're going to see more stuff like this. I'm looking forward to the Edison Motors trucks when they come out. I kind of want to talk about them more. I'm going to reach out to them to see if we can actually get them on the show. I'm going to reach out to them to see if we can actually get them on the show.
Speaker 1But obviously a full electric tow truck. You're going to run into the issues of you get on scene to do a wreck and the police need you to sit there and wait. And well, you're on the side of the highway so you need to have your beacon lights on. Or what if this recovery takes a long time and you gotta keep manipulating the pedal that's just draining down your battery to where a hybrid option? You always have the generator built in that can keep you topped up. We are seeing more and more where we have to go and pick up electric cars that have ran out of charge, and you're going to do that when electric tow truck that also has that ability to run out of a charge dodge is actually, uh, coming up with very similar technology to the, uh, the edison motors truck.
Speaker 3Yeah, um, they are working on, yeah, where the electric motors power it, but it's a diesel generator on top and there's advantages which, like said, we can look into more, where they can run colored diesel and everything, because it's not the main source propulsion. Um, ironically, while I ended up down this rabbit hole to see if cia owned horses, um, I found cia's timeline oh, uh 1903, 27 motorists gather at queen's park, toronto, to form the toronto automobile club club.
Speaker 3Um, dr perry e doolittle I shit you not. Um is the first president. The founding members of canada's first advocacy group for motorists take mpps on a ride to show it is safe to increase the speed limit from eight miles an hour to 10 miles an hour. Wow, the imperial system back then. Yeah, um, yeah, the first legislation dealing with motor vehicles enacted caa publishes the first official road guide of canada, 1906 yeah, that's all ca was and triple a was was like a car club yeah, and it gave people resources on.
Speaker 1If you're going here, these are the numbers that you're going to need or these are the people you got to talk to if you have an issue what's crazy is the first tow truck by ernest holmes wasn't built until 1916 yeah like 1916, canadian automobile federation changes name from canadian automobile association.
Speaker 3That's the first tow truck is around and the caf becomes ca.
Speaker 1Yeah yeah, so for the first 16, 17 years it was just if a car broke down, you either pushed it or you got a horse 13 years technically from when the um. Again, that was the when they I don't know when the car was actually sold, yeah yeah they had prototypes of steam powered vehicles prior, but it wasn't my yeah, but actual, like what we consider a modern day automobile.
Speaker 3But yeah, it is ironic that, uh, literally the first tow trucks created and they become ca but we had this conversation on our last live, I'm pretty sure where they didn't come out with crash test dummies till after world war ii then we advocated to increase the speed limits of 50 miles an hour in urban centers and 20 miles an hour in rural areas. But yeah, no, it's, it's crazy, um, how far they've come. But yes, electric tow trucks scary thing, um not scary, I mean, technology's got to advance. And a lot of people say that, like you're a big believer, right, you do the same thing. Oh well, it's not practical to have that kind of range. You're right, it's not.
Speaker 3But technology isn't going to advance unless we're using the technology right, like if you don't start money in that industry to help advancement exactly right, like you know, does it make sense for Tesla to know? You know, like there's, there's all kinds of stuff that you know it's got to advance, but it only advances during, um, you know, when there's production and there's money going in, when there's interest in it, when there's, when there's money behind it. So, will you see, I still think you know hybrid ideas or these. You know and we'll get into it more on a future episode about the you know this Edison motor style of truck, right, the Dodge is launching. Well, like I said, dodge is launching one as well. I can't remember what they're calling it. See, if I can get a quick name for you, is it?
Speaker 1the dodge, which does make sense because most engines are ram, charger the ram charger. That used to be a great name, that's. It's not a new name. They're bringing that back uh, no, but it used to be like a pickup with a station wagon back over top of the bed yeah, you can understand the reference in this ram charger diesel charges itself.
Speaker 1Yeah, but, generator a lot more fuel efficient. The wear is a lot less because they run on a constant rpm they can be designed to run at that constant rpm instead of the fluctuating. Because diesel generators are a lot less maintenance hungry, as over the road diesels are right. So you you're getting all the perks of that, plus the perks of immediate torque with electric motors. Like I'm not against electric vehicles, like the concept, they do bring a lot of benefits to the whole driving aesthetic and ability to go down the road.
Speaker 1I just don't like the fact that our infrastructure isn't there to give you the freedom that a car normally gives you as to like. There's gas pumps and diesel pumps within 50, 100 kilometer ranges, no matter where you go. So as long as you plan out ahead, you know you're good Right. And it's only when you get further and further North where you actually have to start planning out of hey, where am I stopping for fuel? Where an electric vehicle? You got to do that almost anywhere. You got to plan your route around your charging stations. And with in the industry of towing, where you never know exactly where you're going to go, that becomes a bit of a bigger oh, a hundred percent.
Speaker 3Yeah, a lot more of an issue. Or, you know, you run out of charge halfway through. Um, I can't. There's so many things that can go on on that, so no, but you know it comes back to what we talked about last week is is not stopping innovation, right? You don't need it. You don't need it but you might want it, right, peter? That line so many times last week that it made my head spin. But yeah, no, it's, it's. I think there's going to be future advances in it. So I'm very interested and we will get some more information on the Edison truck. Um, that being said, remember we will be at the ptao tow show 10 days from the day this episode comes out september 13th, 14th for the professional towing association of ontario's annual tow show. There's a show and shine, there's a procession, a parade, there's a bunch of vendors there were there. I mean, what more do you need? Um, a lot of deals on there's food this year there's food this year.
Speaker 3Go to, if you get a chance and you haven't in the past. Go to the meet and greet on the friday night at the waterloo brewery. It is such a good time and I normally leave with such a good buzz. Um, the water lou brewery is great. It gets packed in that place, mind, mind you, but the bartenders are phenomenal.
Speaker 1Yeah, um and we normally hang out on the, out on the patio. Yeah, just a little fake.
Speaker 3Yeah yeah yeah, awesome Little patio fire pits. Um. So, yeah, head on over to Kitchener, book it now. There's camping Jeez, hauling down at night. I mean to down like a trailer. Yep, um, he can. He can like. If you reach out to him, you can probably go stay with him. I think he's got a whole house. He's bringing a whole house down. Yeah, um, him and his girlfriend are probably looking for company, so I mean we got our dog.
Speaker 3We're bringing our dog and just and just crashing his trailer. It they have cabins, camping spots. Um Airbnb is in the area. There's awesome hotels um that you can check out as well. Um, there's a woman's a luncheon. My wife normally attends. I think she's going to be attending again this year Um really promoting women in the industry.
Speaker 1Uh, there's speakers to go that last year, which kind of defeats the purpose. Why wasn't she voluntold to go to that? Yeah, but she really liked it.
Speaker 3She actually, like I asked her after was it like a good idea that you went, or whatever? And it wasn't that, she was voluntold. It's that we, like the company, wanted to support something and so we're like, all right, we'll support you know, like we'll, we'll buy tickets to this and and see what we can send and stuff. And yeah, I know she had a great time with it. She thought it was really good. So, um, there's that. There's training. There is this training that you can't get for new operators that will be hosted at the course that is they are offering.
Speaker 3It could be full. So hurry up and head over to ptaoorg and, you know, maybe confirm your spot, or if you're through RecMaster, it should be through them. If you've completed your online portion, you might see it available as an in-person course in your area soon. So we will see you in kitchener at the show september 13th and 14th. Other than that, we will see you again, so we'll will we see them again next week? We're gonna see them on. This comes out on the third and then it comes out on the 10th and then it, yeah, okay, so we will see you guys one more time before we actually go to the show. So, on behalf of myself, my wonderful co-host, mr Tomangy, we thank you for coming out for another episode of the Tom and Life podcast and we will see you again next week. Take care, toodles.