Tow Professional Podcast
Journeying Through the Electric Vehicle Landscape with Dalan Zartman: Insights, Safety Concerns and more
Promise of learning and a peek into the future, that's what awaits you in our latest episode featuring Dalan Zartman from Energy Security Agency Specialist. Imagine embarking on a rollercoaster ride through the intertwining pathways of first responders, tow industry and the burgeoning world of electric vehicles (EVs). From sharing insights into the EV chain of custody to unravelling the journey they take from auction yards to recyclers, Dalan leaves no stone unturned.
Dalan takes us on a deep exploration into the costs and safety concerns of towing an EV. As we navigate this terrain, the necessity of adhering to federal standards for storage becomes abundantly clear. We also delve into the zero financial commitment service of the Energy Security Agency Specialist, ensuring safety and compliance. Ever wondered about post-incident cleanup of damaged EVs? Consider this your knowledge hub as we discuss the importance of the right expertise and the process of discharging batteries.
As we steer towards the end of our enlightening journey with Dalan, we touch upon the educational offerings available for the tow industry. From regional tow groups to collaborative courses with first responders, we shed light on the shift towards EV certification and the upcoming online awareness course. And just when you think we're at the end of our ride, we offer a prayer for our nation, towers, and first responders, and detail the valuable services provided by the Energy Security Agency Specialist. So buckle up and get ready for an informative and engaging episode that promises to fuel your journey in the world of EVs!
Promise of learning and a peek into the future, that's what awaits you in our latest episode featuring Dalan Zartman from Energy Security Agency Specialist. Imagine embarking on a rollercoaster ride through the intertwining pathways of first responders, tow industry and the burgeoning world of electric vehicles (EVs). From sharing insights into the EV chain of custody to unravelling the journey they take from auction yards to recyclers, Dalan leaves no stone unturned.
Dalan takes us on a deep exploration into the costs and safety concerns of towing an EV. As we navigate this terrain, the necessity of adhering to federal standards for storage becomes abundantly clear. We also delve into the zero financial commitment service of the Energy Security Agency Specialist, ensuring safety and compliance. Ever wondered about post-incident cleanup of damaged EVs? Consider this your knowledge hub as we discuss the importance of the right expertise and the process of discharging batteries.
As we steer towards the end of our enlightening journey with Dalan, we touch upon the educational offerings available for the tow industry. From regional tow groups to collaborative courses with first responders, we shed light on the shift towards EV certification and the upcoming online awareness course. And just when you think we're at the end of our ride, we offer a prayer for our nation, towers, and first responders, and detail the valuable services provided by the Energy Security Agency Specialist. So buckle up and get ready for an informative and engaging episode that promises to fuel your journey in the world of EVs!
Welcome one and all to Toe Professional Podcast. Remember, this is your podcast. It's for the pros that have a need to know that are on the go. We're live here at the Midwest Regional Toe Show doing an on-live interview with a special guest that's been on the podcast before, but we invited him back and he's good enough. He just came in from North Carolina doing programs there. So I'm DJ Harrington, better known as the Toe Doctor, and the real host of the program is the president and publisher of Toe Professional Magazine and a friend of the industry and a dear friend of mine, darren Weaver. Darren, how are you at this beautiful day today?
Speaker 2:Man, I am fantastic DJ. As always, I've got great comedy, great friends, people here in the Midwest at the show. Let me tell you the weather is phenomenal out there. As I've said, if you've got a dog, it's going to wag its whole body. In this kind of weather it's coming.
Speaker 1:It's gorgeous and what's nice, darren, you know our producer, chuck Kemp, is going to be playing with his band tonight on the main stage outside Rouse. This is a beautiful event. This is a beautiful center here at Roberts Center and the three-chord chaos.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And it's called the Chaos Party. Tonight it's going to be here and our own producer, chuck Kemp, will be right up there with the main stars. It was good seeing them come in. Yep, of course, some of those guys you know from the back look like girls and they're guys because their music. I guess I have to understand that they're long hair. And one guy had beautiful hair. That's the look, baby.
Speaker 2:Oh man, there used to be that Vidal Sassoon in it too. You know the white rain, get it going. Parachute pants Chuck just couldn't find his parachute pants. Let me tell you I'm excited about this one because we have Dalyne Zartman of Energy Security Agency Specialist. And let me tell you something we met Dalyne and his entire team I think it was two a little over two years ago here at this very show. And let me tell you just from the first introduction class act, every one of the team members.
Speaker 2:And let me tell you, when you run into somebody that has a passion for the industry, that is a good-hearted person, good family man, that wants to pour into this industry, not just do a business in it, but wants to pour in with their passion, you embrace that and you send them out to others, you introduce them to others in the industry that they can benefit as well. And I just I tell my wife from time to time I have a dream job because I get to talk to my buddies and people send me checks. I don't know how it works, but it's just like going to work and hanging out with your friends because it's a family environment and nobody sums it up like the company ESA Integrity, the family company, this great Christian values and always been a pleasure to work with and they are absolutely movers and shakers in this market. They're making it happen, so I'm glad to have them on. I know it was a long, a long lead in, but I'm excited about this one.
Speaker 1:DJ. Well then, let me ask my dear friend Dalen Zartman the first question, if I may. Dalen, first of all, thank you for being here. I would like to ask you could you give us, you know, like an update of the industry itself and what's happening with energy security agency and electric vehicles in our industry?
Speaker 5:I would love to buddy and before I get cranked and let me just say the sentiment is mutual for all three of you, Love all three of you guys and we're incredibly grateful just for the role that you guys play in the industry, the role you guys have played for us in just always advocating for things that ultimately benefit people and make life better. So thanks for having us this morning.
Speaker 5:Yeah, we love you guys and deeply appreciate all that you guys do, so thank you. All right, so let's dive into this. Where are we at as an industry? We have expanded radically the groups that we're working with and you know our vision when we created this several years ago was dedicated to the tow community. No, that was our first priority and first responders were our second community, meaning firefighters and police, and I largely lump tow operators into that same category because there's a lot of times they're on scene before we are, and I've always been eternally grateful for tow guys. I love when they're on scene and we are, you know, performing heavy, heavy rescues. I'm still on the job as a firefighter and I'm always peeking over that guy's shoulder trying to learn from him about how he rigs and how he sets up his rig and how we're going to use round slings. And there's so much to learn from the tow industry that a lot of our disciplines, you know, integrate with one another and it's important that we're a community that supports one another. Between tow and fire and police. We've all got to work together and that was our vision. But you know, as we've worked over the last several years, everybody's got the same questions and the same challenges. So as we pivot kind of down the chain of custody.
Speaker 5:If we paint this picture and we say, okay, we've got an electric vehicle that leaves the manufacturer and gets into a property owner's hands and then something goes wrong, whether that's an EV, catches on fire at home in a parking garage, gets in a collision or just quits working. You've got tow operators, you can have first responders involved. Then that thing makes its way to a collision center and then that collision center may repair or they may not repair it. It either ends up back in the property owner's hands or it ends up at a, at a co-part or an LKQ in an auction yard and then someone else buys it and then the battery pack gets dismantled and then it gets repurposed potentially, and then it ends up at a recycler. So you've got all these players and as you navigate through this industry with a focus of safety, services and trying to help everybody interact with these things properly, you realize there's there's two really big challenges. Number one to do this stuff properly, there's costs involved. Everybody has to wrestle through finding that balance between how do I do this in a safe way, in a responsible way, but also how do I work through getting paid to do this and you know, my heart just aches for the tow guys because there's so much scrutiny state to state about how they can bill and how they can recoup expenses their backs are really against the wall legislatively about how do I create better barriers to interact with these electric vehicles safely and properly move them and get paid. So we're working a lot with the insurance carriers now as well, trying to educate and educate and educate about all the hoops that everybody has to jump through. So where are we headed? I have this vision of kind of a universal system that's integrated, you know, coast to coast here in the US and it's really, really hard to get all those chain, all those you know stakeholders within this chain of custody on the same page. But that's where we're trying to head. So when we think about an ESA process, which is we are available 24, seven, 365 days a year for any entity to call and say how do I safely interact with this car, we follow a federal standard which is SAEJ 2990, which is a well designed standard. That kind of gives us some some frameworks and rules and guidelines about the things we should be doing when we interact with electric vehicles and then we apply that guidance. We have a sticker system or a placarding system where everybody can get color coded labels to let anyone interacting with that vehicle know whether it's high hazard, moderate hazard or low hazard and then treat it properly.
Speaker 5:Sometimes we need to shut these vehicles down. Sometimes we don't need to shut these vehicles down when we move these vehicles from the road position to the back of the transport carrier. We've really transitioned out of dollies and most of the recommendations is to use medium duty flatbeds. And then we need to make sure that we're rigging properly, that we're not putting the wrong angles on the cables, that we're not putting the wrong angles on the tow hooks. And I know in the tow community the tow connections are a sore subject and we're. You know there's a lot of integration between the OEMs and the tow operators to try and create best practices so the tow guys don't end up kind of holding the bag for a well that you know that tow connection ripped out of the vehicle and why, and you know are they going to end up getting held liable If you end up throwing round slings around control arms and on a lot of the EVs those are pretty weak components. They bend really easily and then you're left holding the bag on that. So we're collectively working to try and manage all that.
Speaker 5:There's a very I will tell you guys very transparently we're radically underutilized. Like, as we look at the tow industry, there are a ton of towers that aren't utilizing us for support and to help kind of reinforce what they're doing. And I just want to encourage you guys, make the call. We've got a new app that's going to be unveiled that's going to make the interaction for that risk assessment even smoother, where you don't even have to have a phone interaction. You can literally just open up the app, take the primary pictures of the vehicle six pictures front sides, back, venn number, license plate and then we've got AI built into that app so it immediately evaluates what the Venn number is, tells us exactly what the make model in year of the vehicle is. We evaluate those pictures and you immediately get feedback on the app that tells you what hazard level it is and any additional questions that we might have about the vehicle or any other target points to look at. Really fast transaction. It's about a three minute interaction to five minute interaction and boom, you're done, you're covered, you've got us standing behind you with a detailed service report.
Speaker 5:We're assuming the liability and risk of saying whether you should or shouldn't shut it down and at the end of the day, our number one goal for the towers is to get that thing safely on your rig without damaging the vehicle and then to get you safely to your destination without that thing catching on fire on the back of your truck. That's the goal. Statistically, the highest likelihood of that vehicle catching on fire or having a secondary event is during movement. So it's movement down the road and then it's it's secondary, it's when you're offloading. We will advocate for you guys with the fire service and because we can talk fire talk with the fire guys because all of our call takers are firemen We've had a ton of events this year where we've actually reached back out to the dispatch center and redeployed fire departments to the scene to escort tow truck operators back to their facilities and stay there with them until the vehicle is unloaded.
Speaker 5:Make sure that while you're en route you're covered. If any event occurs. They're right there to support you. And then, when you're doing that high risk offloading of the vehicle, you've got a fire apparatus and a bunch of fire crews there. We'll use those guys if you don't have a thermal imaging camera or gas meters. As a tow operator, you haven't had the opportunity to invest in those important pieces of equipment. Almost every fire department in the country has those, so we'll encourage them. Hey, just do that for the tow guy. Make sure we haven't developed any hot spots in the battery pack. Make sure we're not off gassing any carbon monoxide. Those are our two big precursors. So that's kind of the transition and push that we've been heading down.
Speaker 2:Man. I tell you, Daelyn, that's not only a fantastic service you're offering to the industry, but I mean we're talking about you're helping cover a owner's liability to buy by having those stickers. Am I not correct in them being able to do that, having a full report from USA on a condition and standing behind it? That helps the tower with the insurance company when he's getting paid on on this service, right?
Speaker 5:It's huge and you know we're doing the same educational ramp up with the insurance carriers so they understand the federal standard and what's in place and why it's in place.
Speaker 5:You know, unfortunately, between the OEMs and the insurance carriers there's kind of this. I don't want to call it dismissive, but insurance operates on numbers right and data. Until you have enough events that they push that that trigger of loss of property and loss of life, you don't get a lot of reactions that change underwriting and policies. But we are picking up in magnitude of events. You can watch what's going on in New York and how radically legislation is changing and regulations are changing regarding just lithium ion batteries and e-bikes and e-scooters and all these things. We're headed down the same path with electric vehicles. So the quicker tow operators and tow companies have an established system where they are following the rules and the guidelines and they're they're handling these things properly and correctly, the better position they're going to be to have those interactions with insurance companies and at the end of the day you got to, you got to manage your risks.
Speaker 2:And I'll tell you well, listen, listeners, you don't want to turn the knob on this one. Stay tuned to this podcast. We're going to have a quick commercial break from our sponsor and we'll be right back with more tremendous information from Dailin Zartman of the USA. Hang in there, guys.
Speaker 6:For over 50 years, jordan has defined towing and recovery industry standards for performance, reliability and service. Jordan offers an extensive range of light, medium and heavy duty records, carriers and rotators. Each truck offers superior engineering for strength and stability, reliability and versatility to exceed the expectations of a demanding industry.
Speaker 1:You have been listening to Toe Professional on the Go podcast each and every week. We do our very best to bring you new informative episodes like this one with Dailin Zartman. Make sure you download and listen. We're available on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeart Media, Amazon or wherever you get your podcast. So, without further to do, Darren, let me pass it on over to you my buddy.
Speaker 2:Right the question I've got to answer. I know the answer to this one I've asked before. The only reason I could think our listeners are going well it's probably the reason everybody's not interacting is cost. So let's address that real quick. Dailin, tell us about that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, darren, it's interesting. I think it's two points right. The first point is I just call it comfort level and dismissiveness or lack of knowledge. One of those three things that they call kind of come under one umbrella, which is you get an EV and you don't really either understand the inherent risks with that EV or the potential financial damages you might incur as a Toe operator if you don't rig it properly, or you just don't really. Maybe you've towed five or six of them and none of them caught on fire, so you're kind of indifferent towards what's going to happen.
Speaker 5:Or the third one is you believe that all these services and calls and support and stickers, there's got to be some big subscription fee or something else you know involved behind the scenes. There's zero financial commitment from the Toe operators or anyone that's using our service. We are funded fiscally through a bunch of different revenue streams On this side of the operations. We interact directly with the property owners, insurance company. There's never going to be a financial transaction between the Energy Security Agency and first responders, toe operators, anybody else that's making a call for us. We are here for you. The number is 855 ESA for you. Go to our website, energysecurityagencycom and get enrolled as a Toe operator and that way we've got you in our database to help streamline the process. But, yeah, zero financial transaction and on that push point with the, you know, maybe it's not going to happen or maybe I just don't need to do this Again. We want to encourage you guys. This is about risk reduction, this is about protecting you. So, yeah, in all likelihood it is not like every EV catches on fire, right, statistically it's relatively low, but when it does happen it's really catastrophic.
Speaker 5:And I want to paint a picture for you guys. One of the other unique things in the standard and an important thing to discuss for the Toe operators is storage. So when that vehicle comes back to your yard, the standard requires that those vehicles, if there's been possible damage to the high voltage pack or any of the high voltage components, which can be minor. Now I'll paint a picture for you. We had a vehicle dropped off at a collision center in New York. It had minor fender damage, but that minor fender damage was in close proximity to the onboard charger. The onboard charger was damaged and probably created a dead short within the system. That vehicle was parked in general population right next to four brand new vehicles sitting at that collision center and overnight that single vehicle caught on fire and completely destroyed all of the vehicles in that row.
Speaker 5:What I want to explain is your insurance provider, insurance carrier, if they lean back on the federal standard that says you've got to isolate these vehicles 50 feet in all directions or you've got to put them in a barrier isolation, which means you've got a three-sided bay around the vehicle.
Speaker 5:We really encourage concrete bin blocks because they're very affordable. You're only going to pay about 100 to 150 bucks per block and if that vehicle catches on fire it's easy to replace one block and build that out. If you don't isolate that vehicle in one of those two parameters and you do damage five other vehicles on your yard, the likelihood of your underwriting and your insurance provider saying we're going to cover all that is slim to none because you're not following the standards and guidelines that are set forth. So the same applies to how you move the vehicle, how you rig the vehicle. All these things are outlets where insurance isn't going to give you the support you need for your people, for your property, for your assets as a company, unless you are following the standards and the guidelines. So lean on us. We're here to help find practical, fast, efficient and not expensive ways for you to be compliant and make sure you're protecting your yards and your rigs and your personnel.
Speaker 2:It's a very, I would say, cost effective, but it's no cost. So it's the way you can protect your company, and you can do it with guys that have the same passion for you and want to make sure that your facility is safe and you're still able to make a living for your family on a daily basis. Guys, if you hadn't again let me throw that one more time 855. Esa Safe the leaders and the authority in the industry when it comes to EVs. If you have any questions, they're here to keep your people safe and get them back to the yard, and they're here to protect your business, to make sure your business isn't lost because of an EV improperly handled. So I can't say enough about them.
Speaker 1:They'll flip it back over to you, yeah, and you and I have been friends a long time. So you start thinking about the people who don't take the precaution. That's what I'm concerned about. And we have towers that bring them back to the yards, or recycler sometimes puts them in a yard and doesn't do that 50 feet apart from the other community and all of a sudden all that row goes up on fire along with your vehicle. When they dial that number, do you lead them to somebody that could even help them get those barriers, the three-sided barrier?
Speaker 5:Yeah, we are a turnkey solution finder, so some of the solutions we don't have internally, you know we'll give the guidance on. This is what you need and this is where you can go to acquire that. But we continue to try and expand. You know everything that we can provide. And let's kind of spin off into another challenge that we've seen a lot this year, which is post-incident cleanup. So I'll just kind of paint some pictures for you guys. You're a tow operator, you get on scene and this vehicle is caught on fire and now you've got battery material that's exposed, it's on the roadway and I know every one of you guys are going to fill the kind of fill, the pressure of this statement, which is you got law enforcement and you got fire department and they're both breathing down your neck saying clean up the roadway, get this stuff off the roadway. As a tow company you may have some side you know side capabilities of environmental cleanup. There's a lot of integration between those operations. Or it may be your partner tow company that's doing that service, but either way you guys get out there. And I want to explain the complexity of this part. There's an allowance within DOT and EPA and RAPK and all the environmental control groups that allow us, you know categorically to move battery materials and damaged electric vehicles from point A to point B. And when I say point A to point B, I'm going to say if there is a life safety concern or, you know, we've got to keep traffic flowing and this is a safety issue there's an allowance to get that stuff off the roadway to a close proximity location and stage, but that's it. If it's not a close proximity movement or if it's a high hazard movement, dot is not going to authorize the movement of those materials unless they're moved in compliance with DOT standard. We don't have enough time today to dig into that one, but what I will explain to you guys is it's really complex Batteries, when they hit their end of life, they're going to have two classifications on them.
Speaker 5:They're either going to be called end of life or they're going to be called DDR and that's, for damage, defective. If they fall into that DDR category, which is the scenario we're talking about, batteries have been damaged. They're either, you know, fire damaged or they've just fallen out of the vehicle from a radical collision. Those cannot just be picked up, put in something and transported. They have to either be discharged or they have to be transported as class nine hazardous materials packed in a very specialized vented drum with a pyrophobic material around them called cell block EX or vermiculite. There's a bunch of rules and as the package you have to be certified as a 49 CFR DOT battery package. So your average guy can't even pick them up and put them into something completely.
Speaker 5:We've had several events where that material stays on location until it is properly managed, and that can be a week to do different discharging procedures to put these batteries into a safe state.
Speaker 5:So, number one, make sure that you've got us behind you, protecting you through this process so that you don't handle those batteries in a way that's going to get you dinged by DOT or put you in a position where you start transporting those materials down the road, they catch on fire in a bucket you've placed them in or you've put them back into the vehicle or any of those other common practices.
Speaker 5:If that takes place and you're driving down the roadway and your rig catches on fire in the middle of gridlock and you burn up two adjacent mini-vans or cause some loss of life in some capacity, I promise you DOT is not going to stand behind you and say good job. You're going to end up in a really, really tough predicament. So we pivot into massive cleanup management processes. We have really close relationship with Cellblock, with called Recycle, and we can get those resources to you on scene. We have an emergency response counterpart within both of those organizations where we can make calls at two in the morning and say we need a pallet of drums and a pallet of Cellblock, we need it at this location and we start working immediately with DOT on your behalf, your self-reporting. We get all the right players involved to make sure that you're covered, you're protected and everything's getting managed in the right way.
Speaker 1:There you go, and that's one of the big things that happens. Do you have a source? And, dalyne, on the podcast, we've had other people come out and talk in the waste, like Hazmat and that kind of stuff, but in a yard sometimes, these people, they don't know who to reach out to, and what I'm trying to encourage them to do is reach out to you guys, esa, and say, okay, where do I go now?
Speaker 5:That's it guys, Even the vehicles themselves. They're complicated, right. No one EV is the same. No cleanup is the same. No transport of damaged batteries is the same. We've got just an army of really brilliant men, much smarter than me. We've got a lot of engineers we lean on. We've got a lot of battery specialists, OEMs, that we talk directly to. So when these events occur, we've got everybody on speed dial to bring all these specialists together, identify good plans to manage these events and then pivot into safe practices to try and help protect everybody. So yeah, lean on us.
Speaker 1:All right. So, darren, let's do this. Let's take a fast break. Dalyne, if you'd be kind enough, hang tight. Our listeners want to hear more from Dalyne Zarbman at ESA. So hang tight, folks, and we'll be right back.
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Speaker 1:You've been listening to a professional on the go podcast and this has been a great one. One of our dear friends and a person who's been great to the industry, dalyn Zartman. I want to remind all of us please like and review, share everywhere. We always love when you want to hear it. Dalyn Zartman, you just called Darren at 706-409-5603. That's the hotline number here at the Podcast Center and we will do our best. You know, dalyn and I, we will present to you, like done today, if you can, dalyn, for me what is a parting shot, something that you want to add, maybe about education, maybe about something that's going on with you guys that you could share with the audience.
Speaker 5:Absolutely so. On the educational front, guys, we can come out direct delivery anywhere you are in the country. We actually do this internationally. We work in the Middle East, we work in Australia, we're all over the place. We will come out and provide educational training courses. We've got a lot of different solutions where you can do it kind of regionally. You can host it as a tow group. We help promote, we help market, we help everything. To try and find the right budget means for you guys to make it affordable and make it fit for where you need it. And we have awareness courses, we have operations courses, we have technician courses. We collaborate and work as the EV trainers for rec master, for Urska, for state based tow associations. We will come alongside any of you and work on both fronts.
Speaker 5:One of the things I really enjoy doing on the educational front as well is bringing the two parties together, like we talked about. So we do a lot of collaborative classes where it's not just tow operators, but in the same room we put the fire guys, we put the law enforcement, we put the state troopers, we put the environmental, we put as many players as we can together and that way everybody starts to understand each other's challenges and how to take care of each other and how to support each other and just how to work better together on scene. So reach out to us through the website. Bobby Schneider is our training director that great guy, super passionate, knowledgeable and he'll work with you to develop the right training course that meets your needs. We're also really excited about a new platform that'll be launched here, probably next month, and that's an online version of the awareness class. I know it's not always easy to get everybody in one room and sit down in seats and be off the street and be off the off the rigs, so this allows you to kind of complete the initial hazard recognition awareness portion course and you can do that at your own pace online. Keep an eye on our website. We will have some material. We'll work through Darren and DJ to promote that when it's available to everybody but gives you another avenue to try and get that baseline training in before you attend one of the operational classes and guys be ready.
Speaker 5:Like as we alluded, the whole industry is pivoting in this direction. We've actually got some states that are working on state-based legislation and regulation that requires towers that are going to haul EVs to be EV certified or EV trained. We have collision centers, massive chain collision centers that we're working with, that are adopting the programming so that if a vehicle shows up and it's being towed in, they're going to reject the vehicle if it doesn't already have a risk assessment sticker on it. They're building their receiving platforms to make sure that the vehicles are going into the proper barriers, proper primers. There's a lot of different pieces moving in the right direction to make sure that these things are prepped.
Speaker 5:Let's even touch on recyclers and dismantlers. Our LKQs and co-parts and pick'em pulls and those types of organizations are jumping through the same recognition of standards, hoops and safety compliance and they're wanting to see the same things as the vehicle comes in. It's a little different process for them, but their first line of defense is the intake process. So you drop off a vehicle and they want to know immediately is it an EV? If it is an EV, now they're starting to conduct risk assessments. If the risk assessment is already done and the vehicle's already placarded, your transaction period there is a tow operator dropping off that vehicle is going to be a lot faster, a lot smoother. The emergency shutdown procedures are already going to be done on the vehicles, so on and so forth.
Speaker 1:Now can I ask, on the baseline train that will be available in a month or so Down the road, do you just go to your website to learn more about it?
Speaker 5:That's it. Yeah, our website's been restructured, so when you get on there now you actually get to pick your industry area. So the homepage lets you identify I'm law enforcement, I'm fire service for this application, I'm a tow operator, and you just click on that big icon for tow operators and it takes you to another area of the website that's dedicated to you. So it gives you all your training opportunities, resources as far as like retail needs, ev fire blankets, things that you may need in your arsenal, thermal imaging cameras, co meters all the things you need to support your operation are located on the website, and then just contact us. We love to talk to our constituents and our brothers and sisters that we work with, so we still like talking. Not everything needs to be automated. We love meeting people and we love understanding your needs, so reach out to us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, here's that question. Chuck Kemp explains to me he's the producer of the podcast. He explains to me that not only do we have towers, we have recyclers, we have body shops who are now listening to the podcast. So all of a sudden now you have a body shop owner who listens to the podcast. We had a guy come by here yesterday and just say you know, I own a body shop but I listen to your podcast and I'm thinking okay, so on your website, even a body shop guy could tell you what to do for enclosure of an electric vehicle being placed in his facility to be repaired.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and way beyond that. So we're talking about specialized resources for the towers. Understand that, as we've built out and identified the needs within other industries, we've brought in Dirk Fuchs. Dirk Fuchs is one of the leading experts on EV battery pack interactions so he designed Europe's standards for dismantling battery packs, diagnosing battery packs, repairing battery packs, moving batteries around the country. He's now here in the US and he's our Prime EV interaction consultant.
Speaker 5:So on the collision side, we actually can can work through Dirk with different protocols to train dismantlers and body shop technicians on how to drop battery packs, how to open the battery packs up. It's an international certification. There's four levels of certification for that. We have a new lab that'll be done here in November at our at our training center in Ohio and it's actually a full collision center dismantling lab. So we've got a car vehicle hoist in there. We've got brand new EV sitting in there. You learn everything you need to know about the intricate and you know advanced wiring assemblies within those things and how to diagnose them, how to test them, how to tear apart all the above.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna tell you something, listeners, you don't have to be an expert on it. All you have to do is call the expert.
Speaker 2:It's real simple 855 ESA safe, and it's a course that will give you eight is a on everything, and you've got somebody in the industry that has as much passion for you, that has as much care and understanding about the struggles your workers have on a daily basis, that wants to make sure they're protected and your business is protected. So if you don't make the call, it's on you, not on us. We went ahead and let you know about it 855 ESA safe. If you want to get ahead of the curve, it's time to do it right now. And if you haven't called ESA, kind of step up and do it now. It'll only help your business. The only thing you have to lose is your entire company if an EV catches on fire. So let's, let's do the due diligence and step out there, and they will help.
Speaker 1:All right. So let me ask you this we're down to our closing segment, so can I ask you this is our closing segment, so what is a parting shot you'd like to give our listeners about EVs? And then I'll turn it over to you to do the wrap up.
Speaker 5:Call us, lean on us, let us be your resource network. Don't try to do it on your own. As we alluded to before, guys, all the vehicles are different, the towing requirements are different and there's a lot of details that just haven't been properly, you know, passed on by the OEMs and by by tow training groups. It's just hard to get the education. So reach out to us, let us know your needs. We're here to help you and support you. Call us, contact us.
Speaker 5:No matter what industry you're in as tow guys, I know we cross the lines into body shops and environmental management and all the other things we're talking about.
Speaker 5:We can help you guys on every one of those fronts and I can't envision or create a more, you know, affordable, passionate, authentic and accurate mechanism or tool for all of you guys out there in the field than what we've tried to do and we're going to continue to try and do it.
Speaker 5:That's our vision, that's our passion is to you know, we've just carried what we are as firemen into into this sector, and it's save lives and protect property and do it with abandon. You know we got we're saying it says risk a lot to save a lot, which means when we see need. We don't think twice about putting our own lives on the line to execute what we need to execute, and I don't know if it's a good business practice, but we bring the same concept into the way we run things. We want to risk a lot to save a lot for you guys. So we are here for you to give you everything that we possibly can to make sure we keep you guys just safe on the roadway, going home to your families and protecting your assets and property.
Speaker 1:You got it. There's the man, dan and Zahman. I treasure our friendship and, darren, you do what you do best. Buddy, wrap this baby up.
Speaker 2:Oh man, let me tell you that phenomenal, phenomenal segment and very informative and, as always, I knew this will be a great one and we appreciate Dailin and your whole team coming down here and giving us opportunity to just spread the knowledge out there in the industry. We appreciate you. Well, listeners, I want to let you know, keep paying attention to Tope Professional Magazine. We've got upcoming issues. We will be at the wall of the Fallen and Chattanooga next week with our special issue honoring the Fallen on our front cover and also again the spread inside with the Survivor Fund to make sure that we are funding and putting money aside for those Fallen that are out there serving the community.
Speaker 2:And with that, dear Lord, I just ask you continually watch over our vendors, increase their knowledge, increase their ability inside the market, their prosperity and health and allow them to prosper for their passion and their heart in this industry. Also, father, I ask you to put your hands around our nation. I ask you to watch over it, comfort us, help every one of our toers out there when they go out, when our men and women go out there to serve, help them come home to their families and I just ask that you bless them with health and prosperity for their sacrifices and for their heart for service. We ask this father in your precious name and amen.
Speaker 5:Amen.
Speaker 2:Until next time, keep tuning in to Tope Professional, your voice for the industry, on the Go podcast. Until next time, more great guests like Dailin's Artman of ESA. Make sure you give them a call 855, esa safe. Thanks again and keep tuning in.