Tow Professional Podcast
Tow Professional Podcast
Transforming Towing Finances: Axe Payments' Innovative Fee Solutions with Ron Matthews
Imagine a world where processing fees for credit card transactions are a thing of the past for towing companies. Join us as Ron Matthews, a revered name in the auto recycling industry, unpacks the revolutionary approach spearheaded by Axe Payments. Co-hosts DJ Harrington and Darren Weaver, alongside Ron, explore how this innovative financial solution is turning traditional fee structures on their head. By transferring processing fees to customers, towing businesses are not just saving money but redirecting it into enhancing their operations—from upgrading equipment to investing in staff training and development.
Ron Matthews, with over 40 years of industry expertise, shares his remarkable journey from the automotive sector to becoming a linchpin for businesses aiming to reclaim money lost to unnecessary fees, particularly in the challenging post-COVID economy. With Axe Payments' groundbreaking strategy of passing fees onto customers, over 20,000 businesses nationwide are witnessing a transformation in their financial landscape. Discover how this episode offers a roadmap to significant savings and sustainability, making it a must-listen for anyone looking to boost their bottom line in the towing industry or beyond.
Welcome one and all to Tow Professional Podcast this is your podcast. It's for the pros that have a need to know, that are on the go. This is truly a voice of the towing industry. I'm DJ Harrington, your co-host, better known as the Toe Doctor, and the real host of the program is the president and publisher of Toe Professional Magazine, a dear friend of the industry and a good friend of mine, darren Weaver. Darren, how are you this beautiful day?
Speaker 3:Man, dj, I tell you it's a fantastic day down here in Birmingham, alabama. I've got a chance early this morning to run out to Barber Motorsports and see Alabama Towing and Recovery Association's and Miller's three-day extreme heavy-duty training program that tow professional supports and sponsors and, man, let me tell you, 78 people in that class training new tow professionals for our industry. So phenomenal morning here, and then we get to slide into the afternoon and do something that I really enjoy doing, which is telling our owners in the industry about things that can save them money, put more money in their pockets. They can enjoy the hard work with their family, them money, put more money in their pockets, they can enjoy the hard work with their family. And, dj, you brought a tremendous vendor to us today, a company Axe Payments that is bringing a service to our industry that can save our owners tens of thousands of dollars. So I'm excited about it. I'm excited about this interview with Ron Matthews, so I'm going to give it back to you. This is going to be fantastic.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to tell all our listeners Ron Matthews and I have been friends for years and years. I had brown hair and hot hair when I met Ron Matthews. He's a first class individual, a wonderful friend, and he got involved with Axe Pavements. But I'm going to let Ron tell you because he's a very fine gentleman. Ron Matthews, how are you today?
Speaker 4:I'm doing fantastic DJ and hello Darren, thank you for your time today. You're certainly welcome Senator.
Speaker 1:Well, Ron, tell our listeners a little bit about your background and how we met and how you have developed into what we're doing today.
Speaker 4:So at the early age of nine years old, I've been exposed in part of auto recycling, from small places to large places, managing, consulting and heavily involved in technology. Fast forward a few decades. I've known DJ and the auto recycling. It's also included auto body, auto repair and towing. We've all been part of that and exposed to that, and DJ brought me the opportunity to expose our company and our solutions to towing. So we're excited to do this joint venture with you. What we do differently at Axe is that we have the ability to pass the fee on to the customer, leaving you with no fees. So whatever that cost is, it goes to zero. Whatever you're paying for a fee percentage, monthly fee per transaction fee all goes to zero. We do it without contracts. We do it with free hardware, free software, and the software can do things from pay links to email links, text links, mobile solutions, mobile Bluetooth solutions quite a bit of platforms and hardware devices to adapt to the mobile environment for the tow people.
Speaker 1:So, Ron, I want all of our listeners that take credit cards from people from people they are towing or people they're in business with and you process the credit card. If you've had processing fees in the past, I want you to stop what you're doing. Listen to this podcast, because we're talking about zero processing fees, All right.
Speaker 4:Go ahead.
Speaker 4:Ron, that's exactly right, dj. It goes right to zero. So depending on the hypercard you take can also dictate the fee that you pay. For example, the American Express is usually over the 3% market bracket and then you can pay exorbitant fees. It can be tens of thousands a year or hundreds of thousands a year, depending on your volume. We get that to zero. It can be tens of thousands a year or hundreds of thousands a year, depending on your volume. We get that to zero. We have hundreds of auto recyclers on our platform. We're also in the other spaces, like restaurants and many other different industries. Towing is something we're going to break into. It's a good marriage.
Speaker 1:It's basically the same industry as we're in with auto recycling, exactly. All right, darren, I'm going to let you ask Ron Matthews the next question.
Speaker 3:Well, the next question I had and I know me and you were talking about this yesterday, dj I mean we were just trying to come up in our heads and I'm a simple publisher but I was thinking, you know, the average tower, depending on their size, is what? 30 to what, maybe $130,000 plus worth of credit cards they could be running a month with their business. So, and that kind of aspect and that kind of business I want you to tell our listeners about, you know, some of the average savings they would see, if that's the kind of volume that they're doing, and explain a little more about how they can pass that on 100%.
Speaker 4:So the average cost to run a card we'll use your volume, $100,000, let's say per month. The average savings is around 3%, 3.5% depending on the rate you have and the company you're with. So we'll just say 3% for an example. That's $3,000 for every $100,000. So that goes to zero.
Speaker 3:So if you're doing $1,000,000, wow, that's, that's a phenomenal savings. And, guys, I mean what you're, what you're saving right there. All that is is, uh, more funding to put into your equipment, more funding, funding to put into training, why and more funding to put in um, to adding new employees, um, and I love this dj. I think it's a a program that that all our listeners can benefit from all right listeners. What we're going to do right now is we're going to step away. We're going to take a quick commercial break here from our sponsors and when we get back, I'm going to give you more ways to reach out here and learn how to save more money with your business, and you can do this by just simply going to wwwgetaxpaycom. We'll give you more information on that when we come back, but hang in there, we'll be right back from the break.
Speaker 5:Recovery Billing Unlimited is an organization dedicated to teaching fellow towers how to become more profitable for the work they do. Recovery Billing Unlimited can teach you the proper tow business foundation, the proper way of writing acceptable recovery invoices, remediation of the accident scene to free you from future liability, and laws to help you get paid. These are just a few of the things covered when you attend a class from Recovery Billing Unlimited. For class or seminar information, visit recoverybillingunlimitedcom. Recovery Billing Unlimited making towers more profitable.
Speaker 6:Attention. Tow heroes Level up with TowMate's new XR Series Wireless Tow Lights, now supercharged with long-lasting lithium technology. Boost your truck's visibility with PowerLink 2-wire light bars and strobes. Maximize impact while minimizing installation. They utilize your existing wiring. And don't miss our lifesaver. Cone-mounted warning lights your first line of defense on the roadside. Illuminate your path. At wwwtomatecom. Slash dealers or dial 800-680-4455. Tomate.
Speaker 5:Dependable, durable, dynamic selling with copart is quick and easy, convenient, withient with B2B, interfacing, off-site sales, counter bidding, early tow and more. Copart takes the hassle out of selling your total lost vehicles. Copart sells vehicles on behalf of insurance companies, banks, finance companies, charities, fleet operators and dealers. For more information, go to copartcom.
Speaker 1:Welcome back listeners. You know you're listening to Toe Professional on the Go podcast Every week. We do our best to bring you new informative episodes like this one today with Ron Matthews from Axe.
Speaker 1:By all means. We're available on Spotify, itunes, on Spotify, itunes, Pandora, stitcher, iart Media the number one in the country Amazon or wherever you get your podcasts. Now, before we took the break, I'm dying here to tell all of you. You know, we have a guy on the phone right now on our podcast that knows more about credit cards and how to get that thing down to zero. So what I want to do is ask Ron Matthews to explain what dual pricing is. So, ron, I'll turn it over to you.
Speaker 4:Thanks, EJ. Thanks, EJ. So dual pricing is a technology incorporated in our software which allows you to pass the fee onto the customer and not raise your prices across the board. So this allows you to keep your cash price where it is, so you can stay competitive, and also add a fee, essentially a secondary price, to the credit card purchases, therefore allowing you to not have any fees that go into your bank. If you charge a tow let's say it's a $100 tow $100 goes into your bank the next day. This saves you 100% of the fees that you'd be normally absorbing.
Speaker 4:Traditional is where you absorb the fee. We also are in that space too, and you can call us on that.
Speaker 1:I got you yeah now that you said call us on that. Do I have your permission to give out your direct number?
Speaker 4:Absolutely, that's in my personal cell phone. You can call or text me seven days a week.
Speaker 1:All right, now everybody listen up Seven days a week. Now, everyone listen up Seven days a week. Ron Matthews, m-a-t-t-h-e-w-s. His phone number 401-640-3015. I'll repeat it 401-640-3015. Even if you just want to ask him some questions of how this works one-on-one, give him a call. He's a dear friend and he's very informative.
Speaker 3:All right, Darren, I'll pass it over to you. Well, dj, I tell you this is fantastic because we all know we take those fees on. We look at it every month in our statements. Because we all know we take those fees on. We look at it every month in our statements and we see how much that's affecting us. But a lot of companies say, well, hey, I'm getting the money up front.
Speaker 3:But we see so many companies when you go in to pay, they ask to cash your card, and it's the same thing here Ask to cash your card, you've got your cash price, you've got your card price and a zero process if it goes right back to zero to you. So this is phenomenal, dj. I love it for our listeners. Well, the next thing I wanted to ask, ron, is to give you an opportunity to tell our listeners about all the customized solutions that you offer for them, depending on what type of processor they need, whether it be a POI or mobile or whichever. I know you've got many different solutions, so I want you to be able to tell the listeners about those.
Speaker 4:Absolutely so.
Speaker 4:On the hardware side of it, we have different pieces of hardware anything from a traditional hardwired terminal that would go onto your counter to take cards in person, or hardware that your mobile drivers can have on the go, Anything from a little square, probably two-and-a-half, two-and-a-half-inch Bluetooth, battery-operated swiper that could talk to your existing hardware, whether it's a cell phone, tablet or anything that you may have on you.
Speaker 4:Or we even have standalone cellular mobile devices that are a traditional machine that you would see, but it's also wireless and they can carry them too. We also have software what we call gateways, virtual terminals that you can log in from your desktop. That allows you to send pay links via text or email. So, probably for the impound payments people that are not in front of you you can send them a pay link, saving you time on the phone, allowing them to fill out the information and paying you electronically. It'll come back into your dashboard telling you that it's paid and it's all manageable and you can save your clients in there. If you have repeat business or you have contracts with vendors, you can actually save this information in a vault and it's all PCI compliant and protected and you can reapply the charges at your will.
Speaker 3:Wow, ron, this is fantastic and I tell you, you guys just didn't get started in this. This is something where the, if I'm correct, the executive team's over 40 years of combined experience, and you guys are servicing what is it? Over 20,000 businesses nationwide currently, that's correct.
Speaker 4:Our CEO grew up in this space. He was high level in many different banks and institutions. I grew up in automotive. I'm now 53 years old. I actually have over 40 years in auto experience and with our team and our CEO has about the same in that financial world.
Speaker 3:Man, that's fantastic. With that kind of background, I mean, you guys certainly have the experience to point our guys, our owners, in the correct direction and get our professionals putting that money back in their pocket instead of throwing it away in fees monthly. So that's fantastic. Well, listeners, we'll be right back. We're going to take a quick commercial here from our great sponsors and we'll be right back with Ron Matthews of Axe Pay, and if you want to see more about it, make sure you get to the website getaxepaycom or give him a call directly 401-640-3015. We'll be right back, so hang in there.
Speaker 5: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 wreckers, carriers and rotators. Each truck offers superior engineering for strength and stability, reliability and versatility to exceed the expectations of a demanding industry.
Speaker 2:TowBookcom is the only way to go to manage all the vehicles you tow off the road. The number one platform in the industry, the cloud-based towing software, can handle all your needs Right from your phone, with support day and night. Visit towbookcom and give it a try.
Speaker 5:At Wrecker Rentals, we understand time is money. If your truck is out of service due to a mechanical issue or collision, we offer rentals to keep your business in business. While your truck is out of service due to a mechanical issue or collision, we offer rentals to keep your business in business while your asset is down. We provide short-term rentals with a three-day minimum and long-term rentals of late model light duty wreckers and rollback tow trucks. We distribute trucks from Atlanta and Dallas to all parts of the southeast and we can have it delivered in as little as 24 hours. For details on how to get your rental delivered ASAP, visit our website at rentareckercom and go to the documents page, or give us a call with any questions you might have at 770-898-1200. That's 770-898-1200 and we look forward to serving you.
Speaker 1:Welcome back listeners. You know who this is Toe Professional On the Go podcast with Darren Weaver, dj Harrington, the Toe Doctor, and our special guest today, ron Matthews from Axe. I want to remind all of you please like and review and share everywhere. We can't thank you enough. We have grown and grown this podcast. Now we're close to 18,000 listeners. This podcast is going great guns because of you guys. If you want to hear another industry expert like Ron Matthews, just dial our hotline number here in the studio, 706-409-5603 and down, and I will do our best to get that towing and recovery expert on the line so we can teach you how to save more money like ron matthews. Now, ron and I have been dear friends, so I wanted to ask him a question and I'll tell all of you, you know my wife asked me to ask him.
Speaker 1:So, ron, here's my question for my wife what is your favorite part of working for Axe?
Speaker 4:Well, when I met the, when I met these guys five years ago, when I was representing automotive and I seen what they're about, growing up in the automotive industry, there was a couple of companies I always struggled with and one was uniform company. It was very expensive and when the employee left the company, the uniforms were always uh, there was a price to be paid for those, for those uniforms, and they were perpetual contracts. And with that, uh, the credit card companies that we used to do business with always also had perpetual contracts that were very hard to get out of and had fees that kept going up, whether you liked it or not. When I met them and I assumed what they were about, my current position was always to save or make my friends and family in auto recycling money. And when I learned they were willing to not have contracts and they had a concept passing the fee on to the customer, that was very, very exciting to me and I wanted the world to know and I instantly said we need to team up, we need to work together, Say no more.
Speaker 4:And five years later, it's been a really fun ride to take something that cost you nothing and basically give you money back, give you the money that you should reclaim from your business. These are fees that don't go down and since post-COVID, with this inflation, it's been really hard to make a living. It's hard with the fuel costs, insurance costs. Personally I'm a business owner. It's all gone up almost 100% for me. So to be able to reclaim some fees without losing business is a big, big deal and some of my customers that are doing $10,000 a month up to over a million a month with us and those are hundreds of thousands of dollars a year being saved they can go back into the business to buy equipment, employees reinvesting it's a big deal and it's been real fun. It's a big deal and it's been real fun and we have a large, large following now of thousands of hundreds of auto recyclers and tens of thousands of merchants on the other verticals that we're in.
Speaker 1:Yeah which is excellent. So I want to tell all the listeners this is a good friend of mine and I've known him for a long time. He's got a lot of morals and ethics for a long time he's got a lot of morals and ethics. And if you just call 401-640-3015 and just ask Ron hey, ron, tell me a little bit more about this, or what would a scenario be here, that type of thing Before you make a decision, it's worth to get some questions answered in your own mind. So, darren, I'll turn it over to you.
Speaker 3:Fantastic, fantastic. Well, one thing I wanted to say. I had a question, ron, about the Axe Pay Gateway Plus, but one thing I wanted to mention real quick is I know a consumer might say you know, if I virtually every merchant considering this will say, hey, my concern is this might be abrasive to my customer, they might not want this passed on to them. But the number of merchants that switch back to traditional processing I wanted you to be able to touch on that too before you tell us about Axe Pay Gateway Plus. So what's the typical amount that crossed back over to the traditional once you bring them?
Speaker 4:here to the light. So actually you just made a good point that I did not recognize. But we also have the ability to offer a bypass, so it's basically having both in the platform. So if you were nervous and you felt like passing the fee on to your customer was an issue, or you might have a contract a state contract that caps you to an X amount of dollars that you can charge for that tow, that would be the examples of when you need to absorb the fee. You have a set amount that you can charge and you can't get more than that. You could activate our bypass, which would be built into the software, allowing you to decide whether you want to pass the fee on or absorb the fee.
Speaker 4:With the Gateway Plus, it has some fraud controls built into it. In the auto parts business dealing with someone over the phone not knowing where the product is actually going to, there's been a lot of fraud people calling on stolen credit cards. This software has 3D Secure 2.0, which is the highest level you can go, and it watches those transactions and will actually flag and let you know whether something was fraud or approved. If it's approved, the liability shifts completely on them and you are at no risk. If, in the towing world, there's a risk of fraud or people using stolen cards, this could definitely help you. The platform also has digital signatures, so when you send a pay link, having that digital signature is very important, because some banks will actually reject a chargeback based on no signature on an invoice or a slip or some kind of signature they want to see in order to validate the transaction. To have our backs.
Speaker 3:Wow, you guys have absolutely thought of everything, Ron. That's fantastic. So, whether our consumers, whether you guys, are worried about going from traditional to going to this new format and having a zero processing site wwwgetaxepaycom Very simple, getaxepay or you can give Ron a call directly at 401-640-3015. Well, DJ, I'm going to let you finish up there and then you can throw it back and we'll get it finished up for that. But what a great episode, what a great guest, Ron. We can't thank you enough, sir. Thank you for your time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to tell all our listeners. You know we have been doing this now three years ourselves. The podcast, the magazine has been around almost 14 years and we're always sitting here saying, okay, what can we bring our listeners that will be a benefit to them, that will help them grow their business so that come Thanksgiving time, come Christmas, they can do things they want to do. Things have been tough and we've all gone through it, where our gas prices, our diesel prices, have gone up so much that you just say, good lord, well, now we have a solution to some of our problems. So I want to thank Ron Matthews for being on here and, ron, thank you so much for being a guest on our podcast.
Speaker 4:Thank, you, dj. I did want to leave one thing out for future hardware. It's actually going to be no hardware. Our next app is actually going to run on a mobile device and use the NFC chip, the chip that you would use to actually make payments in your store with a tap to pay. This technology is actually used to take make payments in your store with a tap to pay. This technology is actually used to take payments in reverse, and this is being tested now and should be certified any day now. So this could actually arm the drivers that already have mobile devices or cell phones and not even have to have any hardware. Just download our app after they're activated with our company and, by the way, we do have a like us or leave us attitude, reiterating on the no contract, no fees. It's a try. If it doesn't work out, we shake hands and hopefully, maybe someday you'll come back.
Speaker 3:This is wonderful.
Speaker 1:And I'm so proud of you know I'm glad I can share my friend with all of our listeners. But, Darren, normally you do the closing, so I'll pass it on over to you, my friend.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, DJ. Well, listeners, it's been a great podcast. We hope to always stay informative to you and bring you information, like DJ said, to help you stay out of the red and stay in the black. And, as always, I just want to say a prayer.
Speaker 3:Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you for every one of our vendors. We just ask that you continue to increase their knowledge, increase their prosperity in the industry, bring them to business and allow them to continue to bring top products to our market. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask for a hedge of protection around our first responders out there, our men and women that are sacrificing on a daily basis to leave their families and take care of ours. We ask that you make them prosperous, protect their health, protect their prosperity and bring them home safely every day. And, dear Father, we just thank you for this wonderful industry. We thank you for blessing our wonderful nation and we ask that you bless all our folks in our military in your precious name. Amen. Till next time, listeners keep listening to Toe Professional on the Go podcast. We'll keep bringing informative professional guests like Ron Matthews with Axe Pay, and we'll have more episodes for you coming back with next week. Thank you so much. Have a great week.