Tow Professional Podcast
Tow Professional Podcast
Saving Lives on the Roadside: A Father's Mission After Tragedy
Death shouldn't be an occupational hazard for those who stop to help others on our roads. Yet every week in America, a tow truck operator is struck and killed while simply doing their job.
Matt Spencer never imagined joining the ranks of grieving families until November 4, 2023, when his 25-year-old son Keegan was killed by a distracted driver on a Michigan freeway. Despite having emergency lights activated and being completely off the roadway, Keegan became another statistic in what Matt describes as a preventable epidemic. This tragedy transformed Matt from a second-generation tower with 45 years of experience into a passionate safety advocate who can no longer return to the profession he loves.
The conversation with Matt and Tom Parbs from Haas Alert reveals the shocking scope of roadside dangers. Beyond towing professionals, crossing guards, utility workers, firefighters, and law enforcement officers face similar risks daily. Most drivers fail to recognize how common behaviors—like adjusting dashboard controls or changing radio stations—constitute dangerous distraction. Without awareness and technology to bridge this knowledge gap, roadside workers continue to pay with their lives.
Hit While Helping, Matt's nonprofit organization, partners with educational initiatives like Flagman to teach K-12 students about roadside safety. Meanwhile, Haas Alert's Safety Cloud delivers nearly half a billion driver alerts annually through navigation apps and connected vehicles. These complementary approaches attack the problem from multiple angles: education for future generations and real-time warnings for today's drivers.
Throughout our conversation, both guests emphasize the need for industry unity. "If our industry can't band together on this issue of safety, what are we?" Matt asks. The passionate call for collaboration extends beyond towing to all roadside professions and even NASCAR, where Jeffrey Earnhardt recently raced a Hit While Helping sponsored car to spread awareness to new audiences.
Whether you're a roadside professional concerned about safety or simply someone who drives, this episode offers crucial insights into how we can collectively ensure those who stop to help others make it home safely to their families. Follow Hit While Helping on social media or visit their website to join this vital movement that turns heartbreak into lifesaving action.
Welcome one and all. You are here. We are here. This is Toe Professional Podcast. Remember, this is your podcast. It's for the pros that have a need to know, that are on the go. It's truly the voice of the towing industry. I'm Darren Weaver, your host of Tow Professional On-The-Go Podcast, the number one podcast in industry, now reaching 20,000 plus users worldwide, listeners listening to us and folks. We've got a great one this morning. I had a lot of folks want us to have Tom back after the last time he was on, so we have Tom Forbes today, again with Haas Alert, and also a special guest, matt Spencer of Hit While Helping. So this is truly going to be a great podcast.
Speaker 1:It's something that's after my heart and my host, dj Harrington's heart. Dj's not with us this week. He's relaxing, taking a little vacation, getting back on his heels, and he'll be back with us next week. But this is something that's close to my heart, the publication's heart, since day one when I got in the market, we went to the Wall of the Fallen the Survivor Fund, saw what was going on there, saw the loss and the heartache amongst the families and industry and I said we have to do something.
Speaker 1:Ever since then, tow Professionals dedicated two full pages to the Survivor Fund. Nine issues a year for the last 14 years. It's near to our heart. We want to help in the industry. It's near to our heart. We want to help in the industry and we've got two powerhouses here on the podcast today that their whole purpose as well is to help make the road safer and help bring your family members home safe to you after they leave to do their work. So here we are. Good morning Matt Spencer and good morning Tom. Glad to have you guys on the podcast today all right.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 3:It's an honor yes, thank you again for having me back all right, man.
Speaker 1:Well, listen, hey, we're going to get this one kicked off because we've got some some, some great questions I want to get into here, and I I know you guys have a full day plan that we're going to tell our, our listeners, about in a little bit. But to start out, matt, tell us a little bit about yourself and tell us what is your son Keegan's story and what would you want his legacy to be from this. Tell us why you do this yeah.
Speaker 2:So, um, I come from a small town, uh, hastings, michigan, just south of grand rapids. We're a rural area where we know everybody in our town and I'm a second generation toer. I've been in and around tow trucks for 45 years. My dad started out, um, with an old wrecker. He wasn't educated as a tower, he was self-taught and he taught me the ropes. And then my son came along, my firstborn son and my only son, keegan. He'd come along and he was in a tow truck right from day one, actually in a child seat along, and he was in a tow truck right from day one, actually in a child seat. His grandpa would take him and, um, he just uh, kind of was forced into industry.
Speaker 2:You know, he got bit by that dang bug, that towing bug that we all get bit by early on, and that young man was was heading down a road of being an owner at 25 years old, being a part owner of Tozilla Towing with his best friend and unfortunately he ran out of time. On November 4th 2023, he was struck and killed on the side of a freeway in Grand Rapids, michigan, by an 18-year-old young man who just made a huge mistake. He was distracted and, instead of hitting the car that was slowing down in front of him fast. He took an immediate left and Keegan was totally off the roadway and just was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But what makes this story so shocking to me is that the killing of Keegan is happening weekly in the United States and this stuff is preventable. We have the technologies Haas Alert has the technology to alert the drivers.
Speaker 2:Maybe if this 18-year-old young man would have been alerted 30 seconds, a minute before he arrived where Keegan was, sitting on the side of the road with his tow truck in the crossover from one side of the freeway to the other, had his emergency lights on. The young man saw the emergency lights but failed to slow down. And if he would have been alerted, maybe he would have slowed down. So it's just shocking that this is happening and that leads into Keegan's legacy. Right from day one I was stricken with grief. I was heartbroken. It made me physically ill for months where I could hardly get out of bed and I can't get back into a tow truck. I'm in the midst of selling my tow business because I just can't do this business anymore. I'm that distraught over it. But how can we use Keegan's story to change the behavior of the driving public. That's what Keegan's legacy, I feel, is going to be all about.
Speaker 1:So that leads us into our. Our next question I want to ask is is tell our listeners about Hit While Helping? Is this a nonprofit and how does it help serve the industry?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I created Hit While Helping to to raise awareness. You know, like all endeavors, it takes a team of people and it takes some funding to get this message out on a national level. So we created the nonprofit to spread this awareness that it's not just tow truck operators that are getting struck and killed. It is in 2023, there was three crossing guards the guards that protect our kids from walking across the street to schools that were struck and killed, schools that were struck and killed. So it's about every roadside worker that we need people to be aware that this stuff is happening and to educate them on what they can do. So Hit While Helping is just that.
Speaker 2:My mission statement for this is Hit While Helping was founded to honor the life of Keegan Spencer, who was tragically struck and killed at just 25 years old while doing what he loved helping others on the roadside. Out of this unimaginable loss comes our mission to turn Keegan's story into change by raising awareness, strengthening, move over laws and building a culture of compassion and responsibility on our roads. Through Keegan's spirit of service, we fight to protect every responder and good Samaritan so that those who help can always make it home to their families. His story is our mission, and his legacy will save lives. That's my mission statement.
Speaker 1:Amen, love that, matt, I love that. One thing I was looking at is I know that you had somebody that's near and dear to my heart is Cindy Iodice with Flagman. I've always said you know, when I was coming through high school, one of the things I learned was we had going, was click it or ticket. And so as you're, as you're working on getting your, your, your driver's license, they're they're telling you every day in the driving classes, you're seeing it on tv click it or ticket. So you had to have wear that seatbelt and it just kind of soaked into your mind and I've always said, you know, I myself, tom, others, we can all preach to this industry about slow down, move over, but we're all talking to the choir. The way it starts is it has to start with education with our children. So I was excited to see that. So tell us about how you recently partnered with Cindy Iodice and Flagman and tell us a little more about that. I know our listeners can't wait to hear this part.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I'm going to start with how we met. You know, my fiance and Jenny and I, right after Keegan's death, we took this mantra of let's just show up, let's start just going to events. And that started with toe shows. We just started going from the East Coast out to Texas, to Florida, to Wisconsin, all over, right, and we just started meeting people and we didn't know what we were looking for. We just showed up and, um, it was early on in that journey because that's been going on keegan's been gone 22 months now and so it started early on that.
Speaker 2:We're like man. We are preaching to the choir, we're hearing all that. Everybody in our towing industry knows there's a problem. What do we do about it? That's where our hands are kind of not together on this. Some people think, oh, we need blue lights on our tow trucks. Oh, no, we need the police to start cracking down on people. Oh, we need the judges to start throwing the book at people. Well, I think a little bit of all of that needs to happen.
Speaker 2:But we were like Jenny and I were like man. We got to figure out a way to get to the kids, you know. We got to figure out a way that we can teach people that just because you're in a car and you're not driving that, you are still responsible for your safety, right? Jenny and I have been traveling all around this country and I've got her where some people might say she's a backstreet driver. No, she's my assistant. She's seeing things ahead of me that I'm not seeing. Hey, matt, I see brake lights ahead Before there might be 20 cars up, so I'm starting to slow down.
Speaker 2:What people need to realize is you do control your environment in that car your environment. You can't control that idiot on the side that's buzzing up on your tailboard. You can't control them, but you can control what you're doing. How do we do that?
Speaker 2:Well, I was thumbing through reels one night on my phone and I came across flagman flagman with Cindy Iodice and they're going into schools, k through 12th grade, educating kids on roadway safety when there are accident scenes or a tow truck on the side of the road, a DOT worker on the side of the road, and they have come up with an amazing system that's interactive with the students to teach them what to do when they see these incidents on the side of the road. Cindy's story is very similar to me. She lost her brother in Connecticut to a struck-by. Her grief kept her in bed just like me for for for months, and we have the same desire that we don't want anybody else to have to go through this and that if we don't stand up, if we don't create something, then we're kind of failing the legacy of our loved ones.
Speaker 1:Get that man. You're right 100% and you know. Looking at this, I know we do have Slow Down Move Over, but, as you mentioned, slow Down Move Over is a national movement for towing but there's not a large movement to help everybody else the roadside workers, the DOT guys, the police officers, the firemen, the average because there's a lot and, like you said, even the crossing guards. The instance of school bus stop signs being run here lately is through the roof on the data the last year. So I think there's a great lane for that, for what you're doing, and I think the education is one of the big keys. So this is awesome, matt. How can the industry and the public help make a difference to keep the roads safer?
Speaker 2:Well, this is something else that we learned as we were driving across the country. The towing community is so jaded. There's so many of us that are angry. We're angry at the system, we're angry at the government for the laws that they're putting on us. We're angry at the insurance companies for not paying us. We have all these issues that towers are facing, but we cannot come together as an industry on one issue of safety.
Speaker 2:Come on, guys, we need to band together. We need to reach across that divide that we have with our competitor and go all right, I may not get along with you for all of our business relationships, but I'm going to get with you for safety. We're going to come together. And if our industry can't band together on this issue of safety, what are we? I mean, as human beings, we all deserve to drive on a roadway that's safe, right, I firmly believe that, amen. What can we do? And I think it starts with coming together and start having conversations.
Speaker 2:Number one this is my feeling we need to get all of the toe associations across america together on the safety issue. Yes, that's where we need to band together and put everything aside, all your indifferences, all of your anger towards your, your fellow competitor and go. You know what I'm going to band together and what that looks like to start this move over movement, this safety movement. I don't know, but I think it starts with the associations and I think TRAA should be the leader in that. I firmly believe in what they're doing and I think they should become the leader of bringing all of these associations together on the safety issue.
Speaker 1:All right, well, listeners, we're going to take a quick commercial break and hear from some of our great sponsors. This is an important episode. I am so glad we're reaching these topics. So, listeners, hang in there. We'll be right back with some more great information from Matthew Spencer, and on the mic next, tom Parbs of Haas Alert. So hang in there, we'll be right back.
Speaker 4:GRAA is the national association representing the US towing and recovery industry. We act as the voice of America's towing industry by offering representation, education and leadership at the federal level. Much of our focus is on representing the interest of the towing and recovery industry on Capitol Hill, including promoting positive legislation and opposing potentially negative legislation. Traa is the industry's watchdog on Capitol Hill.
Speaker 4:There are so many compelling reasons to be a TRAA member. Besides being the right thing to do, membership gives you exclusive member benefits worth thousands of dollars a year, including exclusive TRA member discounts from our featured partners, such as Coast Fuel Cards, ev Clever, app, toe Book, wreckmaster, toe Cert, haas Alert Zips. We buy key fobs, auto data, direct and fleet compliance solutions, free advertising in our national membership directory and online directory, email updates, invitations to exclusive events and scholarship access. But, best of all, you are pouring back into the industry to assure we together make it stronger for generations to come. A special thank you to our partner Gay Rochester of INA Towing for her continued ongoing support service to TRAA and her commitment to safety for our industry. With one over lose none Become a National association member today at tra Visit towbookcom and give it a try.
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Speaker 1:All right, welcome back listeners. You are listening to Tow Professional Podcast Every week. We do our best to bring you great guests, just like Matt Spencer and Tom Parbs, and the latest industry information. Make sure you download and listen. We're available on Spotify, itunes, pandora, stitcher, iheartmedia, amazon or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, on this next part, tom, again so glad to have you back on the podcast. Got to ask you here. I know Haas Alert is a cornerstone sponsor. Can you tell us more about?
Speaker 3:that today? Yeah, absolutely so. You know, we all just heard, you know Matt's story and I think, most importantly, we just heard Keegan's story. It's a very significant story, not only near and dear to me personally known Matt for a very long time, obviously, I have known a large part of the towing community, specifically in Michigan, right where Matt and Keegan are from. But before I jump into our support of Hit While Helping, I just want to kind of talk about some of the things that Matt was sharing with us. Right, keegan's story is significant, but there are and unfortunately, as Matt was saying, a lot of stories just like Keegan.
Speaker 3:And in the towing industry, which is one of the most dangerous roadside industries right, it's one of the most you know there's an average. You know, sometimes we have a good year I put quotes around that Sometimes we have a bad year, but you know, we normally see anywhere from 40 to 50 deaths Right To our to. This is towing, this is emergency roadside assist. These are repair trucks, right, that are doing large commercial, large commercial motor vehicles. So CMV, cmv, and it transcends, it's not just the towing and transportation industry, right, we, you know, to be clear, even if there's not a death, we see an average of about 300, approximately 300 crashes a day to what is called towing and transportation emergency roadside assist. We see this in law enforcement as well, right, so you know the men and women that are serving in law enforcement. You know we see an average of anywhere from 30 to 50 deaths to law enforcement that's due to crashes. One of the riskiest things that a law enforcement officer is going to do is go on duty, right? So, as Matt was saying, this isn't just about the towing. You know, I really love what he said about. This is about the folks that actually work on or near the roadway Our firefighters, right, a lot of people think, hey, they're brave, they're running into burning buildings.
Speaker 3:They're more likely to be injured or killed in a crash getting to the emergency or coming from the emergency than they are. It's more riskier getting in the apparatus than it is running into that burning building. And this is our emergency medic, right, our paramedics. So EMS law enforcement, our firefighters, our towing and, again, recovery and our utility right, there was a about a year and a half ago, five minutes from my house, on a 35 mile on a road, a 21 year old gentleman was struck and killed, working for USIC. The driver was not distracted, just did not see the gentleman coming around. His truck until the last moment killed him. 21 years of age, right. And so this happens across. Utility, this happens across.
Speaker 3:You know, we talked about school buses, right? As a parent, you would be alarmed at the number of folks that don't realize it's a giant yellow bus, and so we hear this a lot, like Matt was saying in the towing how can you not see us? How can you not see these lights? I also want to share with you. We talk about construction or work zone, right, and so work zone is the best way to put it, because it could be construction, it could be long-term, it could be short-term, it could be the traffic safety folks that are setting up, that are directing traffic, that are flagging. There's a thousand deaths, a thousand deaths a year in the work zone industry, right. So when we start to think about more than all of our right law enforcement and, uh, our emergency roadside type services.
Speaker 3:But then you think about disabled motorists, right. So these are the folks for the towing community that you are that are waiting for you to show up on. A disabled motorist is struck every seven minutes on the roadways in the United States of America. The most vulnerable road user is our customers in the towing community that is called, and they're waiting for help. They're waiting for you to get there to help them. So when we talk about the safety problem on the roadway, like Matt was talking about, I agree in the coming together.
Speaker 3:So when the opportunity came to right, hit While Helping obviously again being very, very familiar and very personally involved with Keegan's story and there was an opportunity right to help sponsor Hit While Helping, it was really a no-brainer for HaasAlert right, since we are with Safety Cloud right we, you know our mission is a collision, a connected, collision-free world where everybody goes home safely. So helping to raise that awareness, helping to raise that education, not just in the industry and communities we serve, but also to the motoring traffic and keeping everybody safer, it really was a perfect match with what we're doing. And so Matt and I are actually in Bristol, tennessee, and there's a Hit While Helping Move Over America. Sponsorship of Jeffrey Earnhardt he's racing in the number 24 car. Uh, later today, um, and uh, for the first time ever, right, working with NASCAR and working with, uh, jeffrey, uh, the Earnhardt family, um, where we have, you know Keegan's name on the car we have, um. You know Haas alert and safety cloud is on that car and really the Earnhardt family and Jeffrey.
Speaker 3:You know raising awareness to for the motoring traffic right to pay attention, right, because that has been the biggest uncontrollable thing in our industry that we haven't. We can have all the lights and all the safety training. There's some great training. We have some really amazing stuff. People are doing the right things in our industry. But what are we doing to raise that awareness? And so, partnering with somebody like Matt and Hit While Helping and using events like this NASCAR race today and the Hit While Helping and Move Over America movement, we can really start bringing that awareness to the traffic, because that's where the biggest problem is. People don't realize how distracted they are that's kind of a bad word to the motoring traffic. I'm a great driver, I get it, but they don't realize until it's too late when things are there. So raising that awareness, creating those habits, controlling the uncontrollable in our industry, means we're going to go home safer to our families and that's why we're a cornerstone sponsor of Hit While Helping and others.
Speaker 1:I love it, tom, love it, tom. Thanks so much. Well, let me ask you this I know you guys are really involved in this industry, so tell our listeners what are some other organizations that Haas Alert helps support.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely so, beyond HitWell Helping, which is an amazing cause, right, I say again, I just I realize I'm a little personally biased because I care so much about this industry and been working with Matt for so long but he mentioned Flagman. I know Cindy Iodice. When she was launching Flagman I was there. She launched it a few years back in Chattanooga during the Tennessee show and the museum weekend. I believe that's the weekend when, during the wall, the fallen ceremony that her brother Corey, I, actually was in Connecticut. I was at the courthouse during the sentencing when the driver was sentenced to prison and for the first time in Connecticut history he was fined the maximum penalty, financial penalty, by law, and I was there with the senator right doing press releases. So we support flag men. We do, we support.
Speaker 3:I've been a longtime supporter of the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame Museum that's in Chattanooga, obviously through their Survivor Fund and the Wall of the Fallen. A few years back, as you know, I created a hashtag as well as a campaign called no More Names on the Wall, where people were learning about safety cloud. No, no purchase necessary. They were learning about safety cloud and we were donating money and just donating funds to the survivor fund. So create awareness to be safer on the roads and within the community. And, again, we were supporting the organizations that were supporting our, our families when the when the bad stuff happened. Right, and beyond that, right, we support many of the industries. We support the Fallen Firefighters Foundation, we support the American Traffic Safety Services Foundation. We report, you know, fallen firefighters. We support the school bus industry.
Speaker 3:Right, we support there's probably too many to list, but to best summarize it, what Haas Alert did a few years ago I wanna say back in 2020, 2021, is we created what's called our Give Back program, where we made it the way that you know a company would hire an employee and that employee has a salary.
Speaker 3:We created, as a business practice, the Give Back program, where every year we donate tens of thousands of dollars as a standard business practice to organizations like the Survivor Fund, like the Fallen Firefighter Foundation, the ATSS Foundation, right, the Police Foundation, to support the men and women that are actually keeping our road safer, because the safer we can make them, the safer they're going to make the communities that they all serve and that means everybody's going to go home safer. And in the event the bad stuff happens, then we know that the families can get the assistance and the care that they need. And so it's near and dear to our hearts for everybody at the company who are very personally invested and when I say that is biased into. We are so vested in making sure people are safe that we live and we breathe, we bleed and we sweat and we cry with everyone to make sure that this is safer. So we do our best to try not to spread ourselves too thin, but also be everywhere we possibly can.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll tell you what I'm hearing from both of you. Tom is, one of the biggest keys is when you're in an industry and you're benefiting inside an industry, the key is pouring back into it and Haas Alert, I'm helping is it's just ways to pour back into that industry. You know what we do with the survivor fund spread. Every issue in the publication is just a way to pour back in the industry, because I believe that's the key to making our industry healthier. Healthier is having vendors that pour back in, getting others involved and getting them to pour back in so that we sustain as we go and make our market healthier.
Speaker 2:Correct. Can I touch on the Wall of the Fallen and the Survivor Fund real quick on how that impacted our family's lives? All right, so within hours after Keegan was struck, I had fellow towers that just started showing up to the parking ride that we were as a family. We were sent to that parking ride to wait for information, right, and so towers just started showing up because Keegan was so socially connected that it took just minutes for social media to talk about Keegan's death that day. So as these tours were coming up to me, I had a couple of the I call them the leaders in the industry. Billy Byers he wasn't actually there, but he was. He was talking to a good friend of mine Keith Baker Keith was right by my side and he's like Matt. We uh Billy's taking care of the survivor fund stuff for you which I wasn't even thinking about, right, fellow towers concerned about our family and the survivor fund.
Speaker 2:Keegan was the earner for his family. He left behind a 16-month-old daughter, a four-year-old soon-to-be stepson, because Keegan was engaged to be married to his lovely fiancee and he was the breadmaker. They depended on his income and just like that it was taken away. The survivor fund got money into his fiancee's hands in weeks and that just took the edge off. So she knew that she could pay rent, she could have food on the table to take care of those emergency needs. Even though it might have been only short term, that helped our family in that immediate first few months after our loved one was taken. So I highly recommend everybody to support the Wall of the Fallen and the Survivor Fund, the museum, because if it wasn't for all those folks I think those first few months would have been really hectic for our family.
Speaker 3:Yeah and Darren, let me add to what Matt is saying, since I know them very well and I do want to be clear. I don't work for the museum in any way, shape or form. I've just been very involved with them being a part of the museum. So if you're, if you're in the towing industry, right, in any way, shape or form, there are memberships that your company can do, and I think they range from 500 bucks and up, right, so peanuts, right, in the grand scheme of things, there are also individual memberships, and so what I've seen for a lot of companies and the towing community is not only will they have the company become a member, but then the company will either A say, hey, we're going to buy individual memberships for you, which is great, right, to say hey, I'm giving back to my employees to make sure that they're a member of the museum.
Speaker 3:Memberships are like 150 bucks for the year. That's nothing, right? You'll probably spend that, uh, on lunch going out with your buddies. You know what I mean. You'll probably spend the month with all the Red Bulls that we buy or the monster drinks that we buy. You know, one, two or three at a time, every day, every single day. So it's very, very inexpensive.
Speaker 3:But when you are a member and your company is a member, if a tragedy happens, the payout is $15,000 to write your wife to your immediate family, to your mom, to your dad, just depending on your loved one. And even if you're a non-member, the payout is. I believe it's about $12,000. But, like Matt said, all those dollars count. So, matt, it's important to make sure, right, that money does support the survivor fund. And you know again, the goal is you never have to, your family never has to apply for that death benefit. And as great as we're going to, you know the industry is and we're going to continue making the industry great. It's good to support things like HitWell, helping like Flagman, like the Survivor from the Wall of the Fallen, because even though you may not need it, somebody may need it. Right, and Matt talked about banding together to make sure that we're all helping each other.
Speaker 1:I love that. It's a collection of what all does that can help the industry we all have to put in and throw in and help.
Speaker 1:And I, and you see, in this industry, it's the industry that funds itself to protect, uh, to protect its people.
Speaker 1:I mean you.
Speaker 1:You go to the, you go to the tow shows, you sit down at the silent auctions, you sit down at the, the auctions that that go on, and it's the towers, it's the tow bosses, it's the employees that are spending the money on the items to put the money back in to protect each other.
Speaker 1:You know the hit. While helping the education, the flagman education in the schools, matt, tom, I think that's going to be a tremendous help to get it past the choir that we've been preaching to and to get it into the heads of our new, youngest children that are coming up and that are going to be our drivers on the road in the next five to 10 years, so that when they get behind that wheel, those driving tendencies are already set as part of, just like clicking her ticket and buckling up when you get in. You also know that one of the key things in holding the steering wheel is looking for those roadside responders to help keep them safe, and that's what we've got to teach. How else, tom, can the industry and the public, help make a difference to keep the road safer.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I think it's all about accountability, right? Matt said it perfectly, I think of. We in our industry are sort of in an echo chamber. Everyone and I want to be clear, most, almost every single company that I know of in this industry does a lot of amazing things to keep themselves safe. But what we can't do is, hey, they need to pay attention to us. We can't put our lives and our safety in the hands of someone else and say, oh well, we have to be accountable to know that people probably just don't know that we're there. It doesn't matter how bright our lights are, what colored lights we put on message boards and all these things that we're using. We have to keep using them. But again, we have to think differently and I love what Flagman and Hitwell helping.
Speaker 3:There's also ndistracteddriving or nddorg, right, that also does K through 12 education. So there's that social accountability from our children and the people that are in the cars, like Matt was talking about, jenny, his fiance, kind of being his eyes and ears, seeing things that maybe he doesn't as a driver. It's that social accountability. Mom, dad, put your phone down. My children do it too, because obviously they'll be in the car. We're driving somewhere, car, we're driving somewhere. You know Corey, our CEO, it's not uncommon. He may call, he may text. I don't take texts or phone calls really that much in cars anymore because of how distracted it makes you. You're, you're thinking more about your, your brain is focused on the call and that I think that's a big wake up call for the industry, because you know towers, you've seen them at the shows. They're walking around, they got their Bluetooth headset in their ear. They're in their cars, they're in their trucks, they're taking phone calls. It's distracted driving. You're just not paying attention the way that you should if you were really focused.
Speaker 3:So when we come together and say, hey, as an industry we are doing a lot of the right things, we can get better together, but it's almost like reaching across the aisle and understanding that the motoring traffic is not aiming for us. They just don't realize we're there. And so when we are kind of bipartisan in that fact that I want to help educate the motoring traffic the way that I am educated in this industry, then we're both educated together. People start making safer driving choices, people start making safer driving choices and we start creating safer habits for ourselves in the industry, our employees that are working on the side of the road and safer driving habits for the motoring public and that is a really safer world for all of us to be in. And so you know, again, I do agree, we're very jaded.
Speaker 3:I think a lot of the industries are jaded.
Speaker 3:People need to pay attention to us but they're not doing it purposefully Right and and with the things that Matt is doing and Cindy is doing and you know TRA is doing and ERSCA is doing, and you know the new national coalitions, the state associations, right, we just need to understand it's not necessarily about us.
Speaker 3:And so if we can kind of break through right and get that togetherness with the motoring traffic and do all the things that we can to make sure that we're creating healthy habits on the roadway for everybody and educating, not from a place of selfishness, but just hey, this is going to keep you safer, it's going to keep me safer.
Speaker 3:And as long as we keep doing that together as an industry, and then, as in a towing industry, you know, with the fire industry, with the law enforcement industry, with the utility industry, with the school bus industry, with the work zone industry, with all these road worker industries, when we band together with the motoring traffic right, our local communities, and we create that social accountability. We're going to make the roads a safer place right, and it's working so far. Every little bit helps. There's a lot more improvement that we can see, but the numbers in struck buys, the numbers in these crashes, they're starting to go down and that means whatever the things that we're doing as an industry together is starting to make a difference and we can only make it better from here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can I interject here for just a second? I'd like to tell the story of how I met the hosteler team where, all right, so several years ago I was, and I believe it was the ohio toe show. Um, that was one of the first shows I went to because I could take my kids with me and it was really kind of a vacation for me. But then I started realizing it's like wow, they've got these education classes right. Never knew there was such a thing. So I got into a class and one of Haas's employees was talking about distracted driving and it was one of those aha moments for me, because I always thought I was a pretty good driver. And one of the first things they said was if you ever look down to change your radio station, if you ever look down at your dash to change your heat temperature on your control or turn your fan up, do you know that's distracted driving. And it was like a two by four hit me upside the head because I never looked at that as being distracted and I'm like, wow, wow, if I, which I consider myself a professional driver, I'm not looking at myself as being distracted, how the heck can I look out at the motoring public if they just don't know. They don't know they're being distracted. So that's another vision that I share with Haas is we got to educate people on what distracted driving is. How can we blame them if they don't know?
Speaker 2:So I was a huge believer early on in what Haas had to offer their digital alert system, but I didn't sign up right away. I kept going, I kept seeing Haas, I got to know several of their members. Heck, they even took me out to dinner in Baltimore one time and I still wouldn't sign up because I was bullheaded and going man, you guys aren't in every freaking car that's driving by me on the side of the road. Why would I want to spend a monthly fee to alert drivers that aren't going to receive it because of the you know the hangups that some of the like the automakers are having, why they're not in current vehicles.
Speaker 2:I don't know all those issues, but I wanted every vehicle that was driving by me to have that alert right and unfortunately it took my son getting killed by a distracted driver before I jumped on board with Haas. And I'm telling you right after I don't think it was two or three weeks after Keegan was taken that I called Haas up and said sign me up. I got to look at my employees in the eye and go. I'm doing something more today to protect you than I did yesterday. So I challenge all owners of fleets that if you're putting workers on the side of the road, help us. Help the digital alert system gain momentum, yeah. Digital alert system gain momentum, yeah. I believe it would have helped save my son's life if that driver would have been digitally alerted minutes before the collision.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and Matt, matt brings up a good point. You know a lot of folks. How many people are we alerting? A lot we deliver nearly half of a billion, that's with a B billion driver alerts annually. About approximately 500 million drivers are alerted when they need to be alerted, when they are on a course, a driving to where they could be a risk to us, when we're working on the side of the road. So you know, I understand it's Waze, I understand it's Apple Maps, you know Chrysler, fiat vehicles, volkswagen vehicles, there's more coming right, and then obviously, outside of the United States and Canada and across Europe, uk. You know it's global. There are thousands and thousands of agencies that are currently utilizing it.
Speaker 3:But what Matt just said is probably the biggest thing that we hear. You know there's no, there's never going to be a guarantee. We get that Right, but what? The owners right and the towers right, cause there's even towers that are just hey, if my ownership doesn't want it, look, we've got packages where you can just get it for yourself, and so just just options for everybody. So I don't want to be salesy here. That's not the goal.
Speaker 3:But the biggest thing that I've always heard from people is can I sleep better at night knowing I've done everything possible, because it, you know, we often think it can't happen to me until it happens, right, or it happens to somebody that we know, or it hits close to home, right. And so the question or the thing that people that I hear over and over again is did I do everything possible? And if the answer is no right, I understand how that can make you anxious or uncomfortable and things of that nature Right, I understand how that can make you anxious or uncomfortable and things of that nature. But you know, that's the biggest thing I've heard is did I do everything? And then what I'm finding, like Matt and like you know, the thousands of towers right, or organizations out there that are protected, right, that companies that are utilizing Safety Cloud, in addition to all the stuff that they're doing, they're like we are doing everything possible. And you know what? Because we're doing everything possible, it's actually making a difference. We're safer, people are slowing down.
Speaker 3:It's not only because of us. I want to be very clear. It's all of these things. They're lights. You know, there's some, there's some manufacturers out there, some suppliers out there, that make these really awesome message boards Great. They're using all of this stuff together and it's making a huge difference. And so that is the biggest thing that I see in our industry of people that are doing some things and people that are doing everything that they possibly can. And the folks that are doing everything they possibly can, they have made such a huge difference, not just for themselves but their employees and their communities. So that's the difference, right.
Speaker 3:And then that's saying it's because of us, it's all of these things together, it's that education, right. It's the traditional safety tools that we're using, it's the newer safety tools that we're using, it's the the newer safety tools that we're using, it's it's combining safety cloud, it's all of these things. And so you know, if you have that peace of mind that I have done everything, and if something bad happens you, it is terrible. But if you can sit there and say I literally did everything that I possibly could, right, generally speaking, the bad stuff doesn't happen, right. So right, are we doing everything we possibly can? And can you sit there and say I literally am doing everything I can? That's usually the big thing, the difference between those folks that have that peace of mind and those folks that maybe don't. Yeah, well said, well said that have that peace of mind and those folks that maybe don't.
Speaker 1:Well said, well said. Well, gentlemen, let's take another quick commercial break to hear from our great sponsors when we come back. Listeners, we've got a couple more questions here left to wrap this thing up, with Matt Spencer of Hit While Helping and Tom Parbs of Haas Alert. So hang in there, we'll be right back helping and Tom Parbs of Haas Alert, so hang in there.
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Speaker 1:Welcome back listeners Again. You are listening to Toe Professional On-The-Go Podcast. Every week, we do our best to bring great guests like Matthew Spencer, tom Parbs and others. Remember, make sure you download and listen, review, share. You guys have made us the number one podcast in industry, reaching a little over 21,000 worldwide, and because of that, we're able to get important messages like this out to our community and be a part of the puzzle, just like Tom was talking about.
Speaker 1:Not one person can do it all. It's a collection of every one of us in the industry doing our part, and that's what we have to do. If you're in here, you've got to pour back in. You've got to do your part to help not only make the industry safer, but to make sure those people we employ go out there or they're able to provide the services and they're able to come back to their families protected. So that's the key. Well, again, I want to come back, matt, tell us about some of the upcoming or recent events, and can you talk a little bit about the hit while helping NASCAR racear race that you guys are are at there breathlessly waiting to go to, and I'm holding you up for yeah.
Speaker 2:So, um, yeah, we, we got the opportunity to partner with uh sam hunt, racing uh in a toyota, driving the forever long hit while helping car just to to raise awareness of the move over, or slow down, move over movement. Right. So, uh, today, uh, which is September 12th and, I'm sorry folks, by the time you hear this the race will be already done and over with. But I'm sure you can go back and try to find it in your favorite streaming service. But Jeffrey Earnhardt has taken on this role of sort of helping us spread the movement, spreading the word. That's what it is. We got to get outside of our normal realm of the towing industry. We all know that there's a problem, but the motoring public doesn't know there's a problem. So we are in Bristol, tennessee, today.
Speaker 2:I want to thank Haas Alert for helping us fund this endeavor. There's some great other sponsors along the way too Toe Book man. Without their support, this wouldn't have happened either. And AFG Funding those guys. I met Jeremy Tarkus it's a tough last name to pronounce, sorry I butchered it, but Jeremy and I have known each other for quite some time. He's done a lot of financing for me and they stepped up to the plate as well.
Speaker 2:So thank you, haas Toe Book AFG Funding for helping us bring this car to the racetrack, and there's many more people that helped along the way. Spacecraft and there's many more people that helped along the way. Face funding that was the the major uh way that we funded this car. It's a new thing out there where people could donate as little as ten dollars, snap a picture of themselves and they're gonna have their picture on the hood of that race car, so you're going to be able to see more pictures. Tom and the Haas crew are down here with their video team today. We're going to be getting some amazing shots along the way. Tom has never been to a race, so he doesn't even know what he's getting into.
Speaker 3:I'm excited for that Sure don't.
Speaker 2:We're going to be meeting up in the fan zone. I guess that's where they do a lot of tailgating. I've never been to Bristol before in my life. It's been a bucket list thing for me to do. I'm kind of living my dream also today. But we're going to get out and just meet people today and share our story and see if we can't make a difference using NASCAR and Jeffrey Earnhardt at Bristol, Tennessee.
Speaker 1:And I think that's awesome, matt, that is awesome. Well, tom, let me ask you this Can you talk a little bit about Museum Weekend? Now we've got about eight, ten minutes. We got to compose this and finish this segment up, but can you talk a little bit about the Museum Weekend coming up, october the 8th through the 12th at the Tennessee show in Chattanooga, some about the Fall of the Fallen and other things you'll be participating in there?
Speaker 3:Yes, sir, absolutely so highly encouraged. So a couple of events. Like Matt just said, by the time listeners are hearing this, the NASCAR race will have concluded. But very, very important to the industry down in Chattanooga, which is the birthplace of the tow truck, is the International Towing the tow truck, um is is um uh the international towing and recovery hall of fame. Uh, and museum, uh uh, during the Tennessee tow show, which will be October 8th through the 12th Um, there's the museum weekend. So there's a bit. There's a fundraiser for the survivor fund on Friday, uh, the hall of uh, the hall of fame inductees um, that will be happening um on Saturday as well.
Speaker 3:If you've never been, I highly encourage uh that you go. I do know sometimes, even for our listeners that are out of the country, it's sometimes difficult to physically be there. You can go to their website. They have virtual walkthrough tours Um, you can get merchandise and everything again which also supports the museum and the Survivor Fund and the Wall of the Fallen. So it's one of the places to come together as a towing community. And then, beyond that, you're going to have the Baltimore Show, which is the largest towing event of the year. That's going to happen in November and again, make sure you're you know a lot of the state.
Speaker 3:We just the North Carolina, the Mid-Atlantic Towing Show just took place, which is another one, I think the Ohio Show just it's either coming up or it just took place as well. So you know we, we talked about, you know being active. So you know, making a difference isn't just about, hey, I paid some money, it's it's always about taking action. And so, even if the support is not monetary, right Showing up, being present, like Matt was talking about a little bit earlier, where the local towing community came up and showed up to support him during the tragedy that took place. So being active, taking action, is probably the biggest thing you can do. It's not just about a few dollars in your pocket that you can do. It's being there, being present, being in the now and supporting, right, our fellow brothers and sisters, not just within our industry, but within the industries that are adjacent and for all road workers, right. So, a lot of great events that are coming up, be there, be present, take action and that's what I would suggest right, to help make a difference.
Speaker 1:Fantastic, without a doubt, and that's something I just took part in. Last night I was at an association meeting and let me tell you, if you're in this community, there is so many things you can do from attending your association meetings, letting your voice be heard there. We had, we had part of our state represented there, the middle of the state that deals with uh, a lot of um, uh surrounding suburbs, and then we had some rural parts of the state represented who their needs are completely different. So the associations coming together there and air and what, what is going on in your area is key in us all working together.
Speaker 1:As one, you know, toe Professional, when we came into this market, like Tom said, we attended the Survivor Fund. We attended the Wall of the Fallen ceremony and after that, for some reason, my face wouldn't quit watering I think it was the pollen around there in the air. But I told my wife. I said, look, we've got to do something. We're a new, upcoming company, we don't have the financial ability, but there's something we can do. And so we started with a two-page spread for the Survivor Fund to support that in the publication.
Speaker 1:We went to our governor here in the state and we set aside. Our listeners won't be able to see it, but I've got a plaque on the wall behind me for slow down, move over, for setting a month aside for that movement. We've done it three years with the company COVID held us up on the others, but we've done that. We've participated in local slow down, move over events here for our towers, to help with fallen towers in our area. So you know whether you're a one truck company, whether you're a vendor, that's new getting into the market.
Speaker 1:There's something every one of us can do to that can support this, without a doubt. So yes, matt, can you tell people how they can learn more about and how they can help support hit while helping?
Speaker 2:absolutely so. Um, you can follow us on facebook. Go to hit while helping uh, that's where I post a lot of my videos. A lot of information is is passed along there, so you can follow us hit while helping on facebook. Uh, we have a website that is HitWellHelpingorg. On there you can see our mission statement that describes who we are and kind of what we're trying to do, and if you feel in your heart that you would like to support this mission financially, you can do that there as well.
Speaker 2:I would also encourage everyone to start following Flagman. This is an up-and-coming way to educate our young, and I'm pouring my heart and my soul into this. So you can reach them on social media Facebook social media at Flagman Inc. And also their webpage is flagmansafetycom and I would encourage folks, if you can help them out. They need funding, just like everybody else, to bring this to the schools, and I would just encourage everybody to just open up their heart. If you can't give financially, well, maybe it's time my government can do as far as grants to help bring Flagman to my area. So it's just not all about money, it's about just showing up Help.
Speaker 1:Amen, that's good Matt. That's good Tom. How can people learn more about Safety Cloud and the Give Back program at Haas Alert?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so easiest way, go to our website, which is haasalertcom, h-a-a-s, alertcom, and you can learn more about our Give Back program. I think, quite honestly, you could probably talk to your friends and colleagues within the industry and the adjacent industries, because they're probably utilizing Safety Cloud. You can find us on Facebook, you can find us on Instagram, you can find us on all the socials and, again, you can learn more about Safety Cloud for your industry. You can learn more about our give back program. But, to be clear, the give Back program from Safety Cloud is just what we do as a business practice. It's a policy, it's a standard operating policy for us as an organization.
Speaker 3:So it's just what we do, regardless if you're a customer or not, it has nothing to do with that. Regardless if you're a customer or not, it has nothing to do with that. It's just what we do as a business to support these amazing foundations that again support our industries and, again, the men and women who keep America moving, and we're very grateful for that, and so it's a privilege and an honor to be able to give back to those folks that are also giving back to our communities and keeping us safer. So we'd love to chat, we'd love to see you in person and again, let's just continue to work together to keep everyone safer and get everyone home to their families every day. Amen, man.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 1:Good stuff. Listeners, I told you this was going to be a great one. So if you want more information, make sure you go to Facebook, make sure you check out, hit While Helping. Also, the Slow Down, move Over movement. Also, haas Alert Take a look at them. I mean, these are all aspects of the industry, of companies that are not just in here doing business. It's people that have a passion for our industry, a companies that are not just in here doing business. It's people that have a passion for our industry, a heart for our people, and they want to make sure not just that they're selling products. That's not their main course. Their main course, as you can see from the mission statements, is to give back, to make sure they're pouring into the industries that they're a part of, and the reach that Haas Alert has done inside this industry in the short time has been phenomenal. So anything we can do to help along with that is key. Again, I know it's going to be a great one.
Speaker 1:Well, as always, listeners, I'm going to end this one with a prayer Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for our great industry. I thank you for our vendors that have knowledge and wisdom and they go into their office every day to just try and make a safer environment for families out there on the roadways. Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you, continually increase their knowledge, increase their ability and their reach in the market and give them the keys that they need to help make this a safer industry. And, dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for every one of our first responders, from our tow professionals, our men and women of towing, to our firefighters, to our EMS, our police, our roadside workers and even our crossing guards that put their life at risk so that they can make sure our families are safe. Father, we ask that you put a hedge of protection around them, cover their lives with protection, prosperity and health and bless them for their efforts. Amen.
Speaker 1:Well listeners, as always, we thank you for making Toe Professional one of the top podcasts. You for making Tow Professional one of the top podcasts, not one of the top podcasts in industry. Keep listening. We'll continue to keep bringing great industry leaders on this show to talk with you about the hard-hitting topics that are in our industry. We thank Haas Alert for being on the show and their efforts and hard work in this industry.
Speaker 1:We feel for our towers in the industry that have had to go through such a tough loss and such a tough struggle back. But we thank the men and women like Matt Spencer that, in the face of adversity, will still step up in the face of loss and do things to make a change, to help others. That's the key for all of us in industry is we have to keep striving to make this a safer industry, to love and protect our brothers and sisters in this great industry and our public in the transportation industry. Thank you, guys. Until next time, keep listening to Toe Professional on the Go podcast. We'll be back with more great episodes. Thank you and God bless. Have a great week you.