July 23, 2024 • 53 mins
Ever wondered what happens when a couple of former tow truck operators swap their hooks for microphones? Join us as we kick off this episode with nostalgic tales of our social media antics and how life has changed post-towing, especially our caffeine fixes and quirky drink preferences. Ever tried chocolate liqueur with Coke? We have, and we’re curious about your favorite concoctions too! Get ready for some laughs and light-hearted banter as we speculate on the regional drink preferences of tow operators and share our own inclinations towards beer.
Next, we dive into the nitty-gritty of vehicle loading techniques, featuring a listener’s unique method for loading Ford F-150s. We compare it to traditional winching and debate the ever-important safety concerns. The conversation heats up as we discuss the pros and cons of using J hook chain bridles versus strap bridles, especially with smaller trucks like the Dodge Ram 5500. We also stress the crucial role of customer education in avoiding damage claims, offering practical tips and real-world advice to help towing professionals navigate tricky situations.
Finally, we tackle the sticky issue of damage responsibility in the towing industry. From windshield chips to flat tires, who should foot the bill? We share intriguing stories, including transporting a fifth-wheel camper and the saga of a burnt-to-the-ground Land Rover, emphasizing the importance of securing payment before recovery. Our episode wraps up with some humorous reflections and a slightly controversial joke that adds a touch of edgy fun. Tune in for a packed episode full of industry insights, practical tips, and plenty of laughs!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
you're getting banned my band, my band oh, you're
banned.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
I thought you're said that you're getting banned off
of social media for somethingstupid.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
You said I'm due to catch a ban for something I'm
very now.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
My social media is pretty tame yeah, I don't post
much on social media anymore no,I don't either.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
It's a shame.
But then again I look at theold stuff that I post and I'm
like is it really a shame?
Yeah, like this is, this isprobably for the best.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
The stuff I used to post didn't benefit any of my
friends or followers in any realway other than a little snort
through the nose, maybe everyonce in a while.
Like you know, as you'rescrolling you see something
funny and you're like hey, yoursocial media posts are very
similar to your podcastpersonality.
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I didn't change much.
It doesn't start any realconversation, no, it gives you a
little and then you move onthroughout your day and you
forget all about it.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
You you would, yeah, just easy in easy out.
I'm sorry, G I really shouldn'tbe this tough on you after all
these years.
Hey everyone, I'm brad fromcalgary.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
This is sean from cambridge, ontario I'm terry
from cornwall, ontario hey, thisis larry from pit metals,
british columbia, and you'relistening to the towing life
podcast.
Hey, this is Larry from PitMetals, british Columbia, and
you're listening to the TowingLife Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Welcome to the Towing Life Podcast, where the ditches
are deep, the trucks are loaded, but the drivers are not.
I am your host, Toman G, and,as usual, I am joined by my
co-host, friend and formerco-worker, the man with very
strong opinions, Mr Playing Guy.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
What is going on?
G.
What is going on?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Oh, it's a early morning.
I had a late night, so I'mrunning on like four hours of
sleep, which is unusual for menow that I'm not in the towing
industry.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, I know your body definitely isn't trained to
actually work um and run onlack of sleep.
How is your caffeine intake?
Has it decreased significantlyor increased this morning?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
no, it's.
Uh, I've cut down.
When I used to tow, when weworked together, I used to drink
like 11 to 13 extra largetimmy's a day, like every time.
You couldn't pass the timmy'swithout stopping and getting a
coffee, so I've cut way back toone coffee a day max, max, wow,
(02:32):
wow.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
It is definitely taking a toll on you, um,
because sleeping four hours aday is something that used to be
quite achievable and quite easyto do, and quite regularly done
.
Um, what were you up so late?
Were you drinking some wobblypops or you just?
Speaker 1 (02:48):
you know we're out chasing it have a wobbly pop, a
singular wobbly pop.
Yes, I wanted, since we live inthe great province of ontario
the lick bow the um our alcoholcontrol board of ontario yeah
that um is on strike untiltuesday, so when this episode
(03:10):
comes out, um couldn't get toomany extra wobbly pops, so I was
just drinking my chocolateliqueur and coke that I had in
the cupboard, so I had achocolate oh my god, that's such
a terrible combination itdoesn't taste too bad.
You know what a vanilla coketastes like.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
It's just a chocolate version with elka mahal and I
do about a 50 50 mixture so thatthat is very interesting
because, you know, obviously thetowing industry limits us quite
often in our availability tohave a drink right, especially
to have multiple drinks, if you,if you do want to go on, you
know, and have a good day.
(03:47):
Um, I guess my question wouldbe like, I wonder how much of
the like?
What's the worst?
Oh, better question what isthere any like towing related
drinks, like alcohol drinkswe're talking about right like.
Is there, like you know, adrink called the like?
You know the ugly repo man, umor the?
You know what a drink calledthe like you know the ugly repo
man, um or the?
You know what I mean Like.
(04:08):
And, that being said, what isthe go-to drink for operators
whenever they do have a chancethat they're off the clock, they
can unwind a little bit.
What is the go-to drink?
I think that is going to changeregionally, um, but I would be
curious to it.
Um, so, before we get intoeverything else, and if you want
to submit what your favoritedrink is when you, when you have
(04:30):
no towing commitments thatallow you to have a little bit
of fun, you can find us atwwwtowinglifeca.
You can email us directly atthe T-H-E, so the towinglife at
gmailcom or you can find us overon Facebook at the towing life
podcast.
If you're watching over on theYouTube side, do not forget to
hit the like and subscribe.
Down below, up top or whereverit is.
(04:52):
I don't watch on YouTube so Ican't tell you.
Um, and be sure, if you haveany questions, you can go ahead
and leave the comment right downbelow in the YouTube video.
Um, we always do appreciate thecomments we can week and we
address them every once in awhile to get to the bottom of
the mean, the good, the funnyand the completely irrelevant
that we see.
I learned something this pastweek.
(05:12):
Wait, no, I'm getting to mydrink thing.
I didn't even get a chance tosay mine, I'm a big.
I don't think it's hidden.
We've seen it a lot on thisshow.
If you do watch on the YouTubeside.
I'm a big beer guy.
I'm very rarely a mixed drinkkind of person, like I don't do
shots, I'm not a fan of hardliquor.
Call me a puss, I don't care.
(05:33):
I'll drink like 9.5% beer, butI am not one to just say, you
know some whiskey or orsomething like that.
So I am much the beerindulgence.
After a hot day, a hard-workinghot day, a nice cold beer, oh
man, does it ever hit the spotfor me?
Speaker 1 (05:53):
yeah, you learned something today yes, I learned
something this week and youcould say I learned at a fourth
grade level, so I'm gonna takeyou on my adventure.
The first thing I learned isthat local law enforcement drops
the ball all the time.
But if you get that referencefrom, you know the shooting.
(06:14):
Anyways, oh my.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
God, did it go over?
Just continue.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
And I also learned that you know how we have zero
tolerance for driving commercialvehicles, right?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
I'm sure everyone should know that in Ontario.
I don't know what each other'sstate has, but I feel like
Tennessee.
It's like eh, under a .08,you're good still.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, so here, if you're driving a commercial
vehicle, you're not allowed tohave any blood in your alcohol
system Alcohol in your bloodsystem anyways.
But I learned that it's notjust commercial vehicles.
If you hold a cdl, so uh, e, f,g, whatever license other than
(06:56):
a g license, you cannot have anyalcohol in your blood system
because it follows your license,not the vehicle you're driving
bullshit.
I have verified this with policeofficers before really yes,
because I had a drivinginstructor tell me that it's the
license holder I had a guy whowrites these tickets and
(07:18):
enforces the laws.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Tell me that it is the vehicle in which you were
driving at the time.
Because I had that exactquestion.
You know, company truck, I'mregistered under the gross
required for my CVR, like for asmuch as my commercial vehicle
on my pickup truck, right Likeit's still just considered a
1500.
And I said so.
(07:41):
If I were to go out to dinneror a show or something and I
were to have a beer, would I bebreaking the zero tolerance law?
No, I would not, because thatthat wouldn't make sense.
Because then if you're sayingit's following the license, well
that only applies to, like,said, your cdl, which is the
equivalence in ontario, like dz,az, so a g-class driver would
be allowed yeah but a a dzdriver would not be allowed in
(08:03):
his personal vehicle.
It doesn't make sense.
Vehicle it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I know it doesn't make sense, but it kind of does
as well, because you'd think alot of these things follow your
license along.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
There is things like that that do follow your license
.
We've talked about it beforewhen it comes to crossing into
the States.
If you have a CDL and you'redriving a commercial vehicle in
the States, regardless if thatvehicle is above the the gross
weight that you require your CDLfor.
So example, a DZ driver, a CDLdriver driving a Dodge 5,500 Ram
(08:37):
um into the States stillrequires to pass the FM SCA's uh
drug testing and be in the theU S dot pool pool.
For for a canadian company, youneed to go for random drug and
alcohol tests if that same truckis being driven by an operator
who doesn't have a cdl becausewe, you know, because of the
weight class on it he does notso like that is one that yeah,
(09:00):
100 follows your license.
But that is the argument I madewith zero tolerance.
I have checked with a umofficer once I had a personal
pickup truck, um, just out ofcuriosity on that.
You know, if it's out and Ihave a beer, am I legal?
Um, now, we don't encourage thisin any way, shape or form and
you should never drive anyvehicle with any you know, any
(09:20):
company vehicle with any alcoholin your system.
I'm a big believer in that andagain, this has never happened.
This isn't something thathappens.
But the question had to beasked Right, because, yeah, 100%
, you do not want one of yourtrucks getting impounded.
You know a non-CVO-ard vehicleor a non-tow truck because of
(09:46):
you know something silly likethat that you just misunderstood
.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yeah, yeah, I get that.
I mean this driving instructorthat I was speaking to.
She obviously didn't knoweverything, I guess, if you're
right, I don't know, should Itake your thoughts and opinions
over a driving instructor that'sbeen driving?
Hey said hello.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I think we lost Tomangie's internet.
There you go.
Should you take my thoughts andopinions?
Is that what you're saying?
I lost you.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, should I take your thoughts and opinions over
a driving instructor who's beendriving for 40 years?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
And has anything I've ever taught you in our career
together is, you always shouldtake my opinion.
It'll make your life easier inthe long run, I promise you.
Just play dumb.
No, just play.
The man with very strongopinions tends to be right A lot
.
Not always, god knows.
I've made my fair share ofmistakes, but if I was was hard
(10:46):
it's harder when you're stupid.
If I wasn't worried about theway that, um, the people, the
officers that I know speak onthe phone when they're private,
I would call one right now, uh,anonymously.
But, um, yeah, I know, I've.
I'll confirm it again.
I'll confirm it with a separateofficer that I know.
(11:07):
Um, but I can assure you it, itdoesn't make sense.
Um, what your instructor issaying, um, I get what he's
getting at, but no, it doesn'tfollow your license.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Uh, in in your personal car yeah so yeah, I was
a little dumbfounded when shesaid that, anyways, but I was
like hey, what do I know?
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I've only been driving for 10.
She's been driving for 40.
She's old as shit.
He she, it was a she.
Um, I want to go back to alittle update.
We had, Uh, we talked last weekabout fragile fords and those
active air dams and ways on onwhich to load them, so we did a,
uh, we did some testing in ouryard.
I was lucky enough, my dadactually has a 2021 with the
(11:51):
active air dam on it, so he wasnice enough to lend it to us for
a day and we went ahead and wedid some testing and we found
different ways that we couldload this truck.
Um, you know, it was prettysimple.
You go to your regulartransmission mounts the way you
do, except you put a block ofwood on the front cross member.
A four by four block of woodwhile you're winching it on.
It keeps the winch line off ofthat front valance, right, and I
(12:16):
want to do this with each oneof my employees.
Um, just to ensure everyone,and it's not even that like, we
showed them different ways toload it, but it's just be be
aware of this, like you need to.
Here's the system.
See it, there's where it is,you don't?
You know?
Just so, every time your brainthinks, when I get onto an F-150
, I better go just check and beaware of if this system is
active or installed on thisvehicle.
The other option that we wentis we took a J hook chain bridle
(12:41):
instead of the straps hookchain bridle instead of the
straps we normally use the strapbridles uh and shortened it up,
kept a decent veer angle on itand was able to load them right
off the tow hooks and still onour 21 foot 10 tb uh flatbeds
we're still able to have it intoa nice like spot on the bed.
Um, our dodge ram 5500.
(13:01):
Not a chance you're going totransmission, transmission,
crossmember because you'll runout of winch.
He knows they allowed enoughwith the shortened up bridle.
The smaller 5500 trucks willnot allow the space.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
What's that?
19.5 or 19?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, it's like a 19.5.
Yeah.
So they barely have enough spacefor a half ton to start with.
Yeah, so yeah, no, but I reallyenjoyed it.
It was fun to kind of go over.
Barely have enough space for ahalf ton to start with.
Yeah, um, so uh, yeah, I know,but I, uh, I really enjoyed it,
it was fun to kind of go over it.
Also, we pointed out theimportance of um tie down slots
on the truck and going forward,possibly pulling forward and
(13:37):
going into that balance as well.
Right, that is something we hadnever really kind of.
You know, the idea crossed mymind when we started talking
about it or when I heard aboutthese, um, these active air dams
, um things to avoid.
But looking at the fords, theyactually give uh, t-hook slots,
proper doubled transport slotson the front of the, the dry or
(13:59):
the front wheels, as well as therear, um, so I would obviously
start looking.
If you're doing the chain tiedown, you'd be looking at
chaining inwards, if you knowwhat I mean, from the front
tires backwards.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, cross-chaining it through the center of the
truck.
Yeah, yeah, so.
But anyways, I had a listenerreach out and he goes hey,
talking about those Fords.
I had a great trick to loadingthem that you wanted to share
with me and I figured I wouldshare it right on the show
because by god, it's prettygreat.
Um, when he backs up to themwatching to make sure he's not
(14:36):
an interlocked driveway,anything like that.
Obviously there's differentthings.
On an f-150 and you've spokenabout it the front wheels will
roll the.
The back wheels are lockedright.
If we leave a vehicle in park,unless the four-wheel drive's
fully active, whatever, he loadsthem like a sea can to start,
and this makes sense.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
So he pulls himself down to the front wheels,
doesn't pull himself underneath,just backs under.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
You can load a sea can without a winch.
Fun fact Now you're learning ata sixth grade level today.
G?
Um, if you ever loaded a c-can,you can get a tip of your bed
under the edge of the c-can.
Uh, if you use c-can skates,whatever, and you can actually
back your truck up and the c-canwill slide up your truck.
So he does the same idea.
He backs his truck up so thatthe front tires come up onto the
(15:24):
bed.
Let's say, three, four feetchocks the wheels, hooks it up.
Now the winch line's not not inthe way, because once that
truck is like you know what Imean up the bed a little bit,
the clearance issue goes away.
The clearance issue is only asthe front end is coming up onto
the bed.
So as long as you were to do itand I got to watch an interlock
(15:46):
driveway you don't chunksomebody's driveway or something
but it was a different approachthat as I sat there training
that day in the yard and Iremember just like looking at it
, just thinking of differentways, that one never crossed my
mind.
But I like it.
You can put your bed, you canget your bed tucked under the
wheels.
You can even lift it up alittle bit, maybe a tow hook as
(16:12):
a safety, just to you know,precaution.
And then you back up the fronttires will roll up the bed.
The back tires will stay inplace.
Once you get the vehicle up toa point, the winch won't be an
infraction like an issue.
You can wheel chalk the tires.
To add a second level ofprecaution hook up your vehicle,
neutral your vehicle and you'renot all the way up on your bed
that you're hopping up on yourbed.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Neutral the vehicle, continue up the bed coming from
the guy who is dead againstdriving vehicles onto the deck,
I'm surprised that you like thatmethod.
Why?
Because so you're out of thetruck, you get your bed, you
shove the bed underneath thefront tire and then you go back
into the cab after you raise thebed up a little bit and you put
(16:50):
the truck into reverse and youstart backing up.
Well, one of the reasons.
One or two straight yeah.
Yeah, make sure that it'sstraight.
If for some reason, that wheelstarts to turn on the truck as
you're backing up and you can'tsee the front end of the truck,
you don't catch the front end ofthe truck walking off the side
(17:10):
of the bed quickly enough, rightlike there's just a lot more
things that could go wrong.
That's one of the reasons whywhen you winch a vehicle up,
you're right there, you can seeeverything, but when you're in
the cab of the truck you can'tsee as much, especially when the
deck's up.
You might not be able to seethe casualty coming up the deck
the same right because it'stilted up it's an f-150 I know a
(17:34):
lot bad.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
What kind of decks are you driving?
Speaker 1 (17:38):
but I'm saying like you're not there dealing with it
, you have less sight lines onceit's up on the bed.
Then you got to climb up into ahigher truck well, you don't
put it.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah, you still do have to climb up a little higher
, but you don't put the wholetruck on the deck I know you
don't put the whole truck youjust put like like you rolled it
up, maybe three, four feet yeah, but still like why?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
why are you doing all this?
I feel like the risk factor hasgone up because you are pushing
back on the truck to load itwith that parking pin and, yes,
you could put a safety chain onthere, but what's okay?
So when you come to unload it,are you doing the same thing in
reverse?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Have you ever unloaded a vehicle with locked
up rear tires?
Yes, I know, thing in reverse,or you just never have.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
You have never unloaded a vehicle with locked
up rear tires.
Yes, I know you pull the bedout from underneath what you
drive ahead.
Once the one tire is down onthe ground, that's locked up.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
That's, that's what you're doing that's what you do
to offload it.
You get.
You can bring it down to a spot, chalk the wheel.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
What I'm what I'm trying to wrap my head around is
you're doing all this andyou're still hooking a winch
cable up to it.
So it's just like why are yougoing through all these extra
steps?
You're chalking it once it's onthere, why wouldn't you just
hook your chains up to it andput that four by four there to
get it down from the valence andthen just be done with?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
it Cause sometimes so okay.
So like we're spoiled in thesense that, um, a lot of our
trucks come right, almost all ofour trucks come equipped with
remotes.
So when you're trying to setthis four by four up on the
cross member, on the winch lineto avoid the balance, it's very
(19:18):
it's easy to do with a remoteright.
It's not so easy to do withoutone.
Yeah.
Right, you're going to besitting there, you're going to
winch.
Okay, you got to leave it snug,but just to say snugs, that you
can then go and pull down, getthat block of wood in there and
confirm that it's, you know, offagainst the balance, this is
another tool for the toolbox.
What is their drivers in thetowing industry that?
(19:41):
I would, you know, never showthis trick to a hundred percent,
but it is definitely a tool toget you out of a spot, right it
you?
You know you're in that Dodgeflatbed that we have, that
doesn't have the accessibilityto go to the tow hooks, doesn't
have a remote to put the 4x4 onthe crossmember or make it easy
to put the 4x4 on thecrossmember.
(20:02):
Hey, back up, get this thing afoot or two on your bed.
You know, chalk the wheels aprior.
You know safety.
You don't want something tohappen to the pin.
The thing rolls away right now.
You're getting in, you'rehooking up, everything's all
secured on it.
You're transferring it intoneutral.
You're leaving it in neutral.
Then you're two, three feet upon the bed yeah you know you're
(20:24):
not all the way up at the top ofthe bed where you've got to.
You know, like you're limitingthe risk now I get what you're
saying at that point youlimiting the risk Now I get what
you're saying.
At that point you feel the riskis higher there than it would
be for the damage claim.
The problem is with the risk onthese damage claims is that my
father's had this truck since2021.
He had no idea that system waseven there until I told him not
(20:47):
a clue in the world.
I showed him a video of it,explained to him how it worked.
He had no goddamn idea.
It is the easiest thing thatsomeone is going to throw us
under the bus to, if they getthe opportunity yeah, right,
they don't know it, they don'tunderstand it.
I had it towed.
Now it's broken and I seen thewinch line.
Touch that, educate yourcustomer and a lot of that comes
(21:08):
down to it, right, 100 comesdown to educating your customer,
right?
Remember, towing on dollies.
Okay, towing on dollies with aflat tire.
What would you always do?
You have?
to double pick it no, no, I'mnot even up on top of the bar
not even that okay, doublepicking doesn't matter if you're
loading it frontwards,backwards, the flat tire with
tire pressure sensors oh yeah,make sure the valve stems up and
(21:31):
it's not touching.
It's not where this, the spoonis crushing and you would
educate the customer on that.
Okay, fun trick for thoselistening that never knew about
this trick because I don't thinkwe've ever talked about it.
An easy damage claim to avoidis a lot of vehicles come with
tpms is now tire pressuremonitoring systems.
If you are in a wreckerspecifically because a flatbed
(21:53):
doesn't really apply If you'rein a wrecker and you are loading
a vehicle with a flat tire, beaware when you are putting your
L arms on or your spoons on oreven your dollies, where that
tire is sitting up against thebar.
You do not want it to be rate.
Most TPMS is not all all butare at the valve stem.
(22:16):
So if you have that valve stemlined right up where that spoon
is crushing into that flat tireand you hit a bump going down
the road pretty good, which weknow they bounce on the wheel
lift you can crush that tpms.
Make it a habit of getting thetpms to the top or the the valve
stem to the top of the wheelbefore loading them will be an
(22:37):
easy easy.
You know the guy's already gota flat tire.
Yes, there's some liability onhim that the flat tire might
have caused the tpms to getcrushed depending on how he
drove it.
But if you educate yourcustomer and you go, hey, just
so you're aware, you'll noticethat we put the valve stem
facing you know 12, 12 o'clockbecause we wanted to make sure
(22:59):
that if there wasn't any damagealready, that we wouldn't go
ahead and cause some.
When that guy gets to the tireshop and the tire shop tells
them that his TPMS got crushed,he's not the first guy, he's not
going to think of you now, butif he goes, your tpms got
crushed.
Well, should that happen in aflat tire?
Not really.
Could it happen getting towed?
Yeah, right, and it could, andit could, it definitely could.
(23:24):
Um, so it's the same thing withthese f-150s, and that too you
want to avoid damage claims.
It's not just you know,obviously, document what you can
, but have the conversation withthe customer.
Customers are like gee, theylove to learn stuff right, and
if you give them a fun piece ofinformation that day, normally
(23:45):
they're like hey, did you know?
You know, did you know that mydodge has this little pull cord
that you can pull that puts itinto neutral, and like that kind
of stuff is they'll go aroundtell their friends all week yeah
, like it's the dumbest piece ofinformation that we all know,
but you know to them it's not soif you know.
That's where I say, like I said,even with these four things, if
(24:06):
you explain it to the customerwhy you're doing it, you're
loading it up.
That way you're gonna saveyourself a lot of trouble.
So, yeah, damage claims suck.
I hate dealing with damageclaims.
They're my least favorite thing, especially when they're right,
like when the customer's right,or like we're wrong, in other
words, where there's justnothing you can do about it.
(24:28):
Yeah, like, I like a gooddamage claim that I can argue.
I had a gentleman recently witha mercedes who claimed that you
know we grabbed a wire on hisvehicle, the wire that comes in
through the top, strut and down.
Um was adamant.
We grabbed it with a j hook,doing an impound and I'll, I'll
fight that one.
I'll do my research.
I'll look at where you knowwhat I mean, the diagrams of
(24:49):
these things.
I'll look at the photos fromthe vehicle and you know, use
what experience I do have, asshort as it may be, um, to come
up with a determination on the,the likely cause of the damage.
I like fighting that.
Those are fun to me.
What I don't like is your guyjust offloaded a cube truck and
hit a brand new car in myparking lot.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Well, that is a very hard argument to find I saw a
facebook post of this uh flatbed, it was a red ram, probably
2500, 3500, and the operatorhooked his winch cable directly
up to the driver's side tow hookon the ram and winched it onto
the bed.
And what this damage claim wasis it showed the angle of the
(25:34):
winch line pulling down to thewinch and you know how the
bumpers on those dodges have thelittle step up underneath the
headlight wrap around.
Well, the whole bumperapparently got twisted down so
it pushed the far edge at theback towards the fender.
And the damage claim is statingthat he bent the bumper down,
(25:58):
even though the tow hooks mountdirectly to the frame on the
inside of the bumper.
But the bumper also mounts tothe same mounting bracket.
So they're saying that hetwisted the bumper and that the
towing company it's a localtowing company to us, it's a
pretty big company is saying wedidn't cause that.
That's not an us thing.
(26:22):
And I went out and looked at mytruck afterwards and my bumper
is slightly twisted down and theone side's pushed in a little
bit, but I remember it waspushed in when I bought it, but
it's a negative and the oneside's pushed in a little bit,
but I remember it was pushed inwhen I bought it, but it's a
negative like you don't reallynotice it because Unless you go
looking for it Exactly and inthis picture he's taking
pictures of it of all around.
(26:43):
You can't like why are you evengoing after this?
Because it doesn't.
It's not affecting the way thetruck drives.
It's not affecting the way thetruck drives.
It's not affecting the way thetruck looks in any real way,
shape or form like.
Why are you just being anasshole for the sake of being an
asshole?
I can see, oh yeah, the towtruck driver bent or bent my
(27:06):
bumper slightly, and but can youprove it wasn't like that prior
to the toe?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
but that's the problem is that it's our job to
prove that it was like thatprior to the toe.
That is an unfortunate state inwhich we live in that it is not
in the world of social mediaand public opinion.
You're guilty until proveninnocent.
Yep right, in a court of lawyou're still innocent until
proven guilty, but everywhereelse in the world you were not.
So what makes it easier provingit before?
(27:36):
But again, if that's somethingthat's so unnoticeable, it would
be normal that your operatormight not document it.
What would save that?
And I hate this because, likeI'm, you know I've heard this
argument before and I go wellidealism to you know, there's
realistic expectations.
What would have saved him?
four corners, photos all aroundbefore he loaded it possibly
(27:57):
right, like it sounds stupid,because you're like oh, I'm not
gonna waste my time with that,but now your company is wasting
more time defending itself thantaking why am I gonna take
pictures of nothing?
yeah, in case something happens,I guess you know, like, like I
teach and I install that takephotos, loading and unloading,
and that way, you know, your assis covered as an operator I'm
(28:19):
guilty of.
You know I will walk around andfind the spots.
You know the easy spots likethe front valance is cracked,
like there's um, when I was in awrecker, and he sort of scuffs
to the corners, especially onthe front, where they would say
that you jackknifed it or youhad your wheel lifted in too
close.
You know, taking those kinds ofthere's stuff that you just
(28:40):
don't think of taking photos.
And then a customer comes in,what's his dent on my roof?
Hmm, uh, like, there's no way Iput a dent on your roof.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
I had a wireless tow light.
Even if I had a wired one,there's no way I did the tent on
your roof.
Yeah, but it's okay.
So let's say you got a car upon the deck and while you're
driving to the shop, a stonecomes up and cracks your
windshield.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
How okay, how it's happened to me once over your
cab and hits their windshieldand cracks their windshield
happened to me once when I wastold something on the record.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
When I got to the shop I was like, was that
windshield cracked when I pickedit up and I couldn't remember
to say it was probably.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
No, it was probably a slight little chip and a bump
cracked.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
The goddamn thing, yes, but it still happened while
it was in my possession right,but it is anything that you
could have changed.
No, it was out of my controland I think one of the main
(29:44):
roadsides actually has a clauseto where, if your windshield
gets a stone chip while intransport, they will pay to get
the stone chip replaced or awindshield replaced Like while
you're driving, not while it'sbeing towed.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
No, while it's being towed.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
What?
Who has this?
One of the big road sites, oneof the?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
big road side.
Okay, I thought you said one ofthe roads, no no, that road
sees a lot of tow trucks.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
I'm not sure if they would pass that bill onto the
tow provider.
I'm hoping not because I'venever seen one of those bills,
but I did read at one of the bigroad sites.
This is back when I firststarted towing.
I'm not sure if they changednow, but they would pay to get
your windshield repaired if itgot damaged during shipment did
they have like a fucking likeepidemic of tow truck drivers
(30:27):
taking out windshields for awhile?
Speaker 2 (30:29):
like how, what?
Maybe like most of these rulesand most of these things are
brought in right because of anissue, right like you don't
offer free windshield repairwhile being towed, unless you
had a problem with windshieldsgetting damaged while being
towed yeah, right like well, Ithink you're seeing fewer and
fewer gravel roads now too outand about, so it could have been
(30:53):
a dying thing.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Yeah, Maybe back in the 60s, 70s, 80s it was more of
a big deal.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Possibly.
But yeah, it's just, it's anodd.
It's an odd.
I've never, I've never heard ofit, I've never seen it.
So I'm taking you know, as youshould do, I'll take your
opinion in this case, on it.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, um, your thoughts on it, but no, that's a
that's wild to me but I couldsee a customer being upset about
it Right, like if I tow theircar and when it gets to the drop
off.
Now, all of a sudden, they'vegot a big cracked windshield or,
having forbid, their windshieldis now all spider cracked and
(31:31):
you can't see throughout thewindshield Right.
That would be a fight that Iwouldn't want to have, but it
would be.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
See, that's the kind of damage claim I would like to
fight, because I go.
Mr Customer, if you would havedriven your car, you would have
taken the exact same route,follow the exact same Like
there's At one point it's go flya kite.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Here's At one point it's go fly a kite.
Yeah, I will takeresponsibility for any damage
that we do because of our towingpractices.
I will not take responsibilityfor any damage.
Okay, you're towing, you get aflat tire.
Right, You're towing the car.
You get a flat tire on, let'ssay, a front-wheel drive with
rear tires.
On the ground, you get a flattire.
Who's responsible?
It's not the towing company.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
It rear tires on the ground, you get a flat tire.
Who's responsible?
It's not the towing company.
That's not the towing company.
In that one they could say well, did the driver notice it right
away?
Did he pull over and change thetire, did he?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
drive, like you know well, like he noticed, he
noticed it.
He comes around, got a flattire, takes a corner.
Okay, got a flat tire, pull.
Who's responsible for payingfor that tire?
Not, not the towing company,right, I want to avoid that, put
it on a bed, but it's notrealistic and we understand that
.
Right, there is records andrecords are involved in the
towing industry for many, many,many years for a reason.
(32:44):
But, yeah, who's responsible?
My opinion I've been incustomer, right, I'm trying to
think of other things that couldhappen, like the cracked
windshield thing, customer, astone coming up off the road and
hitting the side of the car andputting a scratch in it.
Let's say, oh, dollies, right,yeah, yeah, true, a stone coming
(33:06):
up off a tire and hitting youknow, customer, you see when you
tow with dollies in the winter.
How disgusting it makes the sideof the car going on a dirt,
muddy road with dollies in thesummertime, and you see how
disgusting it makes out of a car, but no, okay.
So here's an example stonecomes up off of a dolly tire and
(33:28):
scratches a car or somethingalong those lines.
Customer Dolly tire blows outand scratches the customer car
Towing company.
Right, if a stone comes off mytow truck and hits your car and
I have my mud flaps, I'm fullyroad legal on everything.
It's just a stone that came outof the tread.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
It's customer.
But what if that customerwanted a bed and you convinced
him into a wrecker with dollies?
Speaker 2 (33:51):
It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter it doesn't
matter.
It's a good way to lose acustomer.
His vehicle is gettingtransported up in the air off
the ground, like stuff happened.
Like it would have been nodifferent if he drove it.
Yeah.
Right, like road hazard stufflike that.
That, would you know, appliesto you driving the vehicle or it
being towed, and maybe I I'llyou know, maybe that'll some
(34:14):
people don't agree with that.
I'd love to hear the argumenton it.
Right?
But you know, where does adamage claim start?
At what point do you draw thatline right, is it like?
I'd be curious to differentopinions on it and and that's
the scenario, right, sameconcept though.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
So you're towing something, let's say a Honda
Civic.
Honda Civic's probably a badexample, but anyways, you're
driving down the road with it onyour wrecker and you're driving
down a road you've never drivendown and you hit a bad pothole
and you bust out an oil pit.
So you had more than enoughclearance.
You just didn't see thecondition of the road Towing
(34:51):
company.
I know it's the towing company,but like it's something that
was kind of out of your control,that just happened going down
the road.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
No, it didn't.
It's not out of your control toavoid the big pothole.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Well, I don't know about the roads around you, but
some of our roads up here looklike war zones.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah, so take a different road.
That's in completely in yourcontrol yeah so towing company
yeah want to run other scenariosby me.
What else you got?
Speaker 1 (35:23):
it's just.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
It's always a fight, though, no matter what it's yeah
, it's towing the customers willalways want something for free,
and they always look at us asoh, the stupid tow truck driver
damaged my car towing acustomer's car on a pickup truck
in the tailgate fucking, slamsdown while you're towing it
fucking maybe catches, maybeit's got a trailer pinned well,
(35:45):
that wouldn't really make sense,I don't know.
Maybe he's got something on thebumper and it, you know,
damages the tailgate because thetailgate opened while the tow
truck driver was towing it.
Customer, if I didn't touchyour tailgate and I didn't go in
, you know what I mean.
Like, if I show up, this thingis lodged and it's going down
the road in the tow truck and ithits a bump and the tailgate
opens.
Customer.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
But what if it's the pickup truck and you've loaded
it backwards and it had a rollup tunnel cover and you had to
open up tailgate to roll up thetunnel cover?
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Well then, the tailgate is falling the other
way.
Um talking to like the boom ofyour tow truck.
Yeah, Towing company.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Yeah, so as soon as you touch it.
You're now liable.
Well, as soon as you touch it.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah, so as soon as you touch it, you're now liable.
Well, as soon as you touch it,yeah, like if you secure it and
you check it, you're liable,100%, 100%.
I think that's the fair way tolook at it.
As soon as you touch it, you'reliable for it.
Right, I thought you were goingto say that the tunnel cover
comes off.
I'm like towing company becauseit's backwards and it's not
supposed to go that way.
(36:50):
Um, no, like I said, there'sthere's a lot of things like
that, that fighting a damageclaim is always fun, um, if
you're in the right.
It sucks when you're in thewrong, um, but there's times
where you gotta, you know, tellpeople to kick rocks and then
there's times it's easier tojust shut them up, right, you
know?
I had a customer one time itcost me five dollars to solve a
clam.
I wasn't even going to fight itregardless.
He popped the uh neutralrelease tab out of like a dodge
(37:14):
caravan or a dodge something.
It was like the one that youhad like the cover.
Yeah, you know, that littlepiece that comes out yeah and he
said he put it in the cupholder.
Customer couldn't find it.
Customer was mad because I wasgot a hole in her you know next
to her shifter and I went to ascrapyard and grab her.
I think I found one in thebackyard of our yard.
No, I had to order it off dodge.
I tried.
I looked, I didn't have thatsame one, didn't have it in the
(37:35):
same trim color and I orderedone for like five dollars off
dodge and showed up at her houseand put it in because it wasn't
worth the argument that mydrive, you know, he said.
She said you know this wasn't,we weren't talking about a you
know 200 part where I'd go.
No, my guy, you know I stand bymy driver.
Whatever, this is just a reallyfive bucks gonna make you happy
(37:56):
.
Okay, I'm gonna spend more timefighting you on this, like I'm
gonna spend more than fivedollars arguing with you.
I'd rather just give you thefive bucks I I think damage
claims are.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
I towed a rental car the once and I was putting it up
on dollies.
And as I was putting it up ondollies, I was looking at the
back corner panel of this carand I looked and I saw a scratch
, kind of like at the same levelas the dollies, but not where
the dollies could even touch it.
(38:30):
I was like I'm gonna get blamedfor that, because anytime a
rental car gets brought back inthey go over it with like a
fine-tooth comb.
So I had to take, I tookpictures of everything, I
brought my manager out to thescene because he was close
anyways, and we dropped thedollies and cranked the dollies
back up just to show like thedollies couldn't touch where
(38:52):
this big scrape was and just tocover our ass, because I didn't
notice it prior to loading.
If I noticed it prior toputting dollies underneath of it
and took a picture of it, myass would have been covered.
But since I already had dolliesunderneath the car, I wanted to
just double and triple check tomake sure that I couldn't be
blamed for something I didn't do.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
And that's what a lot of it is.
It's covering your goddamn ass,remembering that everybody out
there is trying to get a buckoff you and nobody wants to pay
you for your services.
So, for the love of God, coveryour ass cover ass always.
Yeah, exactly Our favorite threeletters.
Yeah, but no, it's true.
(39:35):
Cover your ass when it comes toavoiding damage, slams, and
cover your ass when it comes togetting payment.
We've talked about this before,and I want to share two
separate stories that werecently had.
I don't think I ever shared the.
The most recent one, right theburn job.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
the most recent burn job I'm not sure if it was on
the show or not okay.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
So, um, we've talked about, you know, confirming
payment, two stories that we had.
One customer calls us up oneday, says I got a dodge ram
pickup truck that was comingback from new brunswick and I
started having transmissionissues.
Where when have I heard thatjoke before?
So, on the safe side, I wastowing my fifth wheel camper.
(40:14):
I left my fifth wheel camperthere and drove the truck back
empty to put less strain on thetransmission.
I made it back.
I'm currently in the process ofrebuilding my transmission, but
I need to get my camper broughtback.
What would you charge me?
And we're not going to get intothe camper brought back.
What would you charge me and I,you know we're not going to get
into the billing side.
On what we would charge, it wasabout a I want to say it was
(40:36):
like 2 000 kilometer round trip,you know, on this whole thing.
And so we put together a pricewith the customer.
He agrees okay, no problem,okay.
So we go and we drive down tonew brunswick and we pick up the
trailer, exactly where.
It is nothing wrong with thetrailer, right, we haul it back
(40:57):
and we had one driver go downand bring it back and then I
went and delivered it to thecustomer's house.
So I show up at the customer'shouse with him.
We kept in contact with him thewhole time and everything.
And he comes out and he goes.
Yeah, he's like you guys havenever been screwed before.
Eh, I go, what do you mean?
He goes?
Well, you went down, you did 2000 kilometer, you know a
thousand kilometers down to goget my trailer.
(41:18):
You never asked me for a creditcard number in advance.
What if the trailer wasn'tthere?
I was like, well, you're lucky,it was.
Yeah, but it's true, like Inever.
This guy called us out of theblue and I dealt with him
directly and I'm I like to thinkI'm a pretty good judge of
character, yep, and I spoke withhim on the phone because I
remember asking him, like, how'dyou hear about us?
(41:38):
Oh well, we stopped to get foodat the truck stop, you know,
and so whenever we ran intoproblems, we just thought, oh,
we'll try calling them, they'reclose to home and different
things like that.
But I never guaranteed any sortof payment before I left.
It was a country guy, I don'tknow.
You just get those moments.
(41:59):
So that was, you know, takenote, you can.
You know that would have burned, driving all the way down to
New Brunswick for nothing.
I mean, we just went down witha 2500 pickup, right, we didn't
bring a tow truck down becauseit didn't require anything
special and towed it back.
So we talked weeks ago it wasjust a fun little story I wanted
to share um, we talked weeksago about a motorcycle recovery
(42:23):
that we did where the police hadcalled us and we wouldn't go
ahead and do the job until theinsurance company, you know, got
involved their guaranteedpayment.
Well, I ran into that again.
I get a call from a, a localbut, um, a different police
force than we normally deal with, for a vehicle burnt to a crisp
(42:46):
, and so right away, my dispatchwas trained okay, police call.
Okay, get a truck going.
I'm like I'm gonna go take alook at this.
It's over, uh, it's over thebridge you need.
There's tolls involved andeverything else.
It's a big, you know.
So I go over and I meet theofficers over there and it is a
2023 rolls royce, not rollsroyce, sorry.
Uh, land rover burnt to theground.
(43:10):
Well, actually, at first when Igot there, I didn't know what
it was burnt to the ground.
They had no vin number thatthey've been able to find.
They don't know who the owneris like.
They just want us to pick it up.
And it's in a field, notblocking a road.
It's not an emergency, it's ina field.
So I tell the officers, I gookay, well, it's not going to
(43:31):
come out of here today.
Here's what's going to like.
Here's my problem.
I do not want to send all mythe resources that I need to
properly do this job, only tofind out that I'm going to get
stuck with this bill.
Do you have an owner?
Do you have a whatever?
Okay, well, let's look.
And then they started to do thedigging a little deeper yeah,
and now I guess we got to do ourjob now shit 100.
(43:53):
So they called the owner while Iwas there and I got her policy
number and it was an americanvehicle.
It was insured through geico.
Saved me 15 or more oninsurance by torching in the
field a stupid little lizard.
So I call geico with all thisinformation and I explain to
them who I am, because I'm inthe canadian side.
(44:15):
They're, you know, they trustme to buffalo, um and and get
this all sorted out.
And they said, okay, we'regonna send you an email um, you
know, it's like a claim throughlike thread so that you can
respond and whatever.
I said okay, so I send them offan email.
I go here is, uh, our breakdownfor our recovery for this
vehicle right now.
I've got a roll-off truck toclean up the debris, I've got my
(44:35):
float, I've got this, I've gotthe disposal fee at the landfill
.
This, this, this, all here hereis my, my all in total and it
the only thing that is is to beadded to this is 65 a day.
Storage for the um, storage ofthe carcass.
I'm going to call it becauseI'm going to pretty much go
there and I'm going to take thecarcass and I'm going to shake
(44:55):
it like the frame and get allthe loose stuff off, put that on
a bed and the rest is gettingscooped into a roll off bin and
go into the dump.
Yeah, never hear back from them.
Day or two goes by.
Don ever hear back from them.
Day or two goes by don't hearback from them.
My wife gets a call on impound.
Hey, this is a canadianinsurance company or that
manages or that deals with andit pickups out of our yard.
(45:16):
I'm looking for information anda payout on this, this vehicle.
My wife explains to them thevehicle is not currently in our
yard.
Until we can get confirmationof this invoice, you know, being
accepted, where we're, wehaven't sent out the trucks.
So if you can get confirmationfor that, we'll send out the
(45:37):
trucks.
Nope, there he goes by, don'thear back from anybody.
Okay, great, so I'm not goingto get it.
Next day, tow truck shows up atour yard with a check from the
company to pick up the vehicle.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
Just tell them where it is.
I'll keep the check.
Go get it bud.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
I'm like it's not here.
What do you mean?
It's not here.
I'm like nobody has given usconfirmation.
He's like well, I think thecheck is confirmation.
I'm like I agree the check isI'll?
have it here this afternoon.
Yeah, we went out and we wentand got it, but did he leave the
check for you?
No, no, no, he took the checkback.
And then he showed up the nextday with a check just for an
(46:20):
extra day storage, which didn'tmake any sense oh, because they
didn't want to get it thatafternoon, um, with an extra day
storage, and then didn't havethe original check.
And then came with the originalcheck and it was worth more
than the invoice.
Like I don't understandinsurance companies and so it
was.
But it's one of those thingslike confirm your payment.
It was another one where itwould be so easy for somebody to
(46:41):
take this vehicle in and sit onit and chase ownership and
chase whatever and all thatwhere it's like, if it's not,
it's a non-priority vehicle,make the calls first.
Get the information from these.
Make the calls.
The cops surprisinglyunderstand if this is in the
middle of the road blocking anintersection you can't go hold
(47:03):
on.
I want to call their insuranceto make sure they'll pay my bill
.
I get that part right and onmost vehicles right with the
process that you have throughontario, depending on on, you
know you can pile up and scrapthem at one point to get most of
your cost back out of it.
Yeah, I ain't getting anythingout of a burnt frame suv.
There's no weight left and whatI'm paying to dispose of
(47:26):
garbage right.
So the it's so important tojust it's little things like
that, especially when ourindustry is in such an
upside-down, tipsy-turvy kind ofplace that you can make those
arrangements ahead of time.
People have asked before seeingtrailers on the side of highways
in Canada.
Right, Americans have beenshocked by that at NBC.
What's this trailer still doinghere?
Because they're waiting forconfirmation before they go get
(47:48):
it.
They're doing the right thinginstead of getting screwed and
stuck with the bill.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
I think you are.
I think you're in a betterposition to negotiate that way,
though, because if you're in avery populated area, they'll
just keep calling another towcompany until some schmuck goes
out and does it.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
Then let him fucking deal with the bullshit that
comes with it.
Yeah.
You know, let him deal with thebullshit.
If the cops can't understandthat, at the end of the day, you
are a business, you know they.
I think they get a little toocomplacent in the thought well,
fire, ambulance, whateverthey're all like me, tow trucks,
like you guys just got to do,like we just do this and it's
(48:26):
like no, I'm a business, you'republicly funded and at the end
of the day, my business has tomake money.
If not, it's not a business,it's a fucking charity and I
don't I believe in donating tocherry.
I charity, I don't believe inrunning.
The business is one.
So you know most cops.
So if you just have an honestconversation about it, they
(48:48):
understand.
Look, I don't want to get stuckwith this thing.
You don't say that I'm notunder contract to be.
You know that you have to makeme do this.
There is one police force Ihave that I'm under contract,
that I don't have a choice.
I have to.
It's a dumb contract, but it iswhat it is.
I don't have to.
This is why I'm concerned.
(49:10):
If you can help me with theseconcerns by giving me an RO's
information, by giving me thiskind of stuff, then I can work
something out and we'll get thisdone for you.
You're right From the privateparking side of things.
They're just going to callsomebody else right Like private
parking I still don't do.
Right, like private parking, Istill don't do.
I love they call us.
Well, the cops told us to callyou.
Well, I only go if the copscall us.
(49:33):
Well, I call the cops, I know,but that's not what I mean.
Right, because that's whathappens.
They'll call the police and say, hey, I got a private vehicle
here I want removed.
Okay, well, you can callcompany towing.
You know A towing one, one, two, three towing.
They're who we use.
And then they call us.
We go, no, we don't do that.
Like what do you mean?
And then again it's.
(49:54):
It comes down to it's just likeI don't.
It's not that I don't want tohelp you, it comes down to it's
bad public, it's, it's bypublicity.
Um, you know we're here to helpthe community and I understand
that you're in a bit of asituation with this.
However, um, you know, I'mgonna get stuck with this
vehicle.
I'm, or I'm gonna have tocharge you ludicrous pricing
where there's all the stuff thatgoes into it.
We'd rather not get involved init.
(50:14):
Most people go no, that makessense.
But if you call company 245,they will absolutely help you
out.
And they call company 245 andthey go, haul their scrap away
and deal with it.
You know what I mean.
Like there's no reason thatjust because you're a towing
company that you need to takeall the shit right, like if
you're going to get the shit,fine, you know, find ways.
(50:37):
And this bill, like my bill wasit was a high bill for a burn
recovery, right, but it wasdetailed.
It was this unit.
You know my triaxial float andit's going to sound like
overkill my triaxial float at anhourly rate for three hours.
Travel out, load and clean upeverything, travel back my
(50:57):
roll-off truck for three hours.
Yep, the dumping of the fee.
And I went based on the lastone that I did.
I put the pricing at the sameprice and my skid steer that I
was using to do the cleanup inthe field.
No, did you.
That's why I use the triaxial.
Yeah, exactly, I chargedslightly more, yeah, but saved a
(51:21):
second, another unit having togo out and then paying, and then
I, you know 100 bucks in tolls,whatever it was, whatever the
tolls we calculated would be.
No, I sent the triaxial so Icould haul the carcass onto the
bed and then also reload theskid steer on it.
Save a truck, because I'm nottrying to screw the insurance
company, I'm trying to get paidvalue for my services, right,
(51:42):
and that's the problem.
They, they want to pre-bill.
A lot of them ahead of time,they, lot of them ahead of time.
They want to know what it'sgoing to cost.
Well, okay, so I went threehours.
Well, it took me two.
Well, guess what?
you needed a price rate up frontno if it would have taken me
four, you wouldn't let me chargefour.
So if it took me two, you'repaying three.
Right, that was the agreed uponevery invoice that they had
(52:03):
seen before that had three hourson it before we had even done
the job.
So, protecting yourself, makingsure you're getting paid, the
importance in the towingindustry, at the end of the day,
we can do the job in, you know,every day, all day.
Half the half the battle isgetting is doing the job.
The other half is getting paid.
Right, that is, that's the bigstruggle, and not just getting
(52:26):
paid, but getting paid whatyou're worth.
So, um, I think that was fun.
I like this episode, gee.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
I think we had a good time.
Did the learning curve ramp upa little bit.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
Yeah, I feel like we're.
We were very, uh, educationalto our listeners.
Hmm, I figured like you know,watch out Sesame street, we're
coming for you With a coupleextra fucks sprinkled throughout
.
A couple F-bombs sprinkled in onthe Sesame Street.
So yeah, that being said, onbehalf of myself and my
(53:02):
wonderful co-host, mr Tomanji,we thank you for joining us for
another episode of the TomanLife Podcast.
We cannot wait to see you againnext week.
Take care, toodles, joining usfor another episode of the
towing life podcast.
We cannot wait to see you againnext week.
Take care, toodles, did you tryand make a joke about the
(53:26):
fucking shooting?
Speaker 1 (53:28):
yeah, yeah, I did make a joke about the fucking
shooting.
Speaker 2 (53:30):
What was the joke exactly that you said?
I knew it was Local lawenforcement's always dropped the
ball.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
Oh, because they're supposed to be on that roof.
They're in the building but noton the roof.
Apparently, that roof was tooslopey, even though the Secret
Service was on a more slantedroof.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Could you think of let's end this recording.
you're getting banned my band, my band oh, you're
banned.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
I thought you're said that you're getting banned off
of social media for somethingstupid.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
You said I'm due to catch a ban for something I'm
very now.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
My social media is pretty tame yeah, I don't post
much on social media anymore no,I don't either.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
It's a shame.
But then again I look at theold stuff that I post and I'm
like is it really a shame?
Yeah, like this is, this isprobably for the best.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
The stuff I used to post didn't benefit any of my
friends or followers in any realway other than a little snort
through the nose, maybe everyonce in a while.
Like you know, as you'rescrolling you see something
funny and you're like hey, yoursocial media posts are very
similar to your podcastpersonality.
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I didn't change much.
It doesn't start any realconversation, no, it gives you a
little and then you move onthroughout your day and you
forget all about it.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
You you would, yeah, just easy in easy out.
I'm sorry, G I really shouldn'tbe this tough on you after all
these years.
Hey everyone, I'm brad fromcalgary.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
This is sean from cambridge, ontario I'm terry
from cornwall, ontario hey, thisis larry from pit metals,
british columbia, and you'relistening to the towing life
podcast.
Hey, this is Larry from PitMetals, british Columbia, and
you're listening to the TowingLife Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Welcome to the Towing Life Podcast, where the ditches
are deep, the trucks are loaded, but the drivers are not.
I am your host, Toman G, and,as usual, I am joined by my
co-host, friend and formerco-worker, the man with very
strong opinions, Mr Playing Guy.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
What is going on?
G.
What is going on?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Oh, it's a early morning.
I had a late night, so I'mrunning on like four hours of
sleep, which is unusual for menow that I'm not in the towing
industry.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, I know your body definitely isn't trained to
actually work um and run onlack of sleep.
How is your caffeine intake?
Has it decreased significantlyor increased this morning?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
no, it's.
Uh, I've cut down.
When I used to tow, when weworked together, I used to drink
like 11 to 13 extra largetimmy's a day, like every time.
You couldn't pass the timmy'swithout stopping and getting a
coffee, so I've cut way back toone coffee a day max, max, wow,
(02:32):
wow.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
It is definitely taking a toll on you, um,
because sleeping four hours aday is something that used to be
quite achievable and quite easyto do, and quite regularly done
.
Um, what were you up so late?
Were you drinking some wobblypops or you just?
Speaker 1 (02:48):
you know we're out chasing it have a wobbly pop, a
singular wobbly pop.
Yes, I wanted, since we live inthe great province of ontario
the lick bow the um our alcoholcontrol board of ontario yeah
that um is on strike untiltuesday, so when this episode
(03:10):
comes out, um couldn't get toomany extra wobbly pops, so I was
just drinking my chocolateliqueur and coke that I had in
the cupboard, so I had achocolate oh my god, that's such
a terrible combination itdoesn't taste too bad.
You know what a vanilla coketastes like.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
It's just a chocolate version with elka mahal and I
do about a 50 50 mixture so thatthat is very interesting
because, you know, obviously thetowing industry limits us quite
often in our availability tohave a drink right, especially
to have multiple drinks, if you,if you do want to go on, you
know, and have a good day.
(03:47):
Um, I guess my question wouldbe like, I wonder how much of
the like?
What's the worst?
Oh, better question what isthere any like towing related
drinks, like alcohol drinkswe're talking about right like.
Is there, like you know, adrink called the like?
You know the ugly repo man, umor the?
You know what a drink calledthe like you know the ugly repo
man, um or the?
You know what I mean Like.
(04:08):
And, that being said, what isthe go-to drink for operators
whenever they do have a chancethat they're off the clock, they
can unwind a little bit.
What is the go-to drink?
I think that is going to changeregionally, um, but I would be
curious to it.
Um, so, before we get intoeverything else, and if you want
to submit what your favoritedrink is when you, when you have
(04:30):
no towing commitments thatallow you to have a little bit
of fun, you can find us atwwwtowinglifeca.
You can email us directly atthe T-H-E, so the towinglife at
gmailcom or you can find us overon Facebook at the towing life
podcast.
If you're watching over on theYouTube side, do not forget to
hit the like and subscribe.
Down below, up top or whereverit is.
(04:52):
I don't watch on YouTube so Ican't tell you.
Um, and be sure, if you haveany questions, you can go ahead
and leave the comment right downbelow in the YouTube video.
Um, we always do appreciate thecomments we can week and we
address them every once in awhile to get to the bottom of
the mean, the good, the funnyand the completely irrelevant
that we see.
I learned something this pastweek.
(05:12):
Wait, no, I'm getting to mydrink thing.
I didn't even get a chance tosay mine, I'm a big.
I don't think it's hidden.
We've seen it a lot on thisshow.
If you do watch on the YouTubeside.
I'm a big beer guy.
I'm very rarely a mixed drinkkind of person, like I don't do
shots, I'm not a fan of hardliquor.
Call me a puss, I don't care.
(05:33):
I'll drink like 9.5% beer, butI am not one to just say, you
know some whiskey or orsomething like that.
So I am much the beerindulgence.
After a hot day, a hard-workinghot day, a nice cold beer, oh
man, does it ever hit the spotfor me?
Speaker 1 (05:53):
yeah, you learned something today yes, I learned
something this week and youcould say I learned at a fourth
grade level, so I'm gonna takeyou on my adventure.
The first thing I learned isthat local law enforcement drops
the ball all the time.
But if you get that referencefrom, you know the shooting.
(06:14):
Anyways, oh my.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
God, did it go over?
Just continue.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
And I also learned that you know how we have zero
tolerance for driving commercialvehicles, right?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
I'm sure everyone should know that in Ontario.
I don't know what each other'sstate has, but I feel like
Tennessee.
It's like eh, under a .08,you're good still.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, so here, if you're driving a commercial
vehicle, you're not allowed tohave any blood in your alcohol
system Alcohol in your bloodsystem anyways.
But I learned that it's notjust commercial vehicles.
If you hold a cdl, so uh, e, f,g, whatever license other than
(06:56):
a g license, you cannot have anyalcohol in your blood system
because it follows your license,not the vehicle you're driving
bullshit.
I have verified this with policeofficers before really yes,
because I had a drivinginstructor tell me that it's the
license holder I had a guy whowrites these tickets and
(07:18):
enforces the laws.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Tell me that it is the vehicle in which you were
driving at the time.
Because I had that exactquestion.
You know, company truck, I'mregistered under the gross
required for my CVR, like for asmuch as my commercial vehicle
on my pickup truck, right Likeit's still just considered a
1500.
And I said so.
(07:41):
If I were to go out to dinneror a show or something and I
were to have a beer, would I bebreaking the zero tolerance law?
No, I would not, because thatthat wouldn't make sense.
Because then if you're sayingit's following the license, well
that only applies to, like,said, your cdl, which is the
equivalence in ontario, like dz,az, so a g-class driver would
be allowed yeah but a a dzdriver would not be allowed in
(08:03):
his personal vehicle.
It doesn't make sense.
Vehicle it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I know it doesn't make sense, but it kind of does
as well, because you'd think alot of these things follow your
license along.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
There is things like that that do follow your license
.
We've talked about it beforewhen it comes to crossing into
the States.
If you have a CDL and you'redriving a commercial vehicle in
the States, regardless if thatvehicle is above the the gross
weight that you require your CDLfor.
So example, a DZ driver, a CDLdriver driving a Dodge 5,500 Ram
(08:37):
um into the States stillrequires to pass the FM SCA's uh
drug testing and be in the theU S dot pool pool.
For for a canadian company, youneed to go for random drug and
alcohol tests if that same truckis being driven by an operator
who doesn't have a cdl becausewe, you know, because of the
weight class on it he does notso like that is one that yeah,
(09:00):
100 follows your license.
But that is the argument I madewith zero tolerance.
I have checked with a umofficer once I had a personal
pickup truck, um, just out ofcuriosity on that.
You know, if it's out and Ihave a beer, am I legal?
Um, now, we don't encourage thisin any way, shape or form and
you should never drive anyvehicle with any you know, any
(09:20):
company vehicle with any alcoholin your system.
I'm a big believer in that andagain, this has never happened.
This isn't something thathappens.
But the question had to beasked Right, because, yeah, 100%
, you do not want one of yourtrucks getting impounded.
You know a non-CVO-ard vehicleor a non-tow truck because of
(09:46):
you know something silly likethat that you just misunderstood
.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yeah, yeah, I get that.
I mean this driving instructorthat I was speaking to.
She obviously didn't knoweverything, I guess, if you're
right, I don't know, should Itake your thoughts and opinions
over a driving instructor that'sbeen driving?
Hey said hello.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I think we lost Tomangie's internet.
There you go.
Should you take my thoughts andopinions?
Is that what you're saying?
I lost you.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, should I take your thoughts and opinions over
a driving instructor who's beendriving for 40 years?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
And has anything I've ever taught you in our career
together is, you always shouldtake my opinion.
It'll make your life easier inthe long run, I promise you.
Just play dumb.
No, just play.
The man with very strongopinions tends to be right A lot
.
Not always, god knows.
I've made my fair share ofmistakes, but if I was was hard
(10:46):
it's harder when you're stupid.
If I wasn't worried about theway that, um, the people, the
officers that I know speak onthe phone when they're private,
I would call one right now, uh,anonymously.
But, um, yeah, I know, I've.
I'll confirm it again.
I'll confirm it with a separateofficer that I know.
(11:07):
Um, but I can assure you it, itdoesn't make sense.
Um, what your instructor issaying, um, I get what he's
getting at, but no, it doesn'tfollow your license.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Uh, in in your personal car yeah so yeah, I was
a little dumbfounded when shesaid that, anyways, but I was
like hey, what do I know?
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I've only been driving for 10.
She's been driving for 40.
She's old as shit.
He she, it was a she.
Um, I want to go back to alittle update.
We had, Uh, we talked last weekabout fragile fords and those
active air dams and ways on onwhich to load them, so we did a,
uh, we did some testing in ouryard.
I was lucky enough, my dadactually has a 2021 with the
(11:51):
active air dam on it, so he wasnice enough to lend it to us for
a day and we went ahead and wedid some testing and we found
different ways that we couldload this truck.
Um, you know, it was prettysimple.
You go to your regulartransmission mounts the way you
do, except you put a block ofwood on the front cross member.
A four by four block of woodwhile you're winching it on.
It keeps the winch line off ofthat front valance, right, and I
(12:16):
want to do this with each oneof my employees.
Um, just to ensure everyone,and it's not even that like, we
showed them different ways toload it, but it's just be be
aware of this, like you need to.
Here's the system.
See it, there's where it is,you don't?
You know?
Just so, every time your brainthinks, when I get onto an F-150
, I better go just check and beaware of if this system is
active or installed on thisvehicle.
The other option that we wentis we took a J hook chain bridle
(12:41):
instead of the straps hookchain bridle instead of the
straps we normally use the strapbridles uh and shortened it up,
kept a decent veer angle on itand was able to load them right
off the tow hooks and still onour 21 foot 10 tb uh flatbeds
we're still able to have it intoa nice like spot on the bed.
Um, our dodge ram 5500.
(13:01):
Not a chance you're going totransmission, transmission,
crossmember because you'll runout of winch.
He knows they allowed enoughwith the shortened up bridle.
The smaller 5500 trucks willnot allow the space.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
What's that?
19.5 or 19?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah, it's like a 19.5.
Yeah.
So they barely have enough spacefor a half ton to start with.
Yeah, so yeah, no, but I reallyenjoyed it.
It was fun to kind of go over.
Barely have enough space for ahalf ton to start with.
Yeah, um, so uh, yeah, I know,but I, uh, I really enjoyed it,
it was fun to kind of go over it.
Also, we pointed out theimportance of um tie down slots
on the truck and going forward,possibly pulling forward and
(13:37):
going into that balance as well.
Right, that is something we hadnever really kind of.
You know, the idea crossed mymind when we started talking
about it or when I heard aboutthese, um, these active air dams
, um things to avoid.
But looking at the fords, theyactually give uh, t-hook slots,
proper doubled transport slotson the front of the, the dry or
(13:59):
the front wheels, as well as therear, um, so I would obviously
start looking.
If you're doing the chain tiedown, you'd be looking at
chaining inwards, if you knowwhat I mean, from the front
tires backwards.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, cross-chaining it through the center of the
truck.
Yeah, yeah, so.
But anyways, I had a listenerreach out and he goes hey,
talking about those Fords.
I had a great trick to loadingthem that you wanted to share
with me and I figured I wouldshare it right on the show
because by god, it's prettygreat.
Um, when he backs up to themwatching to make sure he's not
(14:36):
an interlocked driveway,anything like that.
Obviously there's differentthings.
On an f-150 and you've spokenabout it the front wheels will
roll the.
The back wheels are lockedright.
If we leave a vehicle in park,unless the four-wheel drive's
fully active, whatever, he loadsthem like a sea can to start,
and this makes sense.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
So he pulls himself down to the front wheels,
doesn't pull himself underneath,just backs under.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
You can load a sea can without a winch.
Fun fact Now you're learning ata sixth grade level today.
G?
Um, if you ever loaded a c-can,you can get a tip of your bed
under the edge of the c-can.
Uh, if you use c-can skates,whatever, and you can actually
back your truck up and the c-canwill slide up your truck.
So he does the same idea.
He backs his truck up so thatthe front tires come up onto the
(15:24):
bed.
Let's say, three, four feetchocks the wheels, hooks it up.
Now the winch line's not not inthe way, because once that
truck is like you know what Imean up the bed a little bit,
the clearance issue goes away.
The clearance issue is only asthe front end is coming up onto
the bed.
So as long as you were to do itand I got to watch an interlock
(15:46):
driveway you don't chunksomebody's driveway or something
but it was a different approachthat as I sat there training
that day in the yard and Iremember just like looking at it
, just thinking of differentways, that one never crossed my
mind.
But I like it.
You can put your bed, you canget your bed tucked under the
wheels.
You can even lift it up alittle bit, maybe a tow hook as
(16:12):
a safety, just to you know,precaution.
And then you back up the fronttires will roll up the bed.
The back tires will stay inplace.
Once you get the vehicle up toa point, the winch won't be an
infraction like an issue.
You can wheel chalk the tires.
To add a second level ofprecaution hook up your vehicle,
neutral your vehicle and you'renot all the way up on your bed
that you're hopping up on yourbed.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Neutral the vehicle, continue up the bed coming from
the guy who is dead againstdriving vehicles onto the deck,
I'm surprised that you like thatmethod.
Why?
Because so you're out of thetruck, you get your bed, you
shove the bed underneath thefront tire and then you go back
into the cab after you raise thebed up a little bit and you put
(16:50):
the truck into reverse and youstart backing up.
Well, one of the reasons.
One or two straight yeah.
Yeah, make sure that it'sstraight.
If for some reason, that wheelstarts to turn on the truck as
you're backing up and you can'tsee the front end of the truck,
you don't catch the front end ofthe truck walking off the side
(17:10):
of the bed quickly enough, rightlike there's just a lot more
things that could go wrong.
That's one of the reasons whywhen you winch a vehicle up,
you're right there, you can seeeverything, but when you're in
the cab of the truck you can'tsee as much, especially when the
deck's up.
You might not be able to seethe casualty coming up the deck
the same right because it'stilted up it's an f-150 I know a
(17:34):
lot bad.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
What kind of decks are you driving?
Speaker 1 (17:38):
but I'm saying like you're not there dealing with it
, you have less sight lines onceit's up on the bed.
Then you got to climb up into ahigher truck well, you don't
put it.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah, you still do have to climb up a little higher
, but you don't put the wholetruck on the deck I know you
don't put the whole truck youjust put like like you rolled it
up, maybe three, four feet yeah, but still like why?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
why are you doing all this?
I feel like the risk factor hasgone up because you are pushing
back on the truck to load itwith that parking pin and, yes,
you could put a safety chain onthere, but what's okay?
So when you come to unload it,are you doing the same thing in
reverse?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Have you ever unloaded a vehicle with locked
up rear tires?
Yes, I know, thing in reverse,or you just never have.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
You have never unloaded a vehicle with locked
up rear tires.
Yes, I know you pull the bedout from underneath what you
drive ahead.
Once the one tire is down onthe ground, that's locked up.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
That's, that's what you're doing that's what you do
to offload it.
You get.
You can bring it down to a spot, chalk the wheel.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
What I'm what I'm trying to wrap my head around is
you're doing all this andyou're still hooking a winch
cable up to it.
So it's just like why are yougoing through all these extra
steps?
You're chalking it once it's onthere, why wouldn't you just
hook your chains up to it andput that four by four there to
get it down from the valence andthen just be done with?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
it Cause sometimes so okay.
So like we're spoiled in thesense that, um, a lot of our
trucks come right, almost all ofour trucks come equipped with
remotes.
So when you're trying to setthis four by four up on the
cross member, on the winch lineto avoid the balance, it's very
(19:18):
it's easy to do with a remoteright.
It's not so easy to do withoutone.
Yeah.
Right, you're going to besitting there, you're going to
winch.
Okay, you got to leave it snug,but just to say snugs, that you
can then go and pull down, getthat block of wood in there and
confirm that it's, you know, offagainst the balance, this is
another tool for the toolbox.
What is their drivers in thetowing industry that?
(19:41):
I would, you know, never showthis trick to a hundred percent,
but it is definitely a tool toget you out of a spot, right it
you?
You know you're in that Dodgeflatbed that we have, that
doesn't have the accessibilityto go to the tow hooks, doesn't
have a remote to put the 4x4 onthe crossmember or make it easy
to put the 4x4 on thecrossmember.
(20:02):
Hey, back up, get this thing afoot or two on your bed.
You know, chalk the wheels aprior.
You know safety.
You don't want something tohappen to the pin.
The thing rolls away right now.
You're getting in, you'rehooking up, everything's all
secured on it.
You're transferring it intoneutral.
You're leaving it in neutral.
Then you're two, three feet upon the bed yeah you know you're
(20:24):
not all the way up at the top ofthe bed where you've got to.
You know, like you're limitingthe risk now I get what you're
saying at that point youlimiting the risk Now I get what
you're saying.
At that point you feel the riskis higher there than it would
be for the damage claim.
The problem is with the risk onthese damage claims is that my
father's had this truck since2021.
He had no idea that system waseven there until I told him not
(20:47):
a clue in the world.
I showed him a video of it,explained to him how it worked.
He had no goddamn idea.
It is the easiest thing thatsomeone is going to throw us
under the bus to, if they getthe opportunity yeah, right,
they don't know it, they don'tunderstand it.
I had it towed.
Now it's broken and I seen thewinch line.
Touch that, educate yourcustomer and a lot of that comes
(21:08):
down to it, right, 100 comesdown to educating your customer,
right?
Remember, towing on dollies.
Okay, towing on dollies with aflat tire.
What would you always do?
You have?
to double pick it no, no, I'mnot even up on top of the bar
not even that okay, doublepicking doesn't matter if you're
loading it frontwards,backwards, the flat tire with
tire pressure sensors oh yeah,make sure the valve stems up and
(21:31):
it's not touching.
It's not where this, the spoonis crushing and you would
educate the customer on that.
Okay, fun trick for thoselistening that never knew about
this trick because I don't thinkwe've ever talked about it.
An easy damage claim to avoidis a lot of vehicles come with
tpms is now tire pressuremonitoring systems.
If you are in a wreckerspecifically because a flatbed
(21:53):
doesn't really apply If you'rein a wrecker and you are loading
a vehicle with a flat tire, beaware when you are putting your
L arms on or your spoons on oreven your dollies, where that
tire is sitting up against thebar.
You do not want it to be rate.
Most TPMS is not all all butare at the valve stem.
(22:16):
So if you have that valve stemlined right up where that spoon
is crushing into that flat tireand you hit a bump going down
the road pretty good, which weknow they bounce on the wheel
lift you can crush that tpms.
Make it a habit of getting thetpms to the top or the the valve
stem to the top of the wheelbefore loading them will be an
(22:37):
easy easy.
You know the guy's already gota flat tire.
Yes, there's some liability onhim that the flat tire might
have caused the tpms to getcrushed depending on how he
drove it.
But if you educate yourcustomer and you go, hey, just
so you're aware, you'll noticethat we put the valve stem
facing you know 12, 12 o'clockbecause we wanted to make sure
(22:59):
that if there wasn't any damagealready, that we wouldn't go
ahead and cause some.
When that guy gets to the tireshop and the tire shop tells
them that his TPMS got crushed,he's not the first guy, he's not
going to think of you now, butif he goes, your tpms got
crushed.
Well, should that happen in aflat tire?
Not really.
Could it happen getting towed?
Yeah, right, and it could, andit could, it definitely could.
(23:24):
Um, so it's the same thing withthese f-150s, and that too you
want to avoid damage claims.
It's not just you know,obviously, document what you can
, but have the conversation withthe customer.
Customers are like gee, theylove to learn stuff right, and
if you give them a fun piece ofinformation that day, normally
(23:45):
they're like hey, did you know?
You know, did you know that mydodge has this little pull cord
that you can pull that puts itinto neutral, and like that kind
of stuff is they'll go aroundtell their friends all week yeah
, like it's the dumbest piece ofinformation that we all know,
but you know to them it's not soif you know.
That's where I say, like I said,even with these four things, if
(24:06):
you explain it to the customerwhy you're doing it, you're
loading it up.
That way you're gonna saveyourself a lot of trouble.
So, yeah, damage claims suck.
I hate dealing with damageclaims.
They're my least favorite thing, especially when they're right,
like when the customer's right,or like we're wrong, in other
words, where there's justnothing you can do about it.
(24:28):
Yeah, like, I like a gooddamage claim that I can argue.
I had a gentleman recently witha mercedes who claimed that you
know we grabbed a wire on hisvehicle, the wire that comes in
through the top, strut and down.
Um was adamant.
We grabbed it with a j hook,doing an impound and I'll, I'll
fight that one.
I'll do my research.
I'll look at where you knowwhat I mean, the diagrams of
(24:49):
these things.
I'll look at the photos fromthe vehicle and you know, use
what experience I do have, asshort as it may be, um, to come
up with a determination on the,the likely cause of the damage.
I like fighting that.
Those are fun to me.
What I don't like is your guyjust offloaded a cube truck and
hit a brand new car in myparking lot.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Well, that is a very hard argument to find I saw a
facebook post of this uh flatbed, it was a red ram, probably
2500, 3500, and the operatorhooked his winch cable directly
up to the driver's side tow hookon the ram and winched it onto
the bed.
And what this damage claim wasis it showed the angle of the
(25:34):
winch line pulling down to thewinch and you know how the
bumpers on those dodges have thelittle step up underneath the
headlight wrap around.
Well, the whole bumperapparently got twisted down so
it pushed the far edge at theback towards the fender.
And the damage claim is statingthat he bent the bumper down,
(25:58):
even though the tow hooks mountdirectly to the frame on the
inside of the bumper.
But the bumper also mounts tothe same mounting bracket.
So they're saying that hetwisted the bumper and that the
towing company it's a localtowing company to us, it's a
pretty big company is saying wedidn't cause that.
That's not an us thing.
(26:22):
And I went out and looked at mytruck afterwards and my bumper
is slightly twisted down and theone side's pushed in a little
bit, but I remember it waspushed in when I bought it, but
it's a negative and the oneside's pushed in a little bit,
but I remember it was pushed inwhen I bought it, but it's a
negative like you don't reallynotice it because Unless you go
looking for it Exactly and inthis picture he's taking
pictures of it of all around.
(26:43):
You can't like why are you evengoing after this?
Because it doesn't.
It's not affecting the way thetruck drives.
It's not affecting the way thetruck drives.
It's not affecting the way thetruck looks in any real way,
shape or form like.
Why are you just being anasshole for the sake of being an
asshole?
I can see, oh yeah, the towtruck driver bent or bent my
(27:06):
bumper slightly, and but can youprove it wasn't like that prior
to the toe?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
but that's the problem is that it's our job to
prove that it was like thatprior to the toe.
That is an unfortunate state inwhich we live in that it is not
in the world of social mediaand public opinion.
You're guilty until proveninnocent.
Yep right, in a court of lawyou're still innocent until
proven guilty, but everywhereelse in the world you were not.
So what makes it easier provingit before?
(27:36):
But again, if that's somethingthat's so unnoticeable, it would
be normal that your operatormight not document it.
What would save that?
And I hate this because, likeI'm, you know I've heard this
argument before and I go wellidealism to you know, there's
realistic expectations.
What would have saved him?
four corners, photos all aroundbefore he loaded it possibly
(27:57):
right, like it sounds stupid,because you're like oh, I'm not
gonna waste my time with that,but now your company is wasting
more time defending itself thantaking why am I gonna take
pictures of nothing?
yeah, in case something happens,I guess you know, like, like I
teach and I install that takephotos, loading and unloading,
and that way, you know, your assis covered as an operator I'm
(28:19):
guilty of.
You know I will walk around andfind the spots.
You know the easy spots likethe front valance is cracked,
like there's um, when I was in awrecker, and he sort of scuffs
to the corners, especially onthe front, where they would say
that you jackknifed it or youhad your wheel lifted in too
close.
You know, taking those kinds ofthere's stuff that you just
(28:40):
don't think of taking photos.
And then a customer comes in,what's his dent on my roof?
Hmm, uh, like, there's no way Iput a dent on your roof.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
I had a wireless tow light.
Even if I had a wired one,there's no way I did the tent on
your roof.
Yeah, but it's okay.
So let's say you got a car upon the deck and while you're
driving to the shop, a stonecomes up and cracks your
windshield.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
How okay, how it's happened to me once over your
cab and hits their windshieldand cracks their windshield
happened to me once when I wastold something on the record.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
When I got to the shop I was like, was that
windshield cracked when I pickedit up and I couldn't remember
to say it was probably.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
No, it was probably a slight little chip and a bump
cracked.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
The goddamn thing, yes, but it still happened while
it was in my possession right,but it is anything that you
could have changed.
No, it was out of my controland I think one of the main
(29:44):
roadsides actually has a clauseto where, if your windshield
gets a stone chip while intransport, they will pay to get
the stone chip replaced or awindshield replaced Like while
you're driving, not while it'sbeing towed.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
No, while it's being towed.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
What?
Who has this?
One of the big road sites, oneof the?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
big road side.
Okay, I thought you said one ofthe roads, no no, that road
sees a lot of tow trucks.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
I'm not sure if they would pass that bill onto the
tow provider.
I'm hoping not because I'venever seen one of those bills,
but I did read at one of the bigroad sites.
This is back when I firststarted towing.
I'm not sure if they changednow, but they would pay to get
your windshield repaired if itgot damaged during shipment did
they have like a fucking likeepidemic of tow truck drivers
(30:27):
taking out windshields for awhile?
Speaker 2 (30:29):
like how, what?
Maybe like most of these rulesand most of these things are
brought in right because of anissue, right like you don't
offer free windshield repairwhile being towed, unless you
had a problem with windshieldsgetting damaged while being
towed yeah, right like well, Ithink you're seeing fewer and
fewer gravel roads now too outand about, so it could have been
(30:53):
a dying thing.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Yeah, Maybe back in the 60s, 70s, 80s it was more of
a big deal.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Possibly.
But yeah, it's just, it's anodd.
It's an odd.
I've never, I've never heard ofit, I've never seen it.
So I'm taking you know, as youshould do, I'll take your
opinion in this case, on it.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, um, your thoughts on it, but no, that's a
that's wild to me but I couldsee a customer being upset about
it Right, like if I tow theircar and when it gets to the drop
off.
Now, all of a sudden, they'vegot a big cracked windshield or,
having forbid, their windshieldis now all spider cracked and
(31:31):
you can't see throughout thewindshield Right.
That would be a fight that Iwouldn't want to have, but it
would be.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
See, that's the kind of damage claim I would like to
fight, because I go.
Mr Customer, if you would havedriven your car, you would have
taken the exact same route,follow the exact same Like
there's At one point it's go flya kite.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Here's At one point it's go fly a kite.
Yeah, I will takeresponsibility for any damage
that we do because of our towingpractices.
I will not take responsibilityfor any damage.
Okay, you're towing, you get aflat tire.
Right, You're towing the car.
You get a flat tire on, let'ssay, a front-wheel drive with
rear tires.
On the ground, you get a flattire.
Who's responsible?
It's not the towing company.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
It rear tires on the ground, you get a flat tire.
Who's responsible?
It's not the towing company.
That's not the towing company.
In that one they could say well, did the driver notice it right
away?
Did he pull over and change thetire, did he?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
drive, like you know well, like he noticed, he
noticed it.
He comes around, got a flattire, takes a corner.
Okay, got a flat tire, pull.
Who's responsible for payingfor that tire?
Not, not the towing company,right, I want to avoid that, put
it on a bed, but it's notrealistic and we understand that
.
Right, there is records andrecords are involved in the
towing industry for many, many,many years for a reason.
(32:44):
But, yeah, who's responsible?
My opinion I've been incustomer, right, I'm trying to
think of other things that couldhappen, like the cracked
windshield thing, customer, astone coming up off the road and
hitting the side of the car andputting a scratch in it.
Let's say, oh, dollies, right,yeah, yeah, true, a stone coming
(33:06):
up off a tire and hitting youknow, customer, you see when you
tow with dollies in the winter.
How disgusting it makes the sideof the car going on a dirt,
muddy road with dollies in thesummertime, and you see how
disgusting it makes out of a car, but no, okay.
So here's an example stonecomes up off of a dolly tire and
(33:28):
scratches a car or somethingalong those lines.
Customer Dolly tire blows outand scratches the customer car
Towing company.
Right, if a stone comes off mytow truck and hits your car and
I have my mud flaps, I'm fullyroad legal on everything.
It's just a stone that came outof the tread.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
It's customer.
But what if that customerwanted a bed and you convinced
him into a wrecker with dollies?
Speaker 2 (33:51):
It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter it doesn't
matter.
It's a good way to lose acustomer.
His vehicle is gettingtransported up in the air off
the ground, like stuff happened.
Like it would have been nodifferent if he drove it.
Yeah.
Right, like road hazard stufflike that.
That, would you know, appliesto you driving the vehicle or it
being towed, and maybe I I'llyou know, maybe that'll some
(34:14):
people don't agree with that.
I'd love to hear the argumenton it.
Right?
But you know, where does adamage claim start?
At what point do you draw thatline right, is it like?
I'd be curious to differentopinions on it and and that's
the scenario, right, sameconcept though.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
So you're towing something, let's say a Honda
Civic.
Honda Civic's probably a badexample, but anyways, you're
driving down the road with it onyour wrecker and you're driving
down a road you've never drivendown and you hit a bad pothole
and you bust out an oil pit.
So you had more than enoughclearance.
You just didn't see thecondition of the road Towing
(34:51):
company.
I know it's the towing company,but like it's something that
was kind of out of your control,that just happened going down
the road.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
No, it didn't.
It's not out of your control toavoid the big pothole.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Well, I don't know about the roads around you, but
some of our roads up here looklike war zones.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah, so take a different road.
That's in completely in yourcontrol yeah so towing company
yeah want to run other scenariosby me.
What else you got?
Speaker 1 (35:23):
it's just.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
It's always a fight, though, no matter what it's yeah
, it's towing the customers willalways want something for free,
and they always look at us asoh, the stupid tow truck driver
damaged my car towing acustomer's car on a pickup truck
in the tailgate fucking, slamsdown while you're towing it
fucking maybe catches, maybeit's got a trailer pinned well,
(35:45):
that wouldn't really make sense,I don't know.
Maybe he's got something on thebumper and it, you know,
damages the tailgate because thetailgate opened while the tow
truck driver was towing it.
Customer, if I didn't touchyour tailgate and I didn't go in
, you know what I mean.
Like, if I show up, this thingis lodged and it's going down
the road in the tow truck and ithits a bump and the tailgate
opens.
Customer.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
But what if it's the pickup truck and you've loaded
it backwards and it had a rollup tunnel cover and you had to
open up tailgate to roll up thetunnel cover?
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Well then, the tailgate is falling the other
way.
Um talking to like the boom ofyour tow truck.
Yeah, Towing company.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Yeah, so as soon as you touch it.
You're now liable.
Well, as soon as you touch it.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah, so as soon as you touch it, you're now liable.
Well, as soon as you touch it,yeah, like if you secure it and
you check it, you're liable,100%, 100%.
I think that's the fair way tolook at it.
As soon as you touch it, you'reliable for it.
Right, I thought you were goingto say that the tunnel cover
comes off.
I'm like towing company becauseit's backwards and it's not
supposed to go that way.
(36:50):
Um, no, like I said, there'sthere's a lot of things like
that, that fighting a damageclaim is always fun, um, if
you're in the right.
It sucks when you're in thewrong, um, but there's times
where you gotta, you know, tellpeople to kick rocks and then
there's times it's easier tojust shut them up, right, you
know?
I had a customer one time itcost me five dollars to solve a
clam.
I wasn't even going to fight itregardless.
He popped the uh neutralrelease tab out of like a dodge
(37:14):
caravan or a dodge something.
It was like the one that youhad like the cover.
Yeah, you know, that littlepiece that comes out yeah and he
said he put it in the cupholder.
Customer couldn't find it.
Customer was mad because I wasgot a hole in her you know next
to her shifter and I went to ascrapyard and grab her.
I think I found one in thebackyard of our yard.
No, I had to order it off dodge.
I tried.
I looked, I didn't have thatsame one, didn't have it in the
(37:35):
same trim color and I orderedone for like five dollars off
dodge and showed up at her houseand put it in because it wasn't
worth the argument that mydrive, you know, he said.
She said you know this wasn't,we weren't talking about a you
know 200 part where I'd go.
No, my guy, you know I stand bymy driver.
Whatever, this is just a reallyfive bucks gonna make you happy
(37:56):
.
Okay, I'm gonna spend more timefighting you on this, like I'm
gonna spend more than fivedollars arguing with you.
I'd rather just give you thefive bucks I I think damage
claims are.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
I towed a rental car the once and I was putting it up
on dollies.
And as I was putting it up ondollies, I was looking at the
back corner panel of this carand I looked and I saw a scratch
, kind of like at the same levelas the dollies, but not where
the dollies could even touch it.
(38:30):
I was like I'm gonna get blamedfor that, because anytime a
rental car gets brought back inthey go over it with like a
fine-tooth comb.
So I had to take, I tookpictures of everything, I
brought my manager out to thescene because he was close
anyways, and we dropped thedollies and cranked the dollies
back up just to show like thedollies couldn't touch where
(38:52):
this big scrape was and just tocover our ass, because I didn't
notice it prior to loading.
If I noticed it prior toputting dollies underneath of it
and took a picture of it, myass would have been covered.
But since I already had dolliesunderneath the car, I wanted to
just double and triple check tomake sure that I couldn't be
blamed for something I didn't do.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
And that's what a lot of it is.
It's covering your goddamn ass,remembering that everybody out
there is trying to get a buckoff you and nobody wants to pay
you for your services.
So, for the love of God, coveryour ass cover ass always.
Yeah, exactly Our favorite threeletters.
Yeah, but no, it's true.
(39:35):
Cover your ass when it comes toavoiding damage, slams, and
cover your ass when it comes togetting payment.
We've talked about this before,and I want to share two
separate stories that werecently had.
I don't think I ever shared the.
The most recent one, right theburn job.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
the most recent burn job I'm not sure if it was on
the show or not okay.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
So, um, we've talked about, you know, confirming
payment, two stories that we had.
One customer calls us up oneday, says I got a dodge ram
pickup truck that was comingback from new brunswick and I
started having transmissionissues.
Where when have I heard thatjoke before?
So, on the safe side, I wastowing my fifth wheel camper.
(40:14):
I left my fifth wheel camperthere and drove the truck back
empty to put less strain on thetransmission.
I made it back.
I'm currently in the process ofrebuilding my transmission, but
I need to get my camper broughtback.
What would you charge me?
And we're not going to get intothe camper brought back.
What would you charge me and I,you know we're not going to get
into the billing side.
On what we would charge, it wasabout a I want to say it was
(40:36):
like 2 000 kilometer round trip,you know, on this whole thing.
And so we put together a pricewith the customer.
He agrees okay, no problem,okay.
So we go and we drive down tonew brunswick and we pick up the
trailer, exactly where.
It is nothing wrong with thetrailer, right, we haul it back
(40:57):
and we had one driver go downand bring it back and then I
went and delivered it to thecustomer's house.
So I show up at the customer'shouse with him.
We kept in contact with him thewhole time and everything.
And he comes out and he goes.
Yeah, he's like you guys havenever been screwed before.
Eh, I go, what do you mean?
He goes?
Well, you went down, you did 2000 kilometer, you know a
thousand kilometers down to goget my trailer.
(41:18):
You never asked me for a creditcard number in advance.
What if the trailer wasn'tthere?
I was like, well, you're lucky,it was.
Yeah, but it's true, like Inever.
This guy called us out of theblue and I dealt with him
directly and I'm I like to thinkI'm a pretty good judge of
character, yep, and I spoke withhim on the phone because I
remember asking him, like, how'dyou hear about us?
(41:38):
Oh well, we stopped to get foodat the truck stop, you know,
and so whenever we ran intoproblems, we just thought, oh,
we'll try calling them, they'reclose to home and different
things like that.
But I never guaranteed any sortof payment before I left.
It was a country guy, I don'tknow.
You just get those moments.
(41:59):
So that was, you know, takenote, you can.
You know that would have burned, driving all the way down to
New Brunswick for nothing.
I mean, we just went down witha 2500 pickup, right, we didn't
bring a tow truck down becauseit didn't require anything
special and towed it back.
So we talked weeks ago it wasjust a fun little story I wanted
to share um, we talked weeksago about a motorcycle recovery
(42:23):
that we did where the police hadcalled us and we wouldn't go
ahead and do the job until theinsurance company, you know, got
involved their guaranteedpayment.
Well, I ran into that again.
I get a call from a, a localbut, um, a different police
force than we normally deal with, for a vehicle burnt to a crisp
(42:46):
, and so right away, my dispatchwas trained okay, police call.
Okay, get a truck going.
I'm like I'm gonna go take alook at this.
It's over, uh, it's over thebridge you need.
There's tolls involved andeverything else.
It's a big, you know.
So I go over and I meet theofficers over there and it is a
2023 rolls royce, not rollsroyce, sorry.
Uh, land rover burnt to theground.
(43:10):
Well, actually, at first when Igot there, I didn't know what
it was burnt to the ground.
They had no vin number thatthey've been able to find.
They don't know who the owneris like.
They just want us to pick it up.
And it's in a field, notblocking a road.
It's not an emergency, it's ina field.
So I tell the officers, I gookay, well, it's not going to
(43:31):
come out of here today.
Here's what's going to like.
Here's my problem.
I do not want to send all mythe resources that I need to
properly do this job, only tofind out that I'm going to get
stuck with this bill.
Do you have an owner?
Do you have a whatever?
Okay, well, let's look.
And then they started to do thedigging a little deeper yeah,
and now I guess we got to do ourjob now shit 100.
(43:53):
So they called the owner while Iwas there and I got her policy
number and it was an americanvehicle.
It was insured through geico.
Saved me 15 or more oninsurance by torching in the
field a stupid little lizard.
So I call geico with all thisinformation and I explain to
them who I am, because I'm inthe canadian side.
(44:15):
They're, you know, they trustme to buffalo, um and and get
this all sorted out.
And they said, okay, we'regonna send you an email um, you
know, it's like a claim throughlike thread so that you can
respond and whatever.
I said okay, so I send them offan email.
I go here is, uh, our breakdownfor our recovery for this
vehicle right now.
I've got a roll-off truck toclean up the debris, I've got my
(44:35):
float, I've got this, I've gotthe disposal fee at the landfill
.
This, this, this, all here hereis my, my all in total and it
the only thing that is is to beadded to this is 65 a day.
Storage for the um, storage ofthe carcass.
I'm going to call it becauseI'm going to pretty much go
there and I'm going to take thecarcass and I'm going to shake
(44:55):
it like the frame and get allthe loose stuff off, put that on
a bed and the rest is gettingscooped into a roll off bin and
go into the dump.
Yeah, never hear back from them.
Day or two goes by.
Don ever hear back from them.
Day or two goes by don't hearback from them.
My wife gets a call on impound.
Hey, this is a canadianinsurance company or that
manages or that deals with andit pickups out of our yard.
(45:16):
I'm looking for information anda payout on this, this vehicle.
My wife explains to them thevehicle is not currently in our
yard.
Until we can get confirmationof this invoice, you know, being
accepted, where we're, wehaven't sent out the trucks.
So if you can get confirmationfor that, we'll send out the
(45:37):
trucks.
Nope, there he goes by, don'thear back from anybody.
Okay, great, so I'm not goingto get it.
Next day, tow truck shows up atour yard with a check from the
company to pick up the vehicle.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
Just tell them where it is.
I'll keep the check.
Go get it bud.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
I'm like it's not here.
What do you mean?
It's not here.
I'm like nobody has given usconfirmation.
He's like well, I think thecheck is confirmation.
I'm like I agree the check isI'll?
have it here this afternoon.
Yeah, we went out and we wentand got it, but did he leave the
check for you?
No, no, no, he took the checkback.
And then he showed up the nextday with a check just for an
(46:20):
extra day storage, which didn'tmake any sense oh, because they
didn't want to get it thatafternoon, um, with an extra day
storage, and then didn't havethe original check.
And then came with the originalcheck and it was worth more
than the invoice.
Like I don't understandinsurance companies and so it
was.
But it's one of those thingslike confirm your payment.
It was another one where itwould be so easy for somebody to
(46:41):
take this vehicle in and sit onit and chase ownership and
chase whatever and all thatwhere it's like, if it's not,
it's a non-priority vehicle,make the calls first.
Get the information from these.
Make the calls.
The cops surprisinglyunderstand if this is in the
middle of the road blocking anintersection you can't go hold
(47:03):
on.
I want to call their insuranceto make sure they'll pay my bill
.
I get that part right and onmost vehicles right with the
process that you have throughontario, depending on on, you
know you can pile up and scrapthem at one point to get most of
your cost back out of it.
Yeah, I ain't getting anythingout of a burnt frame suv.
There's no weight left and whatI'm paying to dispose of
(47:26):
garbage right.
So the it's so important tojust it's little things like
that, especially when ourindustry is in such an
upside-down, tipsy-turvy kind ofplace that you can make those
arrangements ahead of time.
People have asked before seeingtrailers on the side of highways
in Canada.
Right, Americans have beenshocked by that at NBC.
What's this trailer still doinghere?
Because they're waiting forconfirmation before they go get
(47:48):
it.
They're doing the right thinginstead of getting screwed and
stuck with the bill.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
I think you are.
I think you're in a betterposition to negotiate that way,
though, because if you're in avery populated area, they'll
just keep calling another towcompany until some schmuck goes
out and does it.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
Then let him fucking deal with the bullshit that
comes with it.
Yeah.
You know, let him deal with thebullshit.
If the cops can't understandthat, at the end of the day, you
are a business, you know they.
I think they get a little toocomplacent in the thought well,
fire, ambulance, whateverthey're all like me, tow trucks,
like you guys just got to do,like we just do this and it's
(48:26):
like no, I'm a business, you'republicly funded and at the end
of the day, my business has tomake money.
If not, it's not a business,it's a fucking charity and I
don't I believe in donating tocherry.
I charity, I don't believe inrunning.
The business is one.
So you know most cops.
So if you just have an honestconversation about it, they
(48:48):
understand.
Look, I don't want to get stuckwith this thing.
You don't say that I'm notunder contract to be.
You know that you have to makeme do this.
There is one police force Ihave that I'm under contract,
that I don't have a choice.
I have to.
It's a dumb contract, but it iswhat it is.
I don't have to.
This is why I'm concerned.
(49:10):
If you can help me with theseconcerns by giving me an RO's
information, by giving me thiskind of stuff, then I can work
something out and we'll get thisdone for you.
You're right From the privateparking side of things.
They're just going to callsomebody else right Like private
parking I still don't do.
Right, like private parking, Istill don't do.
I love they call us.
Well, the cops told us to callyou.
Well, I only go if the copscall us.
(49:33):
Well, I call the cops, I know,but that's not what I mean.
Right, because that's whathappens.
They'll call the police and say, hey, I got a private vehicle
here I want removed.
Okay, well, you can callcompany towing.
You know A towing one, one, two, three towing.
They're who we use.
And then they call us.
We go, no, we don't do that.
Like what do you mean?
And then again it's.
(49:54):
It comes down to it's just likeI don't.
It's not that I don't want tohelp you, it comes down to it's
bad public, it's, it's bypublicity.
Um, you know we're here to helpthe community and I understand
that you're in a bit of asituation with this.
However, um, you know, I'mgonna get stuck with this
vehicle.
I'm, or I'm gonna have tocharge you ludicrous pricing
where there's all the stuff thatgoes into it.
We'd rather not get involved init.
(50:14):
Most people go no, that makessense.
But if you call company 245,they will absolutely help you
out.
And they call company 245 andthey go, haul their scrap away
and deal with it.
You know what I mean.
Like there's no reason thatjust because you're a towing
company that you need to takeall the shit right, like if
you're going to get the shit,fine, you know, find ways.
(50:37):
And this bill, like my bill wasit was a high bill for a burn
recovery, right, but it wasdetailed.
It was this unit.
You know my triaxial float andit's going to sound like
overkill my triaxial float at anhourly rate for three hours.
Travel out, load and clean upeverything, travel back my
(50:57):
roll-off truck for three hours.
Yep, the dumping of the fee.
And I went based on the lastone that I did.
I put the pricing at the sameprice and my skid steer that I
was using to do the cleanup inthe field.
No, did you.
That's why I use the triaxial.
Yeah, exactly, I chargedslightly more, yeah, but saved a
(51:21):
second, another unit having togo out and then paying, and then
I, you know 100 bucks in tolls,whatever it was, whatever the
tolls we calculated would be.
No, I sent the triaxial so Icould haul the carcass onto the
bed and then also reload theskid steer on it.
Save a truck, because I'm nottrying to screw the insurance
company, I'm trying to get paidvalue for my services, right,
(51:42):
and that's the problem.
They, they want to pre-bill.
A lot of them ahead of time,they, lot of them ahead of time.
They want to know what it'sgoing to cost.
Well, okay, so I went threehours.
Well, it took me two.
Well, guess what?
you needed a price rate up frontno if it would have taken me
four, you wouldn't let me chargefour.
So if it took me two, you'repaying three.
Right, that was the agreed uponevery invoice that they had
(52:03):
seen before that had three hourson it before we had even done
the job.
So, protecting yourself, makingsure you're getting paid, the
importance in the towingindustry, at the end of the day,
we can do the job in, you know,every day, all day.
Half the half the battle isgetting is doing the job.
The other half is getting paid.
Right, that is, that's the bigstruggle, and not just getting
(52:26):
paid, but getting paid whatyou're worth.
So, um, I think that was fun.
I like this episode, gee.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
I think we had a good time.
Did the learning curve ramp upa little bit.
Speaker 2 (52:38):
Yeah, I feel like we're.
We were very, uh, educationalto our listeners.
Hmm, I figured like you know,watch out Sesame street, we're
coming for you With a coupleextra fucks sprinkled throughout
.
A couple F-bombs sprinkled in onthe Sesame Street.
So yeah, that being said, onbehalf of myself and my
(53:02):
wonderful co-host, mr Tomanji,we thank you for joining us for
another episode of the TomanLife Podcast.
We cannot wait to see you againnext week.
Take care, toodles, joining usfor another episode of the
towing life podcast.
We cannot wait to see you againnext week.
Take care, toodles, did you tryand make a joke about the
(53:26):
fucking shooting?
Speaker 1 (53:28):
yeah, yeah, I did make a joke about the fucking
shooting.
Speaker 2 (53:30):
What was the joke exactly that you said?
I knew it was Local lawenforcement's always dropped the
ball.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
Oh, because they're supposed to be on that roof.
They're in the building but noton the roof.
Apparently, that roof was tooslopey, even though the Secret
Service was on a more slantedroof.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Could you think of let's end this recording.
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