American Towing and Recovery Institute onThe Go
American Towing and Recovery Institute onThe Go
Honoring Memorial Day with Guest Jerry's 60-Year Journey
Celebrating Memorial Day with more than just barbecues, we at the American Towing Recovery Institute podcast reflect on the essence of the holiday and the unbreakable bond of family within the towing industry. We're honored to have listeners like you, our 14,000-strong family, join myself, DJ Harrington, and Wes Wilburn, as we navigate the waters of safety, training, and customer service with a special guest who embodies these values. Jerry, from a family-run auto truck service in Chicago, graces us this episode with tales of his 60-year journey and the interweaving of family legacy with unparalleled professionalism.
Our conversation with Jerry goes beyond mere towing talk; it's a masterclass in how safety and certification form the backbone of trust in our profession. With his family by his side, Jerry demonstrates the power of a customer-centric approach, infused with the warmth of family values. We also address the challenges and necessities of keeping up with the ever-evolving demands of our field – because to stay stagnant is to fall behind. The dedication to continuous improvement, despite hurdles like the pandemic, shines through as we discuss the practicalities of organizing effective training sessions.
As we gear up for Memorial Day, our chat takes a moment of reverence for those who have served in the Armed Forces. We remind our listeners to honor the sacrifices made for our freedoms, just as we are committed to honoring the safety and well-being of those in the towing and recovery industry. Jerry's insights, coupled with our ongoing dialogue on education, certification, and remembrance, weave together a rich tapestry that is this episode. Join us for this heartfelt exchange that is sure to resonate with each of you, as we celebrate the shared commitment and camaraderie that make our industry exceptional.
Welcome one and all to the American Towing Recovery Institute podcast.
Speaker 1:Remember this is your podcast to promote safety, education, positive public relations and networking within the professional and business-minded towing and recovery industry. I'm your co-host, dj Harrington, better known as the Tow Doctor, and my other host is Wes Wilburn, over 40-year towing industry veteran, the founder of American Towing Recovery Institute of Fayetteville, north Carolina. He has produced and conducted training and certification programs for leading towing companies, equipment distributors, towing associations, dot, fire departments, rescue, as well as military installations across the United States. Wes has been published over 100 times in major towing publications published over 100 times in major towing publications. Wes has developed many courses, including the most recent awareness-level course for all responders that specialize in electric vehicles as well as hybrid, natural gas and hydrogen vehicles. Wes has provided insight as the main speaker for over 30 years at more than 900 training classes and has been recognized as one of America's greatest towing trainers. He is well known for his straightforward but down-to-earth teaching style. No-transcript. Without further ado, here's my dear friend and a great guy for our industry, wes Wilber.
Speaker 3:DJ, as always, I appreciate your kind words and the introduction. I hope you're doing good today.
Speaker 1:I'm doing fantastic and I enjoy being a co -host with you, my friend. This podcast is just booming People listening more and more, telling their friends about it. So 14,000 and growing. So just keep up the good work, my friend.
Speaker 3:Well, we're excited about that. Again, thank you to the listeners. It wouldn't be possible without y'all. As we're recording this, we're in the middle of May, but this will actually be playing towards the end of May, coming right into Memorial Day weekend. So I do want our listeners to remember the reason for Memorial Day is not a picnic and whatnot. A lot of men and women are also alive serving this great country of ours and we shouldn't lose sight of that and I hope everybody keeps that in mind over the Memorial Day weekend. Bj Memorial Weekend's special to me and my wife as well. We got married that weekend. We always struggle with what the date is, so we've adopted the strategy we recognize our anniversary as the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, that's a recognized anniversary date.
Speaker 3:It makes things a whole lot easier that way.
Speaker 4:There's a lot less bickering and fighting with that.
Speaker 3:We struggled for years. What the date was, her forgetting it more than me, actually.
Speaker 4:And you wouldn't get matching tattoos with the date on it.
Speaker 3:I'm not that committed and I have zero tattoos on my body, so when I say that I'm talking about committed to tattoos Me too, I always thought you would be my first, but you wouldn't believe me. There you go. You see what I'm dealing with here. But anyway, with Memorial Day weekend coming up, we're going to celebrate our anniversary on that Friday, memorial Day weekend.
Speaker 3:It's a recognized date for our anniversary. I suggest married couples consider that strategy. It's worked very well for us for the last decade or so. So we, just as you record this, I'm getting ready to go to Indianapolis. As you're listening to it, I've just been back. We're going to have a great weekend out there. The group of paddocks always does a good job. We ended up with a full house, count 29, I think, for heavy and 26 for high duty doing the one-day version out there of each.
Speaker 3:That's well-received. I think it fits in in communities that we've been to a lot with training. Just a couple weeks away from the Astro Toe Show, upstate New York. It's beautiful. If you haven't ever been up there, it's the Andorandack Mountains. I believe you pronounce it DJ, is that right?
Speaker 1:Right, you pronounce it better than I do.
Speaker 3:I struggle with it, but it's up above Albany. It's not New York City by any stretch of the imagination. It's up there where the Olympics were back in the 80s, if imagination, it's up there where the Olympics were back in the 80s, if I'm not mistaken. Lake George, well no, but I think that was another lake.
Speaker 1:Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think the Olympics were at Lake George. I think they were at Lake Placid.
Speaker 3:There you go, there you go. I know that was a big deal for Century Record back in the day they had a big presence with their tow trucks when they were coming out the gate at the Olympics and advertised heavily from it. But yeah, it's a beautiful part of the state. We were up there last year I don't know if you remember, but they had all that big fog from Canada smoke and me and Ron Moore did a two-day class before the show not at the show across the state we were in the big smog or fog, whatever it was, and it was horrible.
Speaker 3:That night, wednesday night drove up to Lake George for the show. By about that time the air mass had naturally pushed it south, so we were above it oh my god, was it a beautiful weekend in high george absolutely wonderful with the clean air and you know, first time had been decent for a few days, so they've apparently got a good show growing up there.
Speaker 3:The hotels are basically sold out from. I understand it, what we did? Uh, we had a couple rooms and we have some more of the staff coming up to the show, so we got, they got, they did it on their own, got the airbnb and I'm gonna stay there and uh, so that's another option if you're going to the esther show in upstate new york.
Speaker 3:It's june 6th through the 9th. We're going to be there Friday night and have an auction to help raise money for the association. I'm bringing a bunch of antique towing items. Some different folks are donating some stuff, so we're looking forward to a great time there. Friday night at the Esther show for their meet and greet and live auction, and then of course the show will be friday, during the day, saturday and, uh, I believe it's a half day sunday.
Speaker 3:I'm not positive on that. I haven't scheduled half day. A lot of times folks are basically getting up, getting out of there because it's been a long weekend. It's a good weekend up there. A lot of fun things to do besides the coach show with the family. Lake George is a beautiful area and, of course, june 21st, 22nd, 23rd, we're coming back to St Louis to work with our friends at Purpose Record.
Speaker 3:We'll be there the 21st doing an EV seminar. That's a free three-hour seminar on the 21st Friday night, sponsored by Cardinal Telling, by Boland Services. The 22nd is the heavy-duty class full one-day class and on the 23rd, full one-day light duty. Go to our website, wwwamtowriorg for that and other classes on our schedule. We also have for people that have been to training with us before this is not an entry-level class august 2nd and the 3rd train recovery class at maggio's or rockford, illinois. It's going to be an introductory level recovery class, towing class, working with trains and that type of equipment. We'll be featuring Maggio's RR450, which is the big escalator with the tow truck boom attached to it that he uses for railroad car recovery.
Speaker 3:We're working out the details now of exactly what we're going to do, but he's already Marty Maggio's already secured some great stuff, so we look forward to working with Marty, marty j, next the whole family up there. The great operation that's going to be august 2nd and 3rd. That's a friday evening and a saturday. It's about rockford. Illinois is about an hour and a half west of the city, west of O'Hare, and we range it that Friday morning through Saturday evening, depending on where you live. There's a whole lot of America. You can catch a flight in Friday morning, get out to O'Hare before noon, have several hours to drive out and then stay overnight and, depending on where you're going back to, you can get out of.
Speaker 3:O'Hare real good 8, 9, 10 o'clock at night.
Speaker 3:There's still flights going out, so you could possibly get out on a Saturday night, if not first thing Sunday morning. So we're looking forward to that. That's going to be a great class. First time we're doing something like that. We work with Madge as a bunch, but just never on something like this before, so we're super excited. Again, marty's been collecting stuff to make this a successful class, so we're really looking forward to it.
Speaker 3:I got a full schedule for the fall DJ. I'm not going to go through it. As a matter of fact, we got like three or four spots open and four or five people writing proposals for right now. Of course, when we write proposals, we don't get every one of them, but it looks like we're almost proposals for right now. Of course, when we write proposals, we don't get every one of them, but, um, looks like we're almost filled out for the year. Probably by the next, by the time this thing actually plays, we'll probably will be filled up for the year. We're starting to work on the schedule for 2025. Uh, basically now. So because, unless somebody wants to go late in winter this year, we're we're filled up through November almost.
Speaker 3:We're excited about that and struggling with trying to take care of customers that have been good to us over the years. That's what's going on in my world, DJ. We had a great guest today. If you didn't listen to last week's episode, you should go back and listen to it. I don't know if it'll make as much sense. Unless you do that, we're going to have the World According to Jerry, part 2, right after this commercial break. So we get everybody to hang around and we'll come back with our special guest.
Speaker 5:Information in this podcast is made possible by generous sponsorship from Henry's Wrecker, serving the community with quality towing and recovery for over 40 years. Henryswreckercom.
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Speaker 1:You have been listening to the American Tone Recovery Institute podcast with Wes Wilburn, dj Harrington. I can't thank you enough for letting us become the number one listen-to podcast in the tone recovery industry. Please download and listen. We're available on Spotify, itunes, pandora, stitcher, iheartmedia, amazon or wherever you get your podcasts and Wes. This is the transition part two of the wonderful world of Jerry, so how about I turn it back over to you, buddy?
Speaker 3:You're welcome. Thank you, DJ. I appreciate that. It's the world according to. Jerry. I don't know if it's wonderful or not. We'll have to ask some of those things. It's the world according to Jerry DJ. Pay attention now. Yep, yep, yep, If you didn't listen to last week's podcast.
Speaker 3:I strongly suggest you do but, I'd like to introduce our guest from last week. Didn't realize he had notes and a bunch of subjects he wanted to get to and I almost cut him off at the end of the podcast. But that's just because I'm told these podcasts, you know, I run them so long. People, people lose interest and we want to keep you all interested, so we got. Uh, jerry, I would like to welcome you back and you do me a favor, introduce yourself in a brief discussion, as much as I asked people to listen to last week sometimes people do, sometimes they don't.
Speaker 3:Just a brief introduction to who you are and how long you've been in the industry, just so as we talk about some of your points, that gives it a little perspective. Um so, if you would please, jerry, introduce yourself and thank you for making time to be back with us.
Speaker 4:So um, this is jerry with a auto truck service. We're located in the chicago area. We have a couple locations on the southwest side. Um, towing's been part of my life probably since I was like 10 years old and I'm currently going to turn 70 by the end of the year, so it's kind of a passion. It's one of those things where, if you enjoy what you're doing, typically you don't work a day in your life.
Speaker 4:The focus of this conversation is going to be towards safety. This is where we were headed to last week and we're going to continue to do it today.
Speaker 3:I guess. Yes, absolutely. Jerry. I've always appreciated your passion towards safety, so you were part of a family-telling business broke out on your own been on your own for 30 years with your lovely wife. Diane and you have a unique situation nowadays five sons involved in the business Am. I correct on that? Five sons in the business. Am I correct on that? Five sons? Yes, who's all been in and out?
Speaker 4:So we have five sons. They're all involved in the business. They're actually, at this point, partnered in the business. We had two daughters. They were involved in the business up until COVID and then they each left for separate reasons to pursue other careers, but while they were with us, they were also involved in the family business. Yes, so we had a family business going with my mom and dad and brother, and then 30 years ago my second life started with my wife, who was also working for the other company.
Speaker 3:With my wife, who was also working for the other company. We broke out on our own and we've established footprints in the Chicago area with some loyal customers.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you have some real loyal long-term customers, don't you? Yes, I would say a great majority of our customers are extremely loyal. Good business isn't just a company doing business with B company. Those relationships exist, but the better part of it is the people. So it's like myself with Diane and Jerry and my five sons.
Speaker 4:We are on first name basis with a lot of our customers and it sort of mixes the same thing the family atmosphere with the business atmosphere, and they can call us when they're in doubt or they need help with something. We don't always solve their problems, but we make suggestions and we come to a compromise on how we can do things because of our input.
Speaker 4:They rely on us. You're only as good as your last performance and you can only make one good impression and that's every time you come out. And that's kind of our forecast on what we're trying to do.
Speaker 3:But your longevity in a very aggressive market shows that you must be doing something right, absolutely.
Speaker 4:Well, we're extremely loyal to those customers, especially like in this area. In the winter months they need us and in the summer months we need them, and that's the fulfillment of the relationship that we have with them. There are times when every day, we could turn calls down. It's just because we would have to be turning down our loyal customers to take on new business.
Speaker 4:I know that's probably not a good business philosophy for some, but we like the continued repetition and repeat business of the same people over and over, and if we can do that up to 100% of keeping them satisfied, then it's like your case with your wife you have a good relationship. Keep it going. Why would you want to just get distracted doing something else?
Speaker 3:That's right. Good business of rights and good moral rights, suppose, at the same time. What do you think about that dj? I totally agree with jerry so taking care of their problems when they need you and then you take them, and vice versa. That is a good business strategy.
Speaker 3:Now, you talked about last time that training's been an invaluable part of and I don't hope I'm not putting words in, but training's been a big part, I wouldn't word it like that uh your success at a auto and you alluded to and again I kind of I didn't, I didn't mean to, but I kind of cut you off last time but you're starting to talk about safety or training and how that converts into safety on the job. I believe is where you're going with that. How has training and safety been helped you with these customer relationships? How about that? Is that a good question?
Speaker 4:It's a fair question. So the training promotes safety and I believe safety promotes the training. If you knew what the rules were and what your expectations are, it's easier for you to comply with your customers. Every now and then we get called out on special things where someone might challenge your training or your certification, and we've created a notebook with each employee on what kind of training and certification they have, and it puts the customer more at ease.
Speaker 4:Whether it's one of your commercial customers, private customers maybe, they don't usually challenge you too much your police departments they have that understanding of your degree of professionalism. That's one aspect of it. The condition of your equipment will also portray your professionalism and how your license and what you're doing. As far as licensing, there's all different aspects of it. It's not just about buying a truck.
Speaker 1:You should know how to use the truck. You should know how to use it properly.
Speaker 4:It shouldn't be trial and error. You should know how to use the truck. You should know how to use it properly. It shouldn't be trial and error.
Speaker 2:And I've had.
Speaker 4:I have attended throughout the years a lot of training classes. The first ones were forced on me when I was in junior college, when I was taking automotive classes and part of the program was is that in order to get your degree, you had to take safety classes. At the time I thought, wow, this was a waste of Jerry's time. Later on, time and time again, I've gone back to things.
Speaker 5:I learned when I was out of high school, going into junior college.
Speaker 4:That plays into your life every day. I'm big on safety. My guys are all taught safety. Do they always do what they're supposed to do. Maybe it's one of those things out of sight out of mind, but that doesn't negate from the fact that they should be safe in what they're doing.
Speaker 3:Well, one of the things in that situation is you show them what you want done. You make a policy how you wanted to do it. There's got to be some level of trust that they'll actually do that when they're not in your site range and you know, that is what it is.
Speaker 3:But I want to switch back to something you said earlier in the conversation and something that I've noticed about you. With this introduction, I'm going to talk about certificate expiration dates and how you pay attention to that as much, if not more, than anybody I know. So we're going to get our listeners to hang around. We've got to take a quick break and come back after the break. I just want to talk a little bit about that. If we could, can you hang around for after the break? Jared, absolutely, I'm here. All right, listeners, we'll be right back.
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Speaker 1:Welcome back listeners. Of course you know you're listening to the american tone recovery institute podcast with the number one guy, west wilburn, dj harrington, the cardiologist, and remember we want to thank each and every one of your 14 000 listeners. Remember to like, review and share everywhere. We can't thank you enough. If you want to hear another industry pro like Jerry, by all means dial the hotline number here at the podcast center 706-409-5603. And Wes Wilburn will do his very best to get you on the next podcast. All right, wes, turn it over to you.
Speaker 3:Jerry has been tremendously interesting so I'd love to hear more. He absolutely has, dj. We appreciate him taking time out of his schedule to talk to us. Jerry, one of the things I noticed and probably a piece of why you just hosted the successful class you did up at Lynch in Chicago listeners that don't know that didn't listen. Last week we had 45 students, 44 students there Absolute success.
Speaker 3:Jerry got us loaded, tracked the trailer. Several very late model new trucks a front charge, a rear discharge concrete mixer that we thank Zingo for that. They've been very good to me over the years. Letting us use units. They're front and rear discharge units, completely newer units used for towing operations. We overturned a tractor trailer that was loaded, weighed, I think, 76,000, 77,000 was the estimate, I believe. We did it two different ways, once from the roof and once from the wheels, so we had a real good class out there. Part of the beginning of talking about the class was you becoming being aware not becoming being, because you've always been very aware about expiration dates on these towing certificates and whatnot. Is that just a natural thing or did you ever have experience?
Speaker 1:with someone saying, hey, you might have this training, but it's expired.
Speaker 3:Or talk a little bit about how you, in my opinion, pay attention as good as anybody to the expiration dates on training, how that factors into your company.
Speaker 4:So a lot of the training certificates in fact there could be an exception to the rule A lot of the training where you're doing the training and certification usually has a limit on it. I believe yours is four or five years.
Speaker 3:Five years is what we've stuck to. Can I just reference that real quick why we do it as an organization.
Speaker 4:Absolutely Go ahead.
Speaker 3:When we first started on our own, we looked at many different things. One of them was training with no exam. One of them was certification without an expiration date. As over the years we've had many, many, many different government agencies. Look at our program to see if it's acceptable for what they're trying to do, even with another program they're aware of. Sometimes they're not aware of our program. We first started talking about a class-no exam and then also an OR certificate without a desperation. We were almost laughed at.
Speaker 3:So, in order to have some credibility, we feel it's important that it be a serious exam that tests you on the subject of the material of the class and subject of the trade in general, and that also that there is an expiration and I can feel good sitting here talking to my listeners, If you attend a class and attend the same class five years later. We've updated a lot over history. There's never been a five-year span that we've been basically the same as we were five years ago. Nowadays that information is moving so much quicker. So from the educational standpoint, that's why we do that, just to put it out there. Jerry, I'm sorry to cut you off.
Speaker 4:No, it's actually. Those were items that were to be discussed about the safety and the training and recertification. So if yours is five years, I'm not sure what rec master was I don't know if the TRAA test, once you've accomplished taking those which are basically knowledge tests, where you, from what I know I stand, corrected if I'm wrong.
Speaker 3:But what is it like?
Speaker 4:Go ahead.
Speaker 3:Now, that's what I understand too.
Speaker 4:Go ahead. So once you have that TRA certification is there a?
Speaker 4:refresher course. Do they put out a new book? Is there a new questionnaire? Is there new knowledge that they share? I don't know. But the training, certification, typically, I believe you get more out of it if you've done the classroom and then you've done the hands-on, and that's what we promote. We at one point, when we first started in business 30 years ago, had an insurance agency and along the way we had I believe it was called John Deere Insurance and John Deere was promoting Ross Kinman and Ross Kinman was coming into our area and he was putting on classes I believe they were one day classes which was always something to be learned from those classes.
Speaker 3:Go ahead. Absolute leader in education in the towing industry, he was the first person to be serious about going around the country doing classes in the 70s and the 80s. When he started, I believe I know he was doing it in the 80s. I believe he started in the early 70s.
Speaker 4:The classes we were doing with Ross probably was around mid to late 90s maybe into early, you know, 2000. Like I said, we went to it was Ross' classes were probably the same class time and time again, but it doesn't hurt to go to those classes to learn new things.
Speaker 4:For instance, let's go to one of your classes. You go to your classes I don't both by knowledge and by physically doing the jobs, and you come back to a class five years later, if that's the time span. Like you said, you have new things to learn because there's new techniques, there's changes in what you're handling, both in the equipment you're operating and the devices you're using for hooking up to things.
Speaker 3:And the things have changed so much as well. What did the thing you're hooking up to?
Speaker 4:Oh, absolutely yes right now, in this particular case, a lot of our certifications with you I think were around 2014 and if you take a good five-year span of 2019, it all got disrupted for at least three years or more of covid. So I think where you're we're going at is the reason for this class was is the fact that our certifications had all expired, or most of them did that had an expiration date on it. So I was prompted to contact you to bring you back up here and we started with you. We started with lynch and it got all put together and I think it was a very successful class oh, absolutely it was.
Speaker 3:We were tickled to death and hoping to do it again.
Speaker 4:Right, and, I believe, everybody else is because, if we were to let this run its gamut um, we would have had we only had a certain capacity for the classroom. Plus, I believe some of the classes should be limited to a certain size. Otherwise I think you kind of, if you don't have enough handlers, you not everybody's going to get the same out of it.
Speaker 3:We also have the size of the room issue as well.
Speaker 4:No, right, right.
Speaker 3:I passed on to Robert that I've already started getting estimates from construction companies. If we take that window into the cafeteria and make it a doorway right there, with a sliding door, we could get another 20 people in that room. I'm telling you Just let Robert know that we have to do the estimate.
Speaker 4:Lots of luck with that one, you can handle it.
Speaker 3:Anyway, I'm just kidding about all that. That room after training was great and it's a nice room, it's wonderful the way they had the whole facility set up for us. Um, we were very happy to be there. I was amazed how many trucks they had on the line. I did a facebook live video where I rode around their lot and they had a lot of chassis, a lot of units on the ground, a lot of units put together.
Speaker 3:Some of them were sold, but a whole lot of them I don't think were so shows that turning around a little bit in favor of the towing industry, that's good to see right so so to me it's a good mix with the safety.
Speaker 4:Safety is is um, what will you bring to the table and you share with everybody else? And then your trainers that you bring with. They also have a viewpoint of what's going on. People that go to the classes, I believe, not only should try to gain the knowledge and understand it, but they should get involved in the hands-on it. But they should get involved in the hands-on. Watching somebody do it is wonderful, but actually doing it yourself it sticks with you more.
Speaker 4:I don't think there's enough classes. I think there should be more Obviously sometimes, like with COVID, you couldn't fill the classes and that's why some of our stuff expired. But we were on a job and, without going into too much detail, our customers' equipment was on somebody else's property. They were very safety-minded and they challenged us, as I believe I had in the last podcast. We had created a book and in the book it'll look like.
Speaker 3:Hang on a second before we get to the book. All right In the world, according to Jerry, what does challenge just mean exactly? Let me just get this straight. You're on a government installation, a private factory-type installation, a construction site, just general, whatever you're comfortable sharing with me so we can paint an accurate picture here.
Speaker 4:Just general, whatever you're comfortable sharing with me so we can paint an accurate picture here. So we were on a private corporation's facility.
Speaker 3:Dealing with your customers' equipment that had called you to deal with their equipment.
Speaker 4:Right. Their equipment was on their property, their equipment had rolled over, it was loaded and they Commercial heavy truck. The tanker rolled over.
Speaker 3:Gotcha, go ahead, go ahead, gary.
Speaker 4:So the company had called out a crane. The company was kind of Didn't notify my customer when an incident happened, so when my customer became notified- they were hands-on. They went to the site. They asked for a service truck and two rotators. They asked for a service truck first because they wanted to get the product off.
Speaker 3:So hang on, how far is this from your location?
Speaker 4:I'm about to get a good 50 minutes drive 50 minutes, almost an hour. Yes, sir.
Speaker 3:And how long did it take the customer?
Speaker 4:to get on um location, the customer has to travel about the same distance. You know it's it's um from the suburbs going into the city, but because of traffic and so forth, it just takes time to get there all right, so a little bit of time is passed.
Speaker 4:Go ahead Is the crane on site, yet so when our customer got on the site, the people on the facility called the crane. The crane hadn't done anything. Our customer saw the crane and told the crane to leave. So it was as simple as that. Our customer said he was going to handle his own recovery. So our service truck showed up and the facility the people at the facility would not let my customer unload it the way he wanted to unload it.
Speaker 3:So then they called Product dangerous.
Speaker 4:The product is shipped in from.
Speaker 4:Canada it's supposedly loaded in an insulated tank, I believe at over 200 degrees thereabouts. It was delivered on a Friday. It ended up on its side somewhere after it was dropped. I don't know if they dropped it and the leg gave up on soft soil or whatever, but the product has to be heated to be loaded. The product has to be heated while it's being shipped and it should be unloaded before it cools down, because if it cools down it's a heavy gear oil or something of that sort and you wouldn't be able to get the product out of the tank and save the tank and or save the load. And they were trying to do all of the above.
Speaker 3:Go ahead.
Speaker 4:So when they were notified on Monday, we were notified, we were sent pictures, so we knew what we wanted. We knew what the customer wanted. So, after the service truck was there and they wouldn't let them open up the dome, like they wanted to, to get the product out out, they had to unload it from the bottom so they can only get some of the product out while it's laying outside. At such point now it has to be uprighted and because the crane was dismissed, my son said um, do you have certification? Without going into too much detail, do I have the certification to go ahead and do this job? And I said, yes, I do. And he was surprised because he didn't know I had it. Um, so we went out to two rotators. We got there, um, we did the, the normal thing, which is park the trucks um, introduce ourselves, have a conversation with the safety crew.
Speaker 4:That was there at that facility and then we had to pull the book out. We had to show them what we had. They said my certification was expired for my training and certification, but my card was still valid, because my card doesn't have an expiration date on it.
Speaker 3:Can I clarify that real quick?
Speaker 4:for our listeners here, yes, you can.
Speaker 3:Jerry attended when we first did our recovery course for rotators, the first course that was outside of the factory course that Miller had offered. We combined it with an OSHA level one rigorous card and taught that in conjunction with a rotator course, sometimes in a two-day, sometimes in a three-day format, the OSHA level one rigorous card by control of OSHA, not by control of me, but issued to their guidelines once they completed the course, passed the test, et cetera that we used to work with, used to give, in conjunction with their guidelines, the OSHA.
Speaker 3:Level 1 Ergo's card has no expiration, telling a recovery certificate, speaking of we talked about earlier about in our industry, the certificate having expiration helps with validity. The test to get to that certification is how we achieve it. I think I cleared it up, jared. What do you think?
Speaker 4:That pretty well covers it. There's let's see in the world of coronavirus, there's only a handful of people that have that card that I'm aware of in the pulling industry.
Speaker 3:We did, and others did it as well, so there's a pretty big handful. I'm not trying to argue with you but it's, you know, less than 1% of the industry, I'm sure.
Speaker 4:Well, I guess what I was relating to is that crane operators I'm sure they have a certification card.
Speaker 5:A rigger for a crane?
Speaker 4:I'm sure has that certification and that card they carry. I carry the card with me all the time. Plus, we have a copy of it in the book. And by attending your three-day class that we went to Myrtle Beach, my oldest son and me came back with those cards. I've only been challenged on that card in, let's say, 10 years or more, a handful of times. But having the card, maybe I should say that there's a lot of operators out there that aren't aware that they need it or should have it, or that it's even available. Does that pretty well cover it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it does, and it's not available that much. We don't really do it anymore, we could if we had an interested group, but we just haven't. The whole thing with training and what people are interested in has changed greatly over the last decade and continues to move at a fast pace, so that is what it is. But you know the one thing about some of your certifications running out as well. I will say this any class we've been to anywhere close to you guys you participated in and during COVID, if I'm not mistaken right.
Speaker 3:I don't remember during or at the end of it or what it was. But you definitely, as we started to crank up classes, sent some people out much further than you normally would to attend because of the you know the limited ability of classes at that point. But so you did what you could to stay current with that. And that's one issue. With the towing industry there's interest in training somewhat, but not a great interest. Every two people that are interested, there's eight people that tell you it's a waste of money.
Speaker 3:I the seven out of the eight have never attended a class, so they don't have my opinion. A good place to make a judgment. But that's just me.
Speaker 4:I'll ask you a question. I expect no answer, but you know, for the individuals that call themselves professional or to be in this profession, at what level do they want to be? You know, does the doctor only go so far? Does the dentist only go so far? Does a veterinarian person only go so far? Does the cpa only go so far? And when you talk about renewing, I mean any certifications or license you have.
Speaker 4:I believe there's always exception, but even your driver's license has to be renewed If your license is good for four years and if you didn't have any tickets or accidents, maybe they just have to go there and get a new driver's license, a new photo, but if you've had accidents or tickets or whatever, you might have to retake your tests, your skills tests or your knowledge tests. So I just think it's ongoing, that it all promotes the safety. I mean there's a lot of things we can talk about safety equipment-wise, the tagging of your equipment and so forth, but I think we're going to run out of time here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well we're really close to out of time now, but we can definitely do a part three with you. I've got a couple lined up for the next couple weeks but if you'd be interested, I'd love to come back and talk to you in a month or so about the water cord and jerry and talk about some of the stuff you're doing with ag equipment and other things you're doing in the name of safety and how that's serving you. If you'd be interested, we'd love to have you back sometime in the future. I'm agreeable to it.
Speaker 4:It might be like you said. It might be several weeks because of some obligations I have coming up in June.
Speaker 3:June's going to be a busy month for me, okay well, good, that's good to hear that you got a lot going on, but we definitely appreciate all you've done for uh organization in the name of training a good friend over the years and we appreciate you coming on and talking to us. Is there a way folks can get in touch with you if they want to reach out and talk to you directly? I currently don't I don't really have a facebook?
Speaker 4:I don't. I don't have an email or whatever. If they wrote the questions to you and you pass them on, we could probably do it that way Would be my knee-jerk reaction at the moment.
Speaker 3:Sure, sure Folks, you can definitely reach out to us and we'll put you directly in contact with Jerry. Appreciate you being here, Jerry. Dj, take us home, buddy.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to tell Jerry he did a fantastic job, and safety is always on the mind of every one of us on this podcast, so it's real, real important. I want to also thank everyone who served in the Armed Forces. Memorial Day is right around the corner. It's the last Monday of May, formerly known as Decoration Day, and commemorates all the men and women that have died in the military service for the United States, people visit cemeteries and memorials on Memorial Day.
Speaker 1:That's why they call it Memorial Day. I just want to reach out to all of you and those men and women who served our country to keep us safe. We should tip our hats to them. So remember the loved ones in your family that served in the military and Wes. This was a great one, and I look forward to the next time that we have. Jerry and the wonderful world of the world According to Jerry is a good part of this budget.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Thank you, listeners, be safe, god bless.