American Towing and Recovery Institute onThe Go
American Towing and Recovery Institute onThe Go
From Hurricanes to Hashtags: Towing Success Stories
Ever wondered how a towing business thrives in a small town or how to leverage social media for business growth? Our latest episode promises to equip you with insights straight from industry veterans. Start with a warm welcome from DJ Harrington and dive into the remarkable journey of our co-host Wes Wilburn, a seasoned expert with 40 years in towing. We celebrate a significant milestone—over 150 episodes and 15,000 loyal subscribers—and share personal stories from the recent hurricane. Plus, get the lowdown on upcoming training events across the country that you won’t want to miss.
Travel with us to Lynchburg, Virginia, where we uncover the secrets behind running a successful towing business in a town of 80,000 people. Learn how a strong, loyal team and community involvement can make all the difference. Kevin Jennings from Bee-Line Towing is the guest. Discover the critical role of fair pricing and promises kept, and gain actionable tips on harnessing the power of social media for marketing and customer engagement. Whether you're in the towing industry or simply looking for business wisdom, this episode is packed with valuable lessons and heartwarming stories.
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 2:DJ, as always, I appreciate your kind words. I thank you so much for being involved in this podcast, and getting me involved is what I should say, boy, it's hard to believe it's been what over 150 episodes 150 episodes and you are the largest in the towing and recovery industry.
Speaker 3:Most listeners, you know well over 15,000. Most listeners, you know well over 15,000. And, and you know the sad thing of it is Wes, we measured the 15,000. There's so many out there that are listening that you don't even get those, those numbers. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, that's 15,000 subscribers. They count in this world. So if you're listening to us regularly, please subscribe. We appreciate it. We appreciate you listening. Anyway, Hit that like and share button and it's just exciting to be a part of it. It's helped me grow and stay in tune with the industry and I'm thankful to be here.
Speaker 3:Well, wes, I'm going to tell all our listeners from the bottom of my heart. Every time I'm at a show and someone walks over to me and says, I hear you and Wes on the podcast. It's really good and I have my son listening to it because this is a podcast that the entire family can listen to and that's the nice thing. So when your children are in the truck or you're in your car and you're listening, you don't have to worry about Wes Wilburn or DJ Harrington. We're out on. Anybody can listen to this program, any position in the industry, any age group it'd be comfortable and hopefully learn something as well.
Speaker 2:We just got past the hurricane and whatnot. I guess you're too far west. You didn't see any effects from the hurricane, did you?
Speaker 3:No, we had a little bit of rain in the Atlanta market. My daughter now that's a different story. She was down in Key. She has a home in Treasure Island, florida, and her boat had to be put in the marina just to keep her safekeeping. But her backyard got a little. Couple of trees got knocked down. But you guys, and north of you, really got hit, didn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we, it was, wasn't as bad as they predicted for us. It was a slow-moving storm supposed to be a major rain event, which it was, but it was about half the rainfall they predicted for us here. So a few limbs down and some of you know a bit of limited travel, and we were fine, absolutely fine. We had a great guest today. As a matter of fact, we're going to be at his place for a school coming up, so I'm looking forward to that. I guess I should talk about where we're going to be.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 2:We're coming through the end of summer here coming back in September. Early September 7th and 8th we're going to be in Rhode Island, johnston, rhode Island, the Rhode Island Towing Association, a light and medium duty class. The association is a special discount pricing for the association you can contact Adam 401-248-1600.
Speaker 2:That's 401-248-1600. And again, that's September 7th and 8th for a light and medium-duty class at Johnson, rhode Island. Then two weeks later we're going to be in Virginia, lynchburg, virginia, beeline towing, september 20th for that free electric vehicle class, geared for both firefighters and towing. Then that's Friday night 6 to 9 pm. We're going to have a dinner at 5 pm. Saturday and Sunday, september 21st and 22nd, heavy duty towing recovery with some rotator usage and DJ. Like I say, that class is almost filled up. We got 20 students signed up for it a month out.
Speaker 3:Wow, fantastic.
Speaker 2:Two weeks later we're going to be at Oregon private school out there, uh, there might be opening up. There might be a few seats open. I'll have an announcement next podcast on that. Um, then we'll be October 18th. That's that Friday night.
Speaker 2:Lake station, indiana, right next to Gary, bottom side of the lake from Chicago or Detroit for that matter. Friday night the free electric vehicle class, three hours six to nine. On the Saturday and Sunday, two-day heavy duty tow and recovery with some rotator to go in recovery with some rotator. Then the middle of November will be Sumner, south Carolina, two-day fire tower cross training me and Ron Moore. We do have that first weekend of November open looking to work with someone on training there. Anybody listening is interested. Contact us, whether it's a training date or just want to attend a class. They can go to our website wwwamtowriorg or call us at 910-747-9000. Besides that, we want everybody to visit our YouTube channel. We're working a lot on that. Get some stuff added to that. Dj Yep. Besides that, I guess ask everybody to hang around until after the break. We've got a great podcast interview for you.
Speaker 3:Yes, and before we put our special guest on, I want to tell all state associations that if you have some industry news that you want to talk about in your state and how to promote, like the move over law that's going on in your state, by all means dial 910-747-9000 and let someone on the staff at the American Towing and Recovery Institute talk to you about your state association, and Wes and I will be more than happy to put a bulletin out if you're doing something special for your state and just helping the industry grow.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, DJ. We're more than happy to help like that. So people don't hesitate to reach out to us.
Speaker 3:We got a great guest, so after the break, folks, we'll be right back.
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Speaker 1:Welcome back listeners. Of course you're listening to the number one podcast in towing recovery, the American Towing Recovery Institute podcast with Wes Wilburn, dj Harrington, the tow doctor. Just remember, every week we do our best to bring you informative episodes like the one you're listening to. Make sure you download and listen. We're available on Spotify, itunes, pandora, stitcher the number one podcast iHeartMedia, amazon or wherever you get your podcasts. We are there. So, wes, we got a great one today, buddy, one of your dear friends, so let me pass it right on over to you.
Speaker 2:Thanks, dj. I appreciate it and I do just want to take a quick second. 15,000 subscribers and growing. I'm really appreciative of that. Thank you for hitting that subscribe button. That means everything in this world. So we got a great guest today, a towing operator I've known from my home state. They're hosting a school. Coming up, kevin, introduce yourself to our listeners, please.
Speaker 4:I am Kevin Jones. I own Beeline Transport in Lynchburg Virginia.
Speaker 2:Kevin, how long have you operated Beeline?
Speaker 4:We started Beeline in August of 98. So last year in August we celebrated our 25th anniversary. We're still celebrating it.
Speaker 2:Nothing wrong with that. Tell us a little bit about the size of your operation and how you got started.
Speaker 4:Well, I got started hauling salvage cars, as probably a lot of guys did. I started hauling salvage cars for the insurance, auto auctions and co-parks and it was an ASD there in Chatham Virginia that I hauled for. And then I obviously started hauling back out of there for some of the salvage yards. And then I got busy with that and I started doing some local stuff with a rollback to try to keep up with everything. I stayed in a truck there myself for four or five solid years and I still go out and fiddle around with the guys when they have some big stuff going on. But I started out doing that and I actually don't do any of that anymore. Pretty much everything we do now is work and wrecks and we move a lot of heavy equipment and we have two locations and at one of those locations we've got a full service diesel repair shop with seven mechanics working in there.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's a lot going on right there.
Speaker 4:I think last year don't quote me on this, but I think last year it was like 13,600 calls that did that big line.
Speaker 2:That's impressive. Especially you're in Lynchburg, virginia. That's not a huge town, is it?
Speaker 4:No, it's not. I think the population when Livers is there is only about 80,000. We're about 50 miles from an interstate which would be Interstate 81, and we all know what goes on up there. We don't get that action but we try to take what we can there. In Lynchburg we got to change right here to 460 and 29, but we kind of stretch out on some police locations. Some of them are about an hour and 15 minutes before we get there. But that's just the way it is when you're not in a big city.
Speaker 2:Right, that's definitely rural America with a lot of mountains. You know the Blue Ridge Mountains there. Yeah right, right, beautiful, beautiful country. And Liberty University just for those that don't know you referenced it earlier is a big university there in town.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that keeps everybody busy. Every university keeps everybody busy and that one especially does for us. We do a tremendous amount of towing for them Illegally parked cars and we move a ton of equipment for them. I run out a lot of storage containers, we move those around on the college campus a lot and we work on all of their big NCIs and our motor coaches there in the shop.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's quite a bit. Yeah so that's something you've kind of grown with the university and the town. Would that be a true statement?
Speaker 4:Yeah, everything everybody there that shows up and does the right thing when you say you're going to do it. It's not magical. A lot of people try to figure it out. It's not hard to do. You just got to do what you say you're going to do for people. Most important thing is learn early into it to charge what it's worth and not what it's not worth.
Speaker 2:Right, that is a big separation factor actually with successful telling companies is understanding that it's what their true cost is and charging for it, not just creating a job, but creating a good job for their employees.
Speaker 6:Right.
Speaker 2:I know you value good employees. From what I see Also, y'all do a good job of telling your story. We'll talk about that in a moment, but talk about the value of the team that you surrounded yourself with at Tully.
Speaker 4:I try to treat everybody like I would my own family, and a lot of that starts with a good interview and just having an instinct for you know what you're looking for and who you're hiring, and try not to overhire. That's one of the things I've been successful with. I try not to overhire. That's one of the things I've been successful with. I've tried not to overhire. It just doesn't work out. I like to hire somebody that doesn't know anything and they want to learn a lot and not make a ton of money right off the bat. But, you know, give me an opportunity to watch them grow and take care of them. But I'm surrounded, you know, with a lot of people like that. I've got people that's been there since I started. You know I've been in business for 25 years. I've got a couple of guys that's been there for 23 years, one 21 years, one 19 years, one 17 years. About four of them's been there 15 years. About three or four's been there 10 years.
Speaker 4:Wow, that's impressive in this day and age especially. Yeah, I've been pretty successful with taking care of my people. I mean, that's what I do. I've got a lot of husband. I got some husband wife couples, some father-son couples.
Speaker 2:It's just really worked out good for us. That's awesome. I know one thing when I deal with your employees that haven't met school school, have had them at school and working with them getting ready for the school coming up we're doing with you guys, everybody seems to be happy and that's always a true sign. I mean, I know every minute of every day everybody's not happy, but in general, everybody seems to feel happy at your place. That shows a lot about the caliber of the company, in my opinion.
Speaker 4:Right, well, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Thank you Tell us about. Well, actually we need to take a quick break. Can you hang around until after the break, and I want you to tell us about some of the other stuff you're involved in and also about the special sponsorship you've arranged for the school coming up. Okay, can you hang around for a minute? Yes, sir, thank you, can you hang around for a minute?
Speaker 4:Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
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Speaker 1:Welcome back listeners. Of course you know you're listening to the number one podcast, the American Towing Recovery Institute podcast, that's Wilbur and DJ Harrington, and with.
Speaker 1:Kevin Jones. He's bringing it on, boy. I want to ask all of you I can't thank you enough, all 15,000. Remember to like and review, share everywhere. Keep telling your friends about it. Wes loves to hear how many listeners we have. We have a hotline number If you want to hear an industry expert. We have. We have a hotline number If you want to hear an industry expert like the Kevin Jones from Beeline, by all means just dial 706-409-5603, and we'll do our best to have that pro on here Now. I like when Kevin was talking about Liberty University. I contribute to Liberty.
Speaker 4:So I want to ask Kevin, if I may, Wes, how's the sports up there? The sports is awesome up there. We're top of the line G5. We're not the big boys yet, but we're getting there. Liberty has only been in business for 50 years, compared to a lot of schools the 200, but we've gotten a lot of people's attention nationwide, especially going to the Fiesta Bowl last year, so we're excited to come in this year.
Speaker 2:You're a big fan of all the different sports there at the university, aren't you, Kevin?
Speaker 4:Yeah, especially basketball and football Right Absolutely. That's awesome that is right, Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. That is awesome. Well, we got a school coming up there. I hate to say it, it's the same weekend as a home game. That was something we couldn't avoid with scheduling. We're still going to do it. It's going to be September and you planned some special stuff for that.
Speaker 4:Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, we try to do things the right way, wes, and show a lot of respect to the guys in the industry, because we all know what we go through. So Paul works for me. He's kind of working with you to coordinate that. But behind the scenes I said, paul, we've got to make sure we do this thing right. So I reached out to my friend 50 miles up the road there at Robert Young that's who we buy all of our NRC stuff from and I asked him if he would want to do a sponsorship of a lunch there one day and maybe throw some nice prizes in. He said absolutely.
Speaker 4:And Pinnacle Trailers is about eight or nine miles down the road from us.
Speaker 4:I don't know if you've made with them, but they're Pinnacle Trailers.
Speaker 4:I think they've got four or five locations on the East Coast and so they've offered to um set a couple of trailers on the property there and they're going to do a nice lunch for us one day and then um, so we'll have lunch provided by those guys two different days and a lot of nice prizes, and then saturday night um, I'm the kubota of lynchburg. They're not far from the dealership. Saturday night, kubota is going to host everyone that wants to come attend this Angus Patina Bar and Grill. It's about two miles from our shop there, not far at all. We're going to go there and have a meal and a couple of beverages and that's going to all be on Kubota at Lynchburg and everybody in the towing industry is familiar with that, so we might have a skid steer or mini excavator there, kind of a common thing that you're going to need on a lot of these truck wrecks, and if you don't have one, you'd be bound to be wanting one. So we're going to show some of our pride with that.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, kevin. I can't thank you enough for that. What's the proper name for the dealership? Your Kubota dealership?
Speaker 4:It's Kubota of.
Speaker 2:Lynchburg, and what's the phone number to get in touch with you there?
Speaker 4:It's 434-239-2421.
Speaker 6:And you can.
Speaker 4:Google it and we've got a phenomenal website and Facebook followers and all that stuff and I know you'll take real good care of folks in the towing industry, won't? You.
Speaker 2:Yeah, actually I have.
Speaker 4:I've been transported quite a few skid steers out of there. The guy kind of keeps up and follows us on Facebook and I make sure that we take good care of them. We just actually opened up our second cabota location in Rwanda, Virginia, three weeks ago, so we're excited to see that grow.
Speaker 2:Congratulations. And don't you have a motorsports dealership as?
Speaker 4:well, yes, sir, june of 22,. I bought Lynchburg Power Sports there in Forest, virginia, on Highway 460. We still we're a full-blown Polaris dealership and Yamaha Wave Runners.
Speaker 2:Wow, you got your hands on a lot, don't you?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I have a good time. I get bored and get into things.
Speaker 2:It's nothing wrong with that at all. It's good to see you have grown so much over the years. I know a whole lot of it's some hard work, like you said, just doing what you're supposed to do and doing it when you're supposed to do it. Exactly, it is good to see Especially. You know, as we've discussed, lynchburg isn't the biggest metropolis but you've been able to do well in it.
Speaker 2:That is awesome to see. So we're going to look forward to having Paul on a podcast to talk about the pool, and that will be a coming up episode. But before I let you go, I want you to talk a little bit about your social media presence and how you do. You folks do a great job with all your different enterprises with social media and that Tell us a little bit about the magic that makes that happen.
Speaker 4:Well, let me start off by being completely honest. I'm not a huge guy with I'm not good with a computer. I'm not a huge guy with I'm not good with a computer. I'm not good with emails. I'm not good with cell phones. This is the first time I've ever done a podcast, so I didn't really know what I was getting myself into.
Speaker 4:But I know how important it is, because when I go to seminars at Toe Shows, when I go to seminars at Polaris, which I just got back from Las Vegas last weekend, I fit in on four of them and then you do the same thing at Kubota seminars and it's all social media, social media, podcast, facebook, instagram.
Speaker 4:You know YouTube, and so we realized the importance of it and so we focus on it, and we focus on it hard, you know, to create that environment, because that's just where this world is at right now and you have to just face it. If you want to grow your business and reach out, it works. I mean, facebook is virtually almost free, and that's how we've hired quite a few rock stars at all three of my locations is by putting out a Facebook ad, and then you've got to be able to back it up and show professionalism and people want to come to work there, so that's worked out good for us. But using the power of the social media is key. You know they just told us that 90% of every retail sale at a PowerSports dealership or a Kubota dealership comes in through the Internet and one out of four of those people purchase within 30 days. It comes in through the internet and one out of four of those people purchase within 30 days.
Speaker 4:That comes in through the internet Now. They might see a commercial on TV, they might see the junk mail, they might see the billboard, but before they come on your property they're going to get on your website and check you out first. So if you're not doing it, you're way behind on it and it's not hard. But I'm smart enough to hire people that's good at it and I'm fortunate enough to my daughter. That's what she studied in school and her degree is in marketing and she does a phenomenal job with all of the above and she works with my son-in-law there at the Kubota dealership and he's real big into the YouTube videos and I'm really not, but I know how important the exact priority he's over 100,000 followers now on YouTube, oh wow.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 4:That's been phenomenal for them. Yeah, he goes out and then we go to the toe shows or whatever. I mean not the toe shows, but the Kubota staff and people at CMC. Are you, zach Jones from Kubota, lynchburg? Yeah, I want to meet you and tell you how much I love watching your video. That is awesome, it's very powerful, so you just have to go with it. But you know, wes, I went to a. I went to a thing. I don't know how many years it was I'm trying to. It was like 22 years ago and I think it might've been. I think it might've been a guy speaking down there at John's in Durham and he had a phone book and he held it up and he said keep one of these and put it on your shelf and explain it to your kids one day. How simple it was, because these are going to be history and you know, I would have thought you're full of it, but he wasn't that full of it Right yeah.
Speaker 4:Right, absolutely, anyway. So we just have to do what's out there now and just keep our ears and eyes open for what's going to be next, because I'm sure it's something coming down the pipeline.
Speaker 2:Leah does an awesome job for you guys, all your different enterprises. I follow Facebook closely myself and she does a wonderful job for you all. So it's nice that you give her props for what she's doing. It's nice that you see the importance of it.
Speaker 4:Well, thank you very much Well thank you very much.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, kevin. I appreciate you taking the time to do this interview with us. Anything you'd like to say in closing? No?
Speaker 4:everybody. Just be safe and if you haven't gotten into our school there yet, try to hurry up and get it filled in. We're hoping it's going to fill up quick and you know, liberty's playing East Carolina there that day. I'm sure that's going to draw a crowd, but hopefully people can find a room somewhere close by. If they haven't already done so, hopefully we'll show you. This is going to be a really good school and you're going to leave there with a bunch of freebies and nothing else. That's it.
Speaker 2:Thank you, kevin, appreciate you. Thank you, kevin, appreciate you. Be safe out there. We'll look forward to working with you. Like I said, we're going to have Paul on as well to talk about the school. We'll get a little bit closer okay, thank you.
Speaker 4:Y'all have a great one. Thank you, bye, bye well that's it, dj.
Speaker 2:Appreciate all the listeners. We'll see you next week. You got it you got it.