Tow Professional Podcast

A damaged EV can look calm, get loaded, and then light off again when you least expect it. That single detail changes everything for towing and recovery, because once the fire department clears the scene, the tow operator often becomes the long-term risk manager for a high-voltage battery that may reignite minutes, hours, or even weeks later. We sit down with Chas Hendrickson, COO and founder at R...

Tow trucks get compared to “big trucks” all the time, and that misunderstanding drives bad assumptions, bad headlines, and sometimes bad policy. We sit down with Bruce Bender, Executive Director of TRAA, to talk about how Hill Day changes the conversation by bringing towing and recovery professionals straight to Capitol Hill with a clear message: understand the work, then fix the rules that shape...

Buying a car has become a tech circus, yet towing and recovery is still stuck juggling paper tickets, radio dispatch, and a maze of separate apps. That mismatch doesn’t just waste time, it keeps towers waiting to get paid and keeps drivers exposed on the roadside longer than they need to be. So we brought on Rudy Nieto, CEO of Autura, to get practical about what actually changes when towing operat...

Calls come in at 2 a.m., details are incomplete, traffic is stacking up, and everyone on scene is counting on you to get it right. We sit down with Hannon Schick of Hannon Towing and Recovery and Bo White of Towing and Recovery Academy to talk about what real towing and recovery leadership looks like when the work is unpredictable and the stakes are high.  Hannon walks us through how a family-owne...

Calls come in at 2 a.m., details are incomplete, traffic is stacking up, and everyone on scene is counting on you to get it right. We sit down with Hannon Schick of Hannon Towing and Recovery and Bo White of Towing and Recovery Academy to talk about what real towing and recovery leadership looks like when the work is unpredictable and the stakes are high.  Hannon walks us through how a family-owne...

A roadside scene gives you zero room for “almost.” If your warning lights fail, your battery dies early, or your wireless system interferes with someone else’s setup, the risk spikes fast. We sit down with Aaron Custer, VP of Sales at Custer Products, to talk about what towing and recovery operators should demand from safety lighting, and what actually separates professional grade gear from bargai...

Eight seconds can be the difference between control and chaos on a dark roadside. We’re joined by Keith Bousquet, Senior Marketing Sales Manager at Will Burt Industries, to get practical about scene lighting for towing and recovery: what to mount, how to aim it, and why “more lumens” is only helpful when the light is placed the right way. If you’ve ever waited on a separate light unit, fought shad...

A single medical surprise can wipe out years of hard work, especially when you’re self-employed and your income depends on showing up. We sit down with Whitney Williams, financial professional at Cornerstone Advisors Group, to talk about what financial security really looks like for tow operators, owner operators, and 1099 contractors who don’t have employer benefits to fall back on. We dig into t...

A lot of towing gear looks great for five minutes in a parking lot. We wanted to know what happens after 2,200 miles of the worst roads we can find, long heat-soaked runs, and the kind of stops that mirror real calls. Darian Weaver sits down with Jason Giddens, co-founder and VP of Sales at JB Tow, to talk about taking a mobile showroom on the road and using it to rebuild something the towing and...

Most towing incidents don’t turn scary because you don’t have lights, they turn scary because the scene gets unmanaged fast. We sit down with Chris Anderson, Executive VP of Towmate Industries, to talk about what real roadside safety looks like when you stop thinking about a single flashing bar and start thinking about an entire lighting system, from arrival to recovery to getting back on the road...

One bad hookup can erase a month of profit, and one shortcut can change a life forever. That’s why we brought on Beau White, CEO of Towing and Recovery Academy and a longtime heavy recovery operator, to get painfully clear about what training really buys you: fewer damage claims, fewer injuries, stronger confidence under pressure, and a reputation that stands up when everyone has a camera. We talk...

Battery calls used to be simple. Now you can roll up on a roadside jump start and find AGM, EFB start stop batteries, spiral wound designs, or even lithium iron phosphate, all tied into smarter charging systems that watch current flow and react to what they think just happened. That’s why we brought on Jim O’Hara, EVP of Merchandising at Clore Automotive, to give tow operators a clear, practical p...

One missed notice can wipe out storage fees, restart a lien clock, or invite a fight you never had time for. We sit down with Matt Harvey from Auto Data Direct and Stephen Holloway from their government affairs team to unpack the unglamorous part of towing and recovery that decides whether you get paid: accurate vehicle data, compliant owner and lienholder notifications, and a workflow you can tru...

Training is not just a compliance box for towing and recovery. It is the difference between a clean, controlled scene and a bad day that follows a driver home. We talk with Megan Bruns, Director of Towing Education and Certification for the American Towing and Recovery Institute (ATRI) and Director of Marketing for Cardinal Legacy Towing Group, about what real investment in people looks like when...

A routine repo in a tight Milwaukee alley turned into a life-or-death sprint when Alfredo heard the first gunshot. What followed was a test of instinct, training, and grit: dropping the hook, flooring the truck, calling for help, and surviving a round that tore through his abdomen and missed his spine by a breath. We invited Alfredo to walk us through the moment, the messy aftermath, and the hard-...

What happens when a light bar becomes a control system? We sit down with TowMate’s Chris Anderson to explore how flexible warning lights and smarter training are reshaping safety, installs, and compliance across state lines. The Infinitra 58 quad‑color bar anchors the conversation with full 360 coverage and deep configurability: independent control of patterns, speed, intensity, front cutoff, and...

Roads don’t move themselves. When traffic locks up, weather turns rough, or a semi straddles two lanes, tow professionals show up so the rest of us can keep going. We sat down with Jeffrey Godwin, first vice president of the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum in Chattanooga, to uncover the human stories, the history, and the hard realities behind this essential trade. From E...

Some stories punch through noise because they’re more than stories—they’re proof. Manny lost a leg at the hip in a car crash, powered his way to the Paralympics as a competitive powerlifter, and now shows up on Oregon roads as a tow operator with a calm focus and a hunger to work. He loves being the person who brings relief at the worst moment of someone’s day, and he’s chasing a bigger future: a...

A tow operator flagged down on I‑10. A man trapped under a semi. A rotator lifts, the team coordinates with fire and EMS, and a life is moved toward safety. That’s where our conversation with Hall of Famer Kevin Goodyear begins—not with chrome and horsepower, but with service, training, and calm decisions when seconds matter. We trace Kevin’s journey from riding in tow trucks as a kid to leading a...

A lifted truck tracking into oncoming lanes. A repo driver on hot asphalt, thinking fast. That’s where this story starts—and where real innovation in towing tools begins. We sit with JB Tow Accessories co-founder and VP of Sales, Jason Giddens, to trace the gritty path from first-week mistakes to thousands of field-proven tools making recoveries safer and faster. Jason breaks down the real-world p...

A single button can change the way a tow fleet moves. We brought on Tony Pierce from EMCI Wireless to walk us through how Motorola WAVE PTX delivers true instant communication—push to talk with nationwide reach—so dispatch, drivers, and recovery teams stay synced without towers, repeaters, or the wait time of phone calls. We dig into the gear that makes it work in the real world. Tony breaks down...

What if your marketing didn’t feel like a coin toss? We sat down and unpacked how towing and recovery companies can stop guessing, aim their message at real decision makers, and turn print plus digital into results you can actually see. From building a verified list of owners and check writers to pairing ads with editorial that spells out features and benefits, we map the steps that move a prospec...

What if a few workflow changes could cut your average arrival time from 44 minutes to nine and reduce secondary crashes by 30 percent? That’s the lived experience industry veteran and Hall of Famer John Borowski brings to our conversation about modernizing towing operations with digital dispatch. We dig into the real reasons teams resist new tools—fear of the unknown, comfort with paper and radio,...

Proof beats promises—especially when an adjuster is deciding whether to pay your bill. We sat down with industry veterans Shelly Hawkins and Dennis McGowan to explore how modern towing operations turn documentation, telematics, and smarter software into real margin, safer scenes, and faster approvals. From factory-ready cameras and scene lighting to driver apps that capture four-corner photos and...

Family legacy meets industry expertise at Austin Insurance, where the second generation of tow insurance specialists continues their father's tradition of hands-on, personalized service. Tyler and Todd Austin share how their father Rob built the business by actually visiting towing companies in person when competitors were simply mailing forms—a practice they proudly maintain today. The broth...