Episode 15
Be Proactive, Start Efficient
February 27, 2024
In this episode, Be Proactive, Start Efficient, we welcomed Jason Keller, Owner of Keller Brothers Enterprise, who grew up in the towing industry, but now owns his own towing company in Tiffin, OH. Despite his young company being around for only a year, Jason had the foresight to adopt towing software for his business, which has helped him grow at scale, be more streamlined, and earn the respect of his community. Click play to hear his incredible success story.
Shelli Hawkins:
Welcome back everybody. It is Episode 15 of TRAXERO On-The-Go Podcast, and the sun is shining. We are excited to be here. And let’s get right into it. Laura Dolan, how in the world are you doing today?
Laura Dolan:
I’m doing great, Shelli, how are you?
Shelli Hawkins:
I am fantastic.
Laura Dolan:
Of course you are, you’re always fantastic.
Shelli Hawkins:
Are we going to make these bumper stickers that say fantastic? I want to see some.
Laura Dolan:
I mean, the design is out there, let’s get on that.
Shelli Hawkins:
Andrew Cody.
Laura Dolan:
Let’s upload them to Sticker Mule and make some, or Zazzle, what do we use? We use Zazzle, right? Or Brandido, whatever.
Shelli Hawkins:
Zazzle. Sticker Mule is a fantastic website. And I’ve thought about making some stickers on there myself.
Laura Dolan:
I love it. Another thing that I do collect besides key chains is stickers. So fun fact, my music folder for my barbershop chorus is covered in stickers. Of course, TRAXERO stickers are all over it.
Shelli Hawkins:
How did I not know this? How did I not know this?
Laura Dolan:
I don’t know, I don’t think I ever talked about it.
Shelli Hawkins:
Well, now that I know that, the sticker collection here between Shelli and Rene is massive. And so we’ve got the magnets and the stickers in the fridge. He was holding out on me. I found a bunch of JerrDan stickers from the last Tow Show. There’s three different styles. I’m like, I pointed down, I’m like, “Hello, where did these come from? You’re holding out.” He’s like, “Mmm.”
Laura Dolan:
Even I got a couple of JerrDan stickers from the last Tow Show.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah, shoulder shrug, I don’t know.
Laura Dolan:
Magnets, we do magnets too. My husband and I, everywhere we go, we have to get a magnet from wherever we’ve traveled. But yeah, the TRAXERO taco shop needs key chains. I’m shocked that we don’t have a TRAXERO key chain.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes, a slow down, move over key chain, a TRAXERO podcast something. We’ll talk to Nanette later about putting that up in there.
Laura Dolan:
Yeah, I even have a key chain from the museum, I have a key chain from the Wall of the Fallen, I mean, we need to get on that.
Shelli Hawkins:
You’ve got Dewey’s, BNF Towing, all the ones added together.
Laura Dolan:
NRC.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes, an NRC one.
Laura Dolan:
Yep, I’ve got them all. So I’m thinking about creating its own Instagram account and then I’m just going to tag these towing companies. And if they see themselves, they can share it or whatever they want.
Shelli Hawkins:
Please.
Laura Dolan:
I don’t know what else you would do with that, but just something fun and [foolish] to do.
Shelli Hawkins:
Best idea. Please do this because people love different swags, towing swag is collectible. Epic. People love it. You walk into these three and four generation towing companies, and the amount of tow trucks, swags, all the things that they’ve collected, ginormous.
Laura Dolan:
I love it. I love it. It’s just a fun hobby. So, cool.
Shelli Hawkins:
Absolutely.
Laura Dolan:
So mental note, add key chain to the taco shop. But yes, so speaking of weather, it is a beautiful sunny day here in Columbus as well. We’re in a warming trend, it looks like spring. I mean, it’s early February, but they are predicting an early spring. So we’ll see.
Shelli Hawkins:
I have hope. I have hope. We recently received two snowfalls, that has completely gone. And like you, Laura, our sun is shining so bright and you can’t help but smile.
Laura Dolan:
Same here. I mean, it is beautiful, but I hope some of the snow comes back, but we’ll see. So people who live here in Ohio, we’ve been here now almost three years, and they’re saying if there’s a January thaw, it’ll most definitely snow in March.
Shelli Hawkins:
What happened to the Groundhog, Groundhog’s Day, did he see a shadow?
Laura Dolan:
He did not, no, he didn’t. He predicted early spring.
Shelli Hawkins:
Oh, I am all about that. I recently purchased a Farmer’s Almanac. Do you read that, Laura, the Farmer’s Almanac?
Laura Dolan:
I used to, I don’t anymore, probably as a kid in school.
Shelli Hawkins:
So they are saying. Yeah. Prediction is a soggy, soggy for us, well, for us on the east coast, I don’t know about Ohio, I’ll look at that later, a soggy, soggy summer/spring. Oh, well, I am like the bearer of bad news right now, I’ll stop.
Laura Dolan:
April showers bring May flowers.
Shelli Hawkins:
This is true.
Laura Dolan:
The silver lining. Okay, let’s get to our guest, he’s been waiting long enough.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes. He has. He is backstage with a great big gigantic smile on his face. And without further ado, we’re going to bring on Mr. Jason Keller of Keller Brothers Towing. Jason, welcome, welcome to the podcast, we are so happy to have you with us.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, thank you guys for having me.
Shelli Hawkins:
How in the world are you doing today?
Jason Keller:
Pretty great, it’s nice and warm here. I’m about an hour and a half north of Laura in Ohio. And it’s odd for this time of year, this weather, it’s warm and the ground is soft and wet. Yeah.
Laura Dolan:
Right. Very soggy. What part of Ohio?
Jason Keller:
I’m in Tiffin, so it’s in northwest Ohio. If you’re in Columbus, if you just take 23 north up to 53, you’ll run right into Tiffin.
Laura Dolan:
Cool.
Jason Keller:
About an hour, hour and a half.
Laura Dolan:
I don’t think we’ve been up that way, but very cool.
Jason Keller:
We are roughly, for people on a map, big cities would be … we’re 40, 45 minutes south of Toledo and about 30 minutes east of Findlay, we’re in cornfield country, middle of nowhere.
Laura Dolan:
Yeah, that’s not hard to do around here.
Shelli Hawkins:
Jason, we are excited to have you, and I’m going to ask one of my favorite questions that I’ve asked in the past. What in the world makes a person want to go into the towing industry?
Jason Keller:
That’s a great question, I ask myself that every day.
Shelli Hawkins:
Well, you’re here, you’re with us, you have a towing company.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, no, well, I am third generation in the towing industry, first generation owner. So my grandpa started initially as a fab shop back in 1948. And he brought my dad and uncle on with him. And they were just a fab shop welding company. And then in the early eighties, my dad worked for my grandpa, and then was working at night for a local AAA company. And my grandpa hated it, he hated that my dad was working for other people. So super long story short. My dad did not care for the fab side, he loved the towing industry back in the early eighties. So long story short, my grandpa gave my dad, I guess, from the stories I’ve been told, an ultimatum, “You need to choose one or the other or how about we get a tow truck and see what we can do and you just work for us full-time, the family?” So back in the eighties they got their first wrecker. And they actually started with a heavy, it was a Mack Super-Liner that they still own today, and it’s all refurbed.
Shelli Hawkins:
What’s the chassis on that?
Jason Keller:
It is a custom wrecker, so they built it, my dad, uncle, other family members that worked at the business. It was all custom. And it was a, from what I’m told, I’m sure I could be corrected, but it was a first of its kind. So I had a uncle that worked at Pettibone Crane in Tiffin. He was an engineer for Pettibone. So he engineered this wrecker for my grandpa back in, I want to say it was ’84/’85, that era. And it was all hydraulic, so it was a heavy wrecker. They rated it 60 ton, but I mean it’s a hydraulic wrecker.
Shelli Hawkins:
Who knows?
Jason Keller:
It’s got a hydraulic under lift on it.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah, is it on a Kenworth, a Pete, a Mack?
Jason Keller:
It’s on a Mack Super-Liner chassis.
Shelli Hawkins:
Of course it is. And of course you’ll be sending pictures when we are done recording this because Macks are one of my favorite-
Jason Keller:
Yes, yes. It is probably my favorite truck. It’s a gorgeous truck. They refurbed it back … my dad and uncle refurbished it back in the early 2000s and put it in memory of my grandpa. And we took it to Ohio Tow Show. It’s never done a job since. It sits in a nice heated shed and doesn’t get moved.
Shelli Hawkins:
Parades, do you get her out to stretch her legs?
Jason Keller:
Parades, so I actually left the family business, we don’t communicate a whole bunch anymore, so I don’t know what they do with it anymore. But when I was around, it was parades, tow shows, get it out, just go cruise it around. And it had an 8V ’92 Detroit in it. So if anybody knows anything about those, that screamed everywhere it goes. But yeah, it was just a fun little truck. I remember one time when I was real young, we used it out on a job and that was it, I mean, it’s completely restored and it’s just a show piece at this point.
Laura Dolan:
Does it have any cool light features on it or anything like that?
Jason Keller:
It’s classic, they refurbed it back to its original … I think they updated the paint scheme a little bit from what it was in the eighties, but no, it’s all original, classic, it’s a sweet looking truck.
Laura Dolan:
Very cool. Yeah, definitely send pictures, we can include it in the podcast notes.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, but no, so they did that. They started that in the eighties. And then Trent, they just kept growing the business, my grandpa passed away, I believe it was ’90 or ’91, I wasn’t even born yet. And then my dad and uncle, they actually opened up an international semi dealership in ’95. And they just grew their business into a gigantic monster.
And then about seven years ago, my dad passed away. And my brother and I were working at the family, we were working for him, my brother was the shop manager and I was overseeing the towing and trucking and was a heavy driver. And we were doing that thing. And then unfortunately our dad passed away super young, he was 51.
Laura Dolan:
I’m sorry.
Jason Keller:
We were super young, I was 20, my brother was 23 when he passed away. So just some things happened in the works and there was contracts in place and legal forms in place that unfortunately didn’t involve my brother and I for the long term of the business. We stayed around for a year or two and realized that we were not going to be a part of the succession plan there. And we decided just to separate and go do our own thing. So now here we are a couple of years later we’re doing our own thing.
Shelli Hawkins:
I can only imagine how quickly you had to grow up.
Jason Keller:
Very quick. I mean, not that we weren’t I would say mature growing up, because we worked the shop. I mean, hear this, people laugh at this, but I dropped out of high school my junior year to run tow truck. I mean, my dad started getting super sick and I dropped out and had buddies do online schooling and got me a fricking high school diploma. And it was just all we knew. I mean, my brother’s a wizard when it comes to mechanical stuff. So yeah, I was 19 when he passed away. And at the time they had about 32/33 employees and all of them were standing there looking at us. It was a family owned, small, but big company, 30 employees. Now owning my own company and seeing that perspective is just [wild]. I can’t imagine having that many employees. I mean, maybe one day, hopefully one day, but just it’s wild to think about.
Laura Dolan:
I was going to ask, did you bring any of those employees over to your business?
Jason Keller:
We did.
Laura Dolan:
So how many employees do you have now?
Jason Keller:
So currently between my brother and I, so we own two companies, when I separated from the family business, I actually went and worked for another towing company in the next county north of us. That we were good buddies with. And I went up there for six or nine months. And they treated me great, paid me great, it was a great atmosphere, I really enjoyed working for them. But something just wasn’t right, it was weird. Essentially I was working for the competitor and just something didn’t feel right.
And a local feed company that I did all their work for back when I was at the family business, I did all their towing and everything, they had reached out to me and they were putting together a heavy haul division. And the one guy that I always dealt with, he was like, “Hey, I know you’re not towing anymore,” type of thing. He was like, “Is this something you’d be interested in?” So I went over there and had a meeting with him. And at that time I had no truck, I had no aspiration to be on my own. I just didn’t know what was going to be. And they were putting together a heavy haul division doing hopper bottom work, hauling grain back and forth.
Shelli Hawkins:
What is hopper bottom work?
Jason Keller:
So a hopper bottom is just a trailer that farmers use.
Shelli Hawkins:
A brand or a type?
Jason Keller:
Nope. So it’s a type. So there’s 50 different brands, but a hopper bottom is … so if you see a combine unloading corn into a trailer, that is a hopper bottom. So what it is is there’s big shutes at the bottom of that trailer, you open up and then the corn or grain or whatever it is they’re loading in it will come out the bottom of the trailer into a pit.
Shelli Hawkins:
Okay. Midwest education check. Continue on.
Jason Keller:
Right. So they were putting together this heavy haul hopper bottom division deal thing. And just with my experience, background, he wanted to know if I had any interest in it. So yeah, I went over there and met with him. And I was like, “Give me a month or two to find a truck and get a DOT number and figure it all out.” I was like, “I’ll try it.”
And at the time my brother was still working at the family business. So I got a truck and it was just power only unit. I did that for a year. And in that year window, my brother had bought a service truck and he started doing some moonlighting, working after hours in people’s driveways and out in the middle of a field and that type of thing. And he did that for a year. And he realized that, wow, this is something, he had so much work, it was just [wild].
He then after about a year, I was trucking doing that for a year, he did that for a year. And an opportunity came that there was a building here in Tiffin that came up for rent. A big two acre lot, fenced in, a giant 80 by a 100 building that is set up for a truck shop. The opportunity came up, they approached us about it. And he decided to go ahead. So he decided to leave and went full on his own and opened up Keller’s Truck Repair. So we own two separate companies. We own Keller Brothers, which is the towing and transport company, and then Keller’s Truck Repair, which my brother owns and runs, which is obviously a truck and trailer repair.
So he did that and then one thing led to another, and now we’re … Between the two of us we’ve got six full-time employees. They all cross back and forth. So when my drivers aren’t driving, they’re helping mechanics or helping in the shop. And then vice versa, when we get stacked up calls or wrecks, the mechanics will leave the shop, jump in a truck and help.
Shelli Hawkins:
I just want to take a pause here and say congratulations.
Jason Keller:
Thank you.
Shelli Hawkins:
You have given us this summary over the last few minutes of how everything came to be, the truck repair and the towing, but what an enormous journey and all of the obstacles you have overcome, Jason Keller. Incredible. I just got chills. So amazing.
Jason Keller:
It’s interesting. It’s wild to say the least. And it’s, anybody, I recommend it to anybody. But if you’re going to do this, and I don’t think it’s just this industry, I think it’s anything, but if you’re going to go on your own, you got to be all in. Then that’s everything, that’s your spouse, that’s everything. You have to be 150% committed because there’s no half doing it because this world will just eat you up and spit you out.
Laura Dolan:
It’s tough.
Jason Keller:
But we also wouldn’t, and I attest, we wouldn’t be where we are if it wasn’t for our community, there’s no way. I mean, the support that we have is great. We had a bunch of people give us an opportunity and we capitalized on it. We tried doing the best job we could do. And now we’re servicing 200 truck plus fleets and doing all their towing, their mechanical work. So I mean, there was just opportunities came, we essentially took advantage of those opportunities. We did the best we could do and they just keep coming.
Laura Dolan:
That’s great. It’s great to have the support of your community. And knowing that it’s almost like a symbiotic relationship, you’re there for them, they’re there for you. And that that’s wonderful to hear.
Jason Keller:
And a lot of people, I think they see the growth my brother and I have had in such a very short amount of time, and I don’t think if we moved to Columbus or if we moved to Maryland or wherever, and we opened up a shop, we would not have the growth that we’ve had. The growth we’ve had is due to our community. It’s our background, everybody knew us. We worked single hand with a lot of these customers for years. You know what I mean? That’s played a huge role in how rapid we’ve been able to grow.
Shelli Hawkins:
And remind me, you’ve been in business, the towing business, for how long now?
Jason Keller:
So I always say it’s a year. And hardly a year.
Shelli Hawkins:
One year. And you’re talking as if it’s been five years.
Jason Keller:
Well, so I went on my own in 2021, and that’s when I opened up, I had left prior to 2021, it was 2020 when I had left. I was in … Another part I left out. I was in the Army Reserves, I was a combat engineer in the Army. So I was doing that whole thing and then left and whatever. But I went on my own in 2021 with the feed company. But I did that for a year, everything was going good, I was making money. It wasn’t fulfilling, it was the most mind-numbing thing for me because all I’ve done my whole life was tow. So I went to hauling grain back and forth from the same two plants. And it was rough. I mean, it was great to start. And they were amazing, they gave me an opportunity, the money was great. But man, going to the same two places back and forth all day is … you can only listen to so much Joe Rogan.
Shelli Hawkins:
I was going to say, you had to listen to podcasts like [so much].
Jason Keller:
Yeah, yeah.
Laura Dolan:
That can get tedious.
Jason Keller:
Yeah. So we did that. And then I had the itch to … One thing, if people starting out is insurance. Insurance in this industry is I found almost impossible. And maybe I was going the wrong places. So I did that for a year. And then I had aspirations to get back into landoll and lowboy work. So my insurance company would not insure me for that. The only thing I was insured for was ag, commodities or van work, so reefer van work. So they told me I had to have a clean DOT number for a solid year before they would even entertain it. So I did that for a year. And then after a year they had gave me the green light to do flatbed work, so landoll, lowboy work. So I bought a landoll and then started doing landoll work and then bought a lowboy and did that for about six months, a year. Was just slowly picking up customers.
And then that’s when my brother’s truck repair shop started taking off. And we started seeing these other tow trucks at our shop two, three times a week. And it was one of those things. Then we had customers constantly hounding us, “When are you guys going to get a tow truck? When are you guys going to get a tow truck?” And at that point I had no … I was like, “Man, there’s no way. I can’t even justify a wrecker. I can’t afford one. I can’t get insured.” It was a pipe dream, there was no way.
And after a couple of months of having these tow trucks that were showing up to our shop every week, towing in our customers and our customers hounding us, I finally was like, “All right, let’s start looking into it.”
Shelli Hawkins:
Do you think that that hiatus of landoll, lowboy, you’re moving back and forth, like you were talking about, do you think that that was just a way to mentally heal from what had happened before and all the things before you got into the towing business?
Jason Keller:
Yes, yes, for sure. Because when our dad passed away, we were so young, and it was like there was no time to mourn that. It was just like, hey, there’s 32 employees here looking at my brother and I like we are the succession plan, we’re their future. And I’ll leave it as family can be very difficult.
Laura Dolan:
Amen.
Jason Keller:
And I’ll leave it there. And the towing industry is predominantly family owned and operated, so if towers are listening to this, they’re going to shake their head and I know they’ll agree with me. Yeah, we were just young. And then just, we never got time to sit back and digest anything. It was just like everything was coming out of us like out of a fire hose.
Laura Dolan:
Oh my gosh.
Jason Keller:
So yeah, I would definitely say, when I was at the family business, I worked eight to five at the shop and then from 5:00 PM till 8:00 AM I ran all the night calls, I was on call, everything. And I did that for years, no weekends off. I mean, it was very … So it was just such a go, go, go, go, go.
And then when I left and was hauling grain, it was like I made my own schedule, there was no pickup or drop off time, it was 24/7. And if I wanted to leave and go to the lake for the weekend. So it was nice, it was a good year to slow down and breathe and get figured out what it is that we want to do or I want to do.
Shelli Hawkins:
Whether you did that on purpose or by accident, I love that for you, I really do.
Jason Keller:
Oh, I think everything that has transpired with my brother and I has happened for a reason. Whether people believe in that or not.
Laura Dolan:
Yeah, no, I do definitely.
Jason Keller:
Even the times that we’re punching the air and questioning like, what the heck, why did this happen? Wait six months and you go, oh, okay, that’s why, that’s why this happened.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love that, I love your story, Jason, this is just fascinating. We appreciate you sharing all of the things. When you think back over the last few months, what are some big hurdles that you had to overcome? You mentioned the insurance. You obviously have insurance now.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, so the insurance was, so then I ended up, the insurance company I was initially with, they refused to insure me for towing. And I just thought, I was like, okay, well, that was it. So they were like, “There’s just no way, you’re too young.” And they didn’t care that I had a lifetime …, I mean, I’m WreckMaster up to eight/nine certified. I’ve been going to WreckMasters since I was 15. They didn’t care about any of that, they refused to insure me.
Shelli Hawkins:
Tell me, is Scotty A your instructor?
Jason Keller:
Scotty A has been my instructor since I was 15. And he is the best instructor.
Shelli Hawkins:
What a fantastic guy. Yes, he’s so good.
Jason Keller:
Yeah. And I actually one of our drivers just went down to Pigeon Forge last month and had a fun little long weekend of relax and work. And went down to a WreckMaster class down there and Scotty A was his instructor.
Shelli Hawkins:
So good.
Jason Keller:
It’s pretty cool seeing that come around.
Shelli Hawkins:
You can’t really catch him by surprise. And I did. I did, about six months ago or so, I went to see AJ Johnson with one of our folks here. And Scott happened to be teaching. And so I came around the corner and shocked the fire out of him.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, yeah. Scotty’s a great guy. But yeah, I mean, there was a lot of hurdles starting out. So I actually, so when we started, once we decided, “You know what, screw it, we’re going to get a wrecker.” We actually started with a heavy, we didn’t start with a light duty. I went on the hunt and was trying to find a heavy. And I was trying to find something in our budget. And we drove what felt like all over the country and we were looking at junk. And it was driving me nuts. These guys would send me these photos from 50 foot away and “Oh, it’s a great truck, come look at it.” And then you show up and it’s like the boxes are rotted off, the levers are seized. And it’s like, “Man, we drove to the west side of Chicago to look at this thing. Why are you wasting our time?”
But we ended up finding a, we’ve got a 5230 on a 378 Pete with a 60-inch bunk on it.
Shelli Hawkins:
Very nice.
Jason Keller:
Perfect truck. You couldn’t build a more perfect starter truck. When I get guys that say what’s the perfect start out heavy duty? I maybe am biased, but I think a 5230 is the most versatile.
Shelli Hawkins:
Well, it’s a little beefier than a DTU, it can do more, it can do recoveries. And also you’re not breaking the bank if you are towing long distances.
Jason Keller:
Right. And so we found that. And great guy down in Kentucky, we’ve became super good buddies with now, Clifton CTS, super great guy. We found that truck and he was a straight shooter. And we went down there and then I don’t know if he gave us a sympathy sell or whatever it was, but he sold us that thing at I think it was an amazing price. And really, really was the ideal truck.
And so we got that. And it was slow-going at first, I’m not going to lie, the first couple months I was scratching my head every night going, man, did I make a mistake? This is a huge payment, this insurance is huge. But it just kept … and it was just beating the trail. I was constantly, we’re huge on marketing, we’re huge on … I will jump in my car and I would drive all over God’s creation and pass out cards and get my name out there and re-put myself in front of these people and like, “Hey, I’m on my own now, I’m doing my own thing.” And so we started with that heavy.
Shelli Hawkins:
You know what, I’m going to ask the question, what was the payment on the heavy? I’m going to ask it.
Jason Keller:
It was, and it still is, it hasn’t changed because it’s only been about a year, we’re around $2500 on a month on it plus insurance. So that’s just the one truck.
Shelli Hawkins:
Just to give folks out there that are a year in business an idea if you’re thinking about going into a heavy.
Jason Keller:
And we also put a huge amount down on that as well. So yeah. I mean, I would think if you’re going to go out … I’ve got two new trucks on order. They’re not here yet.
Shelli Hawkins:
That’s great.
Jason Keller:
So I don’t quite know what those payments are going to be like yet. But I would think, I mean, you got to budget for, if you’re going to just dabble, jump right into the heavy world, you got to factor in, I would say at least five grand a month at a minimum. At a minimum. And then you got to have a huge, a huge … And this is where I went wrong. I did not have a big security blanket. I did not have a big oh shit fund. Not knowing, being naive.
I tell you, you go blow a tire on one of them heavies, and you got to put eight new drive tires on one, you’re going to be $6,000, $7,000.
Laura Dolan:
Yikes.
Jason Keller:
Yeah. You blow a turbo on one. So it was a lot of learning curves and all that. And we’re still learning. Heck, we learn every single day. But no. So we started with that truck. And just slow-going, just passing out cards, getting our name out there, towing in our customers to our truck repair shop.
And then I don’t know what happened, it was like back in, it would’ve been … So we got that truck and it went on the road in October of 2022. And it really didn’t move a whole lot until 2023. So I say we’ve been in business at the towing industry for a year. And we did that, we had the heavy. And then my brother started hounding me to get into the light duty stuff. And I wanted nothing to do with it. I, at first, I was like … I know the light duty stuff owns you. And the commercial side, we were not on any rotation lists, we were not on any police calls. All we were doing was cash calls and customer calls. And then back in May, my brother convinced me to get a light duty. So we bought our first light duty truck back in May.
Shelli Hawkins:
Was it a moment of weakness, what happened?
Jason Keller:
It was him saying, “If you don’t do this, I’m going to.” And me being the control freak I am, I had to have my hand on it. And I was like, “Son of a gun. All right.” So it was just one of those things. It wasn’t that I’m against the light duty stuff and it wasn’t that I was against it because it is great. And especially now, now it’s been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.
But it’s having the staffing, it’s having the personnel. At the time it was just me, I was the only one running. So that’s a huge element that comes into factors. You can only do so much, especially when you’re driving. But we bought our first light duty and it was a Vulcan on a 550 Ford. If anybody knows, and I’m sure anybody in the towing industry does, Dave Jagger from American Enterprise.
Shelli Hawkins:
Oh yeah, he is, next to Bill Bottoms, one of the most fascinating geniuses of his fabrications, I am amazed every single time I see something that Dave has made. Is he still making things today?
Jason Keller:
He is, he is. So I would argue that he is probably one of the best builders in North America.
Shelli Hawkins:
The SidePuller is unmistakable. That’s from Dave. You see all these things.
Jason Keller:
Yes. Dave is a straight arrow guy and the quality of product that leaves their shop is … you will not find a better quality. So my dad actually, my dad’s company, they bought everything through Dave, everything other than one truck. And that’s how I met Shelli was through … we bought through Zips.
Shelli Hawkins:
And he primarily-
Laura Dolan:
That’s how a lot of people have met Shelli.
Shelli Hawkins:
Is he a JerrDan distributor or a Miller distributor? I’m going to get yelled at.
Jason Keller:
Miller. He’s Miller. Yeah, nope, he’s Miller. So this truck we bought, our 550 came from Dave. Dave built it back in 2005 for a local company up in Toledo. The company up in Toledo, the gentleman retired and was selling everything. And it was just too good to be true. It was black, which was our colors, and it had 40,000 original miles on it. And this thing was so immaculate, I mean, you can eat off the frame, it’s spotless. So it was an American Enterprise built truck that’s got Dave’s stamp on it.
Shelli Hawkins:
Beautiful.
Jason Keller:
Yeah. So we bought that. And now fast-forward, we’ve got two flat beds. I’ve got a third one on order right now. I’ve got a 4024 heavy, the 5230, I’ve got two tractors, we do lowboy, landoll. And all that has came within less than a year since May.
Laura Dolan:
That’s incredible.
Shelli Hawkins:
I’m just waiting for the- Yeah. Where’s the partridge in the pear tree?
Jason Keller:
What is that?
Laura Dolan:
Partridge in a pear tree.
Shelli Hawkins:
I’m just saying, the partridge in a pear tree?
Jason Keller:
Yeah.
Laura Dolan:
Sorry, I was trying to do the math in my head. So you have seven or eight total? You said one’s on the way.
Jason Keller:
We have eight. Yep, we have eight, including our service truck right now. And then I’ve got two on the way. So I’ve got a new rollback ordered there. I’m actually really, really hoping, our goal is to have it by Baltimore, and I’m going to take it out to Baltimore. That’s the goal for right now. But we’ll see. I’m not going to sweat if it’s not. And then I’ve got a Quickswap on order. It’s very beginning phases of it.
Laura Dolan:
That’s a pretty good amount of growth for one year.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah, that’s incredible. An NRC Quickswap or a Miller DTU?
Jason Keller:
Miller DTU is I think what we’re going to put on. So right now I’m in the process right now going with … I’m putting it together on a Western Star 49X that the new model that came out with. So I’ve been going through our Western Star dealer, we’re at the very beginning phases of that. We’re going over the build sheet right now. So going to order that. And then we’re going to put a Miller DTU on it.
So yeah, we run out of one location right now, we’re in the process, again, in the very beginning stages of looking at opening a second location. We’ve had a few contracts reach out to us and we’ve had multiple meetings with that they’d like us to start doing some of their towing. But it requires us to have a second lot in that area. But it’s all in the very beginning stages of it because it just takes a lot of money and more personnel and more trucks.
Laura Dolan:
Red tape and paperwork.
Jason Keller:
Yeah. And it’s trying to find that delicate balance of not growing too fast type of thing and staying within … I’ve said I want to grow into the demand, I don’t want to just have a fleet of trucks sitting here to say I have a fleet of trucks.
Laura Dolan:
That’s smart. No, you got to grow at scale, especially when … the way you’re investing in these machines, you want to make sure you have the down payment, you have the monthly premiums on them, and you can actually afford them.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, because now you get to a point where you can get yourself to a point where I am now is where it’s like I’m all in. I always joke, when it was just my brother and I when we first started out, we had this mindset of, if we make it, we make it. At the end of the day, we were young enough, we can restart and start over.
But now that all changed. That all changed the day we hired our first full-time employee. Now it’s like we’re feeding that family, we’re putting those kids through football and soccer and all that. And we take that very personal.
Laura Dolan:
I love that.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, now there’s no failure. Failure is not even … now that’s not an option. It’s like we’re going to make it, we’re going to make it work. But now you get to a point where I’m at now, it’s like I’ve got so much hanging out there all time, them wheels got to be turning, you’ve got to be hustling. You can’t just sit back and breathe type of thing.
Laura Dolan:
Nope. Can’t rest on your laurels in this business.
Shelli Hawkins:
Not at all. How much does social media play into your first year in business?
Jason Keller:
It’s huge, it is huge.
Shelli Hawkins:
So yeah, I mean, I could lead the question and give you all the examples in my brain, but I want you to tell me how you have leveraged social media for you personally, learnings, business, etc.?
Jason Keller:
Yeah, so when we first got the wreckers, I went into it with, I wanted to create a brand. Creating a brand was huge to me because there are local companies around here that you see their trucks coming from two miles away. You instantly know that’s company X, Y, Z based off of their colors, their wraps, whatever it is. So the huge thing for me was I wanted to create our own brand. And I’m also very blessed that my fiance, Liz, is a … her company is social media and marketing and website design.
Laura Dolan:
That’s amazing.
Jason Keller:
Yeah. So I have a very direct inside scoop to all that.
Laura Dolan:
Yeah, that’s a great connection.
Shelli Hawkins:
Love that.
Jason Keller:
Yes. So I credit her, I give her all the credit on what we’ve got going on on that because that is all her. But no, we’re huge on Facebook, we do a bunch on … Facebook, and I’ve had some people say, “Oh, Facebook doesn’t get you any work.” We get I would say five to 10 jobs a week from Facebook.
Shelli Hawkins:
What?
Jason Keller:
Yes, from Facebook. And we went about it a different way than I see some other companies go about it. And not saying one’s better than the other, I’ve just found what works for us. It’s very authentic. It’s not this commercialized style how we post, it’s very interactive. But yeah, we get I would say at a minimum five jobs a week from Facebook. People say, “Oh, we post three, four times a week, we post very consecutive,” that type of thing. So Facebook’s been huge.
We mess around a little bit on TikTok, we just started a YouTube channel, which is pretty fun. We’re trying to figure that whole world out. And a lot of this is like, I don’t know, just getting your name out there, it’s fun to do. And now we’ve been able to create that brand. People are constantly seeing our trucks online, they’re seeing our trucks through town. They recognize the black and the white with the stripes and the tinted windows. And we’ve created that, that brand. And social media has been huge.
I recommend to people, if you don’t like starting out or even if you’re not starting out, I came from a company that’s been around for 75 years and did no type of social media. And not saying that there’s anything wrong with that. We just found, we’re young, we’re trying to be proactive and evolve with everything else. But I recommend everybody, if you don’t have a marketing company or if you’re not blessed like I am, have someone that’s smart enough to do that, is reach out to somebody.
And you guys had on Jessie Lubar-
Shelli Hawkins:
Lubar.
Laura Dolan:
Jesse Lubar.
Jason Keller:
From OMG.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes, yes.
Jason Keller:
Their company. Yes. So their company is awesome. I have not personally used them, but out at Baltimore last year, we went out and his company put on a seminar and we went into it. And at the time at Baltimore, the 2023 show in Baltimore, you couldn’t even find Keller Brothers Towing on Google. I was not appearing on Google. If you Googled towing near me, we weren’t even there. And we had no idea why. We had a Google page. If you directly Googled our company, you could find us. But if you typed in tire changes, towing, anything, we would not pop up.
So we went out to Baltimore, we sat through their seminar, and they’re giving all these tips and tricks and all this stuff, and we’re taking notes. And after the seminar, we walked up and was talking to the one guy. And I was like, “Hey, I need to figure out my Google thing, is this something, do I need to pay you a consultation or whatever?” And he goes, “Nope, give me two seconds.” So he gets out his laptop and he pulls up our Google thing and, I’m not kidding, within two minutes that guy had our Google page fixed. And he gave us a list, this is everything that’s wrong with your Google page.
Laura Dolan:
Wow. Did it have to do with metadata and keywords and things like that, is that what was missing?
Jason Keller:
So that was a huge thing, the keywords were huge, but the big thing was the addresses. We weren’t showing up because all of our addresses on our website, our Facebook and Google were all … had one little slight … instead of… like one would be spelled out north, the next one would be N or state route, or the next one would be OH 53, so every one had its weird … So yeah, we took what his people out there at Baltimore said and we made those adjustments. And now we’re at the end of January or so here, and now we’re number one on Google, we have over 50 Google reviews and just literally so-
Shelli Hawkins:
Insert applause. That’s fantastic.
Jason Keller:
Yeah. So I give them, like I say, I would say a company like that for somebody, it’s got to be huge. The only reason I’m not using say a company like OMG is just because I’m fortunate enough that Liz does this for a living.
Laura Dolan:
I think that is the fastest SEO improvement turnaround I’ve ever heard in my life.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah. Wow.
Laura Dolan:
That is amazing.
Shelli Hawkins:
You talked to the key master, the gatekeeper and the key master.
Jason Keller:
Yeah. See, and I’m not smart enough to know any of this, this is not my thing. I am in a truck. I have found with all this is hire your weaknesses, that’s been my motto since day one.
Shelli Hawkins:
Oh, I love that.
Jason Keller:
I hire my weaknesses. So when I started, a huge thing that we do is out-of-state towing, we go all over the country towing. And with that comes apportion tags and your IFTA and your mileage reports and all that stuff that everybody knows about that I’m clueless on, I’m like in the dark on, I had no idea. And I found a company here in Ohio that that’s all they do. We pay them a decent amount of money. But hey, they do it. I don’t have to mess with any of it. It’s done right. I had a safety audit two months ago from the DOT. And the lady walked in and within two hours we were … everything, it was perfect.
Shelli Hawkins:
Love it. Congratulations.
Jason Keller:
In those instances, those people are priceless. I’ve said from day one, I hire my weaknesses. Liz works full-time for us now. I am not a in the office type of guy, I don’t like the paperwork, I don’t like the bookwork, keeping track of everything and receipts and payroll and all that. That is not my strong suit. So I found somebody that’s good at it and I hired it out. So that’s been a huge thing is just getting people in the room that are smarter than you, put your ego at check, put your ego at the door. And I love people that are smarter than me because I can learn from them.
Laura Dolan:
That’s great. And I feel like your fiance and I would be fast friends because I’ve been in the branding and marketing space for over 18 years. And that’s exactly what I do for TRAXERO. So it’s such a fun thing to do to get the branding out there, the brand recognition, all that.
Really quick, Jason, I just want to circle back. When you talked about Facebook, how do you keep track of accumulating customers through that site? Do you survey them saying how did you find us and they say Facebook or how exactly did you get customers through there?
Jason Keller:
Yep. Yeah, we just ask people. I love to hear from people. So there’s two universities here in Tiffin. So we’re doing a bunch of your tire changes, unlocks and jump starts and that type of stuff with the universities. And I love to hear from people, why I ask, “Hey, how did you hear about us?” And we get a lot of feedback, it’s Facebook or Google, “We just Googled.”
Laura Dolan:
Fantastic.
Jason Keller:
And Facebook’s a huge one. We just towed a girl last week, she was in an accident, she went to Tiffin University here, she’s from Minnesota. But for whatever reason, she follows us on Facebook. And she goes, “Oh my God,” She goes, “I’ve been following you guys on Facebook for seven or eight months and I was hoping to never have to use you.” It’s just, yeah.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love that.
Laura Dolan:
Better to know you and not need you than need you.
Jason Keller:
Right. Nobody’s ever happy to call a towing company, it’s unfortunate.
Shelli Hawkins:
Right. Jason, how did you hear about us? I’m going to ask the question of you.
Laura Dolan:
Oh, love it. Great segue.
Jason Keller:
Yes. Yeah. So I heard about you guys through social media-
Shelli Hawkins:
We did not tee that up, just to say, Laura and I asked [inaudible 00:43:02]
Laura Dolan:
No, that was completely organic, completely organic.
Shelli Hawkins:
Jason, how did-
Jason Keller:
So I met Shelli, and I looked this morning so I could be sure, I met you back in 2017 at the Baltimore Show. I’m sure you have no memory of it because those tow shows are so hectic. But my dad bought … my first heavy wrecker when I turned 18, my dad bought, and it came from Zip’s. And at the time you were at Zip’s. And I had met you out at Baltimore. And I think we became Facebook friends or whatever.
And we drive all the time, so I listen to podcasts. And I listened to the Tow Business Podcast with Brad and Jeff. And at the time, this was back in May when we got our light duty trucks, and I said from the start we are a completely paperless company. We are 100% digital. Any one of my trucks, you go get in right now, there’s probably not even a pen or a piece of paper in any one of them. It’s wild.
So I came from the world of everything is pen and paper, and it drove me [wild] because I knew there was alternatives out there. And I didn’t know what those were, but I knew there was some sort of digital towing platforms that, hey, I don’t have to have handwritten invoices that the drivers get their greasy fingers all over and you can’t read their handwriting. Or we’re sitting along the highway and we got to take a credit card, well, hold on, we got to call back to the office with the person’s credit card. It was just a [wild] thing and it drove me [annoyed]. But it was how my dad and them did it. And that was how they ran their stuff because back in their time, there wasn’t a thing of technology.
So when I got our light duty trucks, I put my foot on the ground with my brother and I said, “These things will not move until we have a dispatch system. I don’t care.” I want to be proactive and I want to start efficient. I don’t want to be running on paper logs for three or four months and then start seeing what works for other people and that type of thing.
So we were exploring towing apps and all of that, and we were using one. We used it for about a month and I just wasn’t a fan of it, I couldn’t figure it out, I wasn’t smart enough to run it. The guys couldn’t figure it out. And it was the biggest problem was it was just like, here it is, here’s our software, see how it works. So one day I was driving and I was listening to the Tow Business Podcast and I seen Shelli was interviewed by Brad and Jeff. And I was like, oh, I wonder what this is. So I click on it and I’m listening to it and she’s talking about TRAXERO. And I’m like, here’s another … I didn’t even know about you guys until that podcast. So then I immediately, I think it was on a Saturday or Sunday-
I think I texted Shelli, I was like, “Hey, I’m so sorry for bothering you.”
Shelli Hawkins:
Probably.
Jason Keller:
Yes. I’m like, “I’m so sorry for bothering you, but call me Monday morning when you get in the office.” So we set up a time. And then I think she set me up with Rocco first. I believe it was Rocco first. And then I got passed on to Nick. And I was blown away from the start because I was like, “Yeah, do you guys have a free trial?” And he’s like, “No, nope.” And I’m like, “Oh.” I’m like, “Okay, how do I figure out?” And he goes … he would not even release the app to me until I 150% knew how to operate it. And so I was sold from day one.
I mean, it was just like the onboarding process was huge because I’m a question person, I ask a million questions because I want to know the why of everything. And so the onboarding process was huge. And that’s when I was like, all right, I’m sold, this is what we’re going to use. And it’s so user-friendly that I always laugh that a monkey can do this. A monkey can operate the system. Whether that’s a good or bad thing. I think it’s great. I think it’s a great-
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes. For those of you listening, Nick and Paris are part of our customer success team. And when he says that the mobile was not released, we want to lay a fantastic foundation of understanding of all the bits and pieces of the core of what you’re going to be using. And so then we just progressively open up different other areas to make sure that you understand. Instead of just throwing it all at you, you figuring it out. We want to make sure you understand everything. And Jason is a very high energy person.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, well, no, that’s definitely … I mean, and that was a huge thing that I liked about it was because the platform we were using before was, “Here it is, let us know what you think.” And I was like just clueless, I had no idea how to run anything, I had no idea … I couldn’t even figure out how to add information to calls. Where on your guys then with TRAXERO it was like, “Nope, we’re going to walk you through every step. That way as soon as this is released to you, you are so comfortable running this. That you may have a few questions here and there, but you know what you’re doing.” And that’s been …
And the customize, how much you can customize it is huge for me too because … So I have it set up that our drivers have to post photos before they can even close out the call.
Shelli Hawkins:
Love that.
Jason Keller:
And the other thing is that I have-
Shelli Hawkins:
And that’s customizable, yeah, that’s customizable.
Jason Keller:
Everything is customizable. So I have it set up that certain accounts that I do work for, they require a PO or you’ll never get paid. So I have it set up that that call cannot be created without that PO being there.
Shelli Hawkins:
You can’t go to the next field unless the PO field is entered?
Jason Keller:
Right. You can’t even dispatch it without that PO being there.
Shelli Hawkins:
Perfect.
Jason Keller:
And that’s huge because once you start getting to the point we are, at first it was just me doing everything, I answered the phones, I dispatched and I ran the call. Well, now we’re growing. And now you have more layers of people involved. So these things filter through hands. And now either myself or Liz are answering phones, myself or Liz are doing the dispatching, and then it’s getting sent to guys.
And so it’s like as much as we can eliminate those small things that we can forget because it’s easy to forget, but those things that we can forget can be the reason we don’t get paid. That’s huge. So there’s accounts, as far as the POs, and I require all of our guys, any impounds, I require them to take four photos before they even touch the vehicle. So one from each side. Because anybody that’s in the towing business knows, if you do an impound and the police don’t know that the bumper’s cracked, well, when the person comes to pick up their car and they see that the bumper’s cracked, guess whose fault it is? Even though it’s been cracked for probably five years, it’s your fault.
Shelli Hawkins:
Oh yeah. Absolutely.
Jason Keller:
And that’s huge. And that has legitimately saved me I would say thousands of dollars over less than a year.
Laura Dolan:
That’s awesome.
Jason Keller:
Because I can sit there, we had a gentleman, a really, really nice gentleman come in a couple of months ago and said that we scuffed his wheels and we broke his bumper and this and that and the other thing. And I just chuckled because I was the one that did it. So I instantly knew and I said, “Well, hold on, sir.” So I opened up our dispatch system on the computer and I showed … You guys have a damage report on there.
So we use the damage report. If there’s damage on a vehicle, we click the little damage report and you snap a photo. It takes literally three seconds. You snap a photo and you just punch in real quick, crack, scuff, whatever it is, whatever the damage is. It’s like they’re pre-noted in there, all you do is just click it. It’s not like you’ve got to type anything, you just click what the damage is. And yeah, this gentleman came in and was trying to make some waves. And it was pretty simple for me to turn my computer around and I said, “Well, actually, here’s the photo, it’s timestamped and everything else.” And it’s like, “Nope.” [inaudible 00:50:50] Yeah.
Shelli Hawkins:
Oh, I would love to have been there.
Laura Dolan:
I got to know, what was his reaction to that, was he just like, “Oh, never mind”?
Jason Keller:
Well, they back … I mean, people that are in the towing business that are listening to this know that those people backpedal. They’re just looking for … it’s everybody else’s fault but their own that they got the DUI or whatever it is, driving under suspension.
Laura Dolan:
Of course.
Jason Keller:
And then the other thing that’s been gigantic for us is the timestamps on everything. And this goes with the maps. So one of my primary drivers, he’s not from this area, and so he doesn’t know all the roads around this area. So I can’t just say, “Hey, go to road Y and Z,” because he doesn’t know where those roads are.
So your guide has a system that with the maps on it is huge because when we get a call from local law enforcement, I can just say, because that’s how they’ll do it, they’ll say, “Well, we have an accident at road X and road Y.” And it’s like, “Well, can you give me the nearest address.” And 99.9% of the time, they’ll give you the nearest address. We can punch that right in our dispatch system. That way it gets that driver within a half a mile to where the wreck is.
But what’s super nice is when the guys are using the maps, and I don’t know if this is how it’s set up, this is just what I’ve noticed, if I click go on a call and I use the maps to lead me to that call, which is Apple Maps or Google Maps, whichever you use, as soon as I pull up on scene, it automatically notes me ‘on scene’. And then I don’t even have to click ‘on scene’, it automatically, however the satellites are, I’m not smart enough to know how it works.
Laura Dolan:
It just knows you arrived.
Jason Keller:
It knows I arrived. And it automatically notes that. And then as soon as we start rolling, whether we’re there for 10 minutes or three hours, is as soon as we start, I would say get within a half a mile from where that incident was, it’ll pop up ‘loaded’. So it notices that you’re moving and it’ll say, “Do you want to pop up loaded?” And then as soon as we pull into our impound lot, it timestamps it as ‘dropped’.
Well, anybody that does law enforcement calls, and when you have to sit in a meeting and you have maybe another company on the other side of that meeting that’s not a fan of you and doesn’t like you and potentially tries to do anything they can so you’re not on that rotation list, it’s super nice when you can sit there with print-outs of every call you’ve ever done. And you can be like, “Well, my driver, no, no, my drivers were dispatched, the call came in at 10:58, they were on scene at 11:15. They were loaded and leaving the scene at 11:45. They were back to my lot by 12:30.” When you can sit there and you can produce every call log, that’s huge. That’s huge for somebody like me that goes through the battles that I go through.
Laura Dolan:
That’s indisputable evidence.
Shelli Hawkins:
We had the exact same situation with another customer in Michigan. And it wasn’t necessarily another tower across the table, but it was the police entity said, “You need to start arriving sooner, you’re arriving late to all of our accidents, incidents, etc., you’re consistently arriving late.” He pulled that report that you’re talking about, showed it to them, and uncovered that the dispatcher was just marking them as late. So they used our technology, like you did, to show, “Hey, we’re not late, it’s your problem.”
Jason Keller:
Right. It’s huge. And other people know this as well that are in the towing industry. You may be on scene for 30 minutes and then you’re standing there next to the deputy or the trooper and he grabs his radio and goes, “Oh yeah, hey, Kellers are on scene.” Well, now the dispatcher notes it. And it’s like, “No, no, no, I’ve been on scene for 35 minutes.”
Shelli Hawkins:
True.
Jason Keller:
But it’s if you can have a contingency and you can have a backup, you have more dog in a fight type of thing.
Laura Dolan:
Definitely.
Jason Keller:
I mean, it’s great. And then the other thing that we use, which I can’t speak a whole lot on because I don’t personally do it, we use the TowLien. So Liz handles the TowLien stuff for us. But that TowLien has gotten me contracts.
Shelli Hawkins:
What is TowLien, Jason?
Jason Keller:
TowLien is where, so when you have an abandoned vehicle and you need to get the title for it.
Shelli Hawkins:
Searches, letters.
Jason Keller:
Searches. And then like I say, I can speak broadly on it because I’m not the one actually doing it.
Shelli Hawkins:
That’s okay, yes.
Jason Keller:
But I know that it’s a matter of a couple of clicks of a button and we’ve got certified letters being sent in the mail. And it’s the most … I was nervous when we did it because I didn’t know how … This was all new to me when I came from our family’s business, all I did was the work, I never seen the back end. So when we started that process, I didn’t know if it was going to be … how hard it was going to be. It’s like three clicks of a button and certified letters are being sent out. And then within 10 days you’re getting the certified letters back and it’s super easy. By the time it’s all said and done, you get a packet and you walk up to the title office and get a title and you’re scrapping the car.
Shelli Hawkins:
Love it.
Laura Dolan:
It is a game changer, no more trips to the post office, no more trips to the DMV, it’s just magical from what I’ve heard.
Jason Keller:
Hundred percent. Not even 100%. 150%. Has gotten me a contract with a law enforcement entity because … And trying to go about this politely. The company that they were using, the law enforcement, he does all the certified letters, they do everything for that tow company. They’re the ones sending these letters. So they came to us a couple of months back and asked how we were doing things. And I pulled open our dispatch system and I, “Here’s on the map where all of our trucks are, I can tell you where every driver’s at at any moment, I can tell you when they’re on scene, when they leave, we do all the titles.”
And he’s like, “Whoa, whoa. So you’re telling me if I call you to impound a car, as soon as you leave that scene, I don’t have to mess with that car?” I’m like, “Correct.”
Shelli Hawkins:
Awesome.
Jason Keller:
So yeah. So, I mean, technology is a great thing. And I still know some tow companies that do everything the old school way of pen and paper. And I don’t know how … I couldn’t go back to it. I mean, we rely so heavy on the software.
Shelli Hawkins:
And for those that are listening, what is the name of the software that you’re using? I don’t think we mentioned that yet.
Jason Keller:
No. So I use Dispatch Anywhere. And it’s great.
Shelli Hawkins:
So Dispatch Anywhere is the main core of the software. And then you mentioned you also use TowLien. Are you also using TowPay?
Jason Keller:
Yes. Yep. So that’s been huge too. That’s another one.
Shelli Hawkins:
Payment processing.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, that’s another one that uniquely weirdly has gotten me work. That I find interesting. The TowPay is huge because now you don’t have drivers having to call back to run a credit card. What I love about it is it’s all under one system. I don’t have to have a driver open up three different apps and double check and all that. If you can limit the steps that a driver has to do, you limit how much can go wrong or be forgotten.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes. Love that statement. So true.
Jason Keller:
So, when I can send a driver and I can dispatch him a call, all the information’s in that call, all he has to do with literally in a matter of three buttons, it’s done. So yeah. So now with the TowPay, it’s all interfaced with the Dispatch Anywhere. He can take a credit card on scene. Or what we can do is we can send the text pay link.
Laura Dolan:
Yep. Link-To-Pay.
Jason Keller:
Huge. Yes. That has been huge for us because of the two universities we have in town.
Shelli Hawkins:
Explain Link-To-Pay, what is Link-To-Pay?
Jason Keller:
Yep. So what it is, what we typically do is just so it shows up properly on the receipt, you can do it prior, but the person doesn’t even have to be present with a physical card, you don’t even have to physically have any interaction with them. What we do is the driver gets on scene, he pulls the plate, which gets all the information. So that’s another huge thing that we can talk about is the magic VIN. But the driver pulls the vehicle information. And then whatever the charge is, $90, $100, whatever the charge is, he clicks the credit card app. And then it either says ‘Capture On Device’, which means you’re punching it in right there, or ‘Send Request’. It sends a text message right to that person that’s attached with that call, the owner of the vehicle or the caller of the vehicle. They get a link, they click that link, they upload their credit card information. It automatically notifies the driver that it’s been paid. And it automatically gives that customer a receipt right there. And away you go and you have no interaction.
I have found that we are becoming a society where people don’t want human contact. They don’t want to even call and talk to you on a phone. So it’s huge with the universities, these kids, they got to get to class or they just don’t even want to deal with it. I get the plate number from them. That way when we show up in the parking lot with a thousand cars, we know which one it is. We get the plate number, they’ll send us a picture of the car, I’ll attach all that with the call. The driver gets there, sends them a text, they pay for it and away he goes.
And the other one is the request service tab that we have linked with our website, that is through the Dispatch Anywhere. That’s been a unique one with the local body shops and repair shops.
Shelli Hawkins:
So someone goes on your website, requests a call, it pops up digitally into Dispatch Anywhere. Love it.
Jason Keller:
Yep. And it spells out everything. So it spells out everything and it has contact info, name, what’s wrong with the vehicle, plate number, information, where it needs to go, where it’s at. It’s super spelled out.
And then that’s been a unique one that we’ve gotten quite a bit of work from. Because we’ve found some of the local dealerships, their service writers don’t even want to call and talk to you. So if they can just sit behind their computer and request you to go tow a Ford Focus or whatever it is. It automatically rings through our dispatch system. We accept the call, we send a driver. That’s been a unique one that I didn’t think we’d get much out of. But it’s surprisingly …
And I’ve said that to them, when I go, they’re like, Shelli said I can talk the bark off a tree, when I go and I ask these guys, I’m like, “Do you guys like using that?” They’re like, “Oh yeah, it’s great, it saves us so much time. We don’t got a call, potentially sit on hold or anything like that. We just punch it all in and we know that within an hour or two, the car’s going to be in our lot.”
Laura Dolan:
Incredible, Jason, thank you so much for all this amazing feedback and your testimony, your experience with it. It’s just absolutely invaluable. So thank you.
Jason Keller:
Oh, it’s great. I push your guy’s product like it’s drugs. I push it on everybody.
Laura Dolan:
I love it. I love it.
Shelli Hawkins:
How wise for you to recognize that once you bought that light duty tow truck, your volume of transaction is going to skyrocket, and unless you were on some sort of digital platform, your paperwork would also skyrocket.
Jason Keller:
Right. And I knew that prior with my past experience. And it was so impossible to keep organized and there was nothing-
Shelli Hawkins:
Like I do not want to do this, yes.
Jason Keller:
Right. There was nothing that drove me more [out of control], when I jump on a truck and you’d see an invoice from two weeks ago that never got submitted because the driver forgot to take it out of a clipboard. Or there’s money in the center console of a truck and you’re like, what job does this go to? And it was like just it worked, prior to technology, because that was the only option you have.
But now with the world we live in, I cannot imagine. I joke all the time, and don’t do this, but I said all the time, “If you guys have raised your rates to $500 a month, I’d pay it because it’s priceless to me.” So I’d figure out a way to offset it. And you find a way to offset it. And that’s what some people are like, “I can’t justify spending the money.” It’s like, “Well, find a way to offset it.” You find a way to utilize the software or to offset it.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes. Our founder of Dispatch Anywhere, Beacon, Todd Althouse, often says that the software should pay for itself, you should find creative ways, like you mentioned, for the software to pay for itself.
Jason Keller:
And I would argue that it already pays for itself. You don’t even need to find a way to offset it because when you think about how organized you can be and all the presets and how much time you save, that it pays for itself.
I can send five calls to a driver right now and I don’t even have to call him and stop him from working, stop him from alongside the highway because he knows when he jumps in the trucks and grabs his phone, he’s going to see the next call waiting, the next call waiting, the next call waiting. I don’t have to stop him from working.
I would argue that it just … I cannot fathom not running a software. The huge thing for me is, not even that we’ve had any problems with it, but when I have questions. Yesterday for example, at 10 or 11 yesterday morning, I had a driver go do a call for somebody. He ran a credit card and it said it was blocked. And it was for insufficient funds the first time. He ran it the second time, it said it was blocked. The third time he ran, it said improper zip. But he physically was standing next to the guy. They sent me the screenshot of the guy’s bank account. It showed that it pulled that money from his bank account. He’s a local gentleman, we know who he is.
So I told our driver, “Go ahead, go on to the next call.” I said, “I will call our dispatch software and I’ll call them and see what’s going on, maybe we did something wrong.” I called, and within five minutes I had an answer for what had happened. Here we had punched in the wrong zip code. It did a pending charge on the guy’s card. It’s going to reimburse it within 24 hours. We can either run it again or run it tomorrow, whatever.
But I mean, that’s been the huge thing for me is when we have questions, I get answers. I get bombarded with answers. I forget what it was a couple of months ago, but I had to laugh. Oh, it was the TowLien. We were setting our stuff up with TowLien. And I think I emailed Nick about a question. And then it got forwarded to Rocco. And then I don’t know who it got forwarded from there. But I mean-
Laura Dolan:
Probably Dan.
Jason Keller:
Within 30 minutes I had six emails, my phone was ringing and I was like, this is-
Shelli Hawkins:
Y’all need to calm down.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, but I mean it’s huge. That’s what’s been huge for me is that you can talk to a human, they treat you like a human. And I told Nick when I was doing the onboarding, I was like, “Listen, talk to me like I’m [ignorant]. Break this down, you’re not going to offend me. Talk to me like I’m [ignorant] because when it comes to technology, I understand it, but I don’t understand it.”
Shelli Hawkins:
I’ve got one more question, Laura, you probably have more too.
Laura Dolan:
I think we need to let this gentleman go, but go for it. We can just have him on again.
Shelli Hawkins:
I’m going to ask the famous Laura Dolan question, Jason Keller, what is the future, in the next two years, let’s say two years of Keller Brothers Towing?
Jason Keller:
Oh, just keep growing. I joke, there’s this Conor McGregor saying that he says, “I’m not here to partake, I’m here to take over.” And that lives in my head rent-free. That lives in my head rent-free. And I’ve drank the juice, I’m back to … we’re all in. So just keep growing. I want to keep scaling within our means and doing a good job for the community and providing jobs. And it’s fun. Yeah, get more trucks. Hopefully we have a second location here, open up … Well, I’m hoping here by the end of the year, we have a second location opened up here. And just keep growing and see what we can turn this into.
Laura Dolan:
In the same area or a different part of that part of Ohio?
Jason Keller:
Different part, just a neighboring county, within 30 minutes, 40 minutes.
Laura Dolan:
Gotcha. Perfect.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, there’s a lot of opportunity. And when opportunity comes, you try to capitalize on it and do the … There’s a fine line of, I don’t want to jeopardize quality for quantity. But it’s trying to maneuver through them fine lines and those waves where it’s like if we ever get to a point where our quality’s going down, then I’m going to dial it back. We want to be able to provide the best job we can every job we do. Whether it’s the customer with the 2001 Ford Taurus that’s rotted out or a brand new Mercedes, you want to treat them … they’re the same person.
Laura Dolan:
Yeah. I love that. Awesome.
Shelli Hawkins:
This has been a wonderful journey, from the situation you had early on with the family, your dad passing away, you becoming a business owner, your brother first with the trucking business, finding your way into the efficiencies of TRAXERO. And then here you are today and the sky is the limit, Jason Keller, we love it.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me on. This was fun.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes. I was going to say, it’s the phoenix rising out of the ashes.
Laura Dolan:
Jason, can you tell us how your audience could find you, your website and your social media handles? We know you’re definitely on Facebook. But anywhere else?
Jason Keller:
Yeah. So, Facebook is Keller Brothers Enterprise. I’m going to do my best to remember everything. Facebook is Keller Brothers Enterprise. Our website is keller-brothers.com. Our YouTube channel is under Keller Built, I believe is the name, and same as our Instagram and TikTok is all Keller Built. But I would imagine if you type in Keller Brothers, it would pop up. But Keller Brothers Enterprise is the company name and you’ll see the big gorilla logo.
Shelli Hawkins:
Love it.
Laura Dolan:
Love it. Excellent. I will make sure to link all of this in the show notes, so it’ll be easier for our audience, just click on that.
Jason Keller:
And I can have Liz send over whatever and go from there.
Laura Dolan:
Fantastic. Yeah. And as I said, I need to be Liz’s friend. Hopefully I’ll get to meet you guys in Florida.
Jason Keller:
Yeah. This stuff is all so over my head, like I say, I’m blessed to have her as a fiance. And now she works full-time for us.
Laura Dolan:
I love that.
Jason Keller:
So she follows us around with a camera and does all of her cool stuff.
Laura Dolan:
It’s like me with my husband, my husband is a musician, so I’m always following him around with my camera.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, no, it’s fun.
Laura Dolan:
So much fun. Well, this was fun.
Shelli Hawkins:
You rock, Jason Keller. Yes. Thank you so much.
Laura Dolan:
Yes. Thank you so much.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, no, thanks for having me, it’s a blast. I listen to all the episodes.
Laura Dolan:
We appreciate that.
Shelli Hawkins:
We’re going to make a date to have you again on the podcast one year from now, and we’re going to get an update from you.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, well, hopefully we’re rocking with eight more trucks.
Shelli Hawkins:
You will be.
Jason Keller:
More drivers.
Shelli Hawkins:
You’ll be rocking whether it’s eight or not, but thank you so much, Jason.
Jason Keller:
Yeah, no, thank you guys for having me, I appreciate it.
Laura Dolan:
Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Traxero On-The-Go, we will see you next time.
Laura Dolan:
Thank you for listening to this episode of the TRAXERO On-The-Go podcast. For more episodes, go to traxero.com/podcast and to find out more about how we can hook your towing business up with our towing management software and impound yard solutions, please visit traxero.com or go to the contact page linked at the bottom of this podcast blog.