Episode 19
Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff
May 21, 2024
In this episode of TRAXERO On-The-Go, Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff, we were excited to welcome Hannah Butcher, Business Development Lead for Road Runner Wrecker Service. She is also associated with its two sister companies, Henry’s Wrecker Service and Windsor Towing where, as she puts it, “It’s cool to look under the hood of another company and see how they work.” Hannah has grown up in the towing business and started working for Road Runner at the early age of 14 and caught the entrepreneurial bug. After getting her business degree, she has become a subject matter expert in a multifaceted organization and divulges her entire experience with these towing companies. Click play to listen.
Shelli Hawkins:
Welcome back, everyone to the TRAXERO-On-The-Go Podcast. I’m your co-host, Shelli Hawkins here with my amazing co-host, Laura Dolan. Laura, how in the world are you doing today?
Laura Dolan:
I am doing fantastic. I’m going to steal your word today, Shelli.
Shelli Hawkins:
What? You are. So that’s one fantastic.
Laura Dolan:
That’s one. For those of you who are keeping track. If you want to play the drinking game, play along. No, I’m feeling great. I got a new microphone and it’s a beautiful day here in Columbus, Ohio. It’s cloudy, it’s going to rain later. Some thunderstorms in the works hopefully. So yeah, that’s the kind of stuff that makes me happy.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love it.
Laura Dolan:
How about you?
Shelli Hawkins:
I’m doing great. I am in the mountains of Virginia. If our listeners want to look up Clintwood, Virginia, they’ll see that it’s really close to the Kentucky border and about an hour and a half from Bristol, north of Bristol, Tennessee, Bristol, Virginia. It’s where I grew up in Crabtree Hollow on the Stanley Branch side. I’ve been spending the last few days with mama and daddy just helping around, helping around the house, doing some things.
Laura Dolan:
Nice.
Shelli Hawkins:
Spending some time with them. It’s been really great. I came here almost the day after our Vegas Tow Show, Laura, so it was, what? Five days in Vegas and then coming to Virginia for what I call, the reset. And it’s been-
Laura Dolan:
That is quite the other end of the pendulum swing there.
Shelli Hawkins:
Oh, yes. Yes, indeed. You were in Vegas.
Laura Dolan:
Yes, I was.
Shelli Hawkins:
You were at the Vegas Tow Show.
Laura Dolan:
I was. Yep.
Shelli Hawkins:
This was your first time at the Vegas Tow Show?
Laura Dolan:
Yes.
Shelli Hawkins:
What did you think, Laura?
Laura Dolan:
I thought it was a blast. Personally, I had an amazing time because I grew up on the west coast, so it was kind of nice to see people walking by with their name tags that say like, San Bernardino, or San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Pahrump. It’s like,-
Shelli Hawkins:
I know all those places.
Laura Dolan:
… all those places that I grew up near, and yeah, it was really, really good. Vegas is my hometown, so it was nice to be there for a couple of days and get to see my coworkers in a very familiar setting for myself. So yeah, it was a really fun experience. I thought the booth activity was just absolutely on fire. We had a lot of great conversations and just looking forward to the results from that. But yeah, I think it was well worth our time and effort to be out there and-
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes, I agree.
Laura Dolan:
… Yeah, it was a really great experience.
Shelli Hawkins:
I’m going to ask you a very difficult question to answer.
Laura Dolan:
Okay.
Shelli Hawkins:
If you had to choose two trade shows in the year to go to, because you’ve been to a lot of them now, right? You’ve been to a lot. You’ve been to two. If you-
Laura Dolan:
I’m sorry, I’m laughing because for people who can’t see this, Shelli’s got balloons floating around her head right now for some reason.
Shelli Hawkins:
In my Zoom. Yes.
Laura Dolan:
How are you doing that?
Shelli Hawkins:
It’s very special. I’ll give you the secret sauce later. It’s like AI or something. I have no idea.
Laura Dolan:
Oh my god, that’s hilarious. I’m sorry. So back to your question, if I had to pick two tow shows a year-
Shelli Hawkins:
You’ve been to Baltimore, Tennessee, you’ve been to so many trade shows now since you started with us, you had to pick two, where would you go… Let’s say, where would you go in 2025? I’m literally not going to hold this to you, right? Because you’re so important at all these trade shows. Which two are your favorite as of right now?
Laura Dolan:
As of right now, Vegas and Tennessee.
Shelli Hawkins:
I knew it. I knew it. I should have wrote it down on a paper.
Laura Dolan:
I really enjoyed being in Tennessee last year. The Tennessee Tow Show has a completely different vibe, and we all know why. It’s the home to the towing industry, the Wall of the Fallen. We have the fundraiser auction for the Survivor Fund, and we also have the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony there. So just a lot that goes on, and I find Chattanooga to be extremely charming. I really enjoyed being there last year. So, looking forward to going this year. In fact, I just booked my hotel and flight and got my ticket for the auction.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love it. Outstanding. Now there’s fireworks behind me but no one can see it.
Laura Dolan:
Yes, there are.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah, I agree. All the things to look forward to. It’s a family reunion. And Laura, I love the outsider’s perspective. You’ve been with us for, gosh, way more than a year now, a year and a half has it been, or?
Laura Dolan:
A year and a half. Next month will be a year and a half. It’s [wild].
Shelli Hawkins:
So, when we first started TRAXERO, folks were like, who is TRAXERO? What is TRAXERO? What does this all mean? And now people are coming in saying, okay, tell us what you guys do. Tell us how you’re different. We want to know and we want to learn, and these are the conversations we’re having more and more and more at every single trade show. Conversations are free. We would love for you to talk to us, reach out to us. Laura will put a link in the notes of this podcast to say, Hey, find out more about the amazing world of TRAXERO.
Laura Dolan:
Absolutely. And the other best part of it is that a lot of our sub brands are being associated with the TRAXERO label. So people are realizing, we are Omadi, we’re Dispatch Anywhere, we’re Beacon, we’re BudgetGPS, we’re TowLien. And so, just closing that gap between the sub brands and TRAXERO itself is great. The unity has come together more and more every day, and that’s all we could ask for at this point.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes. It is a fantastic family to be a part of. Did I just say fantastic?
Laura Dolan:
Amen. Yes, you did. You said it twice.
Shelli Hawkins:
That’s two. That’s two. And there’s some more balloons.
Laura Dolan:
And there’s more balloons. Oh my gosh. We need to be getting this on video going forward.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes. So we’re also going to be heading, the next one is going to be in Fort Worth, Texas, June 21st and 22nd. That is going to be the American Towman Xpo in Fort Worth, down at the very center of the downtown of Fort Worth, right there in the Fort Worth Convention Center, and we’re looking forward to it. We’ve got a corner booth just like we did last year. So, all the people just go through our booth and it’s just a wonderful, wonderful time down in Texas.
Laura Dolan:
That’s awesome. Booth placement, location, location, location, it is all about location. So, the fact that we get those prime spots is amazing.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah, I love it. And we’ve got some great partners with all of these trade shows. We really do, and we love you all, and it’s very much like Laura said, worth our while to be there. So thank you all. Laura, I am super excited.
Laura Dolan:
Me too.
Shelli Hawkins:
I’m super excited to bring on this podcast guest today.
Laura Dolan:
Me too.
Shelli Hawkins:
I might spontaneously combust. I promise I won’t make it happen, but I just love this person. She is a powerhouse of a human, and she’s going to tell us her story. She’s going to give away all of her secrets. She’s going to tell you every single thing that she knows, possibly. If we had 300 hours to talk, maybe. We have the amazing, wonderful, fantastic, intelligent, spontaneous human named Hannah Butcher with us today from Road Runner Wrecker Service in Leesburg, Virginia.
Hannah Butcher:
Thanks, Shelli for having me.
Shelli Hawkins:
Oh gosh, Laura, I’m so excited to talk to her today on the podcast.
Laura Dolan:
You can’t even get the words out, you’re so excited.
Shelli Hawkins:
No. No.
Hannah Butcher:
I’m very excited too. Thank you so much for having me.
Laura Dolan:
Absolutely.
Hannah Butcher:
I cannot wait to chat.
Laura Dolan:
No, I’ve been pumped all day. I’m just like, this is going to be such a female driven, powerhouse podcast today, so, so excited to have Hannah on. I had the pleasure of interviewing Hannah in person in Florida just a few weeks ago, so it’s so great to have her back on. Tell us what’s new with you since we’ve seen you last.
Hannah Butcher:
Absolutely. I am missing the Florida weather, I will say that for sure.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes. Yes.
Hannah Butcher:
I don’t know Shelli how it is in Clintwood for you right now, but here in Leesburg where I’m at, it’s cloudy, it’s raining, it is no fun. So, missing that Florida weather. Nothing new, just business as usual. Of course, there’s a million different projects going on, but that’s how we work. So yeah, nothing new really. It’s just been business as usual.
Laura Dolan:
And at this point, that’s the best thing we can ask for, right? Business as usual, no surprises, no lag in progress. So yeah, that’s always good to hear.
Hannah Butcher:
Absolutely. Yeah. Well, towing is always… it’s always a surprise, right? Or an emergency. But no, no surprises. We just finished an auction for Henry’s, which is our sister company yesterday. We’ve got another auction coming up for Road Runner, so working on that, trying to expand how the auctions are going to our other locations as well. I’m trying to think of what else is going on. I’m sure there’s a million things, but I just decided to put them out of my brain for the next couple hours while we chat.
Laura Dolan:
Yeah, why not?
Shelli Hawkins:
I love that. I love that. Let’s start with this. So you grew up in the towing industry and your father started Road Runner Wrecker Service, correct?
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah. Yeah. So, I’ll probably interchangeably refer to him as Dave or Dad, depending on the context. But Dave started Road Runner in 1992 with a truck and a cellphone. And from there he just kind of grew it into this large corporation, I want to say like a conglomerate of a business to where it’s multifaceted. We have about 80 employees right now at Road Runner. We have two sister companies, which I’m sure we’ll get into the details of that later, but that brings our whole operation up to about, I want to say 160 employees more or less. So, we’re running pretty large right now. But yeah, he started that. I grew up in the industry. It’s really all I’ve known. I’ve had one other job, one other internship, and then I waited tables in high school one time, but-
Shelli Hawkins:
Love it. Love it.
Hannah Butcher:
… other than that, it’s been all Road Runner.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes. And for those of you listening, correct me if I’m wrong, Hannah, but the Road Runner, Wrecker Towing service trucks are white with blue accents, blue trim.
Hannah Butcher:
Yep. White and blue, those are our colors.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes. I remember seeing one for the first time and I was just like, that is a sharp truck. And you guys primarily run Miller Industries equipment? I think.
Hannah Butcher:
That’s a good question for Dave. Yes. I believe it is mostly Miller.
Shelli Hawkins:
I think it-
Hannah Butcher:
Yes, it’s all Miller.
Shelli Hawkins:
And I think-
Hannah Butcher:
Mostly.
Shelli Hawkins:
Well, I think with the conglomerate you brought on, all the brands are all together. So, I’m just trying to think. I can see the 7035 on the Interstate 80 because I see them when I’m headed down to Clintwood on occasion.
Laura Dolan:
This is where Shelli starts to show off.
Shelli Hawkins:
Possible. Possible.
Laura Dolan:
She gets into the nitty-gritty model numbers of every truck.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes, I might be flexing a little bit. It’s fine.
Hannah Butcher:
I wish I could flex that way. I know where my strengths are. Sometimes it’s not remembering that stuff.
Shelli Hawkins:
No,-
Hannah Butcher:
Sounds silly, but…
Shelli Hawkins:
That’s good for you to know your strengths. So grew up in the towing industry. I want to know, I did not grow up in the towing industry, and I have been somewhat, I hate to use the word jealous, but you know what I mean. I can’t even imagine being able to grow up around tow trucks all the time. Where you just like, I love this. I hate this. I’m going to do this. I’m not going to do this. Because usually children will make a decision. I am a hundred percent into this business, or I want to be a professional chef. What was your early days of when I grow up I want to do… What was that like?
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah, great question. Growing up, before I actually started working in the industry, I mean, I had a pretty normal childhood. I mean, my dad, I knew that he worked on the business, but he did a really great job of just keeping work and personal separate. So he was very present. Sometimes he would run out in the middle of the night for recovery, and I’d always be like, “Can I go with you?” And he’s like, “Oh, no, no, no, but maybe one day.” Right?
So, I started when I was 13 or 14. He had me start by sweeping gravel in a gravel lot. And don’t ask me how that worked, I think it was just he wanted something for me to do, instead of having a summer sitting at home. And so, I started there. I started picking up car parts, and at that point after that, I just helped around the shop, helped around the office. I started answering the phones and really just folded into it really seamlessly. And after that, I was working on weekends or whenever I wasn’t in school. So if I had winter break or spring break, I would usually be at the office answering the calls or helping customers out. Then after that, I went to school at Virginia Tech and I got my bachelor’s degree in business.
Shelli Hawkins:
Go Hokies. Go Hokies.
Hannah Butcher:
Go Hokies. A hundred percent.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes, ma’am.
Hannah Butcher:
So I interned at Road Runner for a couple summers when I was back, and then I started full-time once I graduated. So really, it’s been all I’ve known and I’ve just loved it. I really have enjoyed it. I love it.
Shelli Hawkins:
At no point was there like, this is garbage. I do not want anything to do with this. This is exhausting in the brain. I’m done. We won’t tell your dad if you say, yes. We promise we will not tell your dad.
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah, I [inaudible 00:13:20].
Laura Dolan:
I mean, I guess I can just cut that part out.
Shelli Hawkins:
No.
Hannah Butcher:
No, no. No, I mean everybody else, there are good and bad days, but I really didn’t. I mean, it was just something where I can see the passion that my dad had for it, and I think maybe, I don’t know if it was genetic or just learned, but I had a similar passion for it. Not only just towing and the industry in general, but just his, he has very inspiring leadership and he’s very entrepreneurial. And I think I might’ve just gotten the entrepreneurial bug like he did to where I love working on the business and I love being a part of something like this, and continuing to try and grow has been my favorite part of it all. So, when I was picking up car parts, did I necessarily want to be there? No. But you’re a kid, you don’t know what’s going on. So, I didn’t really know what I wanted and I’m really grateful that I had those resources growing up to where I could try and figure it out. And I’m glad to be here now. So, it’s cool.
And of course you’ll get everybody saying, oh, I knew you when you were just a little kid and when you were this high. And it’s nice. It’s a family industry, even as we grow, we all know each other, and there’s some people that have been with us for years and years and years to where it still feels really close-knit, even though we’re continuing to expand at this exponential rate, it’s cool. So, I really like that about the industry. I think that transcends to most companies that a lot of them are family built and a lot of them are very tightly-knit, even though the industry is exploding. So, I really enjoyed that.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love that. I love that. So, great segue into your dad started Road Runner and he built the company to where it is today, and now Road Runner is in a family of companies. What are the other companies that you guys are in that family with?
Hannah Butcher:
So, we gained two sister companies in August of 2023, and they’re Henry’s Wrecker Service and Windsor Towing. And yes, they are awesome. They’re great to work with. It’s so cool to look under the hood of another company and see how they work, learn from each other, try to bounce things off of each other, leverage that relationship that we now have. Yeah, they have seven locations I want to say. So they go all the way up to Baltimore. We’re Northern Virginia. We go as far out like maybe Winchester. We actually have a location in Summit Point. So we go far out west in the northern Virginia, Loudoun County, Fairfax County area, and then we kind of overlap in that Fairfax County, Washington DC area, and then Henry’s goes up to Baltimore. So we really have started to dominate the Washington Metropolitan market, which is really cool to see and it’s awesome. It’s awesome.
Laura Dolan:
That’s a great area. So let me ask, what is the parent company? Is there a parent company for all three of you?
Hannah Butcher:
Yes, but we do operate all separately. So on the face, everything that Henry’s does and everything that Road Runner does on the day to day really doesn’t change. I don’t anticipate it changing. Who knows the future, but right now it’s just sometimes we have clients where we’ll subcontract each other and say, “Hey, this is our sister company. If we’re tied up for any reason or if the area makes more sense for them to go, then they’ll go first. So you might just see a red truck instead of a blue truck.”
Laura Dolan:
Nice, okay.
Hannah Butcher:
They’re with Windsor or-
Laura Dolan:
They could pick up the slack if need be. They could help you out if everybody else is out on the road preoccupied.
Hannah Butcher:
Absolutely. And then we have those clients that we can service them in our sweet spot of service area, and now these larger clients that we have that extend up into these northern areas or areas that Henry’s or Windsor might cover and also vice versa for clients of Henry’s, we can continue to leverage those relationships with clients. And it always depends on who the client is and what the agreement is, but we can continue to give better service. And that’s the ultimate goal is to continue to grow in the industry and give that better service, give better ETAs. Because in our industry, I mean ETAs are everything.
Laura Dolan:
Absolutely.
Hannah Butcher:
So yeah, and that’s a big part of our next venture of the growth of the three companies is continuing on the backend to find those synergies. So like software for example, dispatching, we want to have visibility. I know TRAXERO and TOPS, great segue into-
Laura Dolan:
Shameless plug!
Hannah Butcher:
Just have that visibility into how each company is operating, where their trucks are, and so we can continue to level up in what we’re doing. So, that’s our next big step is to figure out how we’re going to tackle that project. So Henry’s and Windsor are on Dispatch Anywhere, which is Beacon. And Road Runner’s on TOPS, so we’re learning from each other, but the ultimate goal is to get on one platform. So that’ll be something. It’s coming in the pipeline.
Laura Dolan:
Yes.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love it. I love it. We are going to play a game right now with Hannah Butcher, we are going to play yes or no? Are you guys ready? So I’m going to list a type of towing and you’re going to say yes or no, your sister companies do this or you don’t do this. So for example, light duty.
Hannah Butcher:
Yes. All three.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes. Yes. Correct.
Medium duty?
Hannah Butcher:
Yes.
Shelli Hawkins:
Heavy duty.
Hannah Butcher:
Yes.
Shelli Hawkins:
Rotators.
Hannah Butcher:
Yes.
Shelli Hawkins:
That’s also heavy duty. I’m also going to ask you, how many rotators are there altogether in all companies?
Hannah Butcher:
Oh my gosh, I should know this. I know that-
Shelli Hawkins:
You better know this. Your daddy would be ashamed if you do not know this. I know this. No, I don’t know this. I’m joking.
Hannah Butcher:
Okay. I know Road Runner has five or four, but-
Shelli Hawkins:
Henry’s has one or two, I think maybe two?
Hannah Butcher:
Three, maybe. Three.
Shelli Hawkins:
Okay. So, we’re up to eight.
Hannah Butcher:
He’s going to kill me for not knowing this.
Shelli Hawkins:
Oh, I know. That’s the point. That’s the point. This is your quarterly review without… Your daddy gave me these questions before you came in here. No, he didn’t. I’m joking.
Laura Dolan:
I was going to say really? He did? I didn’t know about this.
Hannah Butcher:
So we have 15 heavy wreckers. I know four of Road Runner’s are rotators. I believe the three of Henry’s are rotators as well.
Shelli Hawkins:
Perfect. Okay, so ready to continue on.
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah.
Laura Dolan:
Do you have the answers in front of you there, Shelli?
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes.
Laura Dolan:
Are you verifying everything?
Shelli Hawkins:
I literally made this list about 30 seconds ago. Okay, here we go. Onto the next one. Ready? Do you do these types of towing and I’m going to use the umbrella, law enforcement and law enforcement can be as we know, state, that can be state, that can be county, that can be city, that can also be parts of the turnpike. Do you do all of these things?
Hannah Butcher:
Yes, all of them.
Shelli Hawkins:
Perfect. PPI?
Hannah Butcher:
Yes.
Shelli Hawkins:
Repossession?
Hannah Butcher:
No.
Shelli Hawkins:
Talk about the PPI. That’s exciting.
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah, absolutely.
Shelli Hawkins:
For our listeners that have never heard PPI, what does that mean, Hannah?
Hannah Butcher:
Private property impounds. And so, Road Runner and Henry’s both engage in private property parking enforcement. And Henry’s does, I mean I want to say like a thousand to 1200 PPIs a month. So, they do a very large volume of those types of tows.
Shelli Hawkins:
[inaudible 00:21:06].
Hannah Butcher:
They are fantastic with it. That is their Maryland division. That’s mostly what they do there. I think they have two locations that are dedicated to it. And that division is definitely thriving. Again, we’re benchmarking off of each other. So Road Runner has a growing PPI division. We are not nearly on the same level as that Maryland division, but we’re learning. And we’re learning the tools that they use and we’re continuing to grow ours. I mean, we have several different accounts that we do private property impounds for as well. It’s an interesting part of the business for sure. It’s one aspect of the several different things that we do, but yeah, it is very, very, very, very interesting. It’s cool.
Shelli Hawkins:
When you look at the PPI that Henry’s is doing, do you know the average number of cars you’re impounding per month? Because I do.
Hannah Butcher:
I would say-
Shelli Hawkins:
I know, but I want to know if you know.
Hannah Butcher:
Oh my gosh, you’re testing me.
Shelli Hawkins:
I am.
Hannah Butcher:
This was my fear was that you were going to test me on that.
Shelli Hawkins:
You’re doing amazing. You’re doing amazing.
Laura Dolan:
I knew nothing about this Hannah by the way.
Hannah Butcher:
I knew it. I was like, oh my gosh, she’s probably going to ask me about some towing terms. I’m going to sound so silly.
Shelli Hawkins:
No, I did not ask you… I did not ask you for how much the steer axle of a 1075 weighs on a [inaudible 00:22:25]-
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah, I’m not going to… oh my [inaudible 00:22:26].
Laura Dolan:
[inaudible 00:22:26] 50,000 pounds.
Shelli Hawkins:
We’ll have someone comment about that, I promise you right now.
Laura Dolan:
Dang it. Am I right?
Shelli Hawkins:
It’s possible. No, I mean a fully loaded 1075 with equipment in it. Can it be anywhere from, I’ve seen a scale ticket of like 70-ish thousand, lower 70 thousands, and I’ve seen it all the way up to 80,000 depending on what you have in there, how you have it equipped, etc., etc. How many winches are on there? All these things [inaudible 00:22:48].
Laura Dolan:
I see, I see. Okay.
Shelli Hawkins:
I digress from all that garbage. We asked the question about how many impounds are there on average for Henry’s towing and Hannah Butcher is going to guess and say, how many?
Hannah Butcher:
Let’s say 1200.
Shelli Hawkins:
You are freaking right. Not kidding. Literally.
Hannah Butcher:
Awesome. Awesome. I thought so. I just saw a report the other day, so that sounds-
Shelli Hawkins:
[Inaudible 00:23:10].
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah.
Shelli Hawkins:
Good job. I was going to say, the reason I know that is because your dad mentioned it in a conversation a while ago, so just kind of-
Hannah Butcher:
I knew it.
Shelli Hawkins:
… kind of tucked it away. I tucked it away.
Hannah Butcher:
He’s really good with the numbers and keeping all those facts, and he is fantastic, and I’m very excited for him in this new venture with the sister companies. And I’m not sure if he’s mentioned this, but Henry’s was where he had his first job before he started Road Runner.
Shelli Hawkins:
He did. Yes.
Laura Dolan:
He did mention that.
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah so, it was really full circle for him to now be a part of Henry’s, so he deserves it for sure. Just seeing him from growing up and working beside him every day, he is such a motivator to our team to where this was a great moment for him. So, pretty cool.
Laura Dolan:
That is pretty cool, and I’m glad as the CEO and president and owner that he does know the numbers.
Hannah Butcher:
You do need to know that, right?
Laura Dolan:
I’m glad. I’m glad he does.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes.
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah. Yeah.
Shelli Hawkins:
Absolutely. These are all great stories, but I’m going to ask another hard question. How many hard questions can I ask in this situation? Not too many?
Hannah Butcher:
As many as you want. As many as you want.
Shelli Hawkins:
So those are all really great questions and I love that you know it and know where the revenue is coming for the business and you’ve got a good handle on it. Let’s talk about the people. Okay. People are human beings. They make mistakes. There are days that they are at 110%. There are days that they are at 50%. I raise my right hand and say, that’s me too. I am a human being. I make mistakes every single day. And I have no doubt that in the towing industry, just like where there are humans breathing air, there is drama. There are people that have terrible attitudes, there are also people with amazing attitudes.
Are you responsible to manage all of these folks and all of those goings on? Or how do you… because I feel like you and your dad and the way you approach business is just, you are very important to us. You are an important part of this organization. Let’s just sit down and let’s unpack this and just hash this out amongst all of us. We’re friends. We want to keep you. We don’t want you to go anywhere. How do you manage?
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah, that’s a great question. The first thing I’ll say is we’re very lucky to have a second to non-leadership team here. We have division heads that have been with us for, I mean, I think all of them five plus years, who manage each aspect of what we do. So from light duty to heavy duty, PPIs to our call center, we have a team that knows how the company works, who are trained in being a good manager, which is so important.
And in terms of drama and how to handle the culture of being in a workplace, I think one of the lessons I’ve really learned is that most people are good people. I think a lot of fear comes from not knowing what’s going to happen when you have this sort of conversation with someone or when you have to break some sort of news or even just putting yourself out there with a client. And I’ve learned that, and something that also Dave or my dad has taught me is that, “Most people are just like you and I, they’re understanding, they’re going to be down to earth, and just be real with them, be honest with them. That really goes a long way.”
Another thing that I’ve also learned before approaching any situation is to get all of the information and take your time. Don’t rush on anything because you don’t want to just go ahead and make a decision because there might be more there than… you need to do some extra discovering, whether it’s just on a single tow or if it’s on a workplace conflict. It’s so important to just get the information from everybody before you make any sort of decision or any sort of conversation.
And it’s important to just always be professional and level with people. That’s something that I’ve really learned. Take your time, gather all the information. Just understand most people are good people. And something that my dad also has said to me whenever, let’s say we’re having a really busy day or we’ve got a lot of irons in the fire. He goes, “There’s two rules in life. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Do you know what the second one is?” And I go, “What?” And he goes, “It’s all small stuff.” And I’m like, “Okay.”
So the big picture of things that’s really helped in just running a professional business. And by no means do I run it obviously, but I am a part of a whole, so I know I have parts to contribute. And leading by example is also super important. When I think about the mentors that I’ve had, obviously my dad who’s been a great role model for how to do business, but a lot of the role models that I’ve come across is really people who are on my team, professional drivers, professional people who come to work in uniform, on time, do their job and they care about the customer. That is a role model to me, and that’s just something I’ve also learned. That’s my soap box.
Laura Dolan:
I love it. I love that whole thing, Hannah. I could just package that in a little box and just use that whole section as a pull quote because you’re speaking like a true leader. I see you are going to go so far in this company. You will definitely own it someday with the wisdom that you have. You could just see the influence your father has on you. Your father is a rock star. You are a rock star, and we are so honored to have you as not just a customer, but as a partner because you guys get it and you know how to run a successful business, you know how to respect each other, and gosh, I hope everyone who’s listening could just hear what you’re saying.
And I just love that advice. Take your time, get all the information. Because it is so easy to overreact to something. It’s just easy to go from zero to 60 in an angry capacity. It’s like, we’re all human, we all do it, but to just take a step back, take a deep breath, maybe count to 10, whatever you need to do to come down from the hyperness point that you achieve in that moment. But yeah, I’m absolutely inspired right now by you, and I just love that whole thing. So thank you, Hannah.
Hannah Butcher:
Thank you, Laura. No, I am really glad to be here and we’re really lucky to have the TRAXERO team, and we’ve used TOPS over 10 years, at least. When I started at Road Runner, TOPS is what I learned taking calls on, and we’ve never changed, which I don’t mind at all. I mean, it’s never had a problem for us. And any sort of problem, I mean, nobody’s perfect, we do what, 36,000 tows a year, we’re bound to make a mistake, right?
Laura Dolan:
Sure, sure.
Hannah Butcher:
But nobody’s perfect. It’s all about what you do to fix it. And we’ve always had with TOPS, any issue, any concern, any sort of customization that we want, they’re like, “Yeah, let’s look into it. We’ll fix it.” We had Jeff with TRAXERO fly up. Is it up from Tennessee? Yeah. I should know.
Shelli Hawkins:
No, you’re right.
Laura Dolan:
Let’s see, where are we in the country?
Hannah Butcher:
I know. When it comes to geography, I’m a little-
Laura Dolan:
All over the place, anyway.
Hannah Butcher:
I should know that when you’re in a transportation company. But anyway. But no, just Jeff came up and he helped us fix the issue, and it really meant a lot to us. It really meant so much. And we’re really, really lucky to have a software that also syncs in with the other operations that we have going on, not just the towing. We’ve got the auction, which is fantastic. That’s been really cool for us, so really, really lucky to have you guys.
Laura Dolan:
Let’s talk some more about that.
Hannah Butcher:
Absolutely.
Laura Dolan:
Okay, so how long have you been on Auction Simplified?
Hannah Butcher:
I want to say about two years now.
Laura Dolan:
Okay.
Shelli Hawkins:
Did you guys have an auction before you started using auction software, Auction Simplified? ‘Cause-
Laura Dolan:
That was literally going to be my next question. Were they even doing auctions or were they-
Shelli Hawkins:
Laura, we are syncing way too much.
Laura Dolan:
Yes.
Shelli Hawkins:
Our brains are syncing.
Laura Dolan:
I know. We’re spending too much time together.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love it. It’s awesome. There’s so many towers out there that have an auction. They hate the auction. The auction is a pain. They want to get rid of these cars. They don’t know how. What were you guys doing? What was your auction motion before the software?
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah, no, great question. We had for most of the time, we were just kind of selling them off. No formal process there. And then we started doing some in-person auctions before we had reached out to Auction Simplified, but it wasn’t too long. And you’re right, it was kind of like an incumbent process of getting everything squared away, the advertising, compiling the vehicle list, putting it out there and trying to collect buyers, track buyers. And then also just the auction itself, holding it in person. It was quite an event. And we had explored a couple different options for what we were going to do, maybe pick a part kind of thing, and that didn’t really work out. And so, we had decided on auction and then at some point we had engaged with Auction Simplified, and I remember that from the time that we engaged with Auction Simplified to our first auction, it was so quick. They had gotten us off and running really within 30 days, I think.
And we had started doing in-person with Auction Simplified, which was great. It was great to have a way to advertise it. Auction Simplified did all of that. A way to track the buyers, be able to log what’s going on. It’s very user-friendly. And we had done a couple in person and then Kevin and Andrea had said, “Hey, why don’t you guys explore the online option?” And we were a little bit apprehensive at first. We were like, “Well, people are going to want to come and see this in person. They’re going to want to see what they’re buying. There’s no way.” It was that mentality of, “Well, we can’t change.” It was like that. But we’re all about change. So, obviously we did end up going to online and I think it was the best decision we had made. We were able to get as much cashflow going in as before with the in-person, but the overhead and the orchestrated event was now completely online, so we didn’t have to have all the staff coming in to help with the customers. It was more of like a…
Shelli Hawkins:
With everything going on and we’ve got the things going up in the air. I love it.
Hannah Butcher:
Oh, yes.
Laura Dolan:
Plates spinning on sticks.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes.
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah. I was the bidder block, or was it the block clerk or something? The person who facilitates the in-person? Well, we were doing in-person and online, and so I was facilitating between the bids online and the people in person. And we had this cart that our shop had built, and I was riding along in the cart, walking along really, and I was looking for people in person and like, “Okay, they’ve got a bid”-
Shelli Hawkins:
I have to see a picture of this. I need a picture of this.
Hannah Butcher:
It was embarrassing. I hope there’s no pictures out there. And it was also like a live stream, so I also had to hold the tablet up so they could see what was going on. And it was fun. It wasn’t bad by any means. I mean, we were getting this great event going on a lot of people, but it was quite a job. And when we switched to online, I was no longer the bidder clerk. I was like, “Yes, this is great.” But no, it’s been the best decision ever. Andrea and Kevin have just been so helpful to us in getting everything rolled over to that. And if anybody is thinking about switching from in-person to online, or if they’re not on Auction Simplified, 10 out of 10 recommend it. From a company that’s been like, “We want to do in person. That’s how we are.” When we switched and we made that switch, it was one of the best decisions we ever made, so I would just a hundred percent recommend it, for sure.
Laura Dolan:
You heard it here folks. Sounds like a no-brainer to me. And Hannah your check’s in the mail.
Hannah Butcher:
Got it. Got it. I’ll keep a look-out.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love that testimony.
Laura Dolan:
That’s awesome. It’s so good to hear that this is working out for you. Even though the change was a little scary, you took that big leap and now not going back, right? There’s no way to go back to the old way.
Hannah Butcher:
I don’t see how we could go back.
Laura Dolan:
Yeah.
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah. I don’t see how we could go back, for sure. When you have it this way and it’s so easy and you’re seeing the same return, there’s just no reason to. There’s no reason for us to hold it in person. And then when we got Henry’s on board with the auction as well, they have multiple locations, so it’s like at that point… where they store vehicles and we do too, but we had it as it was all one location. At one point we were even transporting vehicles to one location. It just didn’t make sense. So, now that we have it online, I mean, you can really scale so much better to where we’re continuing to add on more people to our auction, well, more locations that our companies are at, where we can continue to advertise vehicles and just get that going. So it’s been great, for sure.
Shelli Hawkins:
I have the statistics of one of your first auctions right here on my tablet. I’m not going to ask you what they are. I’m just going to tell you what they are. How’s that? To take the pressure off Hannah Butcher, take the pressure off.
Hannah Butcher:
That is fantastic.
Laura Dolan:
She’s been through enough.
Shelli Hawkins:
I mean, your first auction is not going to be as good as your 20th auction. You’re building up your bidders at the time. It takes time for the habits to form and all the people to know this is when the Road Runner, Henry’s auction is going to happen, etc. So, one of your first auctions, you had 76 vehicles in the auction. 26 of those vehicles did not sell at all, but that’s okay. You had a backup plan, you had a wholesaler that you just sold them to a scrap or whatever. Those 50 that sold a hundred percent in the auction, the average selling price of those 50 vehicles was $1,900.
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Shelli Hawkins:
Are you making more money? Are you making more of a profit using online software?
Hannah Butcher:
Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it’s always going to be different when you have all these people that are bidding on something rather than going to a one or two trusted buyer that might buy them all at once, which we’ll do with the ones that don’t sell. But being able to maximize the value of what we have is really key, and the auction does do that for sure.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love that. Thank you.
Hannah Butcher:
Absolutely.
Shelli Hawkins:
Everyone listening to this is an operator or an owner, an entrepreneurial spirit. And at the end of the day, we have a business. We want to make the business survive, but not only survive, we want it to thrive and we want it to make money. That’s why people are in business. They are business owners because they want to manage their own business, have their own business, make this amazing kingdom like the folks in your organization have, as a huge team like you mentioned. And we love being a partner with you.
Hannah Butcher:
Same. The feeling is mutual. We are very lucky that we’ve had TRAXERO, Auction Simplified, TOPS, Beacon to be able to grow with us, as we expand services. Because we don’t just do towing. I mean, we do towing, we do transport, we do mobile repair, auctions, we have a truck wash, we have a truck shop, the list goes on and we’ve been able to really morph it so it works for us, which is really all you can ask for. It’s so key to business.
Laura Dolan:
It’s that integration piece that sets it apart between TOPS and Auction Simplified. It takes the entire life cycle of the car and basically just streamlines the whole process.
Hannah Butcher:
Exactly, exactly. That’s pretty cool to see and we’re really lucky to have it all. I mean, from the lien processing… from when it first comes in, you’re absolutely right. From the birth to the death of the vehicle, I don’t know if that’s the right term, but yeah, for the full life cycle. So, it’s just been awesome. It’s definitely been really cool.
Shelli Hawkins:
I see you and your dad, and I’m sure the leadership of the entire set of companies as problem solvers first and foremost, but also idea generators. I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that what you’re doing today is not… you’re going to be doing something more and different in six months.
Hannah Butcher:
Completely agree with you. I think that we are always looking for the next opportunity. We’re never going to… if some client brings us a [wild] idea and says, “Hey, can you guys do this for us?” And I actually, I have a great example, but we’re never going to say no. We’re going to say, “Well, let’s look into it. Let’s see what we can do, how we can help out that customer.” That’s also kind of how we’ve made our niche with some of our great clients is that we like to be a one-stop shop for them. Like some disposal companies that we work with. The best example I have is called a hot load and stick with me. So what a hot load is, this happens-
Laura Dolan:
Sorry, we’re with you. Sorry.
Hannah Butcher:
I know. I know.
Laura Dolan:
We’re 12.
Hannah Butcher:
It’s not the greatest term, but a hot load is happens more often than you think, when a disposal truck, the load that it has catches on fire in the truck. When that happens, whether it’s a battery or something, you’re not supposed to throw your batteries away, I don’t know. But it catches on fire when that happens. They have to dump the load immediately or else risk of damaging their truck. And so, when that happens and the fire department comes out, puts out the flaming trash, and then somebody needs to go and pick it all up, that’s us.
Laura Dolan:
Someone’s got to do it. Yeah.
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah.
Shelli Hawkins:
How often do garbage… these are garbage trucks. I’m going to say it. You said a disposal truck or essentially like a garbage truck, they will catch on fire. How often does this happen?
Hannah Butcher:
During the summer, we’ve had a few. I would say sometimes once a week, kind of comes in waves, but we’ve had it more often than you would think. I’ve actually been out on one before. You know how I was saying that I’ve always like, “Dad, let me go on a recovery with you.” And he was like, “Let’s go. Let’s go to this one.” And so we go to this hot load. It’s in a parking lot, flaming trash. They had just put it out. It’s in the middle of August. It is-
Laura Dolan:
That must smell lovely.
Shelli Hawkins:
Terrible.
Hannah Butcher:
Oh, yeah. We had our Bobcat, which had the grapple attachment on it. We had a dump. Oh my gosh, I don’t know why… a roll off. Sorry, a roll off dumpster there. And then we had me and another mechanic and my dad, and he’s like, “Don’t worry, I’ll get in the Bobcat. That’s going to be the toughest part. You guys just scoop it for me.” And so, middle of August, again, really hot, and we’re getting towards the end of the hot load and my dad waves me over to his Bobcat to tell me something, and he opens the door of the Bobcat and I get this wave of air conditioning. I’m like, “You’re kidding.” I go, “That’s why you wanted to go in the Bobcat.”
Laura Dolan:
You son of a… just kidding!
Shelli Hawkins:
He is smart. Very smart man, Dave Butcher.
Hannah Butcher:
He’s smart.
Laura Dolan:
I’m telling you, he’s on another level.
Hannah Butcher:
Yep. Work smarter, not harder, right?
Laura Dolan:
There you go. There you go.
Hannah Butcher:
But again,-
Laura Dolan:
That’s funny.
Hannah Butcher:
… back to the point of that’s the kind of things that we do for our clients. So we had another job that was a tractor trailer. The trailer had caught on fire full of office materials, and it was on its way to be delivered, and they had already disconnected the tractor from the trailer. So it’s just this flaming trailer in the middle of the highway. And the fire department, of course is putting it out, but they needed somebody to start breaking down the trailer in order to control the fire. They called us and we have a wheel loader. We have the equipment to do that sort of emergency response.
So, I really think a lot of successful companies have found that the more services they offer that are not only complementary, but able to work with the other agencies that we do law enforcement towing with and recovery, you’re able to really find your niche. And also, continuing to work with different agencies is so key. We do a lot of cross-agency training. The most recent we did with the fire department on case studies of complex recoveries that we’ve done. That’s really important when you do law enforcement towing. To be able, when you get out to an emergency, be able to speak the same language. So that’s one of the key things that we really value, and in addition to our own operator training as well.
Laura Dolan:
I love that. And I just want to circle back for a moment to the fire occurrences that you guys deal with. When we were in Vegas, just next to our booth, they were demonstrating a cover for a tow truck that slides along the perimeter of the flatbed, and it’s essentially like a curtain that if the car catches fire on the flatbed, it’s contained within this fire protectant cover. Have you heard of that, Hannah? Have you seen these things?
Hannah Butcher:
I have not. However, I do know with these EVs now that it’s so important to be able to store them properly. For us, we have a specific EV storage area that’s blocked off in the case that they catch on fire with these large batteries after they’ve been involved in an accident. And I know a lot of different industries now are teaching specifically how to handle EVs that have been into an accident. So it’s just a new thing that in the industry as we continue to develop, we have to watch out for. And that’s really important is to keep up on the industry training. That’s another thing that we really pride ourselves in. Our operators, they go all over the country for training-
Laura Dolan:
That’s awesome.
Hannah Butcher:
… just to be able to learn from the best. I know for us, we have four WreckMaster 8/9 AR trained operators. And at one point in time, not too long ago, there were five in the state of Virginia and four of them worked at Road Runner. So, we definitely pride ourselves on being the most trained in the industry and always striving to keep up with the industry trends. That’s super important for us.
Laura Dolan:
Absolutely.
Shelli Hawkins:
Have you attended WreckMaster, Hannah Butcher?
Hannah Butcher:
I have.
Shelli Hawkins:
You have?
Hannah Butcher:
I have.
Shelli Hawkins:
I’m very proud of you. Who was your trainer?
Hannah Butcher:
I do not remember. I wish I remembered.
Shelli Hawkins:
That’s okay.
Hannah Butcher:
I did do Towing Academy with Beau White as well, which is fantastic. And I am the TROCP Level 1 certified.
Laura Dolan:
Look at you.
Hannah Butcher:
I have practiced. I think I could do it if I was on the side of the road and I needed to. Is it what I do every day? No. I think our fantastic operators do a great job of keeping themselves up to date. Always here to support in my own strengths, but-
Shelli Hawkins:
Love it.
Hannah Butcher:
… no, they do the job and they really truly are the experienced ones, and we wouldn’t be anywhere without them.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love that. So I want to talk a little bit about communication between your operators and your dispatchers. So, you mentioned that you do use the software, you’re using Dispatch Anywhere or TOPS for all the communication between the two. But in your onboarding of your dispatchers, in your onboarding of your operators, what does that look like? Talk a little bit about that and how do you ensure that the communication between the two is seamless?
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah. Great, great topic. I’ll start with onboarding,-
Shelli Hawkins:
And the key to all this is when that job comes into the app for that operator, he sees it and he says, “Yes, I am so excited to do this job from this dispatcher. I can’t be happier. Let’s go and do it. This makes my day.”
Hannah Butcher:
Oh, absolutely. Always. That’s a hundred percent what happens.
Shelli Hawkins:
Always, yes. Yes.
Hannah Butcher:
I’ll start with the onboarding. I think that is super important just on the forefront, making sure that people who come onboard with us know what we’re about. Number one is professional development. When we give operators their onboarding, we have a dedicated onboarding day, so that’s when they will apply for any sort of training that they need to do, any sort of re-up on licensing certifications while they’re in training. We train anybody from zero, all the way to getting in the truck. So we will a hundred percent help them out with whatever they need to do. As long as they’re motivated and eligible to be a driver, then we will definitely invest in them. That’s number one. When a driver gets onboarded with us, they have a briefcase with everything that they’re going to need; tow gloves, headphones, microphone, cellphone, business cards.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love that.
Hannah Butcher:
They have everything that they’re going to need in order to be successful in their role. They get a tour of the facility, they meet each division to understand how it works. They meet the call center. And then they also, each operator is required to be the FHWA traffic Incident Management Responder certified. We have three instructors here; one is my dad, one is me, and one is Tom, our shop manager. So we’ll-
Shelli Hawkins:
FHWA is what? FHWA?
Hannah Butcher:
The Federal Highway Administration.
Shelli Hawkins:
Love it.
Hannah Butcher:
And I think it’s National Highway Institute, it’s also how they conduct the… it’s the overseeing organization of the… probably totally botching that, but they are the ones that put on the training and they can do it online or you can do it in person. We took a full day course to be certified so we’re able to teach the course to others. We can also offer it to other agencies as well if they want to come in. We have a dedicated training area here in conference room here at our shop, so we’re able to host people and host trainings as well, which we’re really lucky to have.
But onboarding for the drivers is key. Just also giving them a full week of training, making sure they’re really comfortable with what they’re doing, comfortable with how our business works. On the call center side, we do have customer service training as well, which is awesome.
Shelli Hawkins:
Love it.
Hannah Butcher:
And not only for our call center, but we also do have everybody do it that engages with the customer and drivers also-
Laura Dolan:
Essentially, this whole thing is a customer service industry if you think about it.
Hannah Butcher:
Yes. 100%.
Laura Dolan:
You can’t get away from customers. Yeah.
Hannah Butcher:
A hundred percent, no. And so we do engage Erica Rowe, who’s a professional customer service consultant, and she conducts training intermittently for our team about how to give excellent customer service. Her background is at The Ritz-Carlton, which when you think of The Ritz-Carlton, I mean it’s the epitome of customer service.
Laura Dolan:
Yeah, it is.
Hannah Butcher:
So, I’d say she’s qualified for sure. We’re really lucky to have her. And she knows our industry too. She’s taken the time to really learn how it works for us and tailor that training to us. So we do conduct those trainings as well with our team. And training is number one. I mean, we’ll have people come here, WreckMaster Towing & Recovery Academy, whether it’s another agency that also wants to use our space to train. A hundred percent, that’s a huge priority for us.
Shelli Hawkins:
This sounds like a perfect place to be.
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah, absolutely. A hundred percent. I might be a little biased, but yes.
Laura Dolan:
I think you deserve to be.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes, indeed. I am confident with Road Runner Wrecker Service, and then Henry’s, and then Windsor. All three of these entities operated differently. I mean, they do different types of towing. They have different customer bases, and they also have different mindsets. How has the change been to bring everyone under an umbrella and to bring all of the folks under the same mindset of this company going forward and moving forward? Because we’re seeing this in the industry quite a bit. We are seeing folks that are buying towing companies, merging with other towing companies, and you’re asking me to do something I’ve never done before and this is not the way we used to do it. How has that changed been for you guys? How have you mitigated the possible rocky road that you would have?
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah, it’s not perfect, I will tell you that.
Shelli Hawkins:
Love it.
Hannah Butcher:
I mean, full transparency. Each company does operate very differently. The first thing that we did is we got our entire leadership team on the same page. So we do do leadership. I just said, do do.
Shelli Hawkins:
That made me laugh.
Hannah Butcher:
We do conduct.
Laura Dolan:
Again, we’re 12.
Shelli Hawkins:
We’re not cutting that out. We’re not cutting that out.
Laura Dolan:
This is like Chandler Bing, “Duties.”
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah. We do-
Laura Dolan:
Sorry, but this went off the rails, okay go ahead.
Shelli Hawkins:
Next.
Hannah Butcher:
I had to mention that because I know that my dad’s going to listen to this and be like, “Hannah, you said do-do.”
Laura Dolan:
Yeah.
Shelli Hawkins:
And we’re going to tell your dad that you’re cooler than he is.
Laura Dolan:
Love it. Your dad sounds like my dad.
Hannah Butcher:
It’s a very dad thing.
Laura Dolan:
Yes.
Hannah Butcher:
We do conduct leadership meetings on a regular basis to where we started to get on the same page about what is going to happen, what changes they may see, how we can learn from each other. Auctions. Also, starting with the things that are… I wouldn’t say… they’re achievable. So the auction was achievable. You could see right there, that was a gap where one of our companies wasn’t doing it and the other one was, and we could see, okay, absolutely, you guys can have something in place like this. It motivated our team. They said, okay, you know what we’re doing is working. And we’re just continuing to do those things. I mean, you can only move a mountain of dirt, one bucket at a time. You can only do one thing at a time. So that’s what we’re doing.
And of course it’s not simple, it’s not easy, but it’s a hundred percent worth it. I think every single company that we have under our branch right now, we all want the ultimate same goal, which is to continue-
Shelli Hawkins:
That’s it.
Hannah Butcher:
Yep. Best service and continue to grow. And right now what we’re doing is we’re creating a template for as we continue to grow and fold in other opportunities, other companies, creating that template of how is this going to work? And it’s really interesting. It’s cool because we’re kind of the first three to be like, all right, how are we going to do this when other people come on?
And so, it’s a lot of evaluating back and forth, what works best for growth? What works best for scaling? What works best for how each company operates as well. So that has been definitely a challenge, but it’s not a challenge that I am not willing to take on. For sure.
Laura Dolan:
It’s kind of like building the plane as it’s flying.
Hannah Butcher:
Yes, definitely. Yeah. But it’s no problem at all. It’s really cool. I mean, Henry’s is a great company, Windsor’s great company, and so is Road Runner. Really lucky to be able to be there for all three.
Laura Dolan:
That’s amazing.
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah, so I can’t talk highly enough about how cool the experience has been with each company and I really look forward to the continued growth that we’re going to be doing and just seeing these things start to come together. And I mean, for lack of other words, synergies between the companies that I’m seeing results. I mean, it just started in August, so we’re coming around to a year and we’ve definitely made some strides, but we do have so many more challenges that we’re tackling right now. So we’re in a growth phase for sure.
Laura Dolan:
That’s amazing. Sounds like you guys have such a bright future ahead of you and we wish you nothing but the best and we’re so happy to be on this journey with you. So that’s the best thing about TRAXERO is that we evolve right there with you, no matter what phase your company is in, however you want to customize to make things work, we’ve got your back. So, if you ever have any questions about that, talk to Hannah, she’ll let you know what her [inaudible 00:56:35] and likes-
Hannah Butcher:
Yes.
Laura Dolan:
So, we appreciate you being an advocate for us, a brand ambassador, all that stuff. So this has just been an amazing conversation. Shelli, is there anything else, before we-
Shelli Hawkins:
You bet there is.
Laura Dolan:
Okay.
Shelli Hawkins:
We’ve got one more quiz for Hannah. One more quiz.
Laura Dolan:
Oh, all right.
Hannah Butcher:
Oh, no.
Shelli Hawkins:
It’s going to be extremely painful, Hannah. We’ve talked about, yes, all your businesses and your dad also mentioned that you have 170 insured pieces of equipment. I’m going to say that we’re 170, 170 insured pieces of equipment between all three companies. That is a lot to police. That is a lot to take care of. That is a hint for the question I’m going to ask. We mentioned that you guys are on Dispatch Anywhere. We also mentioned that you’re using TOPS. Those are both towing management solutions. We also talked about Auction Simplified quite a bit. We mentioned TowLien for the lien processing. There is one that is missing. Can anybody think about, and I have hints of the one that is missing that we’ve not talked about at all. If you need a hint, just let me know.
Laura Dolan:
I think I know. Can I guess?
Shelli Hawkins:
No, it’s got to come from Hannah Butcher.
Laura Dolan:
Okay.
Shelli Hawkins:
Why did Jeff Pesnell fly up to see you guys in the first place?
Hannah Butcher:
Oh, the GPS.
Shelli Hawkins:
Thank you Hannah.
Hannah Butcher:
Hundred percent. I’m so glad to talk about that.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes.
Hannah Butcher:
I’m so glad we didn’t end without talking about that. Now we do do the GP… I did it again, didn’t I?
Shelli Hawkins:
It’s not going to be cut out.
Laura Dolan:
I didn’t even notice that you said anything.
Shelli Hawkins:
I did. I’m like, yes, she did it again.
Hannah Butcher:
Oh my gosh. We have the BudgetGPS. Yeah. Anyway, we have the BudgetGPS that goes with TOPS, syncs up beautifully. We can see where our trucks are, what they’re doing, the speed they’re going. We can pull history reports if we ever need to. We have two-way dash cams, which has, I mean, been an absolute blessing, especially when it comes to any sort of claim. I mean, these two-way dash cams have saved us in so many aspects that I can’t even begin to talk about. We can see how far a truck is from where they’re dropping off. We can see where they’re at in the process of their tow with something as simple as the color, which is really great. I mean, you can just look at the screen and see what they’re doing, just not even without reading at all. You can just know, okay, it’s that color. That’s where they’re on the way to the call and that’s how it goes.
And then you can also see if you get something like an unassigned call on the screen, it comes up in a big red flashing dot and you click on it, you can see the closest trucks. I mean, it’s easy-peasy. We just have to play connect the dots all day.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love that.
Hannah Butcher:
And the software does it for us. It really is great. We love the GPSs. And yeah, when Jeff flew out, it was just to help us out. I mean, some of it might’ve been user error, I will admit. Some of it might’ve been just some software kinks that we had to figure out, but it got fixed and now we have little to no issues. So really looking forward to hopefully introducing that across the board so that we can have that full transparency with all three companies, which would be fantastic. So, absolutely love The GPSs, and Dave will also rave about the GPSs, I’m sure.
Laura Dolan:
And you also get to look at a really colorful map all day.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes.
Hannah Butcher:
Yeah. It’s very fun [inaudible 00:59:56] clients.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah. I want to point out that Laura started the podcast saying fantastic. I’ve said it about a hundred times, and Hannah Butcher just said, it’s really fantastic.
Laura Dolan:
Oh, Hannah said fantastic a few times.
Shelli Hawkins:
Has she? [inaudible 01:00:08]-
Laura Dolan:
Yes, she has.
Hannah Butcher:
I do love the word fantastic. It’s a fantastic word.
Laura Dolan:
It is. It’s such a positive word. Yeah.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love it.
Laura Dolan:
This has been so much fun. This did not disappoint. I knew today was going to be just so full of energy, so full of life. So Hannah, we can’t thank you enough for coming on here today and taking more time out of your day to spend with us. And we could do this every day, honestly. The three of us can have a radio show.
Hannah Butcher:
Absolutely.
Shelli Hawkins:
Sorry, can we keep her? Can we keep her? I want to keep her.
Laura Dolan:
Yeah, let’s adopt her.
Shelli Hawkins:
Just like when you get a new friend or pet, I just want to keep her.
Laura Dolan:
Yeah, she’s friend shaped.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes.
Hannah Butcher:
Oh my gosh. No, thank you guys so much for having me. I really enjoyed it. And you guys know I’m such a podcast geek, so to be able to just actually be on a podcast instead of listening to them is really flippin cool. So thank you so much.
Laura Dolan:
Oh, absolutely.
Shelli Hawkins:
You’re welcome.
Laura Dolan:
Thank you for coming on.
Hannah Butcher:
Absolutely.
Laura Dolan:
It’s such an honor to have you.
Well, thank you all so much for tuning into this episode of TRAXERO-On-The-Go. Tow-Daloo!
Shelli Hawkins:
I love it. I love it. That’s our new word. That’s our new word. Oh my gosh.
Hannah Butcher:
Did not disappoint, Laura. Did not disappoint.
Shelli Hawkins:
Tow-daloo. That is perfect.
Laura Dolan:
Tow-daloo, everybody.
Shelli Hawkins:
I can always count on Laura for her creative imagination.
Hannah Butcher:
That was so good.
Laura Dolan:
I love stopping the show in its tracks.
Shelli Hawkins:
That’s our new way to end for sure.
Laura Dolan:
Our new way to sign off. Tow-daloo for now.
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.