Episode 5
There’s Plenty Of Room In The Sandbox
June 27, 2023
In this episode of TRAXERO On-The-Go, There’s Plenty Of Room In The Sandbox, we are joined by our VP of Sales, Jillian Grassetti, and Owner of Interstate Towing, Jeremy Procon, who discuss the origin of his towing business, the inspirations behind his brilliant innovations, and how important it is not to be intimidated by the competition in the towing industry. “You make money with each other, not against each other.” Click play for more.
Transcription
Shelli Hawkins:
Welcome everyone to episode five of the Traxero On-The-Go podcast. My name is Shelli Hawkins. I am the co-host of the podcast along with my amazing, wonderful other co-host Laura Dolan. Laura, how’s your morning going so far?
Laura Dolan:
It’s great. Shelli, how about yours?
Shelli Hawkins:
Mine is going fantastic. We’ve had some incredible sunny weather here in Columbia, Maryland the last few days. It’s been in the 80s, it’s bike riding weather, I’m discovering how much I love my bicycle. I’ve not been a huge bicycle enthusiast in the past. So every day, every morning and every afternoon I’ve been doing a few miles and just increasing that over time.
Laura Dolan:
That is awesome. We don’t have that situation here in Ohio. Unfortunately, we are actually under an air quality alert and they’re telling us to stay inside because I don’t know if anybody knows this, but poor Canada is on fire, so anyone in Canada who’s listening to this, I hope you’re all safe. I hope your homes and your businesses are being spared. But yeah, they’re experiencing a lot of fires up there and a lot of the smoke is being blown into Ohio, so we’ve been having some really gnarly sunsets. I grew up in Southern California, so I know what it’s like being around wildfires and just seeing the smoky skies, and it does make for some really, really fascinating sunsets, that’s the only positive thing about it. But yeah, I have not been riding my bike because it’s just not even safe to go outside.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah, it’s pretty incredible. I’ve seen not only some social posts from you, but other folks that are experiencing the same situation for sure.
Laura Dolan:
Yeah, it’s really out of the blue here in Ohio. You move to the Midwest from the West Coast, and you think you’re not going to deal with that, but… Yep, here we are.
Shelli Hawkins:
It happens, for sure. We just finished the Vegas Tow Show, and I can confidently tell you, Laura, that this was the best attended Vegas show that I’ve experienced in the last four years.
Laura Dolan:
That’s fantastic.
Shelli Hawkins:
We moved it back to the South Point, we made it during the middle of the week. I was honestly skeptical going into it because I had never experienced it in the middle of the week, but the attendance… And I even had really strong vendors come up to me asking me if we felt the same thing, and the traffic was nonstop in the booth, I was really, really pleasantly surprised by the Vegas Tow Show of the year, this year was fantastic.
Laura Dolan:
That’s amazing and that’s encouraging. It just shows that the industry is growing the interest in the different products that we have out there, including software is growing. So yeah, that’s really, really cool to hear. I’m so excited to see what comes out of that and hopefully we can continue to produce and add these great products to our lineup and get our customers excited.
Shelli Hawkins:
We have three trade shows coming up at the time of this recording. The ESTRA Tow Show is coming up this weekend in Lake George, New York. Always pristinely beautiful up there, and the segment of towers up there will be amazing. And I’m confident that our guest will be attending, possibly, but we’ll let you know who that is in a second. And then we have also the Wisconsin Tow Show. That is the weekend after. Always Father’s Day weekend. And then later on in August, we will also have the Indiana Tow Show taking place on the fairgrounds in Lebanon, Indiana.
So many vendors come out for this, and so many towers come out for these. I’m surprised, especially by the Indiana Tow Show last year, the turnout was fantastic. And from what I’m hearing from the President, Sue Moreland over there, it’s going to be another fantastic show this year also. So those three shows we have ahead of us. But enough of all of the chitchat, we are excited to jump right into our episode five. We’ve got two fantastic guests. Both are originally from the beautiful state of Massachusetts. We’ve got Mr. Jeremy Procon of Interstate Towing in Chicopee, Massachusetts. And then we also have Jillian Grassetti, our Vice President of Sales here at TRAXERO, who is a current resident of Boston on the north side. Jillian, is that correct, you’re living on the north side of Boston?
Jillian Grassetti:
I am in the north end of Boston.
Shelli Hawkins:
The north end of Boston, not the North side of… North end.
Jillian Grassetti:
So I’m surrounded by Italian food, garlic bread, and the Paul Revere history.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love that. I’ve been to Boston a few times and the history is always just incredible. Like this building was built in the 1700s, and just walking around and reading all the historical things that are happening, it’s just fantastic. So Jillian, you have been with Traxero for how long now?
Jillian Grassetti:
So I started in September of 2022, so I feel like before I know it’s going to be at my year mark.
Shelli Hawkins:
I think you started about a week or two after me. And prior to coming to TRAXERO, what was your knowledge of our amazing towing industry? Had you ever experienced a tow truck, had one pick you up before or rescued you?
Jillian Grassetti:
I would say my knowledge was limited to my battery dying in various parking garages, as well as Boston street cleaning. So even when I didn’t have a vehicle, I’d wake up in a cold sweat thinking that my car was towed due to street cleaning.
Shelli Hawkins:
And I’m sure that we all can relate to that for sure. But you have done an amazing job for us just being here in the short time that you’ve been, anything in your mind stand out to you about the amazing towing industry like an aha moment? Tell me something that you didn’t know that you highly respect now. What floats to the top of your beautiful brain when you think about our industry?
Jillian Grassetti:
I mean, I’ve had the opportunity to sell to a bunch of different audiences over the course of my career, but there’s just no question that this group of individuals are incredibly hardworking, always on. The fact that they can even take meetings with us, given the nature of the work that they do, never ceases to amaze me. So I think that this industry has been underserved by technology in the past. So I love having the opportunity to help folks really drive efficiency and growth in their business, considering all the hard work and dangerous work that they’re doing every day.
Shelli Hawkins:
That is extremely well put, thank you. So our other guest is, as I mentioned before, Jeremy Procon from Interstate Towing in Chicopee, Massachusetts. Jeremy, come on and say hello to everyone listening.
Jeremy Procon:
Hello everyone listening.
Shelli Hawkins:
Jillian and I visited Jeremy, I would say in September of last year, does that sound about right you guys? We were on the property taking a tour.
Jeremy Procon:
Yes ma’am, absolutely.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah, I was going to say.
Jeremy Procon:
Great.
Shelli Hawkins:
We’re going to go hang out with some Massachusetts people, that was fantastic. I found myself later that night in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Jeremy Procon:
Oh boy.
Shelli Hawkins:
And you both said, “Don’t go there, Shelli.” But I survived and it was fine.
Jeremy Procon:
Speaking about Laura’s point, she said she’s having an air quality alert. Well, you can ask Jillian, she’s a local Massachusetts resident. We’re always in an air quality alert here.
Laura Dolan:
Oh, gosh
Jillian Grassetti:
Yep.
Laura Dolan:
It’s like the L.A. of the east coast. So I got to ask really quick, you guys visited each other in September, you said? I wasn’t with the company yet. That’s funny because my husband and I… The very first time I was in Boston and my entire life was last September, we went there and visited the city, took a tour of Harvard and did a food tour. So I got to have my first lobster roll and it was just great. So anyway, I digress. Back to you, Jeremy.
Jeremy Procon:
Yeah, no, Massachusetts it’s not as bad as I’m making it out to be. I’ve been everywhere. I’ve been to a lot of cities up and down the coast of California, east coast of course. And honestly, Boston is pretty damn clean considering some of the cities I’ve seen. And safe. But we’re further west, we’re in what Massachusetts people call the Midwest. Massachusetts is, it’s pretty diverse. It’s inner city, it’s Boston, Cape Cod would be Florida and Western Mass would be the Midwest. That’s how… All condensed into one little state. But we’re out west, we’re about 80 miles west of Boston, more towards the Berkshires. So we have a lot going on out here. We have a lot of mountainous terrain and flat terrain and city terrain as well. But it’s unique out here. It’s unique in Western Mass.
Shelli Hawkins:
I never thought about the diversity of the topography, the lay of the land in the whole state. I never thought about that. The fact that you say that Cape Cod is the Florida of Massachusetts, I will be calling Nate Butler later and giving him a hard time about that. Nate, you live in the Florida of Massachusetts apparently. Who said that?
Jeremy Procon:
It really is.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah, for sure. Fantastic. We are excited to get to know Jeremy. Jeremy has quite the story to tell about his history. I want to give some quick stats before we dive into all the questions to learn more a little bit about him, his towing company, how it started. So some fast facts, some quick questions. Right now today, Jeremy, how many employees do you have on the payroll?
Jeremy Procon:
Today’s 84. And give it a couple of hours. That may change, but [inaudible 00:09:34]
Laura Dolan:
Oh boy.
Jeremy Procon:
I’m joking. But-
Shelli Hawkins:
It’s-
Jeremy Procon:
…it’s 84 and on the payroll.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah. And then how many insured pieces of equipment do you have?
Jeremy Procon:
Low 90s.
Shelli Hawkins:
Okay.
Jeremy Procon:
91, 93. Somewhere in there.
Shelli Hawkins:
And that’s comprised of light, medium, heavy duty rotators.
Jeremy Procon:
Correct.
Shelli Hawkins:
And tractors, commercial trailers. What else do you have out there?
Jeremy Procon:
You got it. That’s everything like you said, ranging from our service trucks, our GMC 2500s, our F350s, plow trucks, maintenance vehicles, as you stated, wreckers, flatbeds, heavy duties, four rotators, tractors, landolls, flat decks, wheel loaders. And then we have various other support equipment like light towers and those are all registered as well but that’s not included in that number. Bobcats and things like that.
Shelli Hawkins:
Skid steers.
Jeremy Procon:
Skid steers, exactly. Yep. I shouldn’t use the word bobcat because we have other brands, but generic term.
Shelli Hawkins:
We know what you’re talking about for sure. And today you have how many locations?
Jeremy Procon:
Yep, we have four physical locations that are staffed and maintained with call takers, dispatchers, impound yards, and of course, drivers and support team.
Shelli Hawkins:
Fantastic. What year did you start the business?
Jeremy Procon:
Started in April Fool’s Day 1999. And started answering the phones.
Shelli Hawkins:
That’s a pretty significant year. I love it. Turn of the century. Fantastic. And one question I love to ask, where in the world did you come up with the name Interstate Towing?
Jeremy Procon:
Yeah, I pondered… Actually a runner up, which I’m so glad I didn’t go with this, but a runner up, in fact, it was on paper and not a lot of people know this, but I’m so glad that I didn’t do it. I was maybe 22 years old and just coming out of my party years after school. And I thought the name Absolute was a really cool name as in Absolute Vodka. So I was thinking Absolute Towing. And again, I was milliseconds away from naming it that. And I changed my mind to something more professional, I think, something that sort of encompassed what we’re going to do as far as highways. I wanted to emphasize large, professional, clean. And the name interstate being on the highway, it resonated and that’s what I switched it to almost immediately.
Shelli Hawkins:
Well, we’re glad that you made that decision. At the age of 22? At the age of 22, what do you know in the world? You know what I mean? So for you to make that decision with the limited-
Jeremy Procon:
And no disrespect to any tow company out there named Absolute Towing, I believe there may be a few. I’ve seen it, but no disrespect. I’m sure they do a fine job. I’m glad I didn’t stick with that today.
Shelli Hawkins:
We-
Jillian Grassetti:
Given the inspiration of the name, I think that’s probably fairly unique.
Jeremy Procon:
Given the inspiration. Exactly.
Shelli Hawkins:
We are glad that you chose interstate and your slogan, let me see if I can get it correct. The slogan for Interstate Towing, Chicopee, Massachusetts is, “Only the Sky Covers New England Better.” Did I get it right?
Jeremy Procon:
Nailed it. Not a lot of people get it right.
Laura Dolan:
I love that.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes.
Jeremy Procon:
Not a lot of people get it right, but you did. You nailed it.
Laura Dolan:
Did you come up with that too, Jeremy?
Jeremy Procon:
I did, yeah. Yeah.
Laura Dolan:
Nice.
Jeremy Procon:
Early on, probably the summer of ’99, I came up with it. But I actually ended up just slapping on my trucks on the back of the flatbeds. Its wordy, so it went right down the back of the flatbed nicely. And all of a sudden I started seeing it. And of course, there wasn’t much internet back then, so I started seeing it more local. And then once the internet really started picking up steam, I started seeing it on the internet out in Wisconsin and Chicago and Florida. So I decided to trademark it. And I had to prove. Trademarking is not an easy task. We had to cost maybe upwards of $10,000 to trademark this slogan.
Laura Dolan:
Wow.
Jeremy Procon:
And we had to prove that we were using it first. And I had a company in Chicago challenge me, thank God that I used an ad in the local, just called the Chicopee Register. I used that trademark and the Chicopee Register early on, and I was able to submit that to show, “Hey, listen, we’ve been using this since summer of 1999.” It was challenged. We’re talking 2003 when this was challenged. And we were able to secure the trademark. And we have it to this day. In fact, I’m going through a, I don’t want to call it a battle, but gentle reminder that this shouldn’t be used anywhere else. And we had to send a letter to a company in Long Island using it right now, they’re trying to use it right now. But yeah, it’s catchy and it works. It’s a good talk piece.
Shelli Hawkins:
I like it. For sure. So to get to some more interesting questions, when you were in high school, talk a little bit about what was your motivation like in high school? Were you a straight A student? Were you a partier? You may or may not go into all the details you want to, but the reason why I’m asking that question is I want to know, did you have plans to be an entrepreneur after you graduated? Did you have these grandiose, I’m going to own this massive company, this is my motivation. Where were you at in high school with all that?
Jeremy Procon:
So yeah, I think every entrepreneur is born an entrepreneur. I think that at some point in their lives they figure out that this is their passion, regardless of what they want to do. And I think I’ve always had that. In middle school, I found myself going to Costco and buying big tubs of lollipops. And I think there were, maybe I had my margins at 8 cents a piece and I was selling them for 50 cents a piece.
Laura Dolan:
Love it.
Jeremy Procon:
Making money, and I made some good money in high school, in middle school, I’m sorry. Prior to that, elementary school, I remember having a library, setting up a library for the neighborhood, not a lemonade stand, but a library of all things. And I would charge to rent books, 10 cents a book. My Nintendo magazines, I would charge to lend them out for 10 cents, 10 cents a piece. So it goes way back. And again, I think everyone is, you’re either born with it or you’re not. But on top of that, my father worked in a factory for 32 years. He worked in a place called Major Wire. And I watched him go to work for 12 hours a day, 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM and come home smelling like a greasy machine, which nothing wrong with that whatsoever, but I didn’t want to be there.
I just didn’t want to be stuck in a factory 12 hours a day. So having that entrepreneurial gene and having the motivation not to be trapped in an officer factory is really what gave me the mindset to do something. But moving on, I knew nothing about tow trucks in high school, absolutely nothing. I saw them on the road, I saw the blinking lights and such, but I didn’t really know, didn’t really care. I was working at a car wash my senior year, $4.10 an hour. Everyone who remembers what their first job was, and everyone remembers what they were making on their first job.
Shelli Hawkins:
$4 and 10 cents an hour.
Jeremy Procon:
$4.10 an hour. And I was offered a job at a local tow company for $8 an hour, which was mind-blowing. So naturally I took it. And I think my first, second, third tow, I was absolutely in love with it. Absolutely loved it, loved it, loved it. And here I am. So that was in 1995.
Shelli Hawkins:
You were operating a light duty wrecker, I’m guessing?
Jeremy Procon:
Yeah, Holmes 440 started with a Holmes 440. Everyone started with those it seems.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes.
Jeremy Procon:
So Truck 17. Started there and then moved on to a flatbed. And that was a non turbo, six speed international DT 466 blew black smoke for miles. But just the environment I was in, absolutely fell in love with it couldn’t get enough of it. Bit by the tow bug.
Shelli Hawkins:
Isn’t it the truth? You see it in every single part of this industry, no matter where you are. My coworker, Laura, co-host here, she is also sending me pictures of tow trucks that she randomly sees on the roadway. I saw this one today and I saw this one. I go, “You have been hooked. Literally.”
Laura Dolan:
I am hooked. Yes. It’s one of those things where you start to notice, when it’s on your radar, then you start to notice things. It’s like when you get a new car and then you realize everybody has the same car. So now it’s like I’m super hyper aware of the types of tow trucks and well, what company? Are they local? And I just saw a local one last week on the freeway from Newark, Ohio, and that’s where I’m living currently. And it was a beautiful tow truck. It was fire engine, red, shiny. So yeah, I love just seeing all these beautiful vehicles. It’s something I never thought about before and now it’s like I can’t get enough of it.
Shelli Hawkins:
And Jillian’s first trade show was the Baltimore Show, correct?
Jillian Grassetti:
That’s right.
Shelli Hawkins:
What did you think about… Yeah, what did you think about-
Jeremy Procon:
[inaudible 00:19:41]
Shelli Hawkins:
Oh yeah, what did you think about… Did you know that tow trucks could be that big? What was your perception?
Jillian Grassetti:
Well, I mean, I would say the first exposure was the Shelli Hawkins school of onboarding at TRAXERO via Interstate Towing. So when Jeremy brought me to that back garage and I got to see the rotators were parked there. And I will say, granted, I took plenty of pictures for my son to look at. He was incredibly jealous that I was there. But I’ll say, you don’t really understand the magnitude of the machine when you’re whipping by on the highway. So actually standing next to it’s like, this is a lot of metal.
Laura Dolan:
I had the same realization. I never realized how big they were until I was up close and personal in Orlando, in the truck yard. I was like, “These are huge.” I mean, they’re massive trucks, so yeah, you don’t appreciate until you’re up right up against them, Jillian. So yeah, I totally agree with you.
Jillian Grassetti:
Yeah.
Jeremy Procon:
I have a quick funny story for you. I was on the plane, this hasn’t happened in a long time, but it actually happened on the way to Vegas. I had a layover in Chicago, and I’m flying from Hartford to Chicago, just chatting with this guy next to me. He’s actually a professor at Yale. Very, very smart guy. He’s the music acoustics professor, super nice guy. Anyway, we’re chatting and I’m asking him what he does and he is telling me the whole story. So he asked me what I do and where I’m heading, and I said, “I’m heading to Vegas for a tow show.” And he said, he’s like, “Oh my…” He’s pretty relaxed because we’ve gotten to know each other. He says, “Oh my God, am I sitting next to the right guy or what?” And I said, “Oh, what’s going on?” He says, I have a high arch foot and I am looking… You’re a podiatrist, right?” And I said, No.
Shelli Hawkins:
A podiatrist.
Jeremy Procon:
“You’re a podiatrist, correct?” I said, “No, no.” I said, “I’m heading to…”. So I’m dying laughing. I can’t even get the words out. I can’t even correct him fast enough. He’s looking at me almost like he insulted me, but I’m just laughing. And he says, “I’m sorry.” And he’s going on about the foot, he’s still stuck on the foot thing. He says, “You’re a doctor. And I just called you a podiatrist. Didn’t I?” No, it gets better than that. No. But we had a good laugh. And I finally explained that tow T-O-W, and he was absolutely blown away. Like “Tow? You guys actually have conventions and shows? Like the trucks that picked my car up?” I says, “Yeah.” So we’re getting back to Jillian’s point, I think he was blown away that there’s so much involved in our industry and that there is an industry. He didn’t know there was an industry.
Jillian Grassetti:
And I will say considering, so Baltimore being the first show that I went to, I realized really quickly how much pride there is within the industry, how much of a family oriented business and operation these companies are. And frankly how dedicated the folks are to actually seeing what’s out there, what’s new, what are other people doing. Jeremy, based on the conversation I’ve had with you and your peers, it sounds like you often work with your peers to figure out the best way to even optimize your own businesses.
Jeremy Procon:
Oh yeah.
Jillian Grassetti:
A lot of peer to peer communication for sure.
Jeremy Procon:
Yeah, you have to. And that’s what these conventions and shows and towing associations are about, is getting people getting everyone together. And I think Shelli does a great job with that. Just pulling people together. I think that’s one of her greatest attributes is pulling people together.
Laura Dolan:
It’s one of her greatest gifts for sure. That’s why she’s our director of market engagement. She’s brilliant.
Jeremy Procon:
Shelli. Yes. Shelli’s been… You might have to adjust your camera, Shelli because you might have to back up a little bit [inaudible 00:23:49]
Shelli Hawkins:
The ego is growing. Thank you guys. I genuinely appreciate it. But yeah.
Jeremy Procon:
Yeah. Definitely a huge asset to our industry. Huge, invaluable.
Shelli Hawkins:
Thank you. Appreciate it. So the first job was $4 and some odd cents. You doubled it to $8 and something. You were in a wrecker. And when was the moment that you said, “You know what? I want to buy one of these and I want to own my own business.” What was that like?
Jeremy Procon:
Right. So I worked there for quite a few years. I did moonlight elsewhere and came back and so on, but stayed in the towing industry. And one day a friend of mine, he had a crash and I picked him up and he’s a local mechanic and he says to me, “I’m looking to get a garage and I’m going to start a repair shop.” And I said, “I’d love to join you on the tow side. I’ll tow them in. You fix them.” So that’s what we did. We set up shop, but he ended up leasing a repair shop.
We bought a flatbed, and that was March of ’99. Bought a flatbed, put it into business April 1st, ’99. And he was running his repair shop, I was running the tow side. And I maintained my job at the current company I was at. And when he got word that I started or bought my own flatbed, he immediately terminated me. In fact, not only did he terminate me, he, I’m not going to get into the details, but he accused me of stealing some tires out of his yard, maybe a month prior that he knew about. It was a junk car. I took the tire. Yes, I did take the tires, but it was a junk car. But he ran with that and I had his uniforms as well. After he terminated me, I had my uniforms at home and he sent the local detective bureau down to collect uniforms. It’s like, come on.
Shelli Hawkins:
What?
Jeremy Procon:
So those are the games he was playing, which was rocket fuel for me. So to be totally honest with you, I’m not sure how everyone else works, but I’m motivated by things like that. I’m not really motivated by the money, I’m motivated by the challenge and the competition. And he gave me a challenge. If he had shaken my hand and said “Anything you need in the future, you let me know.” I wouldn’t be where I am today because it wouldn’t have been motivating. He absolutely despised me after that and ran around… He would flip me off. I would be driving down the road and he’d be coming out, we have a local restaurant here. He’s coming out of a restaurant. I remember it like it was yesterday, him flipping me off as I drove by. Again, that just absolutely filled my motivation tank.
It was really good knowing now what I know in hindsight, that was very motivational. So I just banged on every door. I worked like I’ve never worked before. And one truck led to two, two led to four, four led to eight, so on and so forth. He continued to compete with me and vice versa. And then he became a city counselor, which really put some weights in my shoes. So I challenged that for 10 years. I went to ethics, I went here, went there, and I finally got my piece of the city. Him as a sitting city counselor, had to abstain from all votes. But the rest of the city counselors saw right through him and I got my piece of the pie. That’s all I wanted. And he’s no longer in business. He retired. We do get along to this day. We’re cordial. But I’ll never forget, his hatred for me was really my motivation to get going in the early 2000s. But yeah.
Shelli Hawkins:
Wow, that’s fascinating. For-
Jeremy Procon:
I think a lot of companies around this country share similar stories, whether it’s happening to them today, my only advice is to just stay the course, stay the high road, don’t play the games, just focus, focus, focus. And you will prevail. And we did. Now he’s no longer.
Laura Dolan:
Wow. Because at the end of the day, I would imagine this is a very competitive industry, but at the same time, you also kind of want to be supportive of each other because it is, like Jillian said, it’s like a big family community. So yeah, that’s got to be kind of a weird line to straddle, if you will.
Jeremy Procon:
Yeah. We have a likekind quality competitor three, four miles down the road. And we are really in each other’s faces. We are stepping on each other’s toes all day long, whether it’s police contracts or accounts. And we’re best friends. So we play off each other, we help each other, we go to shows together. There’s plenty of room in the sandbox. And I think, I’m sure people know the name Bill Johnson from Hampshire Towing. He’s a mile and a half away. We step on each other’s toes all day long. But Bill’s style is work with you, not against you. And one of his famous quotes is, “I would rather work with an educated competitor than a non-educated competitor.” And I think that’s always resonated with me as well. It’s so true. You make money with each other, not against each other.
Laura Dolan:
I love that.
Jeremy Procon:
I have these two large competitors, one on my left, one on my right. And we’re all really good friends.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love that. And I love that you got the motivation like you did early on and built the business to where it is today. That’s fascinating. You certainly are very, very well respected in the industry, Jeremy, because of, I think about the headquarters that you’re sitting in right now in Chicopee, Massachusetts. You built that building how many years ago?
Jeremy Procon:
The office was built in 13. And the building, the hangar that Jillian was referencing earlier, we call it the hangar, just a big building, was 18, 2018. We moved in 2005.
Shelli Hawkins:
Okay.
Jeremy Procon:
13.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah. And correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that during that building process, you documented everything and shared it on what then was really the only social media available wide to the towers. And that was the tow 411 forum.
Jeremy Procon:
Yeah. Yep.
Shelli Hawkins:
I’m sure everybody was curious because at that point in time, I don’t know if anyone had really gone into that much detail or that much thought, putting it into building your headquarter building there. Talk a little bit about the significance of the building that you’re in, the security measures you’ve taken and the construction of it.
Jeremy Procon:
Yeah. So the only thing I can take credit for is taking other people’s ideas.
Shelli Hawkins:
Love it. That’s the best.
Jeremy Procon:
That’s my only attribute to the build out. Again, as I said earlier, I would fly to O’Hare in Chicago. We did some training at O’Hare. So what did I gain from the Grazianas? I gained that they had multiple facilities and they were using a VPN with Tracker at the time. They were using a VPN with other facilities and they had a drop safe. So the driver in that facility would drop his book and his cash and a drop safe and they would VPN and input their input the tracker and so on and so forth. I took that and ran home with it. That was in 2009. Ran back here with it. And that’s when we started one of our other facilities and I took their idea on how they VPN with Tracker and they had a drop safe and then they faxed all their paperwork over so they didn’t have to man that yard.
It was just a remote facility. And then I went to the sheriff’s department I went to, and they had the sheriff’s, actually a friend of mine, and they had, when the visitors check in, they had sheriffs behind the glass. I stole their window idea, I stole their pass lock idea and I asked them who did it. They gave me the vendor and I brought that here. We’re open 24/7, I don’t want my dispatchers and call takers exposed to some of the people that come into the lobby. So it’s almost like a holding tank. So those are the guests, the prisoners, my dispatchers being the prisoners protected behind the glass with a passcode, remotes under every desk to open all the doors or cell blocks. So I stole that idea from the sheriff’s department and so on and so forth. The camera systems, the dispatch center.
I grabbed from HOC, Highway Operations Center in Boston. I minimalized what they had going on and brought it here. So like I said, I grabbed bits and pieces. The communication systems I grabbed from Disney World, how they ran their buses. At that time, they were using these MDTs in their buses and they were shooting the jobs to the drivers, so drivers didn’t have to type anything out, they just hit go to the next job. So they weren’t typing in their GPS where they were going, they just hit go. So we brought that exact system here and I grabbed the information from the transportation system at Disney. So little pieces like that and just put them all in one little building here.
Jillian Grassetti:
Jeremy, can I ask the motivation, right? So do you just love innovation or is it the opportunity for driving efficiency? I mean, I think you’re making light of how complex what you’re talking about is, you have to take the idea from an idea all the way through execution on your business. So I’d love to, again, love to hear a little bit about the motivation.
Jeremy Procon:
Yeah. So some of the things that, you’re right, the innovation is key, but it’s also cost saving. For example, we have what’s called the Uber effect on our trucks. So Jillian, if you broke down north end of Boston right now, and you call us for a truck, however you got the call, whether it’s AAA or cash call or one of your accounts, once we’ve made contact with you, you immediately get a text and you open a text up, now you’re tracking my driver, you’re tracking my truck. And you can message us through that text. Say, “Hey, I was at door number four, now I’m at door number five.” Meanwhile, you can see our truck driving to you just like Uber. Just like Uber, we grabbed that. The guys at Dennis and Ted at InTow helped implement that.
So it’s the Uber effect. And I tell you what, if you’re on the side of the road, side of the highway and you’re watching our truck drive to you, don’t you feel that much better knowing where the truck is versus the guessing game? And if the guessing game is there, you want to continuously call dispatch. Where is he? Where is he? Where is he? You can watch my truck drive to you. My phones don’t ring as often. You can simply send a message to my driver. It goes right to his MDT. We also hand that to police departments.
We hand it to the troopers, we hand it to the local PD. The cops love it. As soon as the call is implemented, they can log in. We give them portal access so they can see our truck driving to them. Now granted, our ETA’s are pretty strong, but regardless of how strong they are, sitting on the road for 10 minutes with a prisoner in the back of your car is 10 hours. They can see our flatbed driving to them and it gives them a comfort level to know that they’re 12 minutes away or three minutes away. So we call that the Uber effect. And that’s just made up. But that’s what we call it here.
Laura Dolan:
No, it definitely makes sense. And usually when somebody’s calling for a tow truck, they are in a distressed situation. So I’m sure that really helps kind of mitigate the panic that they’re going through. “Well, at least we know they’re on their way. They’ll be here soon. Help is on the way.” So yeah, that technology is just definitely a game changer.
Jeremy Procon:
I feel that I’m a little ahead of myself and it’s frustrating sometimes not to see, I’m not a developer by any means, but it’s frustrating to see that why can’t we implement, let, let’s say, Johnny the driver is on his way to you. Why can’t I put Johnny the driver’s credentials and a picture of him so who’s coming to you? That’s what I want. Again, I’m not a developer, but that’s what I want to see. I want, you’re a mom on the side of the road, know that Johnny’s the driver. Just a little… You’re sitting there wasting time anyway. You want to learn a little bit about Johnny the driver before he shows up. You know what I mean? You know what he looks like when he shows up. If you read his little bio, how long he’s been working here and the training he has and whatever, maybe a family picture. Doesn’t that give mom a little sense of security? That’s what I want to see next, we’re not able to do that yet, but that’s what I want to see.
Shelli Hawkins:
That’s a fantastic idea. It really is. I take a lot of Ubers in the travel that I do. So I often will read the biography, how many trips is he been on, what’s his name and things like that. I even engaged one. I spoke to one, it was an early morning Uber, like 4:30 in the morning or so to the Baltimore airport. And this gentleman was very, very lively and very happy. And it was way too early for even any communication. So I said, “How do you doing the Ubers? How do you driving for Ubers?” And he clearly was learning the English language, but he was so excited to speak and to try his English. And he goes, “I like the Uber. I like the Uber.” I said, “That’s fantastic.” He goes, “I also like lemons.” I go-
Laura Dolan:
Aw.
Shelli Hawkins:
“What? Lemons?” He goes, “Yes, I like lemons.” So it’s like, if you’ve ever learned another language, I have a red shirt. You’re speaking in Spanish or whatever you’re learning. He was just so excited to engage at 4:30 in the morning. He told me that he likes lemons.
Jeremy Procon:
Ah, all right.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah, I love that. So I want to transition a little bit over to the technology side. When we think about our tow trucks, we clearly can think of the evolution timeline of what has made our tow trucks better. Innovations, the biggest one in my brain right now is hydraulics. What was it like before hydraulics on the tow trucks? We’re hand cranking winches. So that’s a huge, and then we’ve got the actual computer technology that starts coming into the cab, that starts coming into the wrecker body itself. We can see on the load chart, what am I lifting with this rotator now, that’s been, I’m not sure how long ago that came into the market. But we also have the other side of the business where we implement technology, just like you were talking about the Uber effect. What timeframe year was it when you decided, “I need some sort of management software for the business to dispatch and help me manage every part of the business?”
Jeremy Procon:
That was actually early on, that was 2002. ’99, we used log sheets and that’s all I ever knew was log sheets. A previous employer didn’t have software, so that’s all I knew was log sheets. And each sheet would carry, we had a book, we had the old, what do you call them, the registers there, you stick the pen in. There’s a name for them.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes.
Jeremy Procon:
Knuckle cluster or something like that. But-
Shelli Hawkins:
I can see them, yeah.
Jeremy Procon:
We had those and log sheets. And our dispatcher was the primary driver. And this is all stuff, this is all archaic. That came from the company I worked for because it’s all I knew.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah.
Jeremy Procon:
So the primary driver, let’s just say there was four guys on that shift. The primary guy would hold the phone, would hold the… Or beeper or pager in the 90s, would go to a call center. And that primary driver would write on a log sheet that Johnny, the driver is going to Main Street and pick up a car and bringing it here. It would have to match his knuckle buster receipt, his register receipt. And that was so archaic. At the end of the shift, the primary driver would gather all the slips and he would staple them to the log sheet that he filled out and they would match.
And that’s what I picked up on and ran with. I ran with that for two years, maybe three years. And we signed on with AAA early on, which I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, AAA was absolutely fantastic. And they still are today. They really are. And love them, hate them, choose to do them, choose not to. We chose to sign on in ’99 and they were fantastic. We gained a lot of momentum with them in 2002, 2003 as smaller companies were kind of either giving up or leaving AAA. So we were capturing their territory and I was very hungry back then. So the sheer volume of what we were doing, I couldn’t use the knuckle busters, I couldn’t use the log sheets. We were just burning through them. So I spoke with Tracker in Baltimore and I said, “Tell me more.” And I signed up with them right away. I didn’t have two nickles to rub together, so I used financing to buy Tracker and it’s almost paid off and…I’m joking.
Shelli Hawkins:
No.
Jeremy Procon:
So I used financing to get Tracker back in ’02.
Shelli Hawkins:
Wow.
Jeremy Procon:
And yeah, here we are. But we actually grew out of Tracker.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah, and it’s so amazing to me, Jeremy, that you were that passionate about knowing that you needed technology, that you were willing to go in debt because you knew eventually it would pay off in the efficiencies that it’s going to bring the business.
Jeremy Procon:
Oh, and it did, huge. Yeah. You can’t manage, how do I want to put this? You can’t manage what you can’t track. If you can’t track it, you can’t manage it. So you need to see it to manage it. So I was able to put Tracker back in the day, I had great reports. I would print our AAA and compare it to my AAA check, and notice all the variances and the difference, which I really, I don’t want to say I couldn’t do, but it was difficult to do on paper. So I could just pull the discrepancies on Tracker. And lo and behold, I had a $1,500 per month discrepancy. So I took that $1500 and paid my Tracker invoice with it. So it paid for itself. I was able to track mileage, track drivers, track my trucks, and so on and so forth.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yeah.
Jeremy Procon:
It was the old Zim platform, but it worked well.
Shelli Hawkins:
Wow, that’s fantastic. What a great testimony of having the foresight all the way back then. You said in 2002 when you started with Tracker. Today you’re on a platform called InTow. One thing that I gleaned from visiting you with Jillian, is you want to automate as much as you can because the more you automate, the easier the business is to scale. And you’re not always going through a season where you’re growing the business, however you’re going to have those ups and downs and bumps, but you need to automate as much as you can. I think that you said, and correct me if I’m wrong, but you said the statement, “I want to almost eliminate phone calls coming into the business.”
Jeremy Procon:
We’re close. Yeah, we’re really close. We use a platform called Podium right now. And between the Uber effect and Podium, we’ve drastically reduced phone calls. I’m sitting here right now, my phones are actually live. I’m not sure if you can hear them go off, but they’re not… I hate to say this, but not ringing as often as they should be. I’m looking at my screen, I’m watching Podium while I’m watching my dispatchers interact with all the customers. So that’s where we’re heading. Trying to get away from, trying to get away from the phone calls as much as we can.
Shelli Hawkins:
It is fantastic. It’s scalable. It’s just another level of fantastic efficiencies.
Jeremy Procon:
And I did notice in at the Las Vegas show that, Jeff with TOPS was demonstrating searching, which we don’t have right now, searching you as the end user, the customer. If we have your red Honda Civic, you can type in your plate number and know everything about your red Honda Civic without calling here. It’ll tell you what… We can insert, what you’re going to need when you arrive, how much the charges are, how long it’s been here, etc, etc. So I’m excited to get that implemented into our software as well.
Shelli Hawkins:
For sure. And it is coming. So when I was also there, Jillian and I, you showed us the app Whip Around. Talk a little about that one and then also My Leviton and what other pieces of technology outside of your towing management system do you use? You can pass all that on to our listeners.
Jeremy Procon:
Yeah, so Whip Around, our drivers are paid an extra half hour day, 15 minutes prior to your shift, 15 minutes post. You are required to use Whip Around. Whip Around is an app on the driver’s cellphone. And you walk around the truck and any discrepancies you see, whether it’s a loose wiper blade or a headlight that’s out, you take a picture of it and you note it. Naturally, a headlight out is a down, so you can’t have any lights out. So it either gets repaired right away or you pick a different truck. And then our maintenance staff grabs… See our maintenance staff sees downs right away. If the visor is loose inside the cab, it’s not a down, it’s going to be noted, my maintenance staff will see it, but it’s not an alert. A down is an alert, air leaks, things of that nature.
But my point is the driver walks around the truck, takes a picture of any indiscrepancies or a video if you’d like, and my maintenance staff sees it right away. And that’s it. It’s really, it’s just an inspection via the app and it’s fast and you actually have to check what you just looked at. You physically have to take your finger and check off that. You looked at the wheels, you looked at the lights, you looked at the pre-trip inspection. And you can’t go forward if it’s a down item, you can’t go forward. And it’s designed for tow trucks. So you’re not going to see how’s your fifth wheel pin on a wrecker. I mean, we all know there’s an attachment, but you’re not going to see things that are geared towards tractor trailers or dump trucks. You’re going to see do you have your eight point tie down? Do you have your lockout kit, do you have your jump box? Things that you have to mentally think about before you go on. So it’s designed for the wrecker operator, flatbed operator.
Jillian Grassetti:
Jeremy, after implementing the technology, I guess, what did you experience as the outcome of, I guess, again, getting that into everybody’s hands, everyone’s using it. What did the greener pastures look like?
Jeremy Procon:
Yeah, so as in any industry or our challenge is getting the employees to do it. So we leaned on dispatch, and dispatch will not give you your first call until your Whip Around has been complete. So dispatch can see it, they can see that Johnny, the driver, yep, his Whip Around is complete, no issues with the truck. It also covers damages too. So if you get in that truck, if you get in the truck, whatever truck number you get into and you notice the tire’s got a gouge, a fresh scuff and a gouge taken out of it, it’s really simple to see that the driver prior to that didn’t show that. So guess who did it? Simple as that. We have guys that go right around the truck with a video and covers their butts. So it’s a CYA app as well, we call it.
Shelli Hawkins:
I love it. It’s accountability. And that first time that there’s damage to a truck, exactly who did it. And it’s saying, “Hey, I genuinely didn’t do this, but let me prove it.” And it’s proof and you’re grateful for it. That’s fantastic. I was recently up in Green Bay, Wisconsin visiting with the folks at Glen’s Towing. And I was shown an app called My Leviton. Well, it’s a remote way to air up your larger trucks. And Cody Henninger of Glen’s Towing had it installed for his rotator so that when he’s at his house and he gets a call, it’s going to be for the rotator, he can remotely air up his rotator from his cellphone number, jump in it, and it’s ready to go. So he’s saving time and he is not having to wait for the truck to get aired up.
Jeremy Procon:
You got… We’re using the same thing. However, there’s an option on there. We keep it aired up all the time. We just keep aired up. We keep it aired up all the time. And we have breakaways. So if the driver’s, “Oh geez, I forgot to release it.” Like a fire truck, it breaks away, doesn’t do any damage. So it’s not optimal, it does breaks, but it makes a noise when it breaks away, but we have a little tag on the wheel. So before you leave in the winter, you unplug your truck via the 110. And then of course your air breakaway. But My Leviton is actually, we’re using Lutron.
Shelli Hawkins:
Okay.
Jeremy Procon:
So same thing.
Shelli Hawkins:
Same idea. Yeah. Sure.
Jeremy Procon:
Same. Yep.
Shelli Hawkins:
What other apps are you using to manage the business or technology that we’ve not talked about?
Jeremy Procon:
Our dispatch center has live weather. We actually buy the weather. We don’t rely on our local weather channel. We actually buy the apps, we buy the radar, we buy the alerts. So on our maps outside in our dispatch area, you can see a thunderstorm cell coming through. We know it’s probably going to light up on the highway with crashes and such. Where we just listened to this, so the weather thing’s one cool thing, but it’s self explanatory. The newest technology that we’re using is an app and I can share it with you. Geez, I can’t think of the name of it.
It’s in test flight right now. Are you familiar with test flight? So what this app does, and this is an MIT, he just graduated from MIT a couple of years ago. His name’s Matt, I’ll share it with you. He developed a software where it listens to the scanner of your local town, state police, city, whatever town you want to listen to. He receives it in his software. It listens for keywords, crash, motor vehicle stop, things of that nature. And it puts it in text on your screen of the cities and towns that you’re subscribing to.
Shelli Hawkins:
Wow.
Jeremy Procon:
So you’re not listening to a scanner, you don’t care about the scan, you don’t care about the cat stuck in a tree. You don’t see that because it’s not part of the keyword. The keywords, anything related to towing. So what this app does is it pulls all the keywords and it puts it into text on our screen out there. So we have an advanced notice of what’s happening, “Oh four car motor vehicle crash on 91 South at the two mile marker. “It’s listening to that and it puts it into text. And we look up and we see, “Okay, oh boy, four car that’s probably going to come in shortly.”
We’re already way ahead of the game. We already have trucks in position. We can even head in that direction. And then you can actually double click on the text and listen to the recording that was just said. So “Multiple injuries, airbags are blown, dah dah dah dah.” Whatever they’re saying on the scanner, now we know we’re going to head in that direction. But it gives us a quick alert. So you’re not listening to a scanner, it just gives you the text. So what Matt has developed isn’t only for the towing industry, but for example, we have a large, and Jillian will tell, MassMutual’s a large complex here in Springfield, multiple campuses, thousands and thousands of employees.
One of their main things is security. So if Springfield has a robbery across the street at the bank or Dunkin Donuts and there’s a shooter, MassMutual security isn’t going to listen to the scanner all day long for cats in trees and crashes. All they care about is, “Wait a second, did someone just say shooter on Page Boulevard?” So now MassMutual’s way hit at a game, they can lock the facility down and get people in place. So it’s designed for places like that as well. So he is grabbing keywords in whatever you subscribe to is what you’re going to be notified of. So it’s pretty cutting edge. And like I said, we’re in test flight right now. It’s working great in test flight, but it’s giving us a huge advanced warning. Huge.
Jillian Grassetti:
Super interesting.
Jeremy Procon:
Yeah, I’ll send you the link. And it’s not out yet. In fact, we’re going to invest in it as well. So.
Jillian Grassetti:
I mean, again, I feel like we’ve heard this theme of you being an early adopter, hungry for innovation. My team in sales, we talked to a lot of folks who are just starting out in the industry. So they’re calling us saying like, “All right, can I tell me more about digital dispatching software, towing management software.” And we’re trying to guide them through that process. But I guess from your perspective, if you’re just starting out, you’re trying to make a business for yourself, any words of wisdom that you’d be willing to share with, again, the community that’s kind of just starting out.
Jeremy Procon:
Yeah. If you’re just starting out, it depends on how far in a game you are, but I would say once you get past three, four, there’s no exact formula. But once you get past a handful of trucks as an owner, get out of the truck, get out of the truck. Know your industry, know your business, know what your employees are doing, get the heck out of there. And then go and get behind the desk, get behind the computer. You’re going to be more profitable at the desk than you are ever in a truck. At the same time, you need to know what your employees are doing. So I’m constantly in training at just the Top Gun school with Tom Luciano. I’m constantly doing Urska, Shane Coleman, we’re doing Train the Trainer. Of course I’m going to be one of the trainers, so I have to know what my guys are doing.
But on a day-to-day basis, I cannot be in a truck. I’d love to be, but I cannot be in a truck. So I highly encourage anyone who wants to be successful in this business is to, I know it’s tough for a lot of guys and girls to get out of the truck, but you’re going to do better behind the desk and managing. And one of the other pieces of advice I give is hire people more talented than you. And that’s what we do. I hire good accountants, I hire good dispatchers. My dispatchers will walk circles around me, run circles around me. My tow truck operators absolutely kick my ass. Flatbed operators so much more efficient than I am. It’s like speaking a language. If you don’t do it every day, you’re going to lose it. So those are the two pieces of advice I can give you. Get out of the truck and hire people more talented than you.
Laura Dolan:
Jeremy, that brings me to my next question. There’s no getting around the fact that the towing industry is a customer service industry. You’re dealing with people all the time, and customer service is very crucial in any business. So how do you and your team prioritize customer satisfaction and ensure that each interaction with your towing service leaves a positive impression, especially in stressful situations?
Jeremy Procon:
That’s a great question. That’s one of our greatest challenges. We’re an 80/20 business. 80% of the people who come through these doors don’t want to be here. 20% of the people we talk to every day certainly don’t want to be towed. But they chose to call us in one way or another. So 80% of our business is contentious, it’s consensual. They’re people who didn’t choose to have our services. And it can be hostile. And our employees put up with a lot of stuff. They get called names and so on and so forth. Some of my employees love a challenge, so we need to constantly diffuse that. And then they have to immediately switch gears to your mom on the side of the road with a flat tire and treat her the way she should be treated after just being barrage by two or three people.
So some of my… It’s a gift to be able to switch gears like that for these employees to switch hats like that. And so how do we mitigate that? There’s a lot of training. We have a gentleman here, he’s one of our dispatchers, you would think he is a drill instructor. He treats everyone the same. And in my opinion, it’s not very nice. There’s black and white and no gray. You should hear him on the phone. So he’s a great dispatcher, but we’re still working with him this week. I have one of my senior dispatchers sitting with him as we speak. He’s out there right now. In fact, I can hear his voice, it’s kind of loud. A lot of training, trying to teach an old dog new tricks is the way I liken him to. But it’s his personality, it’s just who he is.
No, he has no swag, he’s “Ma’am, I told you once, I’m not going to tell you again. You need to have your AAA card ready when we arrive. Okay?” And it’s, “Don’t. Knock the tone off.” Of course, he gets through the window and someone looks at him sideways and he doesn’t know how to treat him. So training, training, training. And sometimes it just doesn’t work out. Sometimes you just got to let that person go and you have to move on to the next. Because they just can’t learn any new tricks. So we’re going to give him some time. But that’s one of our greatest challenges.
Shelli Hawkins:
Thank you for sharing all of this history of the company and your growing in the towing industry, Jeremy today. We’re genuinely appreciative of it. Any final questions, Laura and Jillian, or anything that’s coming to mind maybe that we missed that we could share? I have a question. How about I interrupt myself? Right? Let’s go ahead. Shelli Hawkins. That’s great.
Laura Dolan:
Shelli, do you have any questions?
Shelli Hawkins:
I do, in fact. Yep, I do that a lot. So there has to be one gigantic, tremendous memorable recovery that you’ll never forget about that stands out in your mind. We would love to hear the story.
Jeremy Procon:
Yeah, there’s a couple of them. One’s a little more gruesome, so I’ll go on to the larger one.
Shelli Hawkins:
We appreciate that.
Jeremy Procon:
And it was quite simple, but it was just the factors. It was a tractor trailer stopped in construction. The construction came up quite abruptly, they were just doing the setup. So traffic just stopped and another tractor trailer came up behind that one and he was sleeping. So came up and just rear-ended the stopped tractor trailer at 65, 70 miles an hour.
Shelli Hawkins:
Oof.
Jeremy Procon:
And yeah, unfortunately the guy who was sleeping didn’t make it, but it went, I mean, when I say it went through the truck through and through, this truck they merged into one. One was carrying these little fire starters and the one that the victim that was stopped was carrying shampoo, 40,000 pounds of shampoo bottles and they merged. It was an absolute mess. And to add to that, try working within 800 yards in every direction on shampoo. It’s super slippery.
Laura Dolan:
Oh my God.
Jeremy Procon:
You’re driving over these shampoo bottles. Cause you got to scoop them up and they’re popping like zits.
Shelli Hawkins:
Love the description.
Jeremy Procon:
It was challenging in every aspect. It was unfortunate. It was a fatal, so you had to be sensitive to the investigation. The shampoo was… You couldn’t get any traction with the wheel loaders or it was like being on a skating rink. Nothing could be towed because they were completely destroyed. So memorable because it had all, it hit every point. It hit the challenge, the sensitivity. That was one of the most memorable ones we’ve had. We do a lot of wrecks actually, but that was one of the ones that really stood out.
Shelli Hawkins:
Fascinating. How do people find you? Are you on social media? Do you have an Instagram?
Jeremy Procon:
Yeah, we have a following on Facebook.
Shelli Hawkins:
Yes, you do.
Jeremy Procon:
We have Interstate Towing Incorporated on Facebook. We don’t do much with Instagram. Never really got into it. We do have a page, but never really… Well now Instagram and Facebook now chat, they talk to each other.
Shelli Hawkins:
Correct.
Jeremy Procon:
We never got into the Twitter thing, but Facebook is primarily where we are. Of course, we have a website. We use a company called OMG National that sort of handles our online reputation, our online mitigation. They’ve been great. They’ve been great, we’ve been with them since 2007. And yeah, they’ve helped us tremendously. I did want to say one thing about TRAXERO. So shifting gears a little bit. Back, maybe 10 years ago, 12 years ago when Jerr-Dan merged, might have been probably 12 years ago, Jerr-Dan merged with JLG, Oshkosh. [inaudible 01:03:25]
Shelli Hawkins:
Oshkosh. Oh, yeah. Yes I do.
Jeremy Procon:
Well, prior to that, Jerr-Dan was more like a boutique company, almost like a Dennis and Ted company, like an InTow company. You could reach the owner, or not the owner, but the president, they would fly up here. They were very attentive. Suddenly Oshkosh buys Jerr-Dan. And we were a big Jerr-Dan company. We have lots of pieces of Jerr-Dan. So they got bought out and we totally lost that connection, so I thought. And they were changing factories and they were doing this and doing that. So it was challenging for a year or so. However, once they settled in, and this is the correlation I’m making with TRAXERO, if you’re not picking up what I’m putting down here. Once Jerr-Dan settled in with Oshkosh, Pierce JLG, I took a factory tour and holy smokes, what I tell you was what I saw down there when they brought all that JLG technology and Pierce technology and Oshkosh technology, and they brought it over to Jerr-Dan, the product, in my opinion, I thought it was a great product to begin with, but now it’s much better, much more refined, better built.
So that’s where I see TRAXERO going. I see right now it’s a little challenging because we’re trying to move some things and get things done and so on. But now that TRAXERO owns all these powerhouses, we’re going to make we one superb piece of equipment. But I’m super anxious for it. And I see that that’s where we are with where we were with Jerr-Dan merging. It was frustrating at first, but I see TRAXERO absolutely taking off in creating a masterpiece and maybe who knows how long. But shortly, I’m being told.
Shelli Hawkins:
Completely.
Jeremy Procon:
That’s what I’m excited for for TRAXERO. I’m excited to see you guys take all those pieces and melt them into one. And talking to people like me, and other people around the country, I think you guys will be super successful and I can’t wait. I’m super excited to be on the TRAXERO bus right now because I know where it’s going.
Shelli Hawkins:
Thank you. Wow. Thank you so much.
Laura Dolan:
Thank you.
Shelli Hawkins:
That is a fantastic way to put it. We are genuinely appreciative of that. I never thought about it that way, but yeah, you’re right. I remember when Oshkosh purchased Jerr-Dan, and I did not go through those years necessarily like you did on the ground level, but I remember hearing from the Jerr-Dan distributors and Jerr-Dan operators, just the challenges that they experienced. But like you said, and fun fact, I lived in Appleton, Wisconsin for 15 years, home of Pierce Manufacturing.
Jeremy Procon:
Right.
Shelli Hawkins:
Right there on the interstate. I drove past it every day on the way to AW Direct where I worked up in Green Bay. Wow. But thank you. Thank you for that. We appreciate it. And we also appreciate your time this morning hanging out with myself and Laura and Jillian. It’s been a blast.
Jeremy Procon:
It has. I’m glad you guys invited me to chat. I’m sorry I was a little long-winded, but…
Shelli Hawkins:
No.
Laura Dolan:
No, don’t be.
Jillian Grassetti:
Great stuff.
Laura Dolan:
It was great stuff. And you’re both very busy people, so we really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to come on here today. And it was a pleasure talking to both of you.
Jeremy Procon:
Likewise.
Shelli Hawkins:
Well, thank you guys for joining us for another episode of TRAXERO On-The-Go. You can find us at www.traxero.com, also TRAXERO on all the socials. We hope everyone has a great rest of your day and look forward to another podcast here coming up in the future.
Jeremy Procon:
Thanks everyone.
Jillian Grassetti:
Thanks y’all.
Laura Dolan:
Thank you.
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.