Consolidated Towing Quick Stats

Established: 1988

1 Location in Bend, Oregon

Employees: 18

Trucks/Pieces Of Equipment: 27

Customer Since: Early 90s

Products Used: Tracker & TowPay

Consolidated Towing has been a customer of TRAXERO since the early 1990s when they became early adopters of our Tracker software, and never looked back. Since then, their business has seen much success and efficiency thanks to digital dispatching.

Our Senior Content Marketing Manager, Laura Dolan, had a candid conversation with Lori Anton, General Manager at Consolidated Towing. She described how employing towing software has empowered her company to have insight into their reporting, which has allowed them to grow through the years in a continuing upward trajectory. This is her story.

Laura Dolan:

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today, Lori. Let’s just start out by telling us a little bit about Consolidated Towing, what year you opened and all that fun stuff.

 

Lori Anton:

Consolidated Towing started when Mike, my stepfather, bought the company and started it in 1988. We like to say we started with two and a half trucks, so two trucks that worked and one truck for parts. Now we’re up to 27 trucks.

 

LD:

Great!

 

LA:

Yeah, we call ourselves Central Oregon’s Most Recognized Orange Fleet. So all of our trucks are orange and life’s been good.

 

LD:

I love it. So you are currently located in Bend Oregon. How many locations do you currently have?

 

LA:

We serve all of Central Oregon out of that one location.

 

LD:

Awesome. How long have you been in the towing industry and how did you get into it?

 

LA:

Well, the family business has a way of drawing you in.

 

LD:

I’m sure it does.

 

LA:

Yeah. So I was in retail management for Zales Jewelers for eight years before I came to the family business, and I wanted to get back home and raise my family in Bend, Oregon. And Mike said, well, if you’re willing to do that, then you might be willing to come to work for me. So yeah, so I’ve been here going on 31 years.

 

LD:

Fantastic. It’s great you worked for Zales. I used to work for Helzberg Diamonds for a brief time.

 

LA:

Really?

 

LD:

Yeah, jewelry’s fun.

 

LA:

Jewelry is different from towing.

 

LD:

Oh, definitely. Yes. Maybe some overlap here and there.

 

LA:

Right?

 

LD:

Totally. So, you said you have 27 trucks currently?

 

LA:

So let’s go back and rephrase that. Let’s say 27 pieces of equipment.

LD:

Gotcha.

 

LA:

We run everything from light-duty, off-road, heavy-duty, medium-duty. We have a lowboy trailer. Yeah, you name it, we do it. Motorcycle transport. So yeah, pretty much a little bit of everything.

 

LD:

I love it. So just definitely a variety of services that you provide. That’s great.

 

LA:

Central Oregon is a unique environment. I mean, we have high mountains, we have desert, so we have found over the years that there are some pieces of equipment that might sit here a good portion of the year, and then when we need it, we have it.

 

LD:

That is awesome. Yeah, I’ve never been to Oregon. I’ve always wanted to go, but I heard Bend is an absolutely beautiful area, so I would imagine the diversity in the microclimates definitely has an effect on what goes on out on the roads.

 

LA:

Absolutely.

 

LD:

So you are currently a Tracker by TRAXERO customer of ours. How long have you been using the software?

 

LA:

We started with Tracker in the early ’90s, and Keith came out and personally did our setup of all of our computers and installed the software. So yeah, we’ve been with Tracker a long time.

 

LD:

Wow. Thank you for your loyalty. That’s incredible. What were you doing before Tracker? What did the before-and-after look like for you?

 

LA:

A little bit of pen and paper. Our drivers had pagers back then.

 

LD:

Oh, yeah, that’s right.

LA:

You had a little terminal that you could type out the message. So we got pretty good at hieroglyphics and whatnot, sending out messages for them to see where they were going and what they were doing with a pager. And then immediately when we got Tracker, obviously we got the dispatch software. 

 

LD:

Interesting. And can you speak on how much easier, or more efficient, it has gotten over time? 

 

LA:

Absolutely. I think the thing that keeps us loyal to Tracker is Tracker has kind of grown just like we have. It was originally a family business and I think we trusted them to help us move our family business into the next century. So as technology changed, Tracker not only changed, but they encouraged us and allowed us to change our business model and our business plan so that we could more effectively communicate with our customers, more effectively communicate with our drivers. 

 

We could get drivers’ background information on the call that they were going to, so they knew exactly what they were getting into. Up to now, where we have Tracker Mobile and the drivers get all the notes that the dispatcher, conversation-wise, has had, with the customer, and then they document their side of it right back at us. In the world we live in today, it’s really important to have all those pictures that support what we did and how we did it in the event that something did go wrong or something gets said. I hate to be negative about that, but you know…

 

LD:

No. It definitely helps to have those timestamps and that evidence in case you have to defend yourselves in the event that there’s some kind of fraudulent report or something.

 

LA:

Yes, absolutely. We just towed a semi-truck and trailer yesterday and the owner called me today and said, “What happened to my truck? Was it jackknifed?” And I said, “Well, let me send you the pictures of your truck before we touched it.” So right off the bat, we’ve got those, we’ve got the technology to be able to send pictures right from the scene and it’s been great. So we are very happy with the forward progress of Tracker and how it’s helped our company grow.

 

LD:

That’s awesome. And so you said you’ve known Keith for a long time, and obviously you know Brandon. Brandon’s the best. We love him.

 

LA:

 

Oh, absolutely. I will say that through all the years with Tracker, the 24/7 support has, I don’t think ever let us down. Everybody is cheerful and willing to help us. The towing industry is not typically as tech-savvy as others. When we have a question or a problem, they never belittle us when we call and say we don’t know how to do it. But the support, 24/7, has always been right there for us.

 

LD:

That’s awesome. My next question was actually going to be how satisfied are you with the level of support and assistance that you receive, especially during implementation onboarding, which obviously, was a long time ago, but it sounds like over time if you ever do run into any kind of snags, the Tracker team is right on it for you. So that’s wonderful to hear.

 

LA:

Yeah, 100%. The support for our business from the Tracker side has been great.

 

LD:

Awesome. So are there any other of our products that you’re on besides Tracker? 

 

LA:

We switched over to TowPay back in November, and I think that has been fabulous. Kind of allows for seamless transactions between customers and the office. And we made some modifications, or I should say, Tracker made some modifications for us based on the way we do things in our office. They did some programming stuff that they helped us out with, authorization numbers and whatnot, it was great. So yeah, TowPay is just the latest example of how we’ve come forward, again, with technology and Tracker being right there behind us and supporting us.

 

LD:

I love that. The link-to-pay technology, the fact that you can use it on the road or in the office, TowPay is definitely a game-changer, I’m so happy to hear that you were able to take advantage of that integration. If someone in the towing industry were to come up to you and say, “I’m on the fence about converting to digital software.” What is something you would say to them to kind of nudge them in the right direction?

 

LA:

I would say that you absolutely need to. You’re doing your business a disservice if you don’t look at digital software for towing. Not only from the information side of it. Information is power. I mean, just the history for the calls and looking back and someone saying, “Hey. You towed my car two years ago.” And we can go back and find that information just at our fingertips, to keeping track of the daily call volume, keeping track of everything from commissions for drivers and payroll. I would tell anybody that digital software is where it’s at for our industry. If you’re not on it, you’re behind.

 

LD:

Yes. Perfect. I love that. I don’t think they realize it’s one of those things where it’s fear of the unknown, but then once they have it, it’s like, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?”

 

LA:

Is absolutely true. It’s fear of the unknown, and you just can’t let fear hold you back. You just gotta jump.

 

LD:

Exactly. This has been great, Lori, how can our audience find you? 

 

LA:

We have a website, consolidatedtowing.com, and then we also have a Facebook presence. So anybody that’s ever coming through Bend, Oregon, should stop and say, “Hi.”

 

LD:

Yes, this is why I like to put your contact information in our content. This way if somebody local is reading it, they can stop by, or they’ll know that you’re around if they ever need you, because it’s better to not need you and know you’re there, than to need you and not know you.

 

LA:

Absolutely. We always say let’s not meet by accident.

 

LD:

Exactly, so is there anything else that we didn’t cover that you would like to discuss, or make sure that we cover in this call?

 

LA:

Yeah, I just want to say thanks to Tracker for a very long and prosperous association, and I think we’re both going the direction that we want to go.

 

LD:

That is fantastic, Lori. We love hearing that, and we couldn’t be happier that you’re happy, if you’re successful, we’re successful. We look at you guys as a partnership rather than a customer. We love working with you and we just thank you again for being a loyal Tracker and TowPay customer. And hopefully we get to meet at a tow show in person sometime. 

 

LA:

Absolutely. I will look forward to that opportunity.

 

LD:

Me too. All right, thank you so much, Lori. Have a wonderful day and good luck with the weather out there.

 

LA:

Okay. Thanks, Laura. You too.

 

LD:

Thank you. Bye.

 

LA:

Bye-Bye.

We change the game when it comes to running a towing business. You saw how our digital dispatching and credit card processing solutions were able to do that for Consolidated Towing. Contact us to see how we can do the same for you.