In this episode of TRAXERO On-The-Go, Give Us Your Best Auction Chant, Our series on chatting about all things auctions continued as we welcomed Will Farmer, TRAXERO’S VP of Impound Revenue Operations and Brian Young, Merl’s Towing Service’s Inventory and Dispatch Manager. In this episode, we covered how our software, Auction Simplified, has revolutionized the auction process for towing businesses. We also got to hear some impressive auction chanting.

Transcription

 

Shelli Hawkins:

Welcome everybody, to Traxero On-The-Go, episode number nine. Laura Dolan, what in the world? We have made it to episode number nine. How amazing.

Laura Dolan:

Shelli Hawkins. So exciting. I know.

Shelli Hawkins:

It is. It was just yesterday that we recorded our very first podcast.

Laura Dolan:

Fantastic.

Shelli Hawkins:

Fantastic. That’s our word, remember?

Laura Dolan:

Yes. Yes. If you guys want to play a drinking game during this podcast, Shelli says fantastic an exorbitant amount of times. Yeah. This year’s flying though, because yeah, we record our first podcast in March. Yesterday was my seventh month anniversary with Traxero, so I cannot believe how fast this year is flying. Next month is your one-year, right, Shelli?

Shelli Hawkins:

It is, and also one of our guest’s anniversary as well, here at Traxero, and we’ll talk about that here in a second. I can’t believe, it was like here and now it’s gone. Time has flown. No way.

Laura Dolan:

Time flies when you’re having fun. That’s what it is.

Shelli Hawkins:

And I will tell you that my time here at Traxero has been, say it with me, fantastic.

Laura Dolan:

Fantastic.

Shelli Hawkins:

Yes, it has. Someone even said we need to make bumper stickers with our Traxero On-The-Go logo and the word fantastic. I don’t know, maybe we’ll do that and give them out at Baltimore Tow Show. We’ll see what happens.

Laura Dolan:

There’s our idea for swag. We need some new ideas, because usually we give out sunglasses, but Baltimore’s in November, so usually sunglasses aren’t really useful for that time of year. So we’re thinking either beanies, or at this point, maybe a Traxero sticker, or both. You’ll just have to stop by our booth and see.

Shelli Hawkins:

I’ve seen some of the preliminaries that we’ve got out there with our logo on them, and I got to let you guys know, you are going to want to stop by the Traxero Booth in Baltimore. It’s an absolute must. We are going to have the most epic swag ever, so just put that on your radar. Stop, see us and grab it all.

Laura Dolan:

Well, speaking of tow shows, at the time of this recording, we have not one, not two, but three tow shows that we will be attending in September. Shelli, you want to break down where we’ll be and when?

Shelli Hawkins:

Indeed. So our first tow show is going to be next weekend in the beautiful city of Raleigh, North Carolina with the North Carolina Towing Association. Ms. Carrie Fogg at the helm, the president organizing this one, and she has got quite the lineup of vendors. And also I keep hearing from all of my folks in the 319 area code and outside of attending, in fact, I just got a text earlier today from a buddy, Kyle Hodges, look him up on YouTube. He’s an amazing tower. He will be there. Rene and I will be joining and we are indeed going to be bringing Rene’s 1997 Ford F250 73 diesel, Ruby, that the world knows about. So come and join us. We’d love to see you in North Carolina.

Two weekends after that, Cincinnati, Ohio. Well, actually the Midwest Regional Tow Show will be taking place from the Towing and Recovery Association of Ohio. Super excited about that, with Mr. Bruce Bender and all the things there. Get to see our friends and family.

Then the following weekend is going to be the Tennessee Tow Show. And we recommend that you guys go to all the tow shows in your area. The Tennessee Tow Show certainly has a big place in our heart because it being the birthplace of the tow truck by Mr. Ernest Holmes in 1917, the Wall of the Fallen memorial there, and also the International Towing Museum, all in Chattanooga, Tennessee. So there is the list of the trade shows that we will be at with our booth and all the things.

Laura Dolan:

Awesome. Thank you, Shelli, for breaking all that down. I will be attending two out of the three. I will be in Ohio and Tennessee this year, so I’m very excited. I’ve actually never even been to Tennessee. The Ohio Tow Show is like an hour and 28 minutes from where I live, so that’ll be pretty easy to get to. But I’m excited to visit Chattanooga. Never been. I do have reservations for an auction that’s taking place there. As well as hopefully getting to visit the museum and Wall of the Fallen. I think that’ll be a very life-changing experience, so I’m looking forward to all of it.

Shelli Hawkins:

For sure. And the auction, for those of you listening that have attended, very much knows how animated the auction is, and these things that go up for auction can go for sometimes tens of thousands of dollars. My favorite story is when Mr. Lee Roberts grabbed the microphone, I believe it was last year when we were bidding on Danny Horton’s wife, his wife, the quilt that she made out of the T-shirts, and he said, “There’s not a towing company in here that can’t donate a thousand dollars to this quilt.” And I mean to tell you, it went for over $45,000 and it’s hanging in the museum today. Love it. There’s no script for the auction. There’s a fantastic auctioneer, and it is anybody’s game to get and bid on anything. So, looking forward to it.

Laura Dolan:

$45,000 for a quilt. That’s incredible.

Shelli Hawkins:

Yeah. Well, when Lee Roberts grabs the mic, you’re going to be listening, I promise.

Laura Dolan:

Yes, yes, definitely. Well, speaking of auctions, let’s bring our guests on, Shelli, shall we?

Shelli Hawkins:

I would love to. I’ve been looking forward to this. I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m excited to introduce Mr. Will Farmer. He is our Vice President of Impound Revenue Operations. And then Mr. Brian Young, Merl’s Towing Service Inventory and Dispatch Manager. Welcome to the podcast, gentlemen.

Will Farmer:

Thanks, Shelli and Laura, thanks for having us.

Brian Young:

Yeah, thanks for having us.

Laura Dolan:

Absolutely.

Shelli Hawkins:

And you guys are in what city today? Will Farmer, where are you at right now?

Will Farmer:

Yeah, so I live in Salem, Virginia, in the mountains of southwestern Virginia. And I live here with my family, my beautiful wife and three kiddos. And we love living in the mountains, but we’re right near the airport, so just getting back late last night from Dallas and Atlanta, so we’re able to jump on the road and go see all of our towing partners across the country, but we live in southwest Virginia, so thanks for having us.

Shelli Hawkins:

You are welcome. I love that. And for you guys listening, Will Farmer is very much from the neck of the woods that I talk about, Crabtree Holler on the Stanley Branch side, often. We potentially could be relatives, but probably not. We’re probably not related, are we, Will?

Will Farmer:

Within spitting distance of probably somebody that knew someone once upon a day.

Shelli Hawkins:

Who knows. Yeah, I’m sure. But yeah. Mr. Brian Young, are you there with us? We’re excited to bring you on.

Brian Young:

I am.

Shelli Hawkins:

Fantastic. And you are in what city today?

Brian Young:

I’m in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Shelli Hawkins:

So if my Michigan geography serves me correctly, and you’re looking at the mitten, because the Michigan is always about the mitten, it is on, is it on the central western side of the mitten?

Brian Young:

Correct, yeah. You hold your hand up in front of you, you got the thumb off to your right off to the left, kind of like below your ring finger knuckle there, there’s around where Grand Rapids would be.

Shelli Hawkins:

Okay. How big of a city is that?

Brian Young:

I think the whole metro area is a little over 200,000 people, I think.

Shelli Hawkins:

Well, that’s a decent size, to put major towing company like Merl’s Towing in, for sure. What is the major interstate that goes through there?

Brian Young:

We’re at the intersection of I-96 and US 131.

Shelli Hawkins:

That’s got to bring a lot of traffic for you folks, I’m guessing.

Brian Young:

It does, indeed.

Shelli Hawkins:

Well, thank you guys for joining us. We really appreciate you taking time out of your schedule to spend some time with us and to get to know you both and the auctions and what that means. Auction Simplified. Our last podcast, if you listened, was with one of our founders, Mr. Kevin Leigh.

Laura Dolan:

Yeah, we had a little bit of an auction series going there.

Shelli Hawkins:

Yeah, and it’s okay. It’s what we love. It’s all exciting. We love to learn more as we move along in the podcast journey. And Laura, honestly, this is what I love, is I love that I get to learn something new every single week and give that out to our folks listening.

Laura Dolan:

A hundred percent. This is definitely an educational experience for you and I as well, Shelli, so never a dull moment and always an opportunity to learn something new about our products, about our company, about, most importantly about our audience. So, it’s pretty valuable.

Shelli Hawkins:

Agreed. Yeah. Will Farmer, I met you the second week of September, I think. He started like, a week after I did at Traxero.

Will Farmer:

I think that sounds right.

Shelli Hawkins:

Yeah, and we talked about a little bit, learning more about the towing market, and I sent you down to Whitfield, Virginia to hang out with Mr. Clayton Bush of 103 Towing. How was that visit for you?

Will Farmer:

We did. It was great. We got a chance to get in the trucks and run around and pick up some cars. We almost got arrested. It was great. We had a little fun. I think it was the state penitentiary, we ended up at.

Shelli Hawkins:

What? Of course you did.

Will Farmer:

I might not have had permission to be in the parking lot, and that’s not the kind of place that they take kindly to strangers hanging out in the parking lot of. But we were picking up a state vehicle. We did end up picking the vehicle up, but there was a couple moments there where a couple guys with machine guns showed up wondering what we were going to do there, so…

Shelli Hawkins:

I would have given anything. Not anything, but to see how Mr. Bush handled this. And I have no doubt he was, above all things, a professional that was effective.

Will Farmer:

Commensurate professional, always.

Shelli Hawkins:

Yes, for sure. I love it. But you have had quite the journey, not just with Traxero in the time that you’ve been with us, but auctioneering really is in your blood. Did you grow up with a dad as an auctioneer? How did you get involved in all the auction things?

Will Farmer:

That’s right. I’m a second generation auctioneer. I grew up in the auction business. My dad owned an auction house, and I grew up as a kid going to, he had a personal property auction house. And so, we’d go set up auctions at people’s houses under the big tent, pull out all the stuff out of their house, put it out on the tables, promote the event, have everybody come in and sell until everything was gone. And we did that many years, and then my dad grew his business into a personal property auction house business, and the internet comes along, and the evolution of auctions as we all know over time.

And so, I’ve been licensed 20 years. I’ve run personal property auction houses. I worked in the real estate auction business for five years, and then for the past eight years I’ve really been focused in the automotive space, on franchise and independent car dealer wholesale transactions, and then most recently now with Traxero, focused on salvage and impound yards and how to help maximize revenue for our towing partners who are doing business with Traxero.

Shelli Hawkins:

That is fantastic, and I love that there’s so many different types of auctions for so many different types of industries, but you latching onto the automotive space and realizing that that’s the sweet spot for you. I love that journey for you. I love that you’ve made that realization, and I’m, more than anything, love that you are now here with us at Traxero with as an amazing leader. So, thank you, Will.

Will Farmer:

I appreciate that. And we’re having fun. I mean, one of the coolest things about my experience that I’ve loved to watch happen is, as an individual auctioneer who gets on a microphone and hosts a live auction, I love the banter of an auction and the chant and all the pieces that come with that, but I saw the digital transformation happening in the industry and experienced, my family experienced it in our business, and I’ve had the chance to jump in on the digital side of auctions now and see the power and the efficiency of what these online marketplaces can create. And so, you can still run an auction without an auctioneer, but still have a similar look and feel from a buyer perspective and from a results perspective. And so, it’s just, everything shifts over time, and so the auction industry has evolved over time as well. And so, I still get out and do a couple of fundraising auctions a year and help out the community when I have a chance to do that, but we’re really hyper-focused now on what that digital auction looks like for our towing partners and how to help them generate more revenue for their business.

Shelli Hawkins:

That’s fantastic. I agree. And I love, Laura and I both have experienced talking to customers and seeing the results, and seeing the excitement behind the results. And at first it’s like, wait, what are we going to do? And then seeing the results and the fruits of the labor is just, empowering is the word I’m thinking of.

Laura Dolan:

Well, speaking of empowering our customers, I want to turn the mic over to Brian. I wanted to get his take on his experience with our auction software. But first, let’s just go back to the basics. Brian, please tell us a little bit about the history of your towing business, what year you opened, and what your role is there.

Brian Young:

Yeah, Merl’s Towing and Grand Rapids Towing been going since the mid to late ’60s, I believe. I’ve been there since February of 2000, when I moved to Grand Rapids from Knoxville, Tennessee. Moved up there and spent some time on the road as a full-time driver for about three years, before coming in off the road and started helping with our inventory management.

Shelli Hawkins:

Love it. Knoxville, Tennessee, home of the Golden Globe, 1983 World’s Fair. Did I nail it?

Brian Young:

I believe so. I wasn’t there in ’83, but I had a brother there who was.

Shelli Hawkins:

Very cool.

Laura Dolan:

Shelli is just full of fun facts.

Will Farmer:

I want to say 1982, not to get technical. 1982 World’s Fair.

Shelli Hawkins:

I believe that your Googling skills are excellent, Will Farmer. And if you knew that-

Will Farmer:

I knew it. I had the pocket knife from the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville. So just a technicality that I call out.

Shelli Hawkins:

The pocket knife is indisputable. That’s it. You kept the swag.

Laura Dolan:

I was going to say, when in doubt, consult the swag, because the swag will always have the date.

Will Farmer:

And our family had that kind of random stuff. My parents had an antique business in the late ’70s, early ’80s, and so they had that kind of memorabilia floating around, and I definitely don’t still have it, but I remember keenly the ’82 Knoxville knife.

Shelli Hawkins:

Love it. And I love that it came out on the podcast and it was a piece of information that helped you win an argument, Will. So, great memory. Congratulations. Brian, we have just railroaded this interview with you. I apologize.

Brian Young:

Not at all.

Laura Dolan:

So you’ve been a customer of Auction Simplified since March of 2022, and you and I have spoken about this recently, Brian, and you mentioned that Auction Simplified has actually revolutionized your auction business. Can you give some examples of what your process was like before and after using our software?

Brian Young:

Yeah. Prior to, everything was done by hand. There was just, originally just myself running auctions, and then another person joined me helping out. But it was all in person, very intimate auction. We had a lot of fun with it and stuff, but it was also, if a customer couldn’t be there, if they had to make a choice between our auction and another auction, or whatever other responsibilities, if they weren’t there, they were just out, they wouldn’t be able to attend. So we had our challenges with that, with whether it’s competing auctions on other days, at other tow yards or the city, that kind of stuff.

And the Auction Simplified platform’s done a world of good for us there from a standpoint of being able to allow for that intimate feeling for the in-person bidders who still insist on that, but also opening that up for the people who have responsibilities elsewhere, and they can still hop online and listen in and still be there to compete and win some cars.

Shelli Hawkins:

And a little birdie told me, Mr. Brian Young, that you indeed are the live auctioneer. Is there any truth to this?

Brian Young:

I am, indeed. I’ve been involved with the auctions since 2003 when we were doing 20 cars a month, just in person, and then grown to where we’re at now, doing about 100 cars a month. So yep, that’s my voice, if you were to tune into our live stream.

Shelli Hawkins:

I plan to. I’m looking forward to it. I think, is it next Wednesday? Is that correct?

Laura Dolan:

Yes, yes. I actually, I have it on my calendar, as well. I will definitely be tuning into that.

Shelli Hawkins:

He’s like, checking. I think it is. For sure. Andrea Leigh is the one that told me. And I want to make mention of Andrea Leigh. She is your go-to account manager here at Traxero for Auction Simplified. Talk a little bit about the help that she’s brought to you since adopting the Auction Simplified platform. Let’s brag on her a little bit, can we?

Brian Young:

Yeah, absolutely. Andrea’s been great. One of the things that, when we first got the opportunity to take a look at this and look at it and see if it’s something we wanted to pursue, is always trying to figure out, it’s like, well, we’ve got a way we’ve been doing things, and there’s an expectation of how our customers want to see things done, and how much change are we going to force on them and us, and being aware of how that affects the relationship with our bidders and stuff like that. And Andrea and the Auction Simplified team have been outstanding at listening to everything that we had to say, what our concerns were for in-house for our processes, as well as our bidders out there. And they customized everything that we asked them to customize, or if something we didn’t like or needed change or thought, hey, for us, we’d like to see it done this way, they’ve bent over backwards and been really awesome.

Shelli Hawkins:

Love it. And that integration with TOPS, incredible.

Brian Young:

Oh, it is. There’s a lot less time spent building lists and building spreadsheets and that kind of stuff. Everything is done just with a couple of data entries into TOPS, and it automatically loads the vehicle and any photos we already have right into the Simplified software, and we’re ready to go. And then on the back end, as we check people out, it just checks everything out of TOPS for us as well. So, yeah.

Shelli Hawkins:

You recently were interviewed by Laura, and I think I was reading through that you guys are averaging auctioning 80 to 100 cars a month, is that right?

Brian Young:

Yes, that’s correct, depending on the month. Yeah.

Laura Dolan:

I just want to backpedal a little bit, Brian. Talk a little bit about managing an impound yard and the lifecycle of all the vehicles. What happens when they come into the yard? How do you log them? Has there been anything interesting you have had sitting in your impound yard for a long time?

Shelli Hawkins:

Anything. Just random junk that sits there.

Brian Young:

Well, I mean, as far as just the general vehicle lifecycle, I mean, we’ve got vehicles coming in a variety of ways, whether it’s from accidents, police impounds, private property impound, driver arrests, whatever it might be. There’s a lot of ways they come in, and the way Michigan law is set up, all of those vehicles, depending on how they got there, can have a different lifecycle and when you get to start their lifecycle on the abandoned side of things, that kind of thing. It’s very much a realizing and understanding it is a cycle and there’s always going to be some going out and some coming in. Every time you look at the lot it’s always, oh, it’s too full, we got to make some room, that kind of thing. And just about the time you think, great, we finally dug our hole out a little bit, and here comes the next winter coming, so to speak, and things are going to fill back up, and just keeping that cycle going efficiently as possible.

Shelli Hawkins:

How do you manage all of that that you just described, along with the dispatching? What is your team like to help you do all this, Brian?

Brian Young:

Well, certainly you hit it on the head. Having the team behind me has been the big part of that. I’ve got a couple of, two or three lead dispatchers, or what we call lead dispatchers, that kind of keep things rolling throughout the 24-hour day that a tower lives, and that keeps me freed up to handle the big stuff, the big headaches, as well as helping manage our three inventory lots.

Shelli Hawkins:

Invaluable. It has to be absolutely invaluable that everybody come to work every single day with the work hard hat on, for sure.

Brian Young:

Absolutely.

Shelli Hawkins:

Laura, I think it’s time that we hear a little bit of auction speak. What are your thoughts on that?

Laura Dolan:

100%. Will, do you mind if we put you on the spot?

Shelli Hawkins:

You guys are both going to go. Who wants to go first?

Laura Dolan:

Whoever wants to go first.

Will Farmer:

I don’t know about Brian, but my auction chant isn’t usually free.

Shelli Hawkins:

I’ll pay you with a 1983 World’s Fair Pocket knife.

Will Farmer:

Oh, is this a once in a lifetime opportunity, Shelli?

Laura Dolan:

Do you even have one of those. Do you need to go on eBay and get something like that?

Shelli Hawkins:

I’ll find it. I’ll make it.

Will Farmer:

Sure. No, listen, I’m glad to. So we do a lot of auctions. So I have more of a country style auction chant, I’ll say. There’s lots of different styles of auction chants, but where I’m from in Virginia, my dad, we kind of have like a sing-song chant, so ours is a little bit different. But if I was going to sell something like this, 2002 Honda Accord. All right, how many dollars here? $40 to $500 to go, and start me up at $500 to go here. $500 now? $5 and a quarter. $5 and a quarter to go. $5 and a half. That’ll be $575. Now doing $600 to go here. At $6 and a half. Now $700. $7 and a half. Last call. Anybody else here to go? $7 and a half. Go $7 and a half. Give it $7 and a half. Sold at $700, Shelli and Laura’s way.

Shelli Hawkins:

I love it. So here’s what comes to mind. If your daddy was an auctioneer and raised you like that, when you misbehaved, I want to know what he sounded like chasing you around the house. You remember, “Will Farmer, you better get up here, I’m going to tell you…” Right?

Will Farmer:

That’s right. That’s right.

Laura Dolan:

Oh my god.

Shelli Hawkins:

That’s what I hear.

Will Farmer:

Shelli, you got some auction lingo there. I think you might… If Brian goes down anytime soon, we’re shipping you out there.

Shelli Hawkins:

I’ll hop on a plane and go to Grand Rapids, Michigan tomorrow. I’m just like, I can see your dad chasing you around the house. You’ve got Legos that you’re throwing at your sisters, or how many siblings do you have right now? “You better get over here… I’m going to tell you, buddy, you need sit down here. I’m going to…”

Will Farmer:

You’re funny.

Shelli Hawkins:

For sure.

Laura Dolan:

That was fantastic, Will, thank you. Thank you for that. I felt like I was there.

Shelli Hawkins:

Yes.

Will Farmer:

Absolutely.

Shelli Hawkins:

Mr. Young, you are next, sir. Are you up for it?

Brian Young:

I do not have an auction chant. That’s what everybody laughs about when they come to our auctions live for the first time, they’re like…

Shelli Hawkins:

That’s okay.

Brian Young:

“You don’t have a chant.” I’m like, I don’t. It’s just, I think it starts from just starting out with 20 cars a month and very laid back with five buyers, and keeping it intimate and easygoing. It takes us a while to get through cars sometimes with a big list, but yep, I don’t do the chant.

Shelli Hawkins:

That’s okay.

Will Farmer:

I went to auction school, and that was one of the things that in my family, in our region, it was a pretty important part of being on the microphone and making it happen. But to be honest, there’s plenty of auctions that are more traditional in that way, like you’re saying, I’m almost like speaking. So it would be, all right, we’re kicking this car off, who’ll give me $500? Who’ll give me $300. Right? And if you get $300… And so, Brian, you probably use more of just a talk chant that, as long as people can understand what you’re saying and they get to the value, nobody cares what you’re saying at the end of the day, right? It’s like, if you can get to the money, get the vehicles sold.

I’ve heard, and we hear it all the time. I actually interned after college at an auction house up in New York and it was very formal the way they spoke, and so it was very much slower, almost like an English style auction, and so, very different. There’s plenty of different types of auctions. And car auctions especially, when you go to them, some of them are in lane, your traditional auctions like that, you can’t even hardly understand what the auctioneer’s saying. So it’s pretty cool. There’s lots of different ways.

Shelli Hawkins:

Very, very fantastic. I’m going to throw it out there. Thank you Will. Brian, we’ve got some really exciting news coming up for you guys. I talked to your friend Jeff Pesnell a couple days ago. You’ve known Jeff for a couple years, right?

Brian Young:

Yeah, a couple. Yeah.

Shelli Hawkins:

You guys have been on TOPS, I think he said, since 2001.

Brian Young:

Yes.

Shelli Hawkins:

And he said-

Brian Young:

August 2001.

Shelli Hawkins:

According to him on Monday, you guys are at 1.2 million jobs completed in the TOPS platform. Let’s celebrate that.

Brian Young:

That sounds about right.

Shelli Hawkins:

Soundbite of applause right here. I hear it right now.

Laura Dolan:

Yes, and with that, we want to announce that Merl’s Towing has been officially inducted into the Million Call Club.

Shelli Hawkins:

Yay.

Laura Dolan:

This is a customer-focused campaign that we are running through the end of the year. We are very excited to announce that Merl’s Towing is among 15 companies that have achieved over 1 million calls on our software. So congratulations Brian, and thank you for your loyalty to Traxero. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s just, we appreciate that you trust us with such an important task when you’re making these calls, you’re completing these calls, you’re receiving these calls, and these calls are what help attribute to the safety and the service going on out there on our roadways. So we thank you and we just support you and congratulate you in all that you do.

Brian Young:

Well, thanks a lot. We appreciate that. A million calls. Wow. Yeah, that is a lot. Sometimes it feels like we ran that last week, but no.

Shelli Hawkins:

I bet it does. I bet it does. Do you guys do light, medium, heavy duty, or what does your fleet look like today?

Brian Young:

We do. We do everything, light, medium, heavy. If it’s got, typically if it’s got wheels, we could tow it. We’re going to move it.

Shelli Hawkins:

Okay. Do you have a preference of brand of wrecker that you use, or just whatever comes in inventory?

Brian Young:

Pretty much whatever comes into inventory.

Shelli Hawkins:

Okay, so you’ve got Jerr-Dans, Centuries, Millers. I mean, NRCS is what I’m trying to think. A little bit of everything.

Brian Young:

Yeah, we do a lot of Miller Industry stuff. Yeah.

Shelli Hawkins:

Very good. It’s a great product. It works. We had a little debate on our last podcast about the preference of the Vulcan over… The 9055 Century over the Vulcan B100. And have you had any Vulcans in your fleet at all?

Brian Young:

I don’t believe so. Nope. The backbone of the heavy stuff is the 9055.

Shelli Hawkins:

9055 gets it done. That’s it. I mean, how many of those are out there today on the road? I love that Miller expanded the reach of the boom to be the XL, what was that, like three or four years ago, I think they revealed it at the Baltimore Tow Show? I’m pretty sure John Hawkins is going to come on here and correct me if I’m wrong. I have no doubt. And no, Brian, do you know who John Hawkins is? Familiar? You ever met him before?

Brian Young:

I’ve not met him, no.

Shelli Hawkins:

I’m not related to him. With my last name, probably not a week that goes by that I don’t get asked. For you out there, I’m not related to John Hawkins. He’s a great guy, don’t get me wrong. But yeah. How many trucks do you have in your fleet right now, just out of curiosity?

Brian Young:

We’ve got about 30 pieces of equipment total between light, medium, and heavy.

Shelli Hawkins:

Okay. That is what I call plenty. That is plenty to take care of, the maintenance of, put a skilled operator behind the wheel of those vehicles and then send them out to take care of the roadways out there in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for sure.

Laura Dolan:

I want to understand more about how TOPS and Auction Simplified are integrated, and how the two of them complement each other, and how you can work off each of those different platforms.

Brian Young:

The integration, well, I mean, it starts on the front end with, even on the call intake side of things. TOPS gives us that flexibility with a number of different ways for calls to come in, whether it’s somebody calling and talking to one of our dispatch team members versus some integration with municipality software that allows police departments to enter their vehicles or impounds directly in, so it’s just right there waiting for us to dispatch one of our trucks out to.

And then from there, as vehicles come in, TOPS of course also provides us our inventory management for, as vehicles are being towed out for to body shops or getting picked up by insurance companies or vehicle owners, what have you, and it manages all of that, tracks all of our interactions with the customer, who’s been on the lot, who’s been into check-in with the vehicle, that kind of thing.

And then, as that lifecycle continues, when things aren’t picked up, and it also has a lien management process that allows us to track that process and how it goes through the abandoned vehicle process in Michigan. And then as paperwork comes in and things are ready to head for auction, again, just another couple of clicks and all those vehicles load into Auction Simplified seemingly by magic. I know there’s a lot more to it than that, but it makes this process a lot more streamlined than it used to be 20 years ago when I took it over. That’s for sure.

Laura Dolan:

You did say the operative word there. It is like magic the way it streamlines the entire process, just, it makes it seem seamless. That is the magic of our software.

Shelli Hawkins:

I was just thinking, as he was describing that whole process, that Brian, tell me if I’m wrong, that you should potentially have a title of a professional mover. Let me explain. You move cars into the lot and you move cars out of the lot. You move money into the business and then you move money out of the business when you pay the bills. Professional mover, what do you think?

Brian Young:

Pretty close. There’s times, I’m wondering on any given day what the title should be, because at times the inventory and dispatch thing doesn’t quite cover it. So heck, I’ll suggest that one to the bosses, to the owners, and maybe that’s the one to go with.

Shelli Hawkins:

Brian Young is a professional mover. If it needs to come in and go out, you know how to do it, right?

Laura Dolan:

He’s the chief moving officer, the CMO.

Shelli Hawkins:

I like it. CMO. Chief Moving Officer. Yes. New title and I want a raise. There you go.

Laura Dolan:

We just gave you a promotion. You’re welcome.

Shelli Hawkins:

I love it. Will Farmer, I’m going to ask you a big question about Auction Simplified. We’ve talked about how it really plays out in Brian’s business and how he’s seen the effects of it, and working with our team here and the results financially and how that’s impacted our friends at Merl’s Towing and Grand Rapids. For us here at Auction Simplified, and you as the leader at the helm, what do you see for 2024 for Auction Simplified?

Will Farmer:

Yeah, so we’re really focused on, just like Brian said, taking care of our customers, continuing to build those integrations that make it easier and more efficient for towers to operate their business. They’re already busy enough. Having to run a sale on top of that could take more time and energy.

Shelli Hawkins:

Yes.

Will Farmer:

But what we know, and I think Brian has proven this, you invest in this side of your business, the money that you put into it comes out in multiples. So the opportunity to grow revenue for your business as it relates to auctions and auction management of impound yards, our goal is to help make it easier and help you drive more revenue to your business. And so, as we think about 2024, we haven’t talked about our buyer development team yet, but we do have a buyer development team that focuses on driving new bidders to the auctions that are running in the platform. And so that team, just like the account management team that works with the sellers, we have a buyer development team that’s outbound calling on customers to get them engaged on inventory.

So we’re continuing to focus on driving demand because when demand meets supply, you get market value, and that’s the goal of what we’re trying to drive for these auctions, is increased average sales price, so increased sold price of the vehicles at auction. And I know Brian, when you get increased competition on your inventory, you’re able to net more money at the end of the day and recover your costs that you have into the impound. And so, we’re focused on that for ’24.

We’re focused on the integrations, like we talked about, the team growth. And then at the end of the day, I think more than anything, how to make it simple. It is Auction Simplified, and like you said, it is kind of like magic. When you click into a date, it drops the car from one software to the other and sets it enabled for auction. You can then promote those vehicles from your lot in a specific auction timeframe and then collect the money and work all the way through the entire process. With the inventory ending up back into the inventory management system. So just continued growth in ’24, and more than anything, how do we make it easy for our towers to be successful?

Shelli Hawkins:

Yeah, exactly. I love it. I love the vision that you have, Will. You’ve been an outstanding leader for us. We really appreciate it. I’m going to now ask a question that I know an answer to, but I’m going to make it try to sound sincere. Let’s see how I do. Will, do people have to be on our software like Dispatch Anywhere and TOPS and all the ones that are out there in order to use Auction Simplified?

Will Farmer:

A great question. Thanks for teeing me up there, Shelli. They do not have to be an existing Traxero customer in order to be able to use Auction Simplified, but I would say that our customers who are getting some of the maximum benefits are multi-product customers at Traxero. And so, what we’ve seen over time is, even if they just come in to do one thing, when they notice that the efficiency and the potential velocity of multiple softwares working together under one team, one umbrella, one group of people helping them solve their problems, they tend to adopt. And so we’ve got a TowPay strategy for being able to accept credit cards. We’re working through with a lien and mail processing business to help get titles faster and make sure we understand the notification process in your state to help speed up that process, as well. The budget GPS business, the TMS business, there’s multiple opportunities for our customers to add into additional softwares that make it easier and more efficient to run their business. And so ultimately, no, they’re not required to have anything, but I think over time we continue to see that integration be a key part of their decision making process.

Shelli Hawkins:

It all speaks to each other. So for Brian, when that car comes into the impound and he’s brought in that information for the VIN, for the plate, the year, make, model, etc, all that, it is entered one time and seamlessly moves through. Is that a good way to describe it, Brian?

Brian Young:

It is, yes. All the way through from call intake to dispatch to inventory the vehicle, its entire lifecycle goes right through there.

Shelli Hawkins:

Perfect. It’s exciting. I want to break down one thing, Barney style, Will, if I can. I say break it down Barney style, just for me, in my brain, make it more simplistic. You talked about the buyer development team. We call them BDRs for short. Is that group, when someone comes to us and says, completely independent, a part of our Traxero family or not, we come alongside them and find buyers for their market. So for example, if we had some folks in Iowa that wanted to run an auction with us, we have a team of people that then get on the telephone and find wholesalers. They find folks that have licenses, etc, to then buy the car and give them reminders and emails and login credentials to the Auction Simplified platform. I mean, we provide that as a service, and that just comes along with being a part of Auction Simplified. Yes? Am I…

Will Farmer:

That’s right. Yeah. We actually are the software that powers the auction, and we help, we enable the seller. We supplement their buyer efforts. And so, Merl’s has been doing business for a long time, and so they have a demand they’ve built, they market their sale, they have consistency they’ve built in their marketing efforts. We’re just here to supplement that, and so help them build that base, grow it. What types of vehicles are you bringing through your auction? Where do you have gaps in your performance? How can we help find those types of bidders to draw them in? And so, we’re just there to supplement and help grow the business together over time. And so, whatever their needs are, we kind of identify that by auction location and type of auction and the types of inventory they’re selling, and we just strategize together. We’re a partner, so we’re there to help your cars bring more money, to drive revenue for your business, and however we can help you do that, we’re always open and all ears to hear what else we can do to help.

Laura Dolan:

Will, you just mentioned that there are different types of auctions. Can you break down the types of auctions that Auction Simplified provides?

Will Farmer:

Sure, I’d be glad to. So there’s several different styles of auctions that we support. The one that is most common and most prevalent most recently is our online only auction, and so there’s no actual live auctioneer there. It’s more of an eBay style auction. So the cars go up five days ahead of time, typically. They can be bid on prior to the auction launch, and then the auction actually kicks off at a certain time and the vehicles get bid down as they go in sequence. There is an extension that’s added to the vehicles that get additional bids, and then once all the bids have been collected, the vehicles start closing. And so, that’s an online only type auction, but Merl’s, I believe there, and Brian, you can correct me if I’m wrong, you have a simulcast, so you have a live auctioneer, simulcast, you have online bidders, and do you have the audio stream turned on as well, Brian?

Brian Young:

We do. Yep. So we’ve got everybody in-house or in person there, as well as our online bidders can hear what’s going on and hear me taking bids and closing vehicles.

Will Farmer:

And so, that’s a great example of a live auction in person and also online, where they can hear the auctioneer and buy and bid on vehicles. That’s a simulcast version of an auction. And then there’s a live only auction. If you were just going to host an auction, the software is able to run an auction house live only style auction, as well. So multiple options, and that’s what we like about the software, is we’re not here to tell you how to run your business. We’re here to fit into the business model that you have, that maximizes your profits, and then we give you the data and the information on the results so that you can make the best informed decision about how to make the most money for your business.

Laura Dolan:

That’s awesome. Have you ever run into a situation where, let’s say a company has an auction that’s organized and it’s going to be live only, and for some reason, like the weather changes and they’re anticipating, let’s say, for example, the hurricane that just blew through Florida. How quickly could a company pivot to either simulcast or online only in a situation like that, and has that ever happened?

Will Farmer:

It has, yeah. And actually, Covid changed a lot of the auctions for the good to go online because of those challenges of groups gathering and how people were able to get together. And so, yeah, the software is pretty flexible. As long as there’s a little bit of lead time to indicate what the plan would be to change that, we can make that change for you and meet your business where it is in the process of running an auction. So moving from a live auction to a simulcast auction or to an online only auction.

Probably the biggest piece is buyer engagement and teaching the buyers how to credential in, versus Brian, I’m sure you’ve got some bidders that show up at your live sale who don’t log in and maybe don’t look at the website in the same way. And so, just teaching them how to do it. But you’d be surprised at how many people are doing that at a different auction or in a different venue. They’re buying online on Amazon, or they’re doing some sort of online shopping in today’s world on their mobile device, and so it’s not very hard to credential them and show them how to buy in an online setting.

Laura Dolan:

Excellent, Will. Thank you for that breakdown. Have you guys ever broken any records, as far as how fast you’ve had to pivot from live to online or vice versa?

Will Farmer:

Brian, have y’all had to deal with this at all? Have you had to move to online only format at all during Covid or anything else?

Brian Young:

No. Well, we just started with Auction Simplified, of course, in March of last year, so that was after Covid was over.

Will Farmer:

Okay.

Brian Young:

But Covid did certainly provide its challenges, and a tool like this would have been a big help, that’s for sure.

Will Farmer:

Yeah.

Laura Dolan:

Definitely.

Will Farmer:

And so, it would be pretty rare for an auction to move that fast. Typically if it was a live auction, they’ll pull an auction down or they’ll cancel the sale for the week if they have some sort of issue like that related to weather. But we are ready and able to make that move if we need to, and so it’s definitely available if it’s something that comes up.

Shelli Hawkins:

I love that flexibility, because you do not know what is going to happen from one day to the next. Sometimes it’s moment to moment. We live in a wonderful world of how many things come at us every day. Brian can speak to that way better than we can.

Brian Young:

Yes, it always seems to be, what’s the fire today that has to get put out, so to speak. And hopefully those are fires that don’t pull you down too hard, and it’s just something to win at and go out there and help another customer. But there’s always something that’s happening, and the more you can make some of the normal processes move and automate and kind of move on their own by magic almost, gives you more time to handle the big stuff.

Shelli Hawkins:

Well, and you know what, you hit the nail on the head right there because, we were on pen and paper. We were using payphones. The cellphone came around, and as we automate, we bring efficiencies to the towing business. I love to see the tower embrace technology when they are ready for it. Because you said something earlier that I wrote down, how much change has to be forced, and it is change. It is something you have to get used to, but once it’s there and once you understand it, it’s like you didn’t know anything else. It’s like you forgot about the old way and now this is, wow, this is so much better. I had no idea. But I love that efficiency, and I love that you guys are just moving along that journey with us. I can only imagine how many versions of TOPS you’ve been through and how many updates and product additions and tweaks over the years, has got to be in the hundreds.

Brian Young:

Oh, I’m sure. I couldn’t even begin to go back and count either. I’m sure that there’s things that I take for granted now that, oh yeah, we didn’t even have that the first five years we had it, or something like that. I’m sure there’s a number of things like that. But yeah, the constant evolution and the improvements that come through and the updates, that just obviously keeps bringing value, and that shows up every day for us.

Laura Dolan:

That being said, we appreciate you being flexible and patient with us as we do provide those updates and improvements for your business, because I can imagine just every change, you maybe have to pivot a little bit and get used to the new updates. So yeah, we appreciate your loyalty there.

Shelli Hawkins:

Sometimes I think of it as a grocery store. Have you guys ever gone into the grocery store and all of a sudden the aisles are completely switched around? Everything is still there. It’s all still there. You just have to go hunting for it, and software certainly does that. You log into your Facebook, your Amazon, your Instagram or whatever app you’re on a regular basis, and they’ve all of a sudden made a software change and you’re like, well, doggone it, where did this go to now? But hopefully, I think that we’re pretty in the forefront of letting you guys know as changes come beforehand. We don’t just, boom, change it overnight. Jeff and his team there, Mr. Robert Brockett, Jim Farmer, all the guys are pretty good at that.

Laura Dolan:

Yeah, we make sure we communicate those changes every single time. And that’s a great analogy, Shelli, because that literally just happened at my local grocery store. I went to Kroger last week. I was like, wait, where is everything?

Shelli Hawkins:

I can hear Laura saying, “Who moved my cheese?” Is that the book? Where did it go?

Laura Dolan:

Exactly. Yes.

Shelli Hawkins:

It’s all there still, you just got to go find it.

Laura Dolan:

The cheese is very important.

Shelli Hawkins:

Thank you, Brian and Will. This time has been fantastic. Any final thoughts about anything? I think we wanted to make sure we can find you, Brian. How do these guys find you on social or connect with you? What’s the best way?

Brian Young:

You will find Merl’s Towing, Grand Rapids Towing on Facebook. You can also find us on our website, which is TowWestMichigan.com, and connected there on the website also will get you to TowWest.com, which is our auction site, which is where you can find our list of upcoming vehicles, as well as register for an account and bid online and listen in to our live stream every other Wednesday.

Shelli Hawkins:

I’m looking forward to that. I truly am. So we have login credentials for your auction already. Andrea Leigh set up me and Laura with that, so I’m excited to see that. I’ve experienced one live, and so now I want to really get the online experience, so Laura and I will be-

Laura Dolan:

This will definitely be my first experience with that, so I’m very much looking forward to it. Excellent. Thank you. Brian. Will, for any of our listeners who want some more information about Auction Simplified, if they want to sign up, how can they find you and the Auction Simplified platform?

Will Farmer:

The easiest way they can find us, Laura, is to go to Traxero.com, and you will see the Auction Simplified information listed there. There’s a lead form, there’s videos, there’s information about how Auction Simplified works and all the cool integrations and the features of our towing revenue optimization platform. So, hope you come check it out.

Laura Dolan:

Awesome. For anybody following along with the transcript of this podcast, I usually link every single thing that we talk about, so you’ll be able to find Brian’s website and our Auction Simplified website. Contact information for Brian and Will be in there as well, in case you want to reach out to them individually. But yes, all that information is always included.

Shelli Hawkins:

Fantastic. I had to end it with fantastic. I did. There, I said it.

Laura Dolan:

From start to finish.

Shelli Hawkins:

Thank you guys for hanging out with us. We genuinely appreciate it. This has been so much fun. We learned something every time.

Will Farmer:

Thanks again for having us, Shelli. We really appreciate it.

Shelli Hawkins:

You bet.

Brian Young:

Yeah. Thanks a lot for having us.

Laura Dolan:

Absolutely. It was our pleasure. Thank you all so much for tuning in and we will see you next time. That’ll do it for this episode of Traxero On-The-Go.

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.

Music by AlexGrohl from Pixabay