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Today, we are speaking with George Kuntz, owner of Ace 24 Hr Towing in Bismarck, North Dakota, TRAA President, North Dakota Towing Association President, and Inductee #335 to the International Towing & Recovery Museum and Hall of Fame, to learn more about the importance of Safety in the towing, recovery, and roadside assistance industry.
TP: Tell us about yourself and your company.
GK: I have been in the industry for 42 years and have owned and run my own company for 36 years. We specialise in the Heavy side of the business. We run 27 trucks, and 13 of those are dedicated to Heavy work alongside the interstate. I love this occupation and couldn’t see myself doing anything else. I am also a big proponent of the importance of safety in our industry.
TP: Closest call you’ve had on the roadside?
GK: This is a hard question, because as a Towing professional, we deal with close calls on a near-daily basis. One example that sticks out to me was in 2001, on Christmas Day, we were providing a service to change a tire on a snowmobile trailer. I had my truck turned around, facing traffic, and the beacons were on. It was a cold day, but very bright and with good visibility. As I am kneeling down working on the trailer, I hear the customer yell, “ Look out!” A minivan was barreling down at us, didn’t slow down, didn’t move over, and I had to jump on top of the trailer and then dove onto my wrecker to get out of the way. The minivan missed us, but took out the mirror on the customer’s vehicle.
TP: First thing you teach a new operator about safety?
GK: The first thing I teach a new operator is to pay attention to their surroundings at all times. Think ahead, keep your head on a swivel. You MUST wear your protective gear on all calls, at all times. Everything we do, from the moment you start working with our organization, is safety-focused. And it doesn’t matter how much time you have in the industry, you will be on a probationary period where you are put through the full gamut of safety training in the yard, then on the roads, and we certify you ready to go out on your own because you have passed all of our safety criteria.
TP: Tools or tech you never work without?
GK: We never work without all of our safety gear, and we have a mandated safety inspection form filled out each morning before anyone hits the roads. We also use tracking services on all of our equipment. Our dispatch and safety employees are always paying attention to the calls our employees are running, and do check in calls with them when they are out on a job. We also believe towing companies should look at the technology that communicates directly with the motoring traffic that gets them to slow down and move over before they get to us working on the roads.
TP: One change that would make the job safer tomorrow?
GK: There are a lot of things we can do as an industry to be better and safer. The main thing I would like to see is enforcement. The motoring traffic is not paying attention; they are not slowing down or moving over. Our Police counterparts are also stretched very thin. Enforcement isn’t just about writing tickets and
going to court. We could pull them over and provide them with education materials, educate them on what “Slow Down and Move Over” means and what the law is. And if there are repeat offenders, then we can start ticketing and fining and using the courts. And while we are educating the drivers, we can bring this education to the schools. Influence the children and the kids before they get behind the wheel to create good habits when they start to drive.
Tom Parbs is the Vice President at HAAS Alert. Safety Cloud® by HAAS Alert is the largest and most trusted advance warning, digital alerting platform available worldwide. Utilized by several thousand organizations to alert motorists to slow down and move over to protect those who work the roadways every day.
