In this issue of the Tow Professional magazine, I want to talk about the 2025 Florida Tow Show. What an amazing time we had. It was held amongst the beautiful scenery of the majestic and warm-weathered city of Orlando, Florida from April 10th– 12th. The walk from our hotel was only 3 blocks. That’s less than a mile away from the biggest recycling trade conference that’s held in the USA. However, Chuck Camp, the producer of the Tow Professional podcast, and I were at the recyclers show first and then drove those short blocks over to the Florida Tow Show with all our podcast equipment in tow. Our time there is always spent with great towers from all around the world along with their prospectives of our industry. This conference is the largest, international tow show in our country, and we’re quite proud to call it, “the largest”.
As I do each year, I bought a few tickets to the Hino L6 Extended cab sporting a Miller Industries Flatbed. This raffle is to benefit the towing industry’s training, education and legislation needed for the professional wrecker operators of Florida. I am quite proud of all our professional wrecker operators. Chuck Camp and I were there very early on Saturday morning, setting up to film Jim Shellhass from Ranger STT. He did a great job on private property towing and ways to make more money in parking management. As always, we, as an industry, must be thinking about ways to keep moving forward because if we don’t, we will soon be behind in this industry. And, we’ll be wondering how that happened so fast. Besides this class about Jim and what he’s doing, I also got to see some other friends.
Speaking of friends, I also got to see my dear friend, Brian Riker who had spoken in the same room the day before for Allstate Roadside on the subject, “Solving the Google Puzzle, Essential Pieces for Online Visibility.” Now being outside Jim’s room while Chuck was setting up his video camera, I got to spend a few minutes with Ruthie Landoll, who was on her way to get everything ready for the PWOF ladies’ luncheon. Ruthie was dressed from head to toe in her leopard outfit, fitting the theme for the PWOF luncheon. Joining Ruthie’s safari meant having some fun. All the ladies that were there said it was the best ticket that they had bought because of all the givebacks they received. It appears to me that Ruthie gets better at doing that luncheon every year. Go Ruthie! We can’t wait to see what you plan for next year.
Yes, Jeremy from the Alliance Funding Group was giving out beer, wine and lemonade this year. He had to add lemonade to satisfy all the church goers. And that was good for those that didn’t prefer beer and wine. Everyone was happy. Thank you, Jeremy.
Please listen to the Tow Professional podcast that we did while there. We’ve been told that we had a great interview with Xinsurance. It was quite an informative podcast, and I know you will learn a lot from listening to it. So, make sure you listen to the Tow Professional podcast done while at the conference. The main thing that this tow show had was BOUNCE. That’s right. BOUNCE houses, face painting, lots of music, cartoonists, and yet they even had a human powered frozen beverage machine. The atmosphere was wild and celebratory. You could walk the giant master wheel and make your own snow cone. Truly fun times for everyone!
Chuck Camp and I were treated to lunch by Kevin Fox and his mom, Marianne from Alligator Towing located in Ft. Myers, Florida. Mrs. Fox has always been very kind to me. She bought me some special patches to put on my legs that should help me walk better, and in the end should relieve some pain that I experience daily.
We were at the Tow Professional booth, and visited with lots of key people, like: Jess from Car-part.com and all the great people from TowBook. Yes, their booth was packed, like every other year. Yes, our friends from ESA, Energy Security Agency, were at both shows. Dalan Zartman spoke at the Recyclers Show, and they also attended the Tow Show. I always enjoy spending time with Ron from Recovery Consulting Service. Ron knows the Lord, so if you ever need prayer, ask Ron. Jeremy from Phoenix USA Inc. had a packed booth as well at the tow show. Jeremy is a great guy, and his leadership and personality show in how he manages his company.
Wes and April Wilburn from the American Towing & Recovery Institute were also at Gay Rochester’s get together on Friday night. Gay is the CEO of INA Towing Network. Another important person who was there was Darian Weaver. Darian is the President and Publisher of Tow Professional magazine and has a weekly podcast geared just for towers.
In all, it was a great night as usual because Gay Rochester made everyone feel so welcomed. The new Executive Director of TRAA was there too. Welcome Bruce Bender. He’s a wonderful addition to TRAA.
All of us had a great night. As always, every year we keep getting more people involved in this great industry. What’s even better is that we were having fun and learning to be better at our crafts. I don’t need to remind you that not everyone can make the life of a tower any better than we can!
Until next year’s conference, I’ll see you on the Tow Professional podcast.
