The Walkaround

Dennie Ortiz

Publisher

Unity

Change is inevitable though not neccessarily easy to accept. For us to adapt well we need to concentrate on how change can be positive. By encouraging change and helping to enact change we can create benefits for this great industry.

As the legislative season begins Brian Riker, American Towman contributing editor and lobbying representative of TRAA LAN (Legislative Advocacy Network) committee calls towers to action.

He advocates that towers need to be more active within their state and or national association, suggesting that participating along with others with similar interests can make for a powerful mandate to which law makers would pay attention.

When any one particular group of people are divided it is easier to be taken advantage of, misled or dismissed, however, when a group is united in their cause, their collective voice is that much more powerful than that of the lone individual.

The basic foundation of the towing industry comprises independent spirits running their individual businesses and relying on their own savvy to be successful. So it is natural to have a certain sense of caution or preservation when you are accustomed to have to go it alone.

This could be one of the reasons why the industry has been fragmented and not joined collective forces sooner in a greater manner. There are many other industry groups that band together and create powerful associations.

We all have differences of opinion on many different matters, even differences between those who are family, share a common faith, political affiliation or cultural background ... that’s just human nature. It would be a boring world if everyone had the same beliefs, ideas and opinions as every other person around them.

It is the differences within us that make a group that much more powerful, filled with diversified ideas of which individually or combined together may be the key to future success. The key is to find what common ground we do share and use that as a starting point to discuss the needs of the towing industry in order to take it to the next level.

I’ve always said we have many unique characters within this world of towing. By coming together this will only make us that much stronger with a more substantial potential to accomplish our goals.

It is easier to complain about a situation, and much harder to actually do something about it. We have a lot of great thinkers and doers in this industry. So let’s come together more strongly and (in the immortal words of Tow Mater) let’s Git-R-Done!

Dennie Ortiz Steve Calitri Brendan Dooley Randall Resch Terry Abejuela Jim “Buck” Sorrenti David Kolman Bill Simmons Mark Lacek Brian Riker Publisher Editor-In-Chief Editor Operations Editor Field Editor, West Field Editor, Northeast Chassis Editor Safety Editor Repo Run Editor Contributing Editor

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Tommy Anderson Roy Carlson Debbie Collins Belinda Harris Bill Johnson Ron Mislan Kurt Wilson Dallas, Texas Saint Paul, Minn. Las Vegas, Nev. Greensboro, N.C. South Hadley, Mass. Warren, N.J. Creve Coeur, Ill.

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