Matthew Saskin

@cameracoz @bprintco ...that said, there's _no way_ that small skid with a winch box is recovering that stuck excavator 😂

@cameracoz @bprintco No really in our market / for our customer base, but I know plenty of companies that have them. There are easily a half dozen manufacturers out there that make skid steer winch boxes.

Let me tell you about an almost unknown business that prints money. A while back, we got our skid steer buried bad. I called every tow company I could find. Nobody could help. But every single one of them said the same thing: “You need to call this one guy.” So I did. He shows up with a rollback, a skid steer, and an attachment I’d never seen before. 15 minutes later, we were out. He charged us $800 and rolled off to the next job. I’m a fan of those heavy equipment/off-road recovery channels on YouTube, so I couldn’t help asking him: “Why do those guys have millions of dollars in trucks and machines when you’re doing this with a skid steer attachment?” He laughed and said: “They don’t need all that shit. They need this.” So I asked the obvious question. “Then why don’t they have one?” He said: “Because I make these myself. They don’t know about them.” WHAT? So I looked it up. He was right. The only thing even close is a much weaker version used for dragging logs. This guy built his own recovery attachment. It runs off the skid steer’s hydraulics, controls a massive winch, and has a blade that digs deep into the ground to anchor the machine. The pulling power is insane, almost nobody knows it exists, and he'll sell you one. So now he just runs around town doing the impossible jobs. When equipment is stuck too bad for everyone else… When the normal tow companies can’t touch it… They call him. Tiny niche. Huge problem. No competition. Premium pricing. Pretty freaking cool. If you want to see some wild recoveries, look up ZTR Winch Box on Facebook.

I had full access/everything tested ahead of time. Went to log into MOTUS with the same credentials and..."There are no unclaimed USDOT Numbers associated with your account". 🤦‍♂️ At least I've got until 2027 until I need to file our next update.

welp…day 1 and yeah, it's a mess

@ChrisCeausu @teal_andrew @FreightAlley Same for us. A dozen trucks focused on heavy haul plus another 30 or so tow trucks. Plenty of clean inspections from our trucking operation, but no safety score.

@teal_andrew @FreightAlley The FMCSA is severely underfunded here is ours and we've been begging the feds to come and audit us and they say we are too safe so they're not bothering with us so it's a double edged sword here.

94% of carriers don't have any safety rating. Brokers would be foolish to load them.

At the moment, my views are: 1 - The system, as it exists today, is inexorably broken 2 - With that said, given how broken the system is, and the need for people to have healthcare available, I feel an obligation as their employer to help out in at least some capacity. At our size (~60ppl) we have a number of plans available for the team. The company covers 60% of the employee only cost, everything else the employee covers. We also cover 100% of some ancillary stuff (eg; short-term disability, $50k company paid term life, etc.) Over time, what I've realized is that it's a bit of a signal in hiring as well. The potential hires who care about the fact we offer benefits generally are going to be a better fit for our culture. The ones who couldn't care less and just want max $ in their paycheck are generally not a culture fit. I'll note, we pay very well for our industry (probably 80th percentile) and provide well above market benefits. This is a strategic advantage - we get a broader pool of candidates to choose from and can afford to be "picky" to find the right fits.

how do small small businesses think about providing health benefits to employees? I’m sure this will escape orbit and I’ll get some flak from the outsiders but genuinely curious how people do it

Targeting on this junk text definitely missed 😅

The export functionality on my store's credit card processor reporting portal was broken, so Claude opened it (with me putting in credentials manually), called the API directly, and bypassed the broken button to get the CSV. No longer at the mercy of random IT people

Oh, I 100% get it. If we were smaller, no way I'd have the ability to do this myself. I see a lot of our customers on the towing side of the businesses w 5-10 trucks plus the owner still driving one. No way it makes sense for them to deal with it all. Hell, we still outsource our DQ file mgmt because it's not worth the hassle (yet!) to do in house, and I've got dedicated HR resources.

@msaskin Yes you are the exception. We become the system of record for our clients bc they don’t want to/don’t know how to integrate all the data.

This is what our ifta filing setup looks like

@benvanzee Of all the things, IFTA is pretty damn easy. Takes me maybe 10 mins per quarter. There's a lot to be said for getting the systems in place between fuel cards and telematics that all the data is just...there.

@msaskin Living that SMB life

@contractorkeith @pinpulleddrmf et voila, and I raise you a manual transmission too njtruckking.com/vehicles/2343/…

You won't find a 7.3 with less than 50k let alone a '97 single cab 250/350. Maybe in the middle of Iowa in some long gone farmer's barn that hasn't been run in 25yrs. I gotta admit though, one of my favorite trucks. I had a 1986 F250 single cab, but it had a 460ci in it. 10mpg empty or pulling a house down the road. 36" tires fit on it with no lift and no rubbing.

The team at Uncommon Elite is kicking off a very unique search. **1997 F250 7.3 single cab with less than 50k miles** My bet is I will have better luck finding a SEAL that is an accountant.

@pinpulleddrmf Here you go. They have them all the time. The prices will make you cry a little (or a lot) though. njtruckking.com/vehicles/obs-t… This one is only 9k more miles than your spec! njtruckking.com/vehicles/2343/…

It all depends. In the case of motor vehicle accidents, we're generally called in by the police/DOT/highway patrol/etc. We then have to work with the vehicle owners/their insurance co/lienholder/etc. to ensure we get paid. There's also the normal towing part of the business where our customers (mostly commercial fleets) call us to bring (typically) broken vehicles from A to B.

@msaskin @blueprintsmb22 This is very cool - love it. How does it work? Do you have direct relationships w/ the insurance companies, I assume?

A week late - touch a truck event here in Raleigh we sent a few trucks to. I remain proud that we continue to have the largest flag present.

@RoryTyer @BoilerPlateCPA Looks in mirror. Realizes I have nowhere near as many complications as you do at the moment. Yeah, it's cool, we'll file in a few months. 🤦‍♂️

Gotta give a shoutout to @BoilerPlateCPA and his tax team at Edler Zain- my new daughter’s SSN got delayed, we didn’t get it until literally noon on tax day, I sent it over at like 2, got a reply at 6:15p that it was filed correctly. Huge W

@excel_ranger @bonapartay Nope, in my backyard

@msaskin @bonapartay Is this the one in my area?

So there's a business in my industry 60 miles away from my HQ. $5m revenue, been on BBS for over a year. I tried to explain to the seller the biz was worth about half of what they wanted. Maybe less. Broker swore private equity was looking at it, independent sponsor etc...

@msaskin Or maybe you just aren't compelling enough. Give em more charm Saskin!

@bonapartay I like it. Still waiting on seller to get me updated financials, etc so I can actually make an offer.

@msaskin Exploding offer maybe?

@bonapartay You'd think that. Have one similar, been on the market almost 2 years. Brokered process, no takers. Re-engaged direct w seller. He wants to sell to us. Still stuck on price 🤦‍♂️

...it hasn't sold after a year+. I had it under LOI but retraded heavily once I saw the assets/facility. After 1yr plus on the market it's time to reengage. These conversations are the best bc now I can get what I want. They tested the market, failed, now I get to set the mark