Vaughn J. Gobel reflects on a long career and top honor.
YOUNGSTOWN
Vaughn J. Gobel Sr. had no idea he was even in the running for the highest honor awarded by the towing organization to which he has belonged for the past 21 years.
So, he was taken off guard when WreckMaster Inc. told him last month that he was selected as the first Youngstown-area WreckMaster of the Year.
“It took me completely by surprise,” Gobel said.
But the distinction was not all that shocking, given Gobel’s long career in the towing and recovery business.
Over three decades, Gobel has helped to expand his father’s body shop to a regional powerhouse, winning top leadership posts and the respect of his field along the way.
After graduating from Springfield High School in 1985, Gobel started working in his dad’s body shop on East Western Reserve Road. Soon, he was towing small trucks, and then bigger trucks, constantly meeting the demands of the growing business.
“I put a service truck together, which turned into the second service truck, which turned into another big truck,” he said.
Years later, many of those relationships have turned into 20-year accounts, and those original few trucks have multiplied to a force of 14.
“The bottom line is — and I’m not trying to break my arm patting myself on the back — when you provide those fleets good service, they do speak to one another,” Gobel said.
In 1992, he started taking classes through WreckMaster, an organization that offers training and certification for towing professionals. He worked his way through the courses, reaching the 6/7 level, which teaches towers to move even the most-unusual recoveries.
That was the highest level until WreckMaster began offering 7/8 certification in 2011. Gobel says he plans to complete that one soon.
The business outgrew the original shop, and Gobel’s AutoBody and Towing Inc. expanded to a second location on South Range Road. From there, Gobel runs a second-generation business that now provides large-scale fleet maintenance, fuel transfers and vehicle impounding for area police departments.
That’s on top of the calls Gobel takes for towing and road services during the tough winter months. When a strong early-season storm hit the area around Thanksgiving, Gobel said he was running for two days straight.
“It was one call after another. You just go out and do what you got to do,” he said.
“We don’t turn nobody down,” Gobel said. “If we have time to get you, we’re going to get you.”
It’s a steady flow of work, but as Gobel’s business has grown, so too has his role as a leader in the towing community.
He currently serves as the vice president of the Towing and Recovery Association of Ohio, where he advocates for the interests of the state’s towing industry and is even pushing for legislation in Columbus.
With Gobel’s leadership, the TRAO has been lobbying for a bill to simplify the way the Bureau of Motor Vehicles processes titles of abandoned cars. A change in the way the BMV interprets its rules, Gobel said, has complicated the way towers sell or dispose of those cars, leading to backlogs and expenses.
“I’ve been going to meetings, probably once, twice a month for the last four months,” he said. The TRAO has enlisted a lobbyist, and Gobel hopes to see a bill emerge in the General Assembly.
Come Jan. 1, Gobel will take over as president of the TRAO. He ran unopposed in last month’s elections, and pending ratification of the vote, he will replace Don Mesaros as the organization’s leader.
“I know he’s a very honest person. When he says something, he is going to follow through with it,” said Connie Rohrich, owner of Mike’s towing near Cincinnati and treasurer of the TRAO.
“He does his homework,” she added.
His research and preparation has taken him to Washington, D.C., where towing professionals from across the country meet to address major industry issues with the Towing and Recovery Association of America.
Gobel said that the expansion of his business has allowed him to invest more time in networking and education within the industry.
“We’ve met a lot of good people going to these places,” he said. “A lot of good input.”
But the WreckMaster of the Year traced much of his success back to the organization that has educated him and rewarded him with its top award.
“I wouldn’t be where I am without their training,” Gobel said.