Overdrive Radio

This week's edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast features C.W. Express small fleet owner Steve Wilson, reigning Small Fleet Champ in the 11-30-truck division after a bit of a growth spurt for the fleet followed Wilson's brush with death in 2022. The team he'd built around the dry van fleet sustained while he was in hospital for the better part of that entire year, and in the aftermath has only continued to not just sustain, but excel, on dedicated lanes for a central broker in Avenger Logistics. Wilson's up to near 20 trucks and drivers today, and doesn't have all his freight eggs in that single basket, as you'll hear in today's podcast, with customers in his area helping build lanes loaded both ways -- in one case out to Arkansas and back to the Louisville, Kentucky, area, where he's headquartered in Sellersburg, Indiana. The podcast amounts to a tour around C.W. Express headquarters on Avco Boulevard in Sellersburg, right off I-65 and purchased and moved into in 2023, marking a significant upgrade to the former location. Wilson, a wear-all-the-hats small fleet owner for decades, continues to build out support for C.W.'s trucks and drivers with deft delegation, too, particularly on the time-consuming maintenance side of the business. He's added an expert lead mechanic you'll hear hear who oversees the operation and a younger diesel tech, Clayton Higdon, to provide an assist and a well for education and growth, no doubt. Listen on for an update with reigning champ Wilson and C.W. Express.

"This year, if it goes like it has this past month, it'll be phenomenal." --George Kincaid In this week's edition of Overdrive Radio, an audio window on our feature story about flatbed-pulling owner-operator George Kincaid's one-truck business, written attendant to the Quinwood, West Virginia-headquartered Kincaid getting the April Trucker of the Month nod from Overdrive: https://www.overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year/article/15743659/trucker-of-the-month-george-kincaid-and-the-power-of-positivity You can nominate your own trucking business -- or that of another deserving owner you admire -- via this link: https://overdriveonline.com/toptrucker Kincaid's deserving, for sure, with a sharp handle on maintenance with a decidedly do-it-yourself approach. What's more, a whole lot can be said for doing something that you love, as he puts it, and a positive outlook on his life and work has been part and parcel of his success. Love of trucking has been with him since he was a kid when he and his younger brother both grew up with an eye toward exactly what they wanted to do when they were men. "It's pretty much what we always wanted to do growing up -- drive a truck," Kincaid said, and "have one with our own name on it." Dive into Kincaid's story, but also that of another owner, John Rissler, whose Horse and Buggy Express trucking business out of California, Missouri, morphed into the Horse and Buggy Accessories chrome shop he operates now out of the Crossroads Shopping Plaza at U.S. 50 and Missouri 87, home of the annual Crossroads Truck Meet show: https://overdriveonline.com/15745021 We spent the day out at the Crossroads May 3 for this year's show, and sat down with Rissler to hear its history, stretching back four years now to the time he and another brother, Delton Rissler, decided to build a new headquarters there. What's it like to be the proprietor of a small fleet, a chrome shop with Missouri and Pennsylvania locations, and a truck show all at once? Well it never comes without a hitch, Rissler said. Soon as we sat down for the talk, his phone rang, as it would throughout our conversation. This call he had to take, though, from the man who was ferrying show attendees from the car parking area up to the show on a hay-ride-set-up flatbed trailer toted by an old farm tractor that had developed a pretty significant oil leak, as it turned out. A hitch indeed, yet they would overcome. Hear more in the podcast.

In this week's edition of Overdrive Radio, we're looking back at the long run of the W900 model from the Kenworth Truck Company. The W900's coming sunset has been among the biggest equipment news of the year -- uncovered ahead of the Mid-America Trucking Show, where the company unveiled the launch of the W900 Legacy Edition special series to close out the model's run. Kenworth plans are to build a final 1,000 units of the W900 for customers through next year. If you missed the video walkaround of the very first one built, find it at this link: https://overdriveonline.com/15742576 On the podcast this week we'll run through details of the Legacy Edition, likewise delving into the history surrounding the W900, with two Kenworth reps: Kyle Kimball, Kenworth director of marketing, and Jamin Swazo, company marketing communications director. The model itself certainly has built a big legacy with untold numbers of truck owners through well more than a half-century run of production since its 1963 introduction. According to Jamin Swazo, the company's not aware of any uninterrupted "longer runs out there in any automotive history for a single model," he said. Dive in with Kyle Kimball and Jamin Swazo in the podcast, answering the question on the mind of any prospective owner of one of the final production units of Kenworth Legacy Edition -- or a new standard W900, still available itself for order through … well, find the answer in the podcast. Also there, hear Kimball and Swazo's answers to another pressing question I've heard from a few Kenworth fans among owner-operators -- whether they'd yet seen anyone add old-style can external breathers to a W990. Both also detailed their outlook for the W990 as a platform for custom-equipment builders and other owners, and efforts to showcase the successor model at the Mid-America Trucking Show. There, Kenworth showcased a vintage W900A and MHC Kenworth's Joplin, Missouri, dealer location's custom treatment of the W990 pictured at this link: https://overdriveonline.com/15744843

This week on Overdrive Radio we track back to the Mid-America Trucking Show and the big news for the trucking community from podcast sponsor Howes. The Howes Hall of Fame added its 12th member when it honored Mother Trucker Yoga proprietor and fitness and wellness coach Hope Zvara at the show. You heard part of Zvara's story when she was featured here on Overdrive Radio in conversation with Long Haul Paul Marhoefer a couple years back: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio/podcast/15448049/the-qualityoflife-benefits-of-movement-introducing-hope-zvara There, queried about the scourge of anxiety, depression and other mental health ailments throughout America, she asked a simple question -- "What's if it's not a mental health crisis? What if it's a movement crisis?" In that podcast, and here, she detailed her step-by-step program for fitness through basic yoga techniques drivers can do in-cab, around the truck, at points throughout a day for an approachable journey toward better physical health. Mental health, too. Zvara well knows the connections between the two and isn't shy of stressing them routinely with those she works with. She's combated mental stressors of various natures in her own life, using yoga practice toward that end. And she's now worked with an untold number of individual truck drivers to help them achieve their own goals. We got a little tutorial in her brand of “no mat necessary" yoga at the start of the Trucking Solutions Group's talk in the East Hall out at MATS on the final day. She led attendees through a series of stretches aimed simply at relieving the neck and upper-body tension so many of us face after a long day at the wheel or, in my case, typing away at the desk. Today on the podcast, hear the audio of Zvara's instruction on that mini-routine at the tail end, and otherwise buckle up for her story of helping truckers help themselves in health and wellness. And though Zvara's program is designed for simplicity, she's also well aware it's not exactly a simple matter for any of us. Hear how yoga and general phyiscal well-being got her through her own crisis, and into the work for which she's now honored as the latest member the Howes Hall of Fame. Nominate a deserving trucking industry participant for the Hall yourself, and browse all so honored todate, via https://howesproducts.com/hof Find Hope Zvara's Mother Trucker Yoga effort at this link, where today you can download a free guide to 11 helpful stretches: https://mothertruckeryoga.com

In this week's edition of Overdrive Radio, drop into our conversation with OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh at the Mid-America Trucking Show. Pugh was fresh off a whirlwind round of a whole lot of other talking himself, including a MATS-opening breakfast panel discussion you heard here a couple weeks back, then prior to that on Wednesday the week of the truck show in the halls of Congress where he joined a panel of trucking and other industry reps to talk through significant issues ahead of the highway bill reauthorization due next year. Pugh made headlines for his urging of federal reps to get a handle on the scope of so-called “non-domiciled CDLs” issued to residents of foreign countries by states here in the U.S. for work OTR or in other industries on a temporary basis. It's an issue that's risen to prominence this year as attention to it has increased. It's but one of the issues Pugh addressed in Congressional testimony, likewise in what follows in the podcast, yet one we heard about also from trucker Teresa Brittain in the wake of MATS. English proficiency violations used to be treated by the Comercial Vehicle Safety Alliance of inspectors and industry as an out of service violation, yet when CVSA removed that out of service violation about a decade ago now, FMCSA subsequently relaxed guidance on how to enforce the violation itself. Paired with some DOT changes for states around non-domiciled CDLs that happened later, it seems to have gotten simpler for foreign country residents to come into the country to work over the road with a CDL. How many such people are working in the U.S. today? Nobody can really answer that question, as has been evident from Overdrive's Alex Lockie's ongoing reporting around the issue: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15741322/ Brittain flagged the importance of the English language proficiency regs, though, particularly when it comes to roadside inspections. She noted a conversation at MATS she herself had with Kentucky state truck enforcement about the issue. “How does any state law enforcement officer do an inspection on the truck if the driver cannot follow instructions to inspect it?” she asked. Inspectors told her essentially they can't inspect such an operator's truck, she said, “for their own safety. They told me they give 15 minutes after the initial request for the driver to contact their company and provide driver's license and required paperwork, then just let them go if the paperwork is compliant.” No inspection for the truck. Considering such dynamics, Terea Brittain then quipped, “Next inspection, I'm speaking Martian!” OOIDA along with some from the law enforcement community petitioned CVSA to return English proficiency to the out of service criteria, and CVSA's spring Workshop event is but one week away. Pugh noted owner-operators might stay tuned for any news on that front in the coming couple of weeks. Also in the podcast: RaceTrac Travel Centers Marketing Manager Nick LaFalce details growth in his company's mostly Southeast regional network of truck stops in what was once mainly just a fuel-stop network for automobile drivers. Since 2018, the RaceTrac company's been expanding high-flow diesel options and acquiring land to even add parking options within the network. As mentioned in the podcast: **Recent coverage of the parking issue: https://overdriveonline.com/15742614 **Detail from recent Congressional hearing: https://overdriveonline.com/15741287 **More from MATS: https://www.overdriveonline.com/t/4372607

This week's edition of Overdrive Radio is another in our series highlighting contenders for 2025 Trucker of the Year, with Overdrive Senior Editor Matt Cole's talk with Virginia-headquartered two-truck straight dump owner-operator business Dice Mayhem's Trucking, headed up by owner-operator Hunter Hubbard and her husband, Tim. Hunter's just about six years into truck ownership herself, her husband a good bit longer, yet clearly she's harnessed a quality that current reigning Trucker of the Year Alan Kitzhaber sees in all successful people when it comes to business. As he put earlier this year in his “Plan for better business,” authored for our Overdrive Extra blog, “99.9% of success is desire.” That is, those who have a clear case of the want-tos, ultimately, probably will do whatever it is they set out to accomplish: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15712314 Cue Hunter Hubbard's own advice for any aspiring truck owner when it comes to success in business for themselves. "If you have your mind set to do it, go for it. Nothing's stopping you but yourself, and the worst thing you can do is fail. But at the end of the day, nobody wants to fail. You're going to figure it out one way or another." Some days will be awful, but "you'll sit back a month down the road, two months down the road, and be like, 'that was rough, but hey we're still here.' You just gotta keep digging on it." As she well acknowledges, challenges will present themselves day-in, day-out, but those who keep digging will get through to the other side. Clearly, Hubbard herself has been one of those sorts these last years in business. "I might be a little stubborn sometimes," she said. She and Tim have built a steady base of customers for their two-truck straight dump business in and around their Virginia home base, weathering an array of their own customer challenges in recent years when a buyout of one of their main customers and integration of the two business left their own trucking company in an uncertain position for hauling work, given the company's small size. Last year, she pivoted to a certain extent, with purchase of an older Peterbilt tractor, utilizing mechanical prowess with a new shop, too, to get it in working order and standing up a new, one-truck business for livestock hauling regionally: Dice Logistics. Yet dump work remains the Hubbards' bread and butter, and the seasonality of both businesses continues to inspire the occasional second-guessing of their commitment to niche specialization. They could be hauling food, which always has to run, Hubbard notes, telling her story to Cole in this episode. They could be, that is, but "I didn't really choose that route. Everything's seasonal, everything depends on the weather," she said. "You just wait it out." They're doing more than just waiting, that's sure. As also mentioned in the podcast: **Matt Cole's two-part feature on ways to save on insurance at renewal: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15740305 **Learn how you can put your own or another owner-operator business in the running for the 2025 Trucker of the Year honor, with a chance to win a new seat from sponsor Bostrom Seating and Commercial Vehicle Group: https://overdriveonline.com/toptrucker

In 2024, finally, as regular Overdrive readers will know, owner-operator income was up on a year-over-year basis. ATBS Vice President Mike Hosted makes that abundantly clear in this week's edition of Overdrive Radio, featuring the business services firm's March 25 update offering an economic outlook for the year ahead as well as lessons within the benchmarking data ATBS dervies from its tens of thousands of owner-operator clients' performance. If you missed our report from the session as MATS got under way, find it via this link: https://overdriveonline.com/15741374 The small boost in average income is certainly a first in what's been an exceedingly tough three and more years now as freight demand's declined, revenues and income falling for many owner-operators as costs just rose through much of the period. The 2024 income gain also comes despite even further rates and revenue declines last year, a sure sign that successful owners are tightening the operation, increasing fuel efficiency to reduce costs as much as possible. Today in the podcast, we essentially let the tape roll on Hosted's presentation. You can follow along by downloading Mike Hosted's slides via this link, or watch the Youtube version up top or on Overdrive's Youtube channel to listen along with the presentation of the slides. Download all the slides from Hosted's presentation via this link: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15741380 Yet another bit of positivity to emerge from the ATBS session had to do with the spot market, particularly for flatbed freight, in year 2025 so far. The moves up and down in the spot indices Hosted sees as particularly valuable as near-term indicators of demand in the market. Though the positivity there is tempered by a big degree of uncertainty made even bigger by the President's tariff announcements this past week, if the surge in flatbed freight and demand seen so far this year doesn't just prove to be a result of a kind of importers' pre-buy to beat a variety of tariffs on goods coming across U.S. borders, we could be headed in a longer-term positive direction. Recent trucking market performance recalls Gary Buchs' advice around freight, around customer identification and the time to strike, likewise when some measure of a kickstart might truly arise. It came back in late September 2024, before elections' outcomes were known, and following the fed's moves to begin to ease off the cost of borrowing with interest rate cuts. Buchs advised to set a calendar reminder for 4-6 months out from the time of the fed's cuts. “Odds are,” he said, “that is about the time business will change, as it takes time for companies to have confidence" to place orders, others to respond to those orders with their own confidence, "and the cards begin to fall and make things move....” Here we are, four-to-six months on. Looking at the stock market since the Trump tariff announcement last week we can't say business confidence is 100% the rule. Yet flatbed freight's been moving up, as noted, and a couple weeks back dry and reefer rates and volumes finally joined in. Maybe Buchs was right on the timing. And maybe in the freight economy, things are in fact changing for the better. ATBS is coproducer with Overdrive of the comprehensive Partners in Business playbook for owner-operator careers, start to finish, now in a new online content library format. Browse the new playbook: https://overdriveonline.com/pib

Back from the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky, this Overdrive Radio edition kicks off continuing coverage as all of us here at Overdrive spent the show fanning out across convention center grounds to cover just as much as possible. The fruits of that labor you've seen just a small sampling of to date, the lot of it collected with the MATS tag at OverdriveOnline.com: https://www.overdriveonline.com/t/4372607 Today we drop back to the very beginning of the show for an 8 a.m. Thursday, March 27, panel discussion that set the issues stage for the remainder of the event. It was moderated by Brent Hutto, longtime Chief Relationship Officer at Truckstop and now a senior advisor for the load board as he's joined the staff of the Truck Parking Club company. You'll hear a variety of voices in the panel discussion, touching on freight market dynamics, small business struggles and ways to overcome, predatory towing, parking, fraud in the brokered-freight marketplace, cargo and payment theft and so much more. Panelists included: **Jason Cowan, leader of 45-truck Silver Creek Transportation, as Overdrive's Small Fleet Champ in 2021, since which plans for growth have come to fruition. **Hell Bent Xpress owner Jamie Hagen, whose all-Mack fleet operates out of a South Dakota headquarters and which was one of two finalists in the 3-10-truck division of the Small Fleet Championship last year. **Jessica Dotson, co-owner-operator of Dotson Transportation with her husband **Tyler Johnston, Mercer Transportation's director of operations **Lewie Pugh, Owner-Operator Independent Driver's Association executive vice president As mentioned in the podcast: **Overdrive's recent insurance renewal-related feature: https://overdriveonline.com/15740305 **Post-crash litigation series: https://overdriveonline.com/15287415 **Tow companies dominate DOT listening session: https://overdriveonline.com/15678174 **Overdrive's revamped Partners in Business start-to-finish playbook for owner-operator careers: https://overdriveonline.com/pib

In this Overdrive Radio edition, big news: We're releasing today our brand-new Partners in Business playbook for owner-operator business, start to finish. The 2025 reboot of the PIB program is a total revamp designed with the decidedly mobile professional trucker in mind. You can access it today at https://overdriveonline.com/pib For more than two decades, Overdrive's Partners in Business, coproduced with owner-op business services firm ATBS, has focused on training and continuing biz education. Today, you'll find a brand-new format for all of the content that last year made up the 100-plus-page manual -- and plenty in the way of new updates. For this year's release, PIB goes from a single-download format to a much more dynamic online content library, easily accessed on any smartphone, tablet or laptop or desktop computer. The reorganization collects valuable tactics and strategies for long-term profitability in eight categories, charting the journey of owners from start-up all the way through to retirement: 1. The “Starting Line” section details the choice of business structures, motivating factors for different individual owners, and plenty to think about in terms of business and goal planning, choosing a freight niche, a motor carrier to lease to, and/or how and why to take another route altogether. 2. The “Equipment and Maintenance” category pulls on Overdrive and ATBS resources along with the accumulated knowledge of so many of our industry-participant contributors over the decades to detail the ways to acquire the best equipment at the most-favorable terms, down and dirty PM and repair tactics, and much more. 3. The third, “Business Management” section offers a wealth of insight on tracking costs, revenue and profits; building those profit and loss statements; and paying yourself for better business health analysis and load planning, among many other subjects germane to both beginners at the start of an ownership career and seasoned veterans in need of a business refresh. These three sections contain more individual parts than the remaining five, and there's a reason for that. They represent the bedrock foundation on which owners throughout history have built their success. The remaining five sections in large part will be pretty self-explanatory when you see their titles, and all is aimed at a self-help assist for owners to, long-term, better enjoy the fruits of long labor put into the business. That last bit's a nod to the title of Part 2 of Overdrive Trucker of the Year Alan Kitzhaber's “plan for better business” authored for Overdrive and published right around the time we announced Kitzhaber's big win in January. He's looking ahead to being able to retire quite soon, actually, after more than three decades trucking, mostly as an owner-operator. He'll be parking his truck amongst the rest of you at MATS this year, and I'm honored to be able to help host him at the show. If you won't be there, keep tuned for much more from him and other longtime owners in our show coverage. Truth be told, all of us here at Overdrive lean on those among you who engage with us for ideas worth sharing, a lot of Partners in Business itself in fact made up of the accumulated wisdom of those in the readership who've shared their expertise with us over the decades. Here's huge appreciation for all of you. Run through the new PIB at https://overdriveonline.com/pib As mentioned in the podcast, here's the registration link for ATBS's live update scheduled for March 25 charting 2024 owner-op income performance: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/3349075480558501214 And keep tuned for our MATS coverage later this week and certainly in the weeks to come here: https://www.overdriveonline.com/t/4372607 Also in the podcast: MATS-preview retreads from three interviews from the last several weeks with Jamie Hagen, Hotels4Truckers.com proprietor Dan Fuller, and trucker-songwriter Tony Justice.

This week's edition of Overdrive Radio starts with a brief part of "Truck Stop," earmarked by today's guest for a special place in his heart the last time we hosted him. That'd be trucker-songwriter Tony Justice, who back then in 2023 spoke to the inspiration the song took from Justice's mother's long work at a couple of different East Tennessee truck stops you'll hear him mention in today's podcast. Yet it's with a bit of heavy heart, here, that we get this edition rolling, given Sharon Justice passed in November last year. It's no small number of truck drivers -- and one trucking magazine editor at least -- that were touched by her life, that's sure, Tony Justice and his late father chief among them. "She felt like she was still taking care of dad," Justice said, noting how much Momma J, as she was known to so many, loved the work she did over the last nearly two decades of her life. "You wouldn't find a cleaner shower on the interstate, or a more warming smile to meet you when you walked into the door." Fellow trucker-songwriter Bill Weaver, Justice said, summed it up best once noting he didn't "know anyone who was called Momma by so many different people." Tony Justice is back on Overdrive Radio this week for a bit of preview of his big headlining concert upcoming next week Friday, March 28, at the end of the day at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky. Find more about MATS happenings via the collection at this link: https://www.overdriveonline.com/t/4372607 If you're unfamiliar with Tony Justice's music, know that for a decade and a half and more now it's been nothing if not steeped in his life over-the-road, joined in the journey by his wife and chief promoter, Misty Justice. For many years he trucked with Everhart Transportation out of Greeneville, Tennessee, among others prior, yet these days enjoys not having to deal with shippers and receivers so much behind the wheel of his own tour bus. And if you've not seen Tony Justice live, get ready for a spectacle at MATS, that's sure. He performs with a crack group of players, and it's always a great show. Dive into a conversation with Justice that touches on plans for the big show with Colt Ford at MATS March 28, the Justices' huge Large Cars & Guitars Truck Show event in East Tennessee in May (at a new location this year), and the legacy of Momma J, the late Sharon Justice.

The voice you'll hear at the top of this Overdrive Radio edition is that of Overdrive's February Trucker of the Month Kenny Wingate. Clearly, he knows of what he speaks when he invokes the feeling -- "nothing like it," he said -- that he associates with best of trucking as an owner-operator, running your own game when times are good. It's part of what drove him to take the leap back from company work he was doing to launch his Southpoint Exchange businss with one truck and his own authority in 2019. He's up to two trucks today, headquartered in Auburndale, Florida: https://www.overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year/article/15738560/how-truckings-supposed-to-be-done-meet-kenny-wingate He's the proud owner of two sharp Peterbilt 579s and stainless reefers, and he's been focused throughout the company's relatively short six-year history on business brass tacks, building a team around him for freight with regular brokers, many of whom he's known going back decades. Likewise on the accounting, bookkeeping and general business management side of Southpoint Exchange, and he's set up for further growth after a lifetime spent trucking, as you'll hear in the podcast. He's 55 years young today and relishes that long history in the business, though many of the men he learned from, and some of those he came up with in trucking, have passed on. Magnanimous in manner, clearly on top of his game as a business owner, Wingate is also nothing if not grateful for all the help of those who came before him. He told the story of a recent encounter of an old friend at a dock. "Our generation is starting to be few and far between ... The other day I run across a gentleman I probably hadn't seen in 25 years, and we trucked together," Wingate said. "We sat down on an old wooden bench at the back of our trailers while we were getting loaded" remembering all those who came before but also "we just laughed, man, and just cut the fool, and it felt good. It felt good to see somebody that you trucked with years ago, you know, when when things were a little different." At once, most of the folks the two men asked each other about were gone, he said, or at the very least off the road for good for health or other reasons. Wingate, 55, stays grateful for his own longevity, and looks ahead to the future and opportunities to build better business with Southpoint Exchange. In the podcast, hear that perspective but also just how two-truck Southpoint Exchange is getting the work done with dedicated freight on lanes between Florida and Northern Ohio. After being nominated by one of his customers, he's officially in the running for our 2025 Trucker of the Year award, which you can enter yourself or nominate another owner via https://overdriveonline.com/toptrucker

Jamie Hagen's got the inside scoop, but won't divulge the name of the new Mack tractor model set to be debuted next month in New York in this year of Mack's 125th anniversary as a company. Small Fleet owner Hagen has actually driven one hand-built production model already around the company's test track hidden behind the walls, and come June he expects to be leasing one of the first production units in an arrangement with Mack's marketing arm -- it'll add to his all-Mack fleet, South Dakota-headquartered Hell Bent Xpress, among finalists in 2024 for Overdrive's Small Fleet Championship: https://www.overdriveonline.com/small-fleet-champ/article/15704803/small-fleet-champ-four-finalists-to-square-off The new truck will add 1 to Hell Bent's power-unit count, currently sitting where it was back when we last spoke around the Small Fleet Champ program's conclusion in November, at 9 trucks, so there's big things ahead for Hagen and Hell Bent, no doubt. Yet the new Mack wasn't the principal reason we brought him in for this edition of Overdrive Radio -- rather, the forward-looking small fleet owner happens to be the first U.S. owner to install a new-to-the-U.S. auxiliary air-conditioning unit in the sleeper of one of his Macks. That's the Fresco 9000 MaXX system built by an Italian manufacturer and powered by U.S.-based Dragonfly Energy's Battle Born Batteries Lithium Iron Phosphate battery to deliver cooling power in the warmer months: https://www.overdriveonline.com/gear/product/15684579/autoclima-fresco-9000-maxx-batterypowered-auxiliary-ac-unit-hitting-us-shores Hagen walks through the unit's design and, along the way, his rationale for jumping into the modular, portable system after years forgoing alternative A/C for his mostly upper Midwest regional fleet. (Yes, he's got auxiliary heat in the form of Webasto bunk heaters.) If you'll be in attendance at the big Mid-America Trucking Show later this month, too, Hagen will be part of a panel discussion opening the event on Thursday, March 27, about small trucking business issues. It also features a past Overdrive Small Fleet Champ in Silver Creek Transportation's Jason Cowan, among many others: https://truckingshow.com/opening-breakfast/ Hear more about that in the podcast, likewise the story of how a 2023 Mack Anthem in the small fleet of Hell Bent Xpress came to be the first truck to get an install of the Fresco 9000 MaXX battery-powered alternative air conditioning system, performed by the way by Jim Fowler and his team at Michigan MD Alignment. Much more from in the way of MATS preview coverage at https://www.overdriveonline.com/t/4372607

In this week's edition of Overdrive Radio, Hotels4Truckers.com proprietor Dan Fuller, former driver and independent owner-operator, details completion of a project years in the making. The website and now mobile app as well got its start simply as a cataloging of hotels around the nation where parking a tractor and 53-foot trailer was not only possible but welcomed, provided for by the hotel facilities. Within the last year, users of Hotels4Truckers.com, though, noticed some significant changes, boosting the seamless-experience factor with booking possible now, with discounts, right from the site itself. Functionally, Fuller said, "We're like Hotels.com for the trucking industry now. Tell us where you're looking, you do your dates, and all the hotels come back" with a search, showing the discounted rate available to Hotels4Truckers users and with a built-in parking filter you can use to show only sites where parking's available. The new website soft-launched back last Fall -- legacy users, Fuller added, will need to re-register if they haven't already -- and ever since he's been tweaking the design and adding hotel chains and truck parking-friendly facilities. In total, close to 13,000 rooms are represented within the platform (many with parking) among dozens of hotel brands. In Canada, too, with a very recent update for users up North. That just so happens to be where Dan Fuller lives today -- he came off the road in 2017 after much of his life spent headquartered near Detroit. A second marriage to a Canadian health-industry specialist took up to rural far Northern Ontario, where he's been hard at work building out the new version of his longtime service. I'm willing to bet he's looking forward to warmer climes as he preps for an official launch of the new Hotels4Truckers.com upcoming at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky, next month. (You'll find him in the North Lobby near the main registration -- attendees can sign up for the service there for free and with a special gift as part of the bargain. I think it will be worth the visit, I'll say, for now.) In the podcast, Dan Fuller lays out his personal story trucking, likewise the 15 years or so he's spent at work building a network of discounted hotels and with, as noted, verifiable intelligence about whether tractor-trailer parking is available at any site. Find Hotels4Truckers via https://hotels4truckers.com and via iOS and Android app stores. More Overdrive Radio: https://overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio

Today, a bit of a hypothetical that is really not hypothetical at all, though we'll withhold names with multiple court cases pending. But consider the scenario: You engage with a broker you feel you know is legitimate for a load of copper moving toward the Northeast. You drop that load for $1,600, you ultimately get paid, and you go on about your business to the next piece of freight. Meanwhile, though, the same load of copper is being rebooked by the same “broker” – note the scare quotes, certainly safe use them in this scenario. The “broker” contracts with yet another owner to move the copper west to the center of the country, whereupon that owner drops the cargo and goes along his own merry way. Yet again, the “broker” now has another owner-operator in his sites for the third move of the copper, this time with a destination in the Los Angeles area. The operator who picks this load up, though (promised a handsome rate for his work), along the way gets a good indication of just where the "broker" wants to send him. It's no kind of manufacturer who needs the coiled, finished copper for their products, rather the address for what looks to be the kind of place where old cars and trucks and scrap metal of various kinds are sent to die, to be reprocessed -- a salvage yard, in essence. This operator obeys his spidey senses and calls the cops, opening a case that then winds its way back to the origin of the copper in the rural Southeast, where a rural detective IDs and then orders you, the owner-operator who picked up the load to begin with, arrested. You land in jail in your home region, spending several nights locked up before being bonded out for $50K. The original crooks -- the “broker” on the load, likely impersonating a legitimate entity or otherwise part of a double-brokering ring of authorized entities -- meanwhile get to sit at their computers wherever they might be and keep up the "good" work. You and your leasing carrier face scheduled court dates that come and go, ongoing discussion amongst defense and prosecution, with no resolution to your charge. When we first learned of a particular case fitting these parameters back late last summer, the arrest had just happened, with a September court date scheduled, which was then pushed to October. None of those court dates held for the owner, and still, there's been no resolution as efforts to untangle the scheme continue. The charge? "Obtaining property by false pretenses in excess of $100,000," apparently for falling for a fake broker's representation of himself as legitimate as he schemes with an unknown number of actually knowing accomplices to steal the copper. How's that for personal risk? Today on the podcast, a conversation with cargo-theft security firm Overhaul's Danny Ramon about just what that company's seeing in the so-called “strategic theft” landscape around the nation. That's the kind of theft described in the scenario above, often with multiple layers of deception and misrepresentation involved to use entirely legitimate, unwitting operations to steal hot commodities. As mentioned in the podcast: **Alex Lockie's recent story about the FraudWatch system from Overhaul: https://overdriveonline.com/15737195 **Transportation attorney Hank Seaton's "Supply chain protocol": https://overdriveonline.com/15302784

In this week's edition of Overdrive Radio, January Trucker of the Month Ken Brodeur, owner-operator out of Escondido, California, tells the tale of his circuitous path to trucking over three decades of prior IT tech and music-industry careers. He leased and then purchased his first and current truck in 2016, a new Kenworth W9 that he's kept in great working order ever since, with a diligent maintenance approach, some good luck, and plenty in the way of shrewd decision-making over tumultuous years for trucking, the economy in general and more. The flatbedder's experienced highs and lows through his now half-decade in business with authority, before that leased to Landstar, learning from successes and failures and putting them into practice. In essence, as a fellow owner and friend said about him in Cole's feature story, Brodeur's just “one of them good old success stories” in trucking. In some ways, Brodeur's is a story that repeats itself all around the nation for owner-operators who successfully manage revenue against costs for solid income. It's a tale of a man who “started with a big company and moved his way up, bought himself a truck, got himself a trailer and watched his Ps and Qs," his friend said. "Just a true owner-operator.” Meantime, Brodeur's made good on a long-term goal of greater control of his life, with full control of his business. Read more about owner-operator Ken Brodeur in Matt Cole's feature attendant to his January honor: https://www.overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year/article/15736267/trucker-of-the-month-throws-chains-tarps-after-decades-in-it Nominate your own business or that of another deserving owner you admire for Overdrive's 2025 Trucker of the Year award: https://overdriveonline.com/toptrucker

With this week's edition of Overdrive Radio, we pick up where longtime Overdrive contributor, former OTR owner and current business coach Gary Buchs left off on the Overdrive Extra blog last week: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15736116/ There, as regular readers will know, he penned and published notes on the "fine art" of rates negotiation, with a special emphasis on ways to counterbalance the pressure so many owner-operators feel to move fast on load opportunities, given the speed at which loads come and go on the boards in particular. Compared to just a short time ago in history, freight "information's moving so much faster" in this day and age, Buchs said. "The speed ... interferes often with solid negotiation. When you speed that up, things get missed." Move too fast to just outright accept an offer, and you might neglect to consider fully that the good-sound long-haul run to the West Coast starts out due well east of Atlanta, with a load pickup time of 2 in the afternoon. If you didn't effectively build into your rate the added cost of traffic in Atlanta rush hours (or the time to wait it out, as it were), you're behind the eight ball before you even get started on the run. Buchs offered a different example of one among many details you can miss if you don't take the time to effectively negotiate. He's heard this one several times: An owner "got to a shipper and ... they wanted cash for the lumper and they didn't have cash," Buchs said, asking "How does that get missed if you do a lot of reefer work?" He advises owner-operators think about such scenarios: "What lessons do we learn when things don't go quite right? How do we apply the lesson we learn? Like when we overcommit or fail to anticipate travel times, drive times. ... Drivers and owner-operators feel the pressure of time squeezing them so much, and that interferes with our ability to tap that brake pedal, to pause for even just a moment. So we have to" be aware of that and "use our experience," he said, knowledge of routes and so much more. Today on the podcast, much more in the way of specific ideas built on Buchs' wealth of personal experience in business and with owners operating in the freight world today. Getting better at negotiation in general certainly isn't easy. "If we're going to get better, we've got to stop thinking that everything is going to be easy," as Buchs put it. But with some of these ideas, hopefully more can avoid participating in what might otherwise feel like an auction, where the “winner's curse” is almost always to be paying more than what an item is really worth, research has shown. In the freight world, that's the opposite. Win the load after race-to-the-bottom ping-ponging with the competition or accepting a broker's lowball offer blindly, and you'll certainly be getting compensated below the market value for the freight movement. In the podcast, Buchs also stresses starting with cost analysis, and recommends including salary needs on the cost side of the ledger when it comes to business profit analysis. It might help you in load-by-load profit analysis and negotiation, too. Overdrive's Load Profit Analyzer, our fairly simple online calculator introduced late last year, is an assist to analyze individual and/or compare multiple loads. The calculator includes on its front end places to use the knowledge and analysis Buchs talks about to input not just cost per mile overall, but variable cost per mile, fixed cost per day worked, and, again considering it on the cost side, a salary per day worked figure. Profit-potential results then show results not only per-mile but per day -- with salary added back in, too -- for better appreciation of the impact of time and fixed costs. The Load Profit Analyzer is free to use with registration: https://overdriveonline.com/load-analyzer

"The goal of this program is to take one truck and figure out how to squeeze the maximum amount of profit out of that truck." --Kevin Rutherford on NASTC's ROTC joint effort with his business Kevin Rutherford's Let's Truck and other initiatives are likely well-known to Overdrive readers. We last heard his voice here in Overdrive Radio from the conference of the National Association of Small Trucking Companies at the 2023 event. He made a case to small fleets and owner-operators in attendance for just how they might get through, even thrive in, the down freight markets then ongoing: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15658960 He was back at the NASTC event in Nashville in November last year with some news of a joint venture with the association, bringing his focus through many years helping owner-operators in business with coaching, and with tools like his ProfitGauges software and more ... news about how that singular focus would be coming to a NASTC work in progress, according to association president Dave Owen. It goes by a nifty acronym, ROTC, or “Remarkable One Truck Company,” ROTC. (There's an alternate for that, too, Rutherford quipped during his and Owen's NASTC 2024 presentation: the "Rutherford Owen Training Curriculum.") It will be the end product of a closer relationship Rutherford and Owen have built over a couple years now. These two leaders in small trucking hope to be able to combine forces to help business owners with resources, tools and education. "The number 1 reason for failure in small trucking is growth," said Owen. "And the number 2 reason for not succeeding, after you make the decision to get a second truck, is not growing." It's a paradoxical reality the association sees many one-truck independents fall prety to when they move beyond the single unit, without the infrastructure in place to manage the biz when you're no longer in complete control of the response to every single thing that can, and will, go wrong. NASTC exists to help provide that infrastructure, as Owen notes. These two men are hoping to fully launch the ROTC program as a training effort in some ways modeled on Rutherford's long-running programs designed for one-truck owners to maximize efficiency and profitability. Those lessons then can be applied across any small fleet owner's business as well, to enable better competition with peers -- the big boys, too. As you'll hear on the podcast today sharing some of their freewheeling conversation with a roomful of NASTC conference attendees in November, owner-operators and nimble small fleets do in fact bring a cost advantage to trucking over their big-fleet counterparts in numerous individual cases. Minus diver pay and benefits, according to the American Transportation Research Institute's 2024 cost analysis, it's costing the big fleets 1.30/mile. Meanwhile, one owner in attendance at the NASTC session with Rutherford and Owen noted his cost to operate, not considering his own compensation, was below a dollar a mile. We made a comparison using Overdrive's new Load Profit Analyzer calculator: https://overdriveonline.com/load-analyzer The profit result on a hypothetical four-day, 2000-mile run offered at $2.25 per mile for the rate rate was about 30 cents a mile in profit to the Remarkable One Truck of that owner-operator's business, plus nearly $2,000 worth in salary to himself for the four-day run. The average fleet's truck, on the other hand, loses a couple $20 bills' worth of cash -- the only one profiting there is the driver, earning that nearly $2,000 in salary. As mentioned in the podcast, Kevin Rutherford shared this form questionnaire designed to get you thinking about the areas where you want to improve when it comes to efficiency and business analysis, and signal your interest in the new NASTC ROTC curriculum: https://kevinonxm.wufoo.com/forms/welcome-to-the-rotc-breakout-session

"Constantly trying to learn new things just keeps you keeps your mind young. It keeps you going. When you stop learning, you kind of just stagnate and drift away." --Owner-operator Alan Kitzhaber Overdrive Radio listeners will recognize the voice at the top of the podcast this week as that of longtime owner-op Alan Kitzhaber of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, with his 1995 vintage aerodynamic, 4-million-mile Kenworth T600. Every single mile of that 4 million he's put down on the road himself, since it was new and he was a company driver for Millis Transfer. Kitzhaber was Overdrive's Trucker of the Month back in August, when we told the tale of the Kenworth's journey toward May '24, when it crossed the 4-million threshold, likewise detailing Kitzhaber's long relationship with JR Truck Repair nearby to his home base for a meticulous maintenance approach that has been a big part of the truck's longevity: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15681362 When we got our Trucker of the Year contenders together late in 2024 for a final talk, and we asked Kitzhaber and others to draw on their wealth of experience for the best single piece of advice for new and/or aspiring owner-operators, it got Kitzhaber to thinking. He had much more than just that single piece of advice. He set to work on a story that you can read today in two parts, starting here: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15712314 Attendant to that in-depth tutorial of sorts into smart practices in business ownership, we've also got some big news about Kitzhaber to share that he's "certainly excited about," he said. For 2024, in what if current plans come to fruition will turn out to be his final full year trucking as an independent owner-operator with authority, Alan Kitzhaber with his Oak Ridge Transport business is Overdrive's Trucker of the Year. "I'm going to be retiring the end of March/beginning of April, somewhere in there, and I guess I can't think of a better way to wrap up a career," he said. With the big win, he goes out on top after a career as an owner that stretches back to the day in 1998 he made the considered decision to buy the T600 from Millis Transfer, where he was then employed as a company driver. Since then, he's modified the truck forever with efficiency, comfort, and operating longevity in mind. Trucker of the Year judges ultimately lauded owner-operator Kitzhaber's meticulous approach to both maintenance and efficiency throughout the operation. Said one: "Really a monument to the craft of trucking as an owner-operator." Kitzhaber contracts directly in the distribution network of shipper Menards, with retail stores for building supplies and more throughout the Midwest. Menards transportation manager John Schmidley threw plenty in the way of praise Kitzhaber's way, too: "Everyone up here at Menards is pretty excited for him," Schmidley said. "He has a lot of respect for the industry, and does his homework." Overdrive's Trucker of the Year award "is going to a real good choice." Schmidley sees one of the best in Kitzhaber, and relies on him directly as a resource in their business, that's sure, in addition to offering him as an example to other owners in the company's big network of independents hauling freight for them. Schmidley was hopeful to convince Kitzhaber to stay in business on a part-time basis for the summer season uptick in transport needs for the shipper, yet the owner is intent on enjoying the fruits of his labor. "I'm in a position where I just simply don't need to work unless I want to," Kitzhabert said. He's building a house on a 40-acre piece of land he's enjoyed for a couple decades hunting, fishing and more for respite from the road. Meantime, here's our chance to learn from one of the best. Congrats to Kitzhaber from all of us, likewise from program sponsor Bostrom Seating: https://bostromseating.com Enter the 2025 Trucker of the Year field: https://overdriveonline.com/toptrucker

"Theft increased 1,445 percent from the first quarter in 2022 to the first quarter in 2024." --Kathleen Dasal, retired from the Ansonia commercial credit bureau Dasal presented at this past November's annual conference of the National Association of Small Trucking Companies – and emphasized that huge increase in cargo theft over these last years, aided and abetted by organized crime rings' increasingly sophisticated use of our digital communications tools to perpetuate all manner of frauds on carriers, brokers and increasingly shippers themselves. That's as you'll hear in today's edition of Overdrive Radio, featuring Dasal's talk. She keeps her feet firmly planted in small fleet issues with NASTC, and her presentation featured slides you can download to follow along in full via this link: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/document/15711911/protecting-your-fleet-from-fraud-download-the-nastc-2024-presentation We'd recommend it, given this episode is probably an appropriate way to continue to kick off 2025 here in a year where we're expecting FMCSA's big move to revamp its registration system to finally get off the ground, and the identity and double-brokering fraud issue continues to be one of the biggest difficulties to surmount in trucking, particularly for small carriers and owner-operators working spot markets. You'll catch hear a variety of tips and tricks, ways to spot fraud in phishing emails and on fradulent rate cons and in the very voice on the phone who might purport to be even someone you know, or at least to be from a company you know. For regular Overdrive readers, a lot of the anti-fraud measures Dasal speaks to might be refreshers, of a fashion, yet many share a central point that you can make part of your New Year's Resolutions for the business this year. In Kathleen Dasal's words, "You've got to just pay attention to who your customer is, and know who you're doing business with." There's a lot owner-operators can do in that regard, if you're not already working closely with central, trusted brokers; leased to a reputable motor carrier; or doing direct business with shipper customers. As mentioned in the podcast: **The WhatsmyDNS.net domain age lookup: https://www.whatsmydns.net/domain-age **The "Iluminati" hack of broker DAT accounts and carrier accounts on the Amazon Relay system: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15678337/norman-camamiles-iluminati-hack-weekend-four-amazon-runs-no-payment **Reporting on the trade in MC numbers: https://www.overdriveonline.com/channel-19/article/15704468/your-authority-might-be-worth-30000-to-freight-fraudsters and https://www.overdriveonline.com/regulations/article/15705499/fmcsa-guidance-on-buying-and-selling-mc-numbers **FMCSA's guidance on containing the damage after a hack: https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/mission/help/broker-and-carrier-fraud-and-identity-theft

For every story of difficulty expanding beyond a single truck with leased owner-operators, there's probably more than one tale of success. The latter's been the story the last several years for owner-operator Josh Rickards, whose Rickards Transportation Services business as of late November was up to a total of five owners leased on in addition to himself, still also behind the wheel much of the time. In something of a growth mode now for a time, Rickards has come to specialize in part in the entertainment industry, supporting concert tours and often enough working in tandem with larger entities for the larger tours. His owner-operator journey started back in his boyhood, with a particular mentor in an owner-operator he's long been happy to call his Uncle in Michael Paul Visbeek, out of Northern California and since passed on. Rickards tells the tale of a kid's inspiration grown in a Kenworth W9 with a Cat and an 18 speed, then a detour as a young man through hip-hop music promotion and marketing, and on to true trucking success. What's Rickards looking forward to for the new year? He just bought a brand-new Western Star you'll hear him talk about in this Overdrive Radio episode, and he's bringing on two more owner-operators as he continues on the goal of sustainable growth. As he told me last week, asked about any "New Year's Resolutions" for the business in 2025, “it's not just about growing in numbers,” he said. Anybody with good credit can buy a truck. For Rickards, his laser focus is on what he calls “the real challenge, … maintaining that growth while staying profitable.” Hear much more from him in the podcast episode, and find his fleet at the company website -- https://rickardsinc.com -- where he promotes values and goals of creating opportunity for leased owners through honesty and transparency in agreements, of sustainable growth and with a principal focus on entertainment hauling, of building a true team and, when he's partnered with bigger entities on larger-scale tours, being that integral part of the team that is any touring production. "We put ourselves out there as the Navy Seals, the Marines, of touring," he said. "We're a smaller outfit, but when you call us in you're getting the special forces that are coming in." As mentioned in the podcast, a promotional video DAT made in which Rickards discusses load board use tactics, strategy, today a small part of his business but more sizable in past: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcEwxBarEbE

Happy New Year! This final Overdrive Radio podcast for 2024 -- or the first for 2025, whenever you happen to be catching it -- looks back on the year that has been, a certainly sluggish one when it comes to business for many, though with a degree of optimism heading into 2025 with a new administration incoming and hope for business-friendly policy yielding freight improvement all around. Here's how this one is going to go: Earlier this month, we charted the top 10 podcasts of this year, including a few two-parters this time around featuring extended talks with working truckers, whether small fleet owners like Gill Freightlines' Surinder Gill on the collapse of the Convoy brokerage, or some among our owner-operator Trucker of the Year contenders offering business advice gleaned from their wealth of experience. We've got a short concert-haul run in-cab, a guide to beating back predatory tow invoices, and much more among hot topics and business dissection throughout the year. So count down through the 10 most-listened-to podcasts of 2024, plus an extra three just outside that top 10 for a lucky 13, all the way to No. 1, to ring in the new year right. Find a playlist of all the episodes excerpted via this link: https://soundcloud.com/overdriveradio/sets/countdown-to-2025-the-top Or tune in for our latest via https://overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio

"I just believe very passionately that if you're going to take your industry seriously, you need to be engaged, you need to be involved." --Joe Rajkovacz, Director of Government Affairs, Western States Trucking Association The quote above comes from this week's long talk with Rajkovacz, with a long history in trucking and with the last decade and a half or so with Western States, headquartered in California and among the most prominent actors nationally challenging the onerous parts of the California Air Resources Board's ever-more-complicated emissions and equipment regulations. Rajkovacz was speaking to the value of association membership for business owners in whatever industry they participate in. Specifically for him, of course, that's trucking, tracking back to his time as an owner-operator first in the 1980s and in trucking in other roles before that, as you'll hear in today's episode highlighting his career. In this final regular edition of Overdrive Radio for the year, track back through Rajkovacz's early years trucking, from a wash bay to behind the wheel as a Teamster for a brief time early on, then to truck ownership, decades over-the-road, and coming off the road for full-time association work with the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association in 2006. He wouldn't be there but for a few years, after which he joined Western States, then the California Construction Trucking Association, to devote more energy to challenging CARB's Truck and Bus Regulation, which would ultimate ban 2006 and older emissions-spec engines in-state. I'ts at Western States where he's officially concluded his career, retiring earlier this month back near where he began his trucking career in Wisconsin with his wife, Joan. The two are proud parents of three grown children, grandparents of eight, and staying warm this winter season, we hope. This conversation was conducted in November during the long-running annual event where Overdrive editor Todd Dills got to know Rajkovacz well -- the annual conference of the National Association of Small Trucking Companies. Rajkovacz has been a perennial presenter there, and odds are will continue to be as his engagement with regulatory and legislative issues on the West Coast for trucking will also be continuing, as you'll hear in today's episode. You'll hear more of Joe Rajkovacz's story, no doubt, but also plenty evidence of what his career represents – he's among the best examples we have of a trucking industry participant who spent the time and did the work to act on something fundamental to the truly engaged in the business: a real love for it, and a desire to see conditions for its participants improve for the better. Find more about the Western States Trucking Association: https://westrk.org

In this week's Overdrive Radio podcast, drop into the second and final part of this series re-engaging with Overdrive's 2024 Trucker of the Year competitive field of owner-operators, with check-ins on how the year shaped up for each individual owner. Likewise, you'll hear plenty considered advice from each business owner for peers, particularly those with only short history in the trucking business or looking to get their start. Part 1, ICYMI: Words of encouragement, too, drawing on lessons learned from challenges overcome, and the plentiful nature of naysayers who will undoubtedly tell an aspiring truck owner just to "stay away." Play your cards right, and do the hard work early and often, noted owner-operator Greg Labosky, and you will be poised for profit. Use that "negative energy," as he put it, to "be willing to prove them worng to the best of your ability to show them that you can, indeed, succeed." Labosky's made strides in backstopping profit with cost reductions amid sluggish rates in Amazon's direct-contracting system, where he specializes. He's done that in part by maximizing reliability of his 2017 Cascadia with careful preventive maintenance, always learning more to do smaller repairs himself, and using close record-keeping to drive his efforts. "Keep extermely good, tight bookkeeping to keep track of your expenses that you can control," he advised other owners, to help spot when something is out of line. There's growth on the horizon within the goals for Labosky's GDL Enterprise business, something Alpha Drivers Transportation owner Alec Costerus is already acheiving, having started the year with just one truck. With fellow owner Joel Morrow in their Alpha Drivers Testing & Consulting side business, Costerus is building a dry van-pulling operation with growth this year and more to come, backed by tremendous efficiency gains to reduce costs. "Holding the steering wheel is the easy part," he advised any prospective owner to realize. "There is a great deal more to the trucking business," urging careful study of all of those aspects. Owner-operator Mike Nichols reported steady revenues through the year for his Wayne Transports-leased one-truck operation, with at once some unexpected downtime chipping a smidge away from that top line (including the results of a run-in with an unfortunate deer). Nichols offered considered advice for prospective owners about up-front saving as prep, building for a down payment but also reserves for unforeseen expenses that are inevitable. With respect to "start-up capital and down payment," he said, "you need to treat that like you would firewood. Save what you think you might need and triple it, if not quadruple it." As for Dayl and Nelson Zimmerman, owners of Minnesota-based Zimmerman Ag, the brothers are very close to making good on goals set out at the beginning of the year to erect a new shop at headquarters, which will deliver opportunity for outside maintenance work during slow winter periods. More importantly, it stands enhance their own in-house maintenance prowess to continue to get the job done for direct customers, the center of their ag-support two-truck business. Read more about all of these Trucker of the Year contenders, and others, via https://overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year Enter your own or another deserving business in the 2025 Trucker of the Year program now at this link: https://overdriveonline.com/toptrucker

Today on Overdrive Radio, after a year's worth of talks featuring Overdrive's Truckers of the Month, all of whom remain in the running for the top 2024 Trucker of the Year honor, the first of two final talks featuring a bevy of contenders. Call this and next week's podcast edition the “Exit Interviews” series, if you will, as judges work through the process of determining a set of three finalists we'll announce later this month, then a winner in the new year. At once, the perseverance and excellence to drive profit in a time like the present shown by every single owner we wrote about in the program this year make all truly deserving of all the accolades that come their way, the margins between every single Trucker of the Year contender absolutely razor-thin, given unique strengths that all bring to their respective operations. Today on the podcast, you're going to hear answers to two fairly simple questions. Namely: 1. How has 2024 gone for the business? And, 2. Each owner was asked to look back over their history and experience in the trucking business for lessons learned that could serve as their best piece of advice for peers, and particularly for those newer to the business or thinking about going into business. Hear here from four semi-finalists, including owner-operator Candace Marley, headquartered in Iowa and pulling dry van freight, now leased to Mercer after running under her own authority as Calliope, LLC, when we last spoke early in 2024. She continues to adjust to the realities of the system at Mercer, yet is enjoying a measure of stability compared to the difficulties she'd experienced in the current market. Speaking to her peers, she advised, "If something's not working out, don't be afraid to change lanes." Minnesota-headquartered Gary Schloo, leased to Long Haul Trucking, noted current interest-rate levels as high yet not especially high considering his long history. Yet for an owner-op looking to invest in the business with a truck purchase, saving for a big down payment and building a good relationship with a local bank are likely to save on interest, he said. Then: "Find a good company, with stable freight, and different kinds of freight" to build the most effective partnership long-term, in his view. Independent Rene Holguin emphasized taking control of your business, getting as much mechanical knowledge as possible to save on repairs and gain confidence in the equipment. And "be the boss," he added, as an owner. "Things start going south when you wait for somebody to give you direction," he said. Use your instincts and knowledge through self-education to "get on the horse and go." Independent Alan Kitzhaber made business education his central point of emphasis, particularly for those who've never before been in business for thesmelves. Yet his 4-million-mile 1995 Kenworth T600's longevity has hinged on preventive practices when it comes to maintenance. Like all of the owners, he places huge emphasis on regular check-ups and careful attention with an effective preventive maintenance schedule. "I get my truck in on a regular basis, at least once a month, to have it gone over," he said, at his longtime preferred shop partner in his area. They "grease the driveline and steering column," and he has "an automatic greaser that takes care of the rest," among plenty more he shares in what follows in the podcast. Listen on for plenty more all from these four in the Trucker of the Year field. Read more about all via this link to the central Trucker of the Year profile collection: https://overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year Put your own or another owner-operator's deserving business in the running for next year's award at this link: https://overdriveonline.com/toptrucker

When Donald Trump first came into the White House back in 2017, an express deregulatory agenda yielded various moves most owner-operators could count as wins. Though the administration famously did not act to block implementation of the Congressional electronic logging device mandate later that year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's then-pursuit of a speed-limiter mandate, for instance, soon disappeared from the Department of Transportation's regulatory calendar. With another Trump administration incoming, can we expect a similar fate for the current pursuit of speed limiters? That's but one of the questions today's Overdrive Radio guests, OOIDA President Todd Spencer and Executive VP Lewie Pugh, are hopeful to yield an emphatic "yes" answer, likewise as regards a lot of what we've seen from the Environmental Protection Agency this last year and more. But a "deregulatory" agenda could seal the fate of other federal agency moves for which there's no express Congressional authorization but that many owners favor, such as FMCSA's recent pursuit of potential changes to the broker transparency regulations. Fortunately for those owners, notes OOIDA's Spencer, there's history there when it comes to the first Trump administration. And Trump himself. "He heard the horns" of the group of protesting truckers in 2020, the genesis of the current effort around transparency, Spencer points out in the podcast. "Certainly this is going to be an issue that we're going to point out to the new administration that, 'Hey folks, this is old business that we need to get after and fix it this time." In the podcast, hear from Spencer and Pugh on these and other priority issues, and what potentially to expect from Congress and the administration moving ahead: Truck parking: The next infrastructure reauthorization is due up in 2026, they note, and including dedicated truck parking funding at very high levels for a very high, long-term need is perhaps the association's biggest priority. Safety rating change: Pugh noted the kind of "Fit/Unfit" two-tier system FMCSA has proposed is probably preferable to the current three-tier system, yet he's skeptical FMCSA will move forward with much anytime soon. Notably, when Trump first came into office in 2017, an effort to shift ratings to being based in part of roadside data then was tabled. Bedrock value placed on drivers' time: Currently, as Spencer's noted before, it's effectively valued at $0. OOIDA favors legislation introduced in the last two sessions of Congress to remove the exemption for motor carriers from paying overtime as a potential central cog in the effort to increase time's value. Trump Labor Secretary pick, Pugh felt, could well be an ally in that push, though it might be unlikely to move successfully through a Republican-controlled Congress. And plenty more. Following find links to related coverage mentioned throughout the podcast: **Overdrive's July 2024 Trucker of the Month Mike Nichols will be a candidate on OOIDA's upcoming/in-process board elections: https://www.overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year/article/15680591/trucker-of-the-month-mike-nichols-knows-limits-hones-strengths **Overdrive readers' response to FMCSA's proposed changes to the ELD mandate regulations: https://www.overdriveonline.com/regulations/article/15297229/eldexempt-ownerops-say-no-to-any-pre2000-exemption-change **Trump's Labor Secretary nominee: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15709066/prounion-former-congresswoman-tapped-to-lead-dol **Trump DOT nominee: https://www.overdriveonline.com/regulations/article/15708579/sean-duffy-tapped-by-trump-as-secretary-of-transportation

When truck owner Garrett Steenblik was in the throes his personal body-transformation journey toward losing, ultimately, 200 lbs. over-the-road, he was hauling with Boyle Transportation, it was his birthday, and he got a message over the Qualcomm from operations wishing him a happy birthday. Such was his commitment to working physical activity into his daily routine, then teaming with his wife, that he'd garnered a particular reputation with folks at the company, including its customers. "I was so dedicated," he said, that "if we were getting loaded I'd wake up, I'd hop out and do some push-ups, I'd run around the truck, I'd so some body-weigh exercises. ... The shippers would be like, 'What's that man doing?'" The message, immortalized with a picture you'll see as part of the cover image for this week's podcast and which he calls my "favorite picture in all of trucking," contained a simple message for him: "HAPPY BIRTHDAY GARRETT, CELEBRATE WITH A FEW LAPS AROUND THE TRUCK AND SOME KALE CAKE!" As of August this year, Steenblik had hired an operator to join his wife in their rig, a 2023 Kenworth T680 leased to Tri-State Motor Transit, as he's at the end of years of development of the Trucker's Body Shop business, a membership and support program for truckers seeking to lose weight or address some other conditions (smoking cessation, for instance, is a part of it). In this edition of Overdrive Radio, Steenblik details Trucker's Body Shop goals to help drivers deliver on their own aims of weight loss via diet and exercise, medical doctor network support through telehealth, convenient weight-loss prescription delivery, ongoing doctor consultation and more. Overdrive featured the Trucker's Body Shop MediReady travel kit covering common OTR needs recently here: https://www.overdriveonline.com/gear/product/15708444/truckers-body-shop-truckers-body-shop-intros-new-medical-kit-for-truck-drivers In the podcast, hear how Steenblik found not only greater physical health through the weight-loss journey but, ultimately, bedrock mental well-being as well. With Trucker's Body Shop, he hopes to deliver that to any fellow OTR hauler who needs it. Find more about Trucker's Body Shop via this link: https://truckersbodyshop.com/ More from Overdrive Radio: https://overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio

It's one of our favorite opportunities covering the trucking world these last several years -- the annual conference of the National Association of Small Trucking Companies, for four years now the sponsor of Overdrive's annual Small Fleet Championship, recognizing and sharing the stories of business excellence for owner-operators who hit and/or cross that 3-truck threshold. On November 7 this year, Overdrive Radio host Todd Dills announced winners in two categories, recognizing four total finalists during NASTC's Thursday-night conference-opening Transportation Trust Forum. You've likely seen the news – Paul Rissler Transportation and C.W. Express took home the Small Fleet Champ title belts this year in their respective categories: https://www.overdriveonline.com/small-fleet-champ/article/15707739/rissler-transportation-cw-express-emerge-as-small-fleet-champs Yet that's not the true highlight of the program for Dills. Rather, the chance for an in-person, roundtable sitdown with all four of our Small Fleet Champ finalists, to share their perspectives on business challenges overcome, on the makets in which they operate, and more. The talk you'll hear in this Overdrive Radio podcast edition offers plenty potential lessons for other truck owners similarly wrestling with various business difficulties of various stripes. Likewise a strong current that's a bit different from past Small Fleet Champ roundtables we've conducted. All owners offered examples of how they pay their hard-earned trucking knowledge forward to leave behind capability when the end of the line comes squarely into view. For some, those efforts were front and center in the talk itself. Automotive and general dry van carrier C.W. Express owner Steve Wilson was joined in the talk by his son, Steven the second, in his early 20s and newly involved in the business, for instance. Hear also C.W. Express' fellow finalist in the 11-30-truck division of the Small Fleet Championship – Brian Brewer and Jennifer Leasure of mostly local scrap and dump hauler Brian Brewer Trucking. Likewise, competing in the 3-10-truck division, Jamie Hagen of mostly dry van carrier Hell Bent Xpress and Paul and Michelle Rissler, of Paul Rissler Transportation, running reefer. It's a hallmark of a truly exceptional business owner that, though the day-to-day fires may mount, keeping eyes on the future is a necessity for the next generation. As Steve Wilson outlined his immediate and longer-term goals, invoking all that he'd been through over the last several years (including 8 months' worth of a hospital stay, near death at one point), "I've got grandbabies now," he said. "You know, what I want is to build a legacy for those kids. 'Hey, my granddad built that.' That's what I'm here for." Read Wilson's and others' stories via the Small Fleet Champ section of Overdrive's website: https://overdriveonline.com/small-fleet-champ

Here's wishing all United States military veterans in the audience a happy Veterans Day with this edition of Overdrive Radio. To mark the day, we bring you this dive into the work of the Farmer Veteran Coalition, an organization that got its start back in 2009 with a goal of a then California/Mexico produce farmer to help support returning military servicemembers in bids to enter the business of feeding the nation. We'll hear today Overdrive Radio's talk with Jeanette Lombardo, current Farmer Veteran Coalition CEO, about the FVC's recent induction into the Howes company's Hall of Fame, bringing another important support organization to the attention of trucking and ag industries: https://www.overdriveonline.com/life/article/15705903/vetssupport-group-now-in-howes-hall-of-fame-deadline-approaching-for-small-biz-reporting-to-fincen-alert FVC CEO Lombardo details a variety of new-farmer support and other programs that deliver on the org's mission, dovetailing in several ways with trucking and logistics businesses that support the nation's food supply chain. Lombardo sees plenty honor and value in the Howes Hall of Fame induction, enabling connections between the coalition and, not just new groups and people in the ag world, but also in trucking and logistics. "We're a nonprofit. We don't have much budget for advertising, ... yet we're seeing this huge increase in membership," she said, in part given word of mouth that occurs as a result of programs like the Howes Hall of Fame. "We were very humbled to receive the nod from Howes, and even more so when we went online to see previous awardees. ... I think it's the beginning of a wonderful partnership." The Hall of Fame launched during Howes' 100-year anniversary celebration five years back, said Howes Products' own Rich Guida. It's intended as an effort "to find the people, places, and things that make trucking and farming -- and diesel systems, really, of any kind -- so valuable. And for us to be able to give back to these people, and support them the way Jeanette was talking about, is where we find reward." Access the stories of all inductees in the Howes Hall of Fame, or nominate an organization or individual yourself, at this link: https://howesproducts.com/hof In the podcast, find much more detail about the FVC's many support programs for returning servicemembers and hear Lombardo's personal story of how, in the midst of the pandemic, she would come to be inspired by and, then, intimately involved in leading an organization with a worthy mission. More about the FVC: https://farmvetco.org/ Howes' induction video about FVC: https://www.overdriveonline.com/life/article/15705903/vetssupport-group-now-in-howes-hall-of-fame-deadline-approaching-for-small-biz-reporting-to-fincen-alert

In this Overdrive Radio, we catch up primarily with owner-operator Daryl Zimmerman of Belgrade, Minnesota, co-owner with his brother, Nelson (also featured in the podcast), of two-truck Zimmerman Ag. Daryl was looking out the windshield glass on a bright and sunny day running between Minneapolis-St. Paul and his area in Central Minnesota bound for a feed mill that has been a principal customer of his business for much of its nearly 10-year history. Since launching as one man, one truck in 2015, Daryl's was joined by Nelson when he got his own truck and leased it to the business, starting in 2020. They've since fully joined forces, extending a family base that stretches back to Daryl and Nelson's father's time as an owner-operator in the late 1990s. Zimmerman Ag is Overdrive's Trucker of the Month for October, putting the brothers in the running for the 2024 Trucker of the Year award and marking the end of the run of our semi-finalists for this year. In the coming weeks, expert more from all of them as judges begin the evaluation process for our final 2024 Trucker of the Year winner. Today, the Zimmermans take us on a tour through their history in business, its entirety for both men as owner-operators working in support of farmers and other ag-support businesses, by and large, around their home base in Minnesota: https://www.overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year/article/15706944/strength-in-numbers-zimmerman-ags-daryl-and-nelson-zimmerman Look for further coverage of all Trucker of the Year semi-finalists in the coming weeks and for announcement of three finalists in December. All have a chance to win a custom replica model of the truck of their choice plus a brand-new seat from Trucker of the Year sponsor Bostrom Seating. Big thanks to Commercial Vehicle Group and the fine folks at Bostrom Seating for continued support. To get in the running for next year's program, get over to https://OverdriveOnline.com/toptrucker to start that process. Deadlines mentioned there have passed for the 2024 award, but note that any entries or nominations of deserving owners will be considered for the 2025 program.

"The driver shortage is dead, long live the driver shortage." That's sort of the message you might get digging into a recent truck driver compensation study and the "driver shortage" narrative's longest proponent's response to it. That compensation study was conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine at the request of FMCSA. FMCSA itself was tasked to commission the study by Congress in the 2021 Infrastrucutre Investment and Jobs Act, the early Biden-era highway infrastructure legislation. The report examined truck driver compensation and compensation methods and their impacts on retention and safety, and along the way called the American Trucking Associations' and others' long-posited notion of a driver shortage "spurious." Fundamental labor economics principles cast doubt on what the ATA has long held out as persistent shortages, as reported Friday by Overdrive News Editor Matt Cole: https://www.overdriveonline.com/regulations/article/15706801/does-trucking-have-a-driver-shortage ATA, though, dug in its heels in response, noting in Cole's reporting that the NAS study report's authors “fail to account for several important points and distinctions that are critical to understanding the market for professional truck drivers.” Of course, plenty others around trucking, including Overdrive's own reporting back in early 2016, have cast doubts around persistent shortages similar to those in the National Academies' study. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association in particular has long-pointed to high turnover rates in truckload as a kind of bellwether statistic that belied any existence of a true "shortage." Today on the podcast, Cole's conversation about the conclusions with OOIDA President Todd Spencer, who reiterated the association's long-held view about persistent driver shortages now underscored. On the driver-retention front, Spencer felt putting real value on a driver's time, furthermore, could well be the single biggest improvement truckload carriers could make to build a base of longer-tenured pros over-the-road where delay at shipper or receiver docks or via an on-highway emergency "certainly isn't predictable," he said. "You can't plan for it and again the common thread with detention time is that the prevailing rate for that is zero" dollars. Our own Executive Editor Alex Lockie, too, joins the podcast to break down last week's Broker-Carrier Summit conference in Texas, where fraud prevention in brokered-freight markets was front and center. Also, too, plenty subjects that played directly to carriers in attendance, offering insights into opportunities that just don't exist for brokers, as it were. As Lockie quipped, "Carriers ... had this lab on how to land direct feright, which is essentially how to cut brokers out of your life. Of course, you could not have a panel on how brokers could cut out carriers." More of Lockie's dry sense of humor here, likewise a highlight moment near the end of a fraud-prevention panel discussion with with Anchor Reliable Transport's Brian Woodring. As mentioned in the podcast: **Owner-operator Ilya Denisenko's thoughts on value in the BCS event: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio/podcast/15684505/sweetness-of-low-price-v-the-sour-of-bad-service **Lockie's reporting on changes to Carrier411's FreightGuard system: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15705912/carrier411-makes-big-changes-to-its-freightguard-carrier-reports **Email contact for the Truckstop load board's look into potentially building a broker-vetting service for carriers: Extensions@truckstop.com

The expert singing voice of Marine veteran and Nashville-headquartered singer-songwriter Sal Gonzalez warms up and brings to fruition a special celebration event held last week by Rush Truck Centers in Nashville, Tennessee, in this edition of Overdrive Radio. Rush was announcing the big winner of the quite expensive, final, only 2025 build of a Peterbilt 389. A 389X, to be exact, that Rush Truck Centers won the final 389 build slot for, with Pete retiring the model for good. As Rush Enterprises CEO Rusty Rush explains in the podcast, the build slot was awarded after an auction among Pete dealers and was secured for 1.5 million dollars. Peterbilt and Rush donated those proceeds then to the well-known Wreaths Across America and Truckers Against Trafficking nonprofits, then held a sweepstakes delivering another half a million to the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) org: https://www.overdriveonline.com/equipment/article/15705889/last-of-the-389s-goes-to-oklahoma-small-fleet-shane-best-trucking That's where songwriter Gonzalez enters the picture. In the podcast, hear Gonzalez's harrowing, moving story of losing part of his left leg in Iraq, then returning home to pursue a songwriter's dream only to fall into an addictive pattern and seek out the support of WWP. Likewise, get ready for a moving song, "Heroes," Gonzalez wrote as a result of his subsequent work with the nonprofit, inspired by fellow veterans and his own experience. We'll hear, too, from Rusty Rush, detailing the sweepstakes and its ultimate winners, Shane Best Trucking owners Jennifer and Shane Best, out of Pryor, Oklahoma. The win was fitting for the small fleet owners in more ways than one – the 379X will add to their fleet of 17 Peterbilts doing dump work around their region, yet don't expect a lot of wear and tear on it. The Bests plan to keep the rig around for many years to come, working with Rush Truck Center hands in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to finish out the rig with back-end mods as a show unit. With any luck, work should conclude in time enough for September 2025 -- look for the Bests and the last of the 389s out at the Guilty by Association Truck Show in Joplin, Missouri, then. Also in the podcast, a window on the presentation Rush, Peterbilt's Jason Skoog, and reps from the Wounded Warrior Project, with Sal Gonzalez rounding things out with that moving, terrific song we're happy to be able to share with you. More about Wounded Warrior Project: https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/ Truckers Against Trafficking: https://overdriveonline.com/15680845 Wreaths Across America: https://overdriveonline.com/15304350

"He's such a hard worker. He's always helping his family to help get their own authority. He'll let them lease on for a while ... until they get on their feet and get their own authority. ... He's just a good person all around." --Messina Holguin, speaking to reasons she nominated her husband, owner-operator Rene Holguin, for Overdrive's Trucker of the Year award Rene Holguin is well on his way toward cementing a legacy with his El Paso, Texas-headquartered R&M Transportation business, part of it caught up in what his wife and business partner, Messina, intimates in the quote above. R&M Transportation has also been a vehicle for various family members and friends to get their own businesses up and running toward their own names on their own doors, with authority, a dream Holguin himself made good on more than two decades ago: https://www.overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year/article/15704492/thirdgen-ownerop-marshals-experience-to-thrive-in-business Overdrive's September Trucker of the Month harnesses that significant pay-it-forward goal after getting into business with tutelage of a family member himself, though he freely admits mixing family with business isn't always the easiest thing to do. This week on the Overdrive Radio podcast we're diving into Overdrive News Editor Matt Cole's conversation with Holguin about his history in trucking, which stretches back to about the turn the century. You'll hear Messina's here, too. Though she works herself outside of trucking, she's also intimately involved in back-office aspects of the business. They've learned a lot together through the decades in business, and Rene Holguin's made big strides in DIY maintenance in recent times as expenses have mounted and rates have lagged to the truck he's owned and kept in tip-top now for the entirety of his time with authority. His biggest piece of advice for new and aspiring owner-operators is of a piece with those maintenance strides. "Be ready to work," he said, and work hard. Learn as much about your equipment as you can. "Be ready to get your hands dirty, to keep your truck out of the shop as much as you can." He's pulling a flatbed with the rig today, and it's a looker for sure, as you can see in Cole's feature about R&M Transportation, likewise the cover image for this week's podcast. Dive into September Trucker of the Month Rene Holguin's trucking origin story, which stretches all the way back to his childhood, in the podcast here. Find all of our features about Truckers of the Month through this year at https://overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year Holguin's nod for September puts him in the running for the 2024 Trucker of the Year award, this year sponsored by Commercial Vehicle Group and Bostrom Seating.

"If you're doing the right things ... if you're looking at your numbers, figuring out your fixed cost per day, your variable cost per mile, and choosing the best loads for yourself, you're going to weather this winter just fine like you have the last two years. And then when freight turns around, you're going to be in really good shape." --ATBS Vice President Mike Hosted When freight turns around. What every owner-operator out there's been waiting for for quite some time, and it's like as not to be a while yet, with East Coast ports stalled and market prognosticators predicting that we'll continue “bouncing along the bottom” all the way through the first quarter of next year, to use the words of ATBS VP Hosted himself. Yet there is at least some confluence of opinion on a potential market turn, given what you all heard on the Overdrive Radio podcast just last week, which suggested much the same, Q2 2025: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio/podcast/15704598/when-will-freight-markets-turn-to-the-positive-for-truckers Get through the election, through the winter period and typical sluggish Q1, and hopefully further interest rates cuts might deliver confidence for business investment and some freight improvement. For this week's edition of Overdrive Radio, our Partners in Business coproducers in owner-operator business services firm ATBS were kind enough to share the full audio and slides from their September 18 owner-operator income, revenue, cost and market update: https://www.overdriveonline.com/partners-in-business/article/15684315/ownerops-see-mixed-income-bag-but-wait-for-kickstart-on-rates. You can download a pdf of Mike Hosted's full slides to follow along here: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15704990 Know that over on our Youtube channel, too, there's a video version of Hosted's full presentation, too: https://youtu.be/jbWFVqL5jtU Topline results from ATBS analysis, with trend lines derived from real-world performance of their thousands of owner-operator clients? Other than the market commentary you heard at the top, owner-operator income has been on average just slightly down for the 12 months ending June of 2024, compared to prior 12 months. It's down as an average because dry van owner-ops were down somewhat significantly. Yet leased reefer haulers and flatbedders, and independents too, posted gains. There's a lot more detail within all that in the full presentation here, and plenty of potential insights around maintenance spend, fuel costs and efficiency, and much more. Benchmark your own business's performance against the average numbers, yet know enough to recognize every owner-operator business has its own revenue and income needs, relative to costs. Overdrive Radio is sponsored by Howes. Find more information about their full line of fuel treatments via https://howesproducts.com The Partners in Business program is sponsored by the Rush Truck Centers dealer network. Visit them via https://rushtrkctr.com/4bLxbR4

In this week's Overdrive Radio edition, Part 2 of our "How to build business for trucking's down cycles" online roundtable in late August. Among the questions flagged for panelists was just whether, and when, the long freight-rates slide of the last two years might turn the corner, or at least stabilize. Since the late-August time period, the march toward the presidential election and a modicum of certainty on that front continues, of course, but perhaps more importantly the Federal Reserve has cut benchmark interest rates by a half point, the first such cut in after a two years' worth of several hikes meant to help tamp down rapid inflation: https://www.overdriveonline.com/partners-in-business/article/15684315/ownerops-see-mixed-income-bag-but-wait-for-kickstart-on-rates Panelist and longtime Overdrive contributor Gary Buchs posted recently in his Truck Business Network group about expectations of further cuts when the fed meets again late in the year and early next year. Those cuts might spell not only good news for borrowing costs to, say, finance a truck purchase down the line, but also stimulate spending and moves in various sectors of the economy, generating freight. In essence, Buchs noted, get ready for potentially improved conditions, but not for a good while yet. Here's how he put it: “Every trucker is waiting for the market to turn around, as so-called experts keep predicting These interest rate cuts are historically some of the things that will make this happen. But the increased opportunity for better rates doesn't happen overnight. Go into your phone and set an alarm for four to six months out from the date these interest rates make dramatic moves. Odds are that is about the time business will change, as it takes time for companies to have confidence to place more orders, then the companies manufacturing have the confidence to ramp up production, and the cards begin to fall and make things move.” He went on to compare running an owner-operator business to an ultra-marathon, as it were. “The return on the investment of hundreds if not thousands of hours of intense commitment and training aimed at a goal is celebrated when, one day, we finally are able to cross that finish line,” he wrote. Today on the podcast we hope to give you further opportunity to learn from Buchs and two other panelists who were part of our roundtable, namely Silver Creek Transportation Founder and President Jason Cowan (Overdrive's Small Fleet Champ for year 2021) and ICV Express owner-operator Ilya Denisenko. In the previous part of this two-part podcast, panelists ran through a variety of customer-management tactics aimed at preserving relationships, building new ones, and batting back those inevitable requests for a “discount” from even longtime customers. In part 2, they field a variety of live audience questions, from those about timing of a recovery to special considerations for flatbedders when it comes to customers, what owner-operators can do to combat brokers' ever-increasing insistence on roadside inspections on the record as a condition of doing business, just how to compete when shipper customers are being solicited at cut rates by brokers, and more.

"The sweetness of low price is really fast, even though the sour of bad service lasts a lot longer. The sweetness is really tempting to jump in and take." --Silver Creek Transportation founder and president Jason Cowan At the top of this week's edition of Overdrive Radio, you'll hear the sage words of Silver Creek Transportation Founder and President Jason Cowan, excerpted above. The past Overdrive Small Fleet Champ was speaking to the difficulties of managing freight contracts with customers in a time like the present, two years after what's been a big filp-flop in demand for carriers of all shapes and sizes. The demand and subsequent freights-rates fall has impacted large and small, from flatbeds and lowboys to tour haulers, dry van pullers and reefer toters, all around the nation. Cowan was talking as part of Overdrive's roundtable on ways to build an owner-operator or small fleet business to weather inevitable down cycles: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15682400/location-location-how-to-find-that-extra-load-in-your-backyard We hosted the event back in August, sponsored by Bestpass and Fleetworthy Solutions, since rebranded fully under the Fleetworthy name and including the Drivewyze weigh station bypass solution: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15683690/diesel-hits-lowest-national-average-since-fall-2021 (The combined company aims to be a one-stop shop for bypass, toll collections management and discounts, and fleet-management solutions.) In this edition of the podcast, drop into the first portion of the roundtable that featured, in addition to Cowan, two other leading voices among owner-ops and seasoned veterans in Overdrive's orbit (our own Gary Buchs, and ICV Express owner-operator Ilya Denisenko), all speaking to ways to set your trucking business up to stand out from the crowd, to beat that "sweetness of low price" when it inevitably comes to you from the customer's mouth. As mentioned in the podcast: **Register to view the entire session here: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15682393/catch-the-replay-how-to-build-business-for-truckings-down-cycles **Alex Lockie's first report from the session on roads through the dark economic clouds for owner-operators, and how to find that extra load right in your own backyard: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15682400/location-location-how-to-find-that-extra-load-in-your-backyard **Part 2 on salesmanship, effective communication and negotiation, more: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15682445/first-load-free-ownerops-get-creative-with-sales

When we polled owner-operators about a year ago on recent-history improvement, or lack thereof, in detention time along their routes and at their customers, a huge majority noted the situation they'd seen at docks hadn't improved to any noticeable degree in recent years. Forty percent of all poll respondents at the time in fact said detention had gotten worse for them: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-extra/article/15544369/how-to-calculate-detention-rate-for-owneroperator-business If the American Transportation Research Institute's new look at detention is correct, though, waits to load/unload are getting at least marginally better for the average driver out there, if not the majority of Overdrive's largely independent owner-operator readers. In this week's Overdrive Radio edition, track back through Overdrive News Editor Matt Cole's reporting on ATRI's "Cost and consequences of truck driver detention" study: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15683714/how-detention-time-impacted-trucking-companies-drivers-in-2023 The ATRI study's topline finding estimated trucking writ large lost $15 billion to detention at shippers and receivers in 2023. Yes, $15 billion with a B. If you consider the American Trucking Associations' annual revenue figure for the entirety of the trucking industry at nearly a trillion (ATA's 2023 estimate was $987 billion), that $15 billion is worth a full 1.5% of the entire revenues generated by trucking companies. In the podcast, we break down the headline-grabbing numbers and how ATRI got to them with its 2023 detention-impacts estimate, likewise what owners and operators can do to put a dent in their own detention problems. Some of it's obvious -- drop/hook situations, such as you can engineer them, will help -- but a lot is difficult, particularly the customer relations management that might truly make shippers and receivers feel the burden of their inefficiencies with detention fees charged. And then actually collected. As it stands today, trucking writ large tackles this issue by half measures, quite literally collecting invoiced detention fees only about half the time, ATRI found. More on the detention subject: **Recent OOIDA member survey: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15665203/ooida-member-surveys-on-detention-time-rates-deliver-ops-insight **FMCSA plans new study, quandary for owner-ops working with brokers: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-extra/article/15638339/ownerops-weigh-in-on-fmcsas-detentiontime-study-efforts

In this week's Overdrive Radio podcast edition we'll hear more of our talk with August Trucker of the Month Alan Kitzhaber, and a good bit about one particular subject near and dear to the 4-million-mile owner of a 1995 Kenworth T600 he's piloted since it was new. "I've been very religious about investing my money instead of spending it, and it's put me in a position where I can feel comfortable retiring." --Oakridge Transport owner-operator Alan Kitzhaber: https://www.overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year/article/15681362/meticulous-maintenance-efficiency-trucker-of-the-month Part 1 of this two-part podcast: https://www.overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year/podcast/15679534/4-million-miles-in-a-kw-t600-trucker-of-the-month-alan-kitzhaber His long-term retirement investment strategy, suffice it to say, has owner-operator Kitzhaber well-positioned for an exit, making good on his view of his truck and the trucking business itself. As he notes in today's podcast, trucking's always been a vehicle, a tool to "get me somewhere else," he said. "I want to generate profit from it." After squandering retirement savings from his work in the 1980s, mostly in his 20s, running a Radio Shack store, he's managed multiple qualified retirement accounts and other investments soundly. Nearing the end of a nearly 35-year run of consistently putting aside 15%-20% of his income, he's nearly gotten to that "somewhere else," where he truly wants to go -- that's retirement, setting out on a variety of projects, including building a house on his property in Eau Claire, Wisconsin; pursuit of photography and videography hobbies; taxidermy; and more. As some of you heard in the podcast last week, Kitzhaber achieved a significant milestone in May this year -- he's passed 4 million miles behind the wheel of a Cat-powered truck, his 1995 Oakridge Transport Kenworth T600, pulling since 2010 for a single shipper. As is sometimes the case in the profiles we write of our Trucker of the Year contenders, that shipper, the Midwest home-improvement chain Menards, headquartered nearby to Kitzhaber in Eau Claire, was a little slow to get back to us fully. Yet respond the company did, with a bit of a tribute to their long-running partner in Kitzhaber you can hear in this week's edition, too. **You can enter your own owner-operator business -- or that of another deserving owner -- in Overdrive's Trucker of the Year program, sponsored by Bostrom Seating, via this link: https://overdriveonline.com/TopTrucker Entries to the 2024 program are open through September.

"Some guys customize their truck via paint, chrome, lights, and things like that. I customize my truck to make it a more comfortable place to be, a more profitable truck, a more efficient truck." --Owner-operator Alan Kitzhaber It's another rewinder of sorts for this week in the Overdrive Radio podcast series. If you missed the news last week Tuesday, owner-operator Alan Kitzhaber out of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, was honored as our August Trucker of the Month, putting him in the running for Overdrive's Trucker of the Year award with his three-plus decades trucking and 4 million miles logged behind the wheel of his long-running 1995 Kenworth T600: https://www.overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year/article/15681362/meticulous-maintenance-efficiency-trucker-of-the-month Listeners have heard Kitzhaber in recent memory, of course, when he passed the 4-million-mile mark on the T600's odometer in May we aired this talk originally in July: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio/podcast/15679534/4-million-miles-in-a-95-kw-t600-owneroperator-alan-kitzhaber For those who missed the talk, this week hear Kitzhaber on his approach to keeping that rig running right these past decades and so many miles. And: we're at the final sprint for the Trucker of the Year award program for 2024. Nominations will close at the end of the month, and we've got just two semi-finalist slots left for a chance to win a brand-new seat, up to a $2,500 value, from Trucker of the Year award sponsor Bostrom Seating, a trip to and recognition at the Mid-America Trucking Show, various other prizes, and more. If you or another deserving owner want to put your business in the running, visit https://OverdriveOnline.com/toptrucker to do that. Kitzhaber's not the first owner Overdrive Radio listeners have heard who's done similar -- "Mustang" Mike Crawford crossed 4 million in his 1994 Freightliner (12.7 Detroit-powered) back in 2022: https://www.overdriveonline.com/channel-19/article/15291488/mike-mustang-crawfords-1994-freightliner-4-million-safe-miles (Incidentally, Overdrive editor Todd Dills spoke with Crawford July 1 as he hitting the Prime yard in Springfield at the end of his final run before retirement with a grand total of 4,159,910 miles in the rear view of the Freightliner. More on Crawford's final run in a future podcast.) Owner-operator Alan Kitzhaber's career stretches back to 1990, his time as owner-operator some years on with Millis Transfer, where he first took the reins of the then-brand-new 1995 Kenworth T600 as a company driver. He bought the truck from the company itself, then, a few years later. Since then, he's been laser-focused on turning that truck into a profit-making machine, and meticulous with record-keeping in no small way. As suggested by the quote at the top, too, plenty modifications through the years have allowed him to excel to the point of achieving well more than 8 mpg for a fuel mileage average several years running this past decade. There's a lot to those modifications he's made, for certain, detailed in today's episode. And 4 million miles is a very long way. More than 8 times to the moon and back. At roughly 60 miles per hour it'd take you well past the hard end of the 14-hour clock to do it at 66,666 hours. We'll track back through Kitzhaber's history a little more quickly than that today on the podcast, along the way learning plenty about just how the owner-operator kept that Cat-powered T600 humming efficiently for so very long. As mentioned in the podcast, Caterpillar's interview with Kitzhaber for its Million Mile Club when he crossed 3 million: https://www.cat.com/en_US/articles/cat-truck-engine-articles/million-miler-alan-kitzhaber.html Gordon Alkire's closed greasing system: https://www.overdriveonline.com/channel-19/article/14877182/csa-proofing-part-two-closed-greasing-system

With the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's annual Brake Safety Week inspection initiative kicking off August 26 with stepped-up brake checks and inspections, generally, in jurisdictions across North America, we're looking back at a podcast from earlier in the year – February 2024 to be exact. The episode featured Wisconsin-headquartered owner-operator Warren McCurdy and a central point of view about what he feels the roadside inspection system was designed for. Something that's, well, gotten a little off track with how states, the FMCSA, and some fleets treat so-called “safey scores” derived from inspections and associated violations. As you're hauling this week, if you get a quote unquote “assist” from an inspector out there, take note of the approach he or she takes. Is it “prevention” of accidents that is the ultimate goal? McCurdy, at the top of the podcast, made clear his bone to pick with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's CSA scoring program and all its ripple effects throughout trucking and roadside inspection systems. After a trailer tire lost air in transit sufficient to take the tire off the rim -- the trailer empty, the tire problem unnoticed by McCurdy before inspection -- the owner-operator's leasing carrier assessed points for the violation modeled on the FMCSA's internal Driver Safety Measurement System nearly enough to void McCurdy's lease. This sort of "accountability" isn't, the owner-operator felt, what roadside inspections were designed for. The inspector in this case in Washington State did his job to the letter, and caught the in-transit flattened tire in plenty time to save any real damaging outcome. For all that, McCurdy is thankful. "I think that these inspections are good. They should be preventative things," he said. "Nobody wants to go down the road with flat tires." Yet, he added, "I don't think we should be penalized for something that is not something that you did intentionally." That goes for the motor carrier as well. There's a reason carriers like his own assess those points -- because they are incurring the same level of severity weighting in the Carrier SMS. Potential changes to the Carrier SMS notwithstanding (FMCSA isn't looking at those same changes for the Driver SMS), the podcast this week dives back into what's at issue in cases like these, in which carriers subject to the severity weighting system for violations pass that on, with their own systems to hold drivers and owner-operators to a degree of accountability themselves, relying on the federal points system to assess and prevent damage to their own scores. Susan McCurdy tried her hand at the DataQs system in a vain attempt to contain the damage in this case by challenging the violation. But given the inspector was doing what he should have done here -- alerting McCurdy to the problem tire on his trailer, conducting an inspection, then reporting the results into the federal system as required -- there was nothing DataQs was going to be able to help correct about the fundamental nature of the situation. More fundamentally, though, it's the very nature of the CSA scoring system that makes accountability problematic for owner-operator McCurdy here. Nobody indeed intends to run around with flat tires. With respect to any violation, McCurdy urges regulators take a long hard look at what they're holding carriers and drivers accountable for by scoring them as they do. More in Overdrive's long-running CSA's Data Trail series: http://overdriveonline.com/csas-data-trail Find plenty in the way of brakes-related maintenance and inspection resources at this page: https://www.overdriveonline.com/maintenance/article/14875428/tractor-trailer-maintenance-for-ownerops-to-outrun-inspectors

It was no doubt a bittersweet last weekend in Waupun, Wisconsin, at what could well be the final edition of the decades-running Waupun Truck-N-Show, where Overdrive News Editor Matt Cole was on hand talking to many among the owner-operators and other truckers in attendance: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-extra/article/15681420/final-waupun-trucknshow-kicks-off One such was Dane Wisniewski, owner of three-truck small fleet HDR, LLC, headquartered there in the state. Owner Wisniewski recalled fondly his time attending the show during every single one of his years in business from the time he started with just one truck. "I hope that somebody maybe takes it over," he said about prospects for the show to continue past this year, offering a challenge to those among his own younger generation of truck owners. "The younger generation such as I that's coming through the ranks needs to step up." This edition of Overdrive Radio podcast takes even more of the temperature among owners out at the Waupun show not only as it relates to the kind of wistfulness -- with a challenge to the next generation -- coming from owner-operator Wisniewski about the show's future prospects itself. August 22 is coming fast, and on that day we're hosting an online session geared toward exchanging ideas around building trucking business to weather the inevitable ups and downs of the business cycles: https://fusable.zoom.us/webinar/register/7917212359500/WN_DKU8Uka_QVyvEVqCSBdAjA#/registration Given that, Cole asked five owners you'll hear from today some of the same questions: What have they done in response to the current, long-ongoing freight slump? Is there any hope that this year's presidential election's conclusion might deliver certainty to the spenders out there such that freight might improve significantly in the years to come? In other words, is there a chance the prognosticators foreseeing growth in 2025, rather than full-blown economic recession, could be right, with the better political certainty delivering freight market improvements? Settle in for a lightning round on micro- and macro-trucking economics, as it were, from the point of an ag-heavy group of owner-operators at the Waupun show. We'll hear along the way from: **Brett Buske, hauling in a custom 379 that's part of his and his father's seven-truck small fleet. **Owner-operator Brian Bucenell, leased to Drake Hauling pulling a hopper. **The father and son small fleet of Dan and Daniel Linn, Linn Acres Farms out of Bucyros, Ohio. **Wisconsin-headquartered HDR small fleet and HDL brokerage owner Dan Wiesniewski, who showed a 2007 Kenworth W900L at Waupun. And finally, one Nate Stone, who shares at least one trait in common with our August 22-set panelist owner-operator ilya Denisenko in that he's started his owner-operator business at perhaps the most opportune of inopportune times, if that makes sense. That is, right at the bottom of the market. It's kind of like that old Frank Sinatra song about New York City. If you can make there, at the bottom, with profit to show for it ... well, you might be able to make it anywhere. Read more about the August 22 panel discussion set for 1 p.m. Central time: **https://www.overdriveonline.com/15680141 **https://www.overdriveonline.com/15681671 Register to attend live and/or catch the replay: https://fusable.zoom.us/webinar/register/7917212359500/WN_DKU8Uka_QVyvEVqCSBdAjA#/registration

"As anti-automated driving as I am, I might almost rather see some robots. At least they're not going to be looking at screens" going down the road. --owner-operator and Overdrive July 2024 Trucker of the Month Mike Nichols: https://www.overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year/article/15680591/trucker-of-the-month-mike-nichols-knows-limits-hones-strengths We're picking up where we left off in Part 1 of this talk with owner-operator Nichols -- https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio/podcast/15681077/trucker-of-the-month-steers-business-with-reliable-partnerships -- conducted by Overdrive News Editor Matt Cole and featuring Nichols' perspective on recent-history revenue and income. "I made more in '22 than I did in '23," NIchols said, calling the reality, though, mostly a revenue boost and "artifact of the high fuel prices" that unprecedented year. Fortunately, leased to Wayne Transports with his 2020 Freightliner Coronado glider pulling dry bulk, "we've got a good fuel surcharge," he said. "There isn't any Mickey Mouse games with detention," either, which couldn't be said in his days pulling a reefer around the turn of the century. He's come a long way since with a careful approach to business, including his maintenance plan, approach to health insurance and retirement planning and perhaps the biggest challenge for OTR owner-ops going: bedrock safety on highways where distraction has become something of a norm. "I'm a firm believer in 'loud pipes save lives,'" as Nichols put it, "because people aren't paying attention." Nichols' is a voice for change on that score, in word as in deed. You can enter your own owner-operator business -- or that of another deserving owner -- in Overdrive's Trucker of the Year program, sponsored by Bostrom Seating, via this link: https://overdriveonline.com/TopTrucker Also in the podcast: From the Large Cars & Guitars truck show in Tennessee this past May, a window on a stunning 2023 Peterbilt 389 in the small fleet West Lawrence Logistics of Town Creek, Alabama, piloted by three-year company hauler Jarad Mullinix.

This week on the podcast, we're diving in headfirst to the history of Wisconsin-headquartered owner-operator Mike Nichols, Overdrive's July Trucker of the Month and profiled recently in our Trucker of the Year semi-finalist series by Matt Cole: https://www.overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year/article/15680591/trucker-of-the-month-mike-nichols-knows-limits-hones-strengths As Cole wrote about the owner, Nichols pulls leased to bulk carrier Wayne Transports, for most of the last six years running. And the owner well knows his strengths and weaknesses, and has built his business to hum with that in mind. His prioritization of effective partnerships (both on the freight side and with a trusted maintenance partner nearby his home, among other business areas) have his one-truck business plenty profitable even through the difficulties of these last years. Wayne Transports, where he's specialized in the dry bulk division, is a big part of that. His was a long road to get to this point, though, and today we'll run through the twists and turns of a career that stretches back to his first taste of truck ownership almost four decades ago. As mentioned in the podcast: **Nichols isn't the first owner-operator to benefit from Wisconsin's unique Lemon Law and its application to commercial trucks: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/14875197/lemon-aid **You can enter your own owner-operator business -- or that of another deserving owner -- in Overdrive's Trucker of the Year program, sponsored by Bostrom Seating, via this link: https://overdriveonline.com/TopTrucker Entries to the 2024 program are open through October.

More, today, from Overdrive Editor Todd Dills's run with Josh Gentry. Gentry's the son of country music titan Alabama's founding member and bassist Teddy Gentry. Today, we dive into the history of the band with some of the hands at its headquarters in Ft. Payne, Alabama, around which all three founding members -- Gentry, lead vocalist Randy Owen, and the late guitarist Jeff Cook -- all grew up and kept ties to over all the years of chart-toppers, touring, and all the trucking involved with the operation. Part 1 of the podcast: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio/podcast/15680069/roll-on-alabama-ft-paynenashville-with-trucker-josh-gentry As noted in Part 1, the Kenworth company is sponsoring Alabama's current tour -- the "Roll On II North America Tour," using the name of Alabama's trucking-song classic "Roll On (18 Wheeler)." Kenworth's sponsorship rekindles an old relationship between the band and the truck company. Founding member Teddy Gentry called the original relationship a product of necessity back during the height of the band's popularity, when he said the tour was supported by as many as five tractor-trailers full to the gills with equipment the band's operation toted from place to place. He can't recall just how it started, but “we needed trucks," he said, "and we were exploding on the scene as far as the music goes." Teddy Gentry called it certainly a “good promotion for them,” Kenworth, too, with Alabama trailers festooned with band insignia pulled across North America by Kenworth. It was good for the band, too, recalled Teddy Gentry, leading to Alabama featuring in the driver-tribute show year after year at the Mid-America Trucking Show through the late 1980s up through an official farewell tour in the early 2000s. This rekindled sponsorship, Gentry added, has been great to “reunite a relationship that works, and especially that my son's involved,” he said. For Josh Gentry, his father felt, trucking with the band and family is like “a dream come true” in some ways. Josh's own words underscore that, to an extent, reflecting during our run in the single 2021 Kenworth T680 that powers the Alabama-controlled portion of the tour today that, like so many an owner-operator and driver the nation over, he takes pride in doing what he does. If you missed last week's podcast, you're going to hear Josh Gentry today speaking on the Thursday ahead of Alabama's Friday, July 19, show at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The bulk of the talk was recorded in-cab with Gentry on the haul up to Nashville from band headquarters in Ft. Payne, where we also spoke with staff about their longevity working for the group and memories of the past supporting their relationship with their fans and the many, many tours. And we'll drop in at the load site in Nashville where Alabama's gear is housed, and where the Josh Gentry hauled into to fill the wrapped 48-foot Great Dane show trailer to stage that Thursday night at Bridgestone. Tour operations managers and crew there spoke to all manner of aspects of Josh Gentry's and their own work for the band, and the tight relationship between father and son Gentry as well. Dive into this on-highway portrait of country music titans Alabama, with destination a show that would see something you don't see every day, that's sure. It opened with a Kenworth video that, in essence, is a tribute to the importance of American trucking. That video ended with a message, in this case sent out to 20,000 people all in one very, very big room: “Thank you to drivers everywhere,” it read. “Roll On.” Also as noted in the podcast. Find where you can register for our live August 22 roundtable session detailing how to survive, even thrive through trucking down cycles: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15680141/how-owneroperators-can-build-business-for-truckings-down-cycles

Thursday, July 18, would be a short day of work for operator Josh Gentry, starting at a leisurely 10 a.m. in Fort Payne, Alabama, outside the Quality Inn in town. There, Gentry met Overdrive Radio host Todd Dills to get rolling, the pair starting the day in Gentry's Chevrolet en route to the site of an old auto dealership in town that, since the mid-1980s, has been the home base of the fan club for longtime country-rock group Alabama. It's also home base for the group's tour truck, in which Gentry was about to set out on a run. Josh Gentry is son of one of the last two founding members in the band, bassist and harmony singer Teddy Gentry. Josh, after years pursuing music himself, then hauling grain around his home region (some of those years as an owner-operator), today serves as hauler of Alabama's touring operation, moved in a single truck and 48-foot Great Dane show trailer emblazoned with the band's insignia and the "Roll On II North America Tour" logo. That truck, a 2021 Kenworth T680 detailed in this week's podcast, rekindles an old partnership between the Alabama group and the Kenworth company, dormant after an official farewell tour in the early part of this century. As you'll hear on this run to Nashville to load in for Alabama's July 19 show at Bridgestone arena, Kenworth's relationship with the band tracks back to the 1980s, when the tour operation was as many as four trucks and trailers, and the band was at the height of its popularity with big hits like "Mountain Music," "Tennessee River" and, yes, the classic "Roll On (18 wheeler)," in past named by Overdrive readers in the top five for best trucking song of all time: https://www.overdriveonline.com/channel-19/article/14875984/these-are-the-top-10-trucking-songs-of-all-time Gentry's come full circle with his growing involvement in the tour operation, after a childhood spent enamoured by all things trucking and immersed in his father's band's music. Despite that long history, though, there's still opportunity for new experiences. By 11 a.m. Thursday last week he and Dills were pulling out with a lightly loaded trailer toward the Soundcheck facility's docks to pick up more gear situated a very-short haul across the river from downtown. As the truck and trailer merged onto I-59 toward Chattanooga from Ft. Payne that morning, just as Dills readying his audio recorder for the talk with Gentry, a voice came over the radio -- "Roll on, Alabama!" -- invoking the classic trucking song. Gentry called tour manager Jeff Davis to mark the moment and give him an update on progress toward Nashville for load and staging. Yet the over-the-air atta-boy wasn't the very first bit of attention the wrapped truck and trailer have gotten over going on two years Gentry's been guiding the tour, taking him as far as, most recently, North Dakota and into Manitoba and elsewhere in Canada. Dive into Josh Gentry's trucking history and otherwise in this first episode featuring Overdrive's talk with the operator, the principal interests of his life to date all coming together now in live entertainment hauling with the family business. Catch more views of the truck and trailer, and from the Friday, July 19, live show in Nashville here: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio/podcast/15680069/roll-on-alabama-ft-paynenashville-with-trucker-josh-gentry Find all episodes of Overdrive Radio via https://overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio

"Some guys customize their truck via paint, chrome, lights, and things like that. I customize my truck to make it a more comfortable place to be, a more profitable truck, a more efficient truck." --Owner-operator Alan Kitzhaber May 2024 was a big month for owner-operator Alan Kitzhaber, running with his authority as Oakridge Transport out of a home base in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, now for getting on a decade and a half. That month, he celebrated with family the graduation of one of his brothers with a Master's degree in counseling, that brother's son's completion of a PhD in chemistry, and graduation of the brother's daughter from high school. Owner-operator Kitzhaber himself, treated for prostate cancer earlier in the year, was celebrating an undetectable blood test marking his freedom from that condition. He put a light blue ribbon in the icing on a brownie cake he made as they all got together at his brother's house to celebrate. Just what else Kitzhaber put on that cake, which you can see in the cover image for this Overdrive Radio edition, is the reason you're hearing Alan today. Also in May, Alan Kitzhaber completed a remarkable feat in his 1995 Kenworth T600, Cat 3406E-powered. He crossed the 4-million-mile mark in that single truck alone, every one of the miles logged under his expert piloting. Kitzhaber's not the first owner Overdrive Radio listeners have heard who's done similar -- "Mustang" Mike Crawford crossed 4 million in his 1994 Freightliner (12.7 Detroit-powered) back in 2022: https://www.overdriveonline.com/channel-19/article/15291488/mike-mustang-crawfords-1994-freightliner-4-million-safe-miles (Incidentally, Overdrive editor Todd Dills spoke with Crawford July 1 as he hitting the Prime yard in Springfield at the end of his final run before retirement with a grand total of 4,159,910 miles in the rear view of the Freightliner. More on Crawford's final run in a future podcast.) Owner-operator Alan Kitzhaber's career stretches back to 1990, his time as owner-operator some years on with Millis Transfer, where he first took the reins of the then-brand-new 1995 Kenworth T600 as a company driver. He bought the truck from the company itself, then, a few years later. Since then, he's been laser-focused on turning that truck into a profit-making machine, and meticulous with record-keeping in no small way. As suggested by the quote at the top, too, plenty modifications through the years have allowed him to excel to the point of achieving well more than 8 mpg for a fuel mileage average several years running this past decade. There's a lot to those modifications he's made, for certain, detailed in today's episode. And 4 million miles is a very long way. More than 8 times to the moon and back. At roughly 60 miles per hour it'd take you well past the hard end of the 14-hour clock to do it at 66,666 hours. We'll track back through Kitzhaber's history a little more quickly than that today on the podcast, along the way learning plenty about just how the owner-operator kept that Cat-powered T600 humming efficiently for so very long. As mentioned in the podcast, Caterpillar's interview with Kitzhaber for its Million Mile Club when he crossed 3 million: https://www.cat.com/en_US/articles/cat-truck-engine-articles/million-miler-alan-kitzhaber.html Gordon Alkire's closed greasing system: https://www.overdriveonline.com/channel-19/article/14877182/csa-proofing-part-two-closed-greasing-system

This week's edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast drops into Overdrive editor Todd Dills' interview with Overdrive June Trucker of the Month Greg Labosky, the man who is master of the machine, in some respects, that is the Amazon loads platform Relay: https://www.overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year/article/15678623/careful-prep-the-name-of-the-game-for-june-trucker-of-the-month Labosky's operating with authority just a single truck in that system, which rewards those who maintain the highest percentile rankings for various service levels tracked therein. Labsoky's consistently above 98 there, and that means he's got early access to loads booked on time-based contracts to in essence guarantee revenue for extended periods in advance. That builds in plenty time for planning his schedule on runs mostly within a geographical orbit of his GDL Enterprise business's home base in New Haven, Connecticut. Owner-operator Labosky's just a few years into the journey of operating with authority, but as noted his trucking experience started in the mid-1990s, before the rise of the machine-assisted freight procurement world so many owners wrestle with today. As you'll hear, though, it's Labosky's old-school knowledge that give him the ability to adeptly tinker around the edges to take full control of the center of his business, his veritable mastery of the machine. As noted, he's our Trucker of the Month for June, putting him in the running as a semifinalist for the 2024 Trucker of the Year award, sponsored by Bostrom Seating: https://overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year You can put your own business in the running, or that of another deserving owner you've learned from, via https://OverdriveOnline.com/toptrucker

This week's Overdrive Radio episode opens a window onto the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's virtual listening session held last week to discuss the agency's efforts to potentially improve the safety rating system it uses for determining carriers' fitness to operate in interstate commerce. Sit in on virtually the entire session, featuring a bevy of views from trucking stakeholders in response to chief areas of inquiry agency reps outlined near the top of the session. Regular Overdrive readers will know the effort around the potential safety rating change has been a long time in coming. Since the CSA Safety Measurement System came into play a decade and a half ago, it's as if it's always been on the FMCSA's wish list to use roadside data, possibly even the SMS itself, to determine a safety rating. Yet past attempts to do so have faltered under scrutiny, with loads of pushback from carriers and owner-operators on the notion. This session was no outlier in that regard, it's certain. Commenter Daniel Shelton pointed out inadequacies he saw in a myriad violations used in parts of the CSA SMS that have really nothing to do with the bedrock indicator of safety in his mind, crashes that can reliably be shown as the fault of the motor carrier. Shelton also questioned the agency's Crash Preventability Determination Program and its efficacy in identifying nonpreventable crashes to exclude them from carriers' records. Agency reps on the call noted that nonpreventable determinations would exclude those crashes from a safety rating, yet Shelton told a story about one such he'd seen up close and then attempted to use the DataQs system to remove from the record, only to find out it wasn't a crash type eligible for review in the preventability program. (Pending changes in that regard continue to be in limbo as the agency reviews comments on a 2023 proposal.) All such issues, Shelton noted, will be big problems for the agency if it plans to utilize roadside and/or other SMS data in a new safety rating system. Hear many more views and answers to questions about the effort in the podcast. The virtual session last week was but one of two that are planned. You can register for the next July 31 session at this link: https://events.gcc.teams.microsoft.com/event/6d8b1246-2138-4ba9-821c-e926441fd2e1@c4cd245b-44f0-4395-a1aa-3848d258f78b As also mentioned in the podcast, FMCSA changes to the CSA SMS methodology remain pending almost a year and a half since proposed: https://www.overdriveonline.com/regulations/article/15306821/fmcsa-launches-site-for-proposed-csa-carrier-sms-changes More about those pending changes: https://www.overdriveonline.com/regulations/article/15352537/proposed-csascores-change-a-mixed-bag-in-hos-category-others

In this podcast, the voice of former FBI counterintelligence assistant director Frank Figliuzzi, in conversation with Overdrive News Editor Matt Cole's about his new book, "Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers," a close look at the FBI's long look at almost 1,000 murders over decades collected and analyzed in its "Highway Serial Killings" database. As Cole writes in a story that will go live with the post containing this podcast on OverdriveOnline.com Monday, June 24, "This, for all of us, is a tough subject to broach. Why? The killings caught the attention of the FBI principally because they all had enough in common that investigators could confidently say they appeared to have been committed by truck drivers." Trucking professionals who pick up the book or listen to the podcast, furthemore, will have to get past the fact of Frank Figliuzzi's frequent shorthand use the often honorific term "trucker" in reference to various perpetrators of violence in-cab and elsewhere out along the highways. Reading the first parts of the book, Overdrive Radio host Todd Dills couldn't help but think, "over and over and over again, 'Man, Frank, did you ever consider calling these folks what they are? Killers, maybe.' Or: 'Quite disturbed steering wheel holders?' Deserving of the 'trucker' label they are not." At once, a big part ot Figliuzzi's engagement with the subject matter -- the book's dedicated in part to trucker generally -- is to emphasize on-highway pros' role combatting a central problem, namely sex trafficking, that leads to so many of the killings logged in the FBI's HSK database, many of them unsolved. Speaking directly to truckers, too, Figliuzzi hopes to inspire many to continue to be eyes and ears OTR, noting during the talk the Truckers Against Trafficking organization and all that organization's done to marshal working owner-operators and drivers against sex crimes and violence. The organization was in part instrumental in establishing and promoting to the industry the National Human Trafficking Hotline well more than a decade ago now -- a good point of contact to this day for reporting crimes in progress, things that just don't look right out on the road as well. That's 888-3737-888. More about Truckers Against Trafficking: https://tatnonprofit.org Also discussed in the podcast -- Overdrive's 2023 "Trucking's State of Surveillance" series: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15541635/truckings-state-of-surveillance-inside-the-costs-benefits

Walking the giant hallway in the South Wing every year at the Mid-America Trucking Show, you'll find benches that line the route, where people stop to rest. It's nice and quiet out there in general, compared to the show floor. On one Gary Buchs' walks down the hallways to or from this or that meeting, he happened to glance over and see four gentlemen chatting and smiling. (Those smiles stood out at this year's show, as so many in trucking are struggling to keep their hope up for the careers they have chosen.) Buchs, longtime Overdrive Extra blog contributor and business coach after a long career OTR as an owner-operator, then noticed one of the men was wearing a Landstar hat. “Are you BCOs?” he asked, well-knowing Landstar acronym for Business Capacity Owners, of course, given his past 17 years as an owner-operator leased to the company. Turned out, yes, three of the four men were active with Landstar, and each of those three brothers brought 30 years and more of driving experience to the table. The fourth, and interestingly oldest, brother, Carlos, is meanwhile in the process of becoming an owner himself, with the mentoring help of his three younger brothers. What a story they have to tell. The Marroquin brothers -- Ivar, Luis, Diego and Carlos -- immigrated from Guatemala beginning in 1989. The four are tightly woven together by experiences of hardship and challenges, including the death of their father when the oldest was only seven years old. They told me about their struggles to learn English effectively, something they strongly desired to accomplish, so much so they invested in college courses where lessons proved far superior than those they were initially steered to upon arrival in the United States with certainly less-than-perfect language skills. They shared stories of sometimes rough treatment from native English-speaking counterparts, name-calling so hurtful it brought at least one to tears. All they desired, throughout the long journey to truck and business ownership, was a fair shake, opportunity to work, earn a living, and help their families be an integral part of the communities where they lived. California's AB 5 contractor law hasn't helped, it's safe to say, as you'll hear in this podcast conversation with Buchs and the Marroquins. They all lived within 50 miles of Los Angeles when the law came into play. Life was good, all close enough to help each other and support family life. When AB 5 arrived, though, the three brothers decided to rent an apartment in Las Vegas, Nevada, where they established personal residency and their CDLs. That's just to mention a couple disruptions the new contractor law brought to their businesses. What shines through in the conversation, ultimately: good-natured debate over the right tack to take in business. Best brand of truck, right sort of transmission, benefits of pre-planning/booking loads versus boosted rates that come with waiting for the last-minute high-demand need. ... All are up for debate, and clearly the Marroquins' long history with one another other gives them the ability to cajole yet, at the same time, learn from and lean on each other.

"The power demand, the power that's required to pull a truck down the highway ... the idea is to match the power that's produced by the engine to the power that's required." --Overdrive's May Trucker of the Month Alec Costerus on the bedrock principal behind achieving the best fuel economy Alpha Drivers Transportation two-truck fleet owner and operator Alec Costerus launched the company just a couple of years ago from his Denver, Colorado, home base following about eight years trucking as an owner-operator leased to Landstar. The ADT company runs with authority two trucks today, with cofounder Joel Morrow behind the wheel of one of them out of Ohio, the other piloted by Travis Lauer, an operator Morrow trained himself on driving for max efficiency. ADT's the result of Costerus and Morrow becoming fast friends after "geeking out" for years over how to achieve better trucking efficiency, both when it comes to the equipment and the business itself, for certain. Longtime Overdrive Radio listeners have heard Morrow on the podcast, when he was part of panel including past Trucker of the Year Henry Albert, among others, at the 2022 MATS, all about spec'ing and driver practice toward getting to 10 miles per gallon and beyond: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio/podcast/15383454/paths-to-10plus-mpg-in-a-class-8-diesel-truck Alec Costerus himself turned heads among those in Overdrive's audience about a month ago, detailing how he and Morrow did just that, a big part of the success of what they've built with Alpha Drivers: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-extra/article/15670289/controlling-fuel-costs-for-small-trucking-businesses Principal reason for the head-turning? A 10.5-mpg average for their 2023 Volvo VNL760, spec'd to Morrow's liking with what Volvo's calling the i-Torque spec. Morrow had a lot to do with that spec, and today, we'll hear more of that story from Costerus directly, and how Costerus' efforts in concert with Morrow have resulted in what's certainly one of the most efficient owner-operator businesses around. Costerus, with 15 years or so in trucking now himself, is certainly unique among Overdrive's Trucker of the Year monthly semi-finalists for plenty reasons. Another: He's mostly managing the now-two-truck business outside the bounds of a truck cab, by and large, though he does jump back behind the wheel moving mostly power-only loads when Morrow is called away to trade shows or the fleet's other principal operator is down, and in other situations. Overdrive News Editor Matt Cole, who you'll hear asking the questions throughout the podcast, remarked early in his conversation with Costerus about the unique nature of the operation. "A lot of people can drive and 'be a trucker' that way," he noted. Alternately, stick around a while, grow and learn and "you can take that experience and leverage it for the greater good, so to speak." Costerus hopes to do that with Alpha Drivers, with a push to show just what can be done and bring the next generation up with him -- not to mention other owner-operators of his own generation who may not realize what can be achieved. His long experience over-the-road helps mightily. Critical for any trucking company owner, he believes: "that you actually know how the freight is moved, what the drivers endure, familiarity with hours of service, all of that. I think it makes us more efficient." It's a fine balancing act whether you're behind the wheel or not most days, running a trucking business in pursuit of not only efficiency to contain costs but the demands of revenue, time, playing guardian of the bedrock safety of the motoring public around you. Costerus is managing it well with Alpha Drivers. Enter Overdrive's Trucker of the Year contest: https://overdriveonline.com/toptrucker

The Department of Justice's Drug Enforcement Administration on May 20 officially published its notice of proposed rulemaking that, if finalized, would reschedule marijuana from a Schedule I controlled substance to Schedule III: https://www.regulations.gov/document/DEA-2024-0059-0001 The Biden Administration signaled its intent to move forward with such a proposal earlier this month, and the NPRM's publication formalized that effort. The DEA's proposal said moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act would be “consistent with the view of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that marijuana has a currently accepted medical use, as well as HHS's views about marijuana's abuse potential and level of physical or psychological dependence.” That, ultimately, is the difference between the two scheduling levels, as previously reported. Schedule I drugs are defined in the Act as “drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Those include heroin, LSD, ecstasy and, at least for now, marijuana. Schedule II drugs, in the terms of the legislation, show “high potential for abuse, with use potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence,” and are considered dangerous. These include combination products with less than 15 milligrams of hydrocodone per dosage unit (Vicodin), cocaine, methamphetamine, methadone, fentanyl and more. Drugs classified under Schedule III, how DEA is looking to classify marijuana, are those “with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence,” and have a lower abuse potential than Schedule I and Schedule II drugs. Currently, these include products containing less than 90 milligrams of codeine per dosage unit, like Tylenol with codeine, as well as ketamine, anabolic steroids, testosterone and more. Typically, according to Brandon Wiseman, attorney and president of Trucksafe Consulting and guest for this week's Overdrive Radio podcast, Schedule III drugs “are still controlled in the sense that they require a prescription.” As such, having a Schedule III drug in your system is not necessarily a disqualifying factor in DOT drug testing. The driver must have a valid medical prescription for that drug, and the medical review officer (MRO) that validates the results of the drug test has to be comfortable that the use of that drug won't impact the driver's ability to safely operate a truck. “Some prescription drugs will inhibit a driver's ability to safely operate a truck,” Wiseman said in the podcast. “And so we just weed those drivers out. Those drivers aren't going to be physically qualified. They're not going to be able to get a med card, for example, to be able to operate.” Hear much more from Wiseman in the podcast, and read Matt Cole and Alex Lockie's reporting on the rescheduling subject via these links: Cole: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15676307 Lockie's early two-part feature: **https://www.overdriveonline.com/15670141 **https://www.overdriveonline.com/regulations/article/15670542/marijuana-legalization-trucking-and-the-future-of-drug-testing