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Overdrive Extra: Page 2
Yes, you can reduce your trucking insurance premium. Here's proof
With good safety practice and being proactive with all insurance policies, these four carriers were rewarded with lower insurance premiums. Not one of them had to increase deductibles, lower stated value of equipment or anything else.
January 3, 2024
Is 'hold the steering wheel and hang on' the new standard for trucking pros?
Contributor Michael Bixler's work as a yard jockey yielded this tale of a woefully under-prepared driver. As Bixler asked, "has 'hold the steering wheel and hang on' become the standard procedure for operating these vehicles? If so, it’s appalling."
December 27, 2023
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May 10, 2024
Truck shows' 2023 haul for charity: $2M-plus
Long Haul Paul tells the tale of charitable truck shows that took place in 2023. Those we have information for raised more than $2.2 million, and were often started by individual truckers turning tragedy into hope.
December 25, 2023
Overdrive Extra
A trucker's night before Christmas
Certified medical examiner (and here, poet) Don Cui offered up this take on a Christmas classic especially for the men and women trucking the nation's holidays to their destination. Merry Christmas!
December 22, 2023
Overdrive Extra
Surprise, surprise: Why ATA opposes overtime pay, and why they're wrong
Clifford Petersen: ATA may "talk a good game" on trucker welfare, yet they're "supported by big motor carriers. They are not going to bite the hand that feeds them.... We’re not asking for something excessive here -- fair pay for all time worked."
December 20, 2023
Overdrive Extra
Can truckers get more time to replace an FMCSA-revoked ELD?
With the recent revocation of a batch of 10 ELDs, the FMCSA gave owner-operators and other carriers using those devices 60 days to install a replacement. Turns out, unlike with an ELD malfunction, more time for replacement isn't in the cards.
December 13, 2023
Overdrive Extra
FMCSA authority revocation anomaly: BOC3 blanket companies cleared out
A whopping 1,700-plus authority revocations in one day last month, outside FMCSA's usual revocation cadence, turned heads around Thanksgiving. FMCSA removed several blanket BOC3 companies from its system, putting trucker clients in shutdown risk.
December 8, 2023
Overdrive Extra
It's a deal: Perfect timing yields $50K saved on a new truck
But the price drop wasn't all there was to it when Matthew Mickenberg carefullly weighed added costs and other potential savings, reversing his early-year decision to hang on to his five-year-old Kenworth T680.
December 5, 2023
Overdrive Extra
'Crew rest': A military approach to protecting truckers' off-duty time from interruption
Former U.S. Air Force Loadmaster James Year envisions using military flight rules to protect drivers' off-duty time by allowing drivers to cite foolhardy shippers, brokers, even inspectors for interrupting "crew rest."
November 30, 2023
Overdrive Extra
How a 'Diesel Fool' became the 'Highway Preacher': Paul Leger
New Brunswick, Canada-headquartered Paul Leger speaks fluent trucker. On the road to his ministry around the Irving Big Stop in Salisbury, he ran U.S. lanes out of Toronto, then no-logbook Maritimes multi-stops before a spiritual transformation.
November 28, 2023
Overdrive Extra
Happy Thanksgiving!
If you're enjoying a little downtime over-the-road or at home, know that we're thankful for all of you here at Overdrive. Enjoy this run back through some of the Reader Rigs entries who've helped serve it up in this and Thanksgivings past. ...
November 23, 2023
Overdrive Extra
The truck lease-purchase model: Should we drive a stake in its heart?
What the FMCSA's truck-lease task force should be asking: How do we purge predatory programs while making it possible for drivers to still pursue the dream of being an owner-operator? What guardrails could make fair play the norm?
November 21, 2023
Overdrive Extra
Brokers' 3 a.m. calls -- 'Unless there's been a death in the family, a text will suffice'
That's but one viewpoint delivered by readers following Long Haul Paul's "Weigh In" tale earlier in the week detailing instances of over-eager brokers' sleep-disturbing check-ins in the wee hours. Here, LHP weighs next steps, rounding up commentary.
November 17, 2023
Overdrive Extra
Weigh In: Should brokers be allowed to call you at 3 a.m.?
For Long Haul Paul, it's impossible to get through to brokers in the daytime, then the 3 a.m. calls start. LHP takes the temp around broker "check calls," sometimes made in spite of increasingly ubiquitous tracking technology in use.
November 14, 2023
Overdrive Extra
'Way past ridiculous': Owner-ops sound off on FMCSA's baby steps on detention
Owner-ops and trucking groups respond to FMCSA's intentions to further explore the impacts of detention time on trucking. Truckers by and large favor a study, but clearly don't need any more convincing that excess detention is a major problem.
November 9, 2023
Overdrive Extra
What to do when your insurance policy doesn’t provide the necessary coverage
If you discover that your insurance policy doesn’t provide coverage for something you need it for, there is almost certainly a solution to provide that missing coverage. Some circumstances, though, are easier to address than others.
November 7, 2023
Overdrive Extra
View from the kitchen window: OTR life on the home front
Marcia Buchs offers lessons learned on managing relationships on the home front, after years working with her OTR owner-operator husband to make time for connection, avoid the money-problems wedge and much more.
November 2, 2023
Overdrive Extra
A look at 'Topsy,' Edison Motors' new diesel-electric vocational prototype
It's the novel creation of Chace Barber and the team at Canada-headquartered Edison Motors, and the first new build for the company after several retrofit diesel-electric designs, and recently shown at an Ontario truck and car show.
October 24, 2023
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Small Fleet Champ's team takes do-it-yourself maintenance to new levels
LNL Trucking owner Larry Limp and his brother collaborated to build this gantry crane to remove an ISX for overhaul, the first such engine his shop had done. "We'll see what we can learn," he said, in the process, sure to repeat itself in coming years.
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A short leash on long-term stability, profit: Trucker of the Month Gary Schloo
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