You’ve heard the old expression: Life begins at 40. More than a few weeks have elapsed since I passed that mile marker, and I can tell you things haven’t slowed down.
Life at work and at home is fuller than ever.
The same is true for Overdrive. This issue marks 40 years of publishing an exciting magazine that’s taken some time to grow up. Its first 25 years were a freewheeling period of mixing earnest cries for fair treatment of owner-operators with amusing cartoons and parodies, not to mention the frequent photos of attractive young women posing around trucks.
In its last 15 years, under Randall Publishing Co., Overdrive has matured. Owner-operators, in the wake of the 1980 deregulation of the industry, have come to focus less on strikes and more on building successful small businesses, and our magazine has been there to help.
We couldn’t have done it without the help of our advertisers. Not only does their financial support make publishing possible, even during industry downturns, but their spokesmen provide the expert advice you find every month in our business features, technical articles and news reports.
More than two dozen of our advertisers joined us as close partners this year to sponsor our 40th Anniversary Voice of the American Trucker Tour that concludes this month at the Great American Trucking Show. Notable among those are Volvo, which provided its high-tech VN770 to lead the tour; Great Dane, whose trailer was
customized and decorated by Indiana Custom Trucks and Auto Trim of North America; TravelCenters of America and Petro, which hosted our tour stops across the country; and Dart Transit Co., which backed
Harvey Zander, 1999 Overdrive Trucker of the Year, as our lead driver.
Spending five weeks on the road to mix with you where you work has been a great experience for our editors and sales representatives who participated in the tour. Having heard your concerns firsthand, we’re better equipped to bring you a better magazine. You’ll find that at 40, Overdrive‘s life has just begun.
