The mood among truck owner participants in Peterbilt's sixth-ever, invite-only Pride & Class parade event and truck show in Denton, Texas, this past October might have been marred by the freight demand situation. As Texas-based Massey Motor Freight fleet owner and custom-truck builder Troy Massey put it at the time, "If you're not struggling in trucking, you better be real quiet about it."
Certainly don’t tell anyone just how you're achieving your success, Massey went on from there to say. If you do, chances are they’ll be coming for your business soon enough.
Yet at the Pride & Class event, the mood was decidedly upbeat in spite of it all -- that goes for Massey, too. "This is a pretty prestigious event" for Peterbilt owners and enthusiasts, he said, and represented his first invite to it. "I'm pretty excited."
Massey's upbeat mood, and the honor he felt from even getting the invite to participate, was also reflected by two other owners featured with Massey and his 389 in this week's edition of Overdrive Radio. The podcast is something of a tour through history via three models in the long lineage of long-hood Petes, from a 1984 vintage Peterbilt 359 custom restored and worked by owner-operator Greg Crispell to oil and gas pipeline professional Jarrett Landry’s “oversize dually,” as he quipped about his single-drive-axle former daycab 1988 379.
Owner Massey’s latest custom creation completes the run through near 40 years of living lineage with the 2022 model Dustn' the Wind, though Pete's new 589 was at least represented by an early production model in the Pride & Class parade. Time will tell what truck owner-operators do with that one. Might we get an indication of that at the Mid-America Trucking Show fast approaching? Massey is among owners competing in a rebooted special part of the PKY memorial custom truck show at MATS -- the Big Rig Build-Off. Other competitors there include 2023 Overdrive's Small Fleet Champ finalist Adam Johnson of Johnson Hill Customs and K&D Transport, Dustin Dickerson and the Davis Bros. of Indiana. Keep tuned on that front.
[Related: Survival strategies, tactics to thrive: Owner-op biz in spotlight at MATS]
For now, settle in with more detail on three iconic Peterbilt models, a tribute, of a fashion, to all that’s come before, and all that remains well-entrenched in the present through the work of these owners.
Stay tuned for video looks at both Landry's and Massey's rigs, and catch Greg Crispell's pristine 1984 359 in the video below.