Owner-operator Johnny Saunders, based in Franklin, Virginia, took over the family trucking business in 1997, 20 years after his father started it. The elder Saunders passed in 2012, and Johnny and his wife continued running that business up until late 2021 when they “sold everything,” he said. “I had eight trucks and eight trailers and couldn’t keep any drivers.”
While many owner-operators are wary of long-held driver shortage claims in the trucking industry, Saunders said in his area of the country, he can understand why certain industry segments say a shortage exists.
“The area we’re in, in Franklin, Virginia, it’s just a little bit west of the Norfolk area,” he said. “Drivers are hard to find around here because there’s so many driving jobs because of the ports and the containers moving in and out of the ports, and the lumber industry around there."
Log trucks, chip trucks, those container haulers -- so many rigs running creates intense competition for the best among drivers in the area.
Johnny SaundersPhotos and video by Lawson Rudisill
Saunders employed some “great drivers over the years … but it just got to the point where you couldn’t find people” to do they type of work his company does.
Freight slowed, and “most of the time, half of [his drivers were] sitting in the yard and not running,” he said. “I just decided it was too much hassle to deal with it, and I decided to keep one [truck], drive it myself, and that way I knew where I was at every day; didn’t have to worry with the other parts.”
Throughout his time trucking, Saunders’ businesses have catered to the animal feed industry, mostly -- “chicken feed, dog food plants, cattle feed, that kind of thing,” he said. He’s also moved into hauling grain for local farmers. “Most anything that will going in that hopper bottom, we move it.” Today operating with one truck as Saunders Trucking Inc. (the same business name since start-up in ’77), he hauls the majority of his freight for a customer the family's worked with since the mid-1980s.
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The one truck is a special unit -- the 2000 International 9900i Eagle featured in the video up top. Overdrive video editor Lawson Rudisill caught up with Saunders to talk about the rig at the Large Cars & Guitars truck show and music festival earlier this year in Bristol, Tennessee, where Saunders showed off extensive rebuild work put into it.
It's caught plenty attention back home and in the region around Franklin, where Saunders said he’s received nothing but positive feedback. “Since I did all the work to the truck, the guys around home, everybody’s just loving that truck,” he said. “I actually had guys with Internationals, they started trying to give their truck the same look.” Saunders gave the truck its fitting nickname, “Talk of the Town.”
“Everybody’s talking about it, so I just kind of nicknamed it ‘Talk of the Town,’” Saunders said.
Before he downsized, the truck was the fleet’s spare -- owner-operator Saunders drove it on occasion. He had a couple of newer trucks when he decided to sell most of his equipment, 2018 and 2016 Peterbilt 389s. Friends suggested he hold onto a 2018 389 that was his own principal driver, yet “I don’t want to have to make payments,” he decided. “I don’t want to have to work that hard.”
He kept the 2000 International instead, and rebuilt it. The major components like the Cummins N14, 13-speed transmission, the clutch -- they've all been recently rebuilt. He stretched the frame for a more comfortable ride, he said, “and we polished it up.”
With the engine rebuild he added a different turbo manifold, an Airdog fuel system and Premco injectors -- “it runs pretty good for what it is,” Saunders noted.
He dropped the front end of the truck, too, just a bit to “give it a little rake so it’ll have a little attitude,” he said.
The truck features plenty additional lights, including green underglow to complement the dark green paint on the rig, along with light bars on the back of the tractor.
He showed at Large Cars with his go-to trailer pairing, a 2017 Wilson hopper bottom -- “just basically your standard … commodity trailer,” he said. As you'll see in the video up top, the trailer's painted to match the truck, something he'd previously done with that 2018 Peterbilt he drove previously, and its trailer.
Truck and trailer both feature Hogebuilt stainless quarter fenders.
Saunders also just added this visor to the cab from Dominguez Iron Works out of Miami.
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Johnny Saunders: Since I did all the work to the truck, everybody is just loving that truck. I've actually had guys with Internationals, they started trying to give their truck the same look, so I just called it "Talk of the Town." Everybody's talking about it, so I just kind of nicknamed it "Talk of the Town."
Hi, my name is Johnny Saunders. I own Saunders Trucking in Franklin, Virginia. We are a feed products transporting business. We move animal feed, grain, most anything that will go in that hopper bottom, we move it.
It's a 2000 international 9900i Eagle. It's an old truck. This old truck here, you know, we did a lot of work to it, and the engine has just been rebuilt recently, transmission, clutch. It's an N14 Cummins and did a few little extra goodies to it. Different turbo manifold. It's got an Airdog fuel system on it. Got Premco injectors in it.
I just had bought a new visor and put on it from Dominguez [Iron Work] down in Miami. I did drop the front end on it, give it a little rake so it'll have a little attitude.
I had it stretched a little bit when I started driving it, gave it a little better ride. And it's got light bars on the back of the track there and a light panel in the middle, and I put stainless Hogebuilt quarter fenders on the trailer. Kind of matched the tractor.
And then I had the trailer, actually had the trailer painted to match my tractor. It was actually a white trailer. I had it painted green to match my tractor. And I guess what inspired me to do it was my 2018 Pete I had was black, and it had some like lime green stripes on the tractor, and I striped the trailer just like a tractor on that one, and it looked really good.
It's a 2017 Wilson hopper bottom. It's just basically a standard, what they call commodity trailer. It's got the big hoppers on it and the big doors in the bottom, you know, so your product will come out easier. I've added some lights. I put, you know, obviously lights on the bumper and we put the side lights on the cab and stuff like that. And I put underglow underneath the whole tractor and trailer -- green underglow to kind of match the truck and trailer.
So, it's been a great old truck. I mean, I still love driving the thing. It runs good, drives good. It gets the job done.
