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6 tasks to assess 2020 and set biz priorities for 2021
Did your owner-operator business hit its goals for 2020? What can you do to adjust for 2021? Check out these 6 steps for assessing your business on Overdrive.
December 3, 2020
car hauler-2020-12-03-13-31
Tales from a trainer's truck: Good, bad, ugly with reefer operator Bill Douglas
The rewards that come with knowing you've set a driver up for success, and difficulties setting boundaries with a trainee taking your credit card for dinner -- while you're asleep. Long Haul Paul takes the mic for this podcast with the longtime trainer.
March 24, 2023
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Join us at MATS -- new owner-operator business manual to be released, live benchmarking seminar, more
Join Overdrive and ATBS 1:45 p.m. local time on Friday, March 31, in Louisville at MATS for the annual Partners in Business seminar, a presentation of 2022 owner-operator income, revenue, cost performance against which to measure your own business.
March 23, 2023
Pib 2023 Cover Thumbnail
'Estimated opening time is unknown': Winter from hell on I-80 in Wyoming
"Long Haul Paul" Marhoefer's report from his own marooning two weeks back with road closures in frigid Wyoming, culminating a rash of closures this winter season and a threefold increase in related crash fatalities.
March 13, 2023
Wyoming I 80 Pileup White Out 63d8264c8b69e
Ohio, Arizona hazmat disasters hold lessons for owners, carriers in the fight against safety complacency
In the wake of the high-profile Ohio train derailment, and later hazmat spill from a dry van that closed I-10 for a day in Arizona, Overdrive contributor Gary Buchs urges owner-operators to fight against safety complacency that can come with success.
March 8, 2023
i10 hazmat spill
'It came with work': CAP Trucking's flagship 2003 Peterbilt 379
A visit with 2022 Small Fleet Champ and CAP owner Chris Porricelli yields the story of this '03 classic, bought with the "truck, trailer, bulkhead and pallet jack and with the southbound load" out of Pennsylvania as part of the deal in 2017.
March 1, 2023
Chris Porricellie's 2003 Peterbilt 379
How to avoid application errors when applying for your USDOT/MC numbers
All too often, application errors lead to extra start-up costs, delays and lost income. Longtime owner-operator and insurance agent W. Joel Baker here shares some of the more common filing errors he sees and issues associated with them.
February 28, 2023
instructions for form op-1
'We don't give directions' -- how GPS is changing our social selves
Long Haul Paul's talk with a blue-haired receiver with a hipster affect takes a surprising turn. Have GPS and other trucking tech "permanently altered our sense of social obligation toward one another?" he asks. Or just turned necessity into opportunity.
February 21, 2023
Denise Marhoefer with Provolone cheese
We are not alone in the struggle against depression and other serious mental health risks
A recent OTR suicide prompted Clifford Petersen to remind anyone needing help that he's been there himself, and is available for a conversation, for support. Read his moving story here, and access resources. "You are not alone," as he emphasizes.
February 13, 2023
Loaded flatbed on highway
Is ATA starting to understand small trucking businesses?
In the first meeting of the new Congress' House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, ATA President and CEO Chris Spear spoke to the reps about issues trucking faces. Interestingly, perhaps oddly, he sounded at least at times like an owner-op.
February 2, 2023
ATA President and CEO Chris Spear
‘Common sense, you’ve got it for a reason’ -- Use your CB already, owner-ops say
And if you don’t run with a CB, get one. Too many seem to think that the CB is little more than a “movie prop from a silly movie from the 1970s,” as Kenneth Williams put it, echoing the sentiment of a bevy of truckers after a deadly highway pileup.
January 24, 2017
youtube thumbnail with overdrive radio logo sponsored by howes with a major car pile up in winter weather and a CB mic
More freight fraud inbound? Pessimistic rates outlook sets the stage
The double brokers and ID thieves are most definitely back from the holiday vacation. Meanwhile, latest Bloomberg | Truckstop.com survey shows owners' increasingly pessimistic outlook for freight rates' immediate future, though some optimism remains.
February 1, 2023
Trucks exiting scale back onto highway
The most under-appreciated insurance coverage in all of trucking
After the death of an owner's spouse and passenger, it's clear that if you don’t have this coverage, or if you choose to purchase only the minimum, you could be making one of your worst business and insurance coverage decisions.
January 30, 2023
Semi-truck crash with police cars on a highway
Owner-op finds Chicago container hauling, long-term, more lucrative than OTR
Marine vet and owner-operator Carlos Alizondo hauled in military support-operations in Iraq, but also has war stories about container hauling in his hometown of Chicago. "These guys don't know how good they have it today," he said of current conditions.
January 23, 2023
Carlos Alizondo's 1998 Peterbilt 379 daycab
Drummer for iconic rock band with Overdrive ties dies
Robbie Bachman, one of the founding members of the iconic Canadian rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive, passed away Jan. 12. The last part of the band's name came from an encounter with this publication at a Windsor stop, detailed in August 1975.
January 23, 2023
Bachman-Turner Overdrive August 1975 feature in Overdrive
New year, new you
Have you given up on your New Year's Resolutions yet? If so, you're not alone. Clifford Petersen here offers strategies toward more effective goal-setting and achievement. "The reward is a new you, at a new level, in this new year."
January 16, 2023
Flatbed On Highway California Pacheco Pass
Wide loads to a narrow niche: Houseboat hauler and expert diesel mechanic Greg Parks
The story of how a personal need in 2010 brought the longtime diesel shop owner to the ultra-specialized business of houseboat hauling, which is a significant though still part-time portion of his week-in, week-out work out of Camden, Arkansas.
January 10, 2023
Greg Parks' Western Star pulling a houseboat
A purposeful life beyond the truck: Owner-operators Jay and Katt Hosty
The long-term return on a person’s honest investment in volunteering far outweighs what may appear at first a week of lost income opportunity. Meet an example of purpose beyond the truck in owner-operator Jay Hosty and his wife, Katt.
January 9, 2023
Jay Hosty and his 2005 Western Star
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Shelly and Tim and the whole family.
Trucker of the Year
'Everything is a lesson' -- Pulli Express Inc.'s path to profits through continual adjustment
Owner-operators Tim and Shelley Puzek-Pulli's steady-as-she-goes approach to their two-decade-old owner-operator business, now a three-truck fleet, got a shot in the arm in 2012, after a crash launched in-house reckoning, big shifts in management.
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Tales from a trainer's truck: Good, bad, ugly with reefer operator Bill Douglas
Bielucki's 2023 international hx
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Holding the line: Owner-op's playbook to push back on cheap freight
250' tall, 190' long and 150' wide. These on-shore furnaces are 'some of the biggest things to be moved this far' on land, said Mammoet's team lead on this five-mile move from the coast inland to a pastics facility in Texas.
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The heaviest of hauls: Peek into 2022's biggest, baddest jobs by specialized carriers
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The Business Manual for Owner-Operators
Overdrive editors and ATBS present the industry’s best manual for prospective and committed owner-operators. You’ll find exceptional depth on many issues in the 2022 edition of Partners in Business.
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