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Overdrive Extra: Page 2
Overdrive Extra
Take care of yourself with diet, exercise: You’ll be better able to enjoy the fruits of your labor
Success trucking as an owner-operator over the long-term requires addressing the business areas this Trucker of the Year outlined in Part 1, yet there's no point doing all the right things to be successful only to be in poor health and not able enjoy it.
January 21, 2025
Overdrive Extra
A plan for better business: Why do you want to be an owner-operator?
For Overdrive Trucker of the Year Alan Kitzhaber so many years ago, the answer was simple: To make more money. Before he made the jump, though, he prepared extensively. Here, his two-part story in hopes of guiding others starting out as business owners.
January 21, 2025
Sponsor Content
Compute the potential profit in any truckload, access per-day and per-mile breakouts with Overdrive's Load Profit Analyzer
Fusable
Know your costs, owner-operators? Compute the potential profit in any truckload, access per-day and per-mile breakouts, and compare brokers' offers on multiple loads. Enter your trucking business's fixed and variable costs, and load information, to get started.
March 24, 2025
Overdrive Extra
Truckers' top 5 priorities for the incoming Trump administration
There's plenty owner-operators want rolled back by the incoming government -- FMCSA's speed-limiter mandate, aggressive EPA regs -- yet also clear acknowledgement of the role of government in parking infrastructure, broker transparency regs, and more.
January 15, 2025
Overdrive Extra
Be wary of third-party trucking dispatch services
Necessary knowledge for independent owner-operators in today’s world includes knowing how not to put yourself in a position to be victimized by a bad actor. Using an unregulated, uninsured dispatch service could put you at that very kind of risk.
January 10, 2025
Overdrive Extra
First look: 100-inch custom ATG sleeper on Jay Hosty's '22 Western Star
Trucker of the Year Hosty's '22 Western Star 4900EX daycab is a daycab no more. That's right -- plans in this case come to full fruition, with the addition of the 100-inch custom Alliance Truck Group (ATG) rear-door sleeper. It's a beauty.
January 8, 2025
Overdrive Extra
Faces of the road: 19-year-old Jordan Foreman, on his past, present and future trucking
Long Haul Paul spoke to Foreman when he was but 18, still in high school, and already hauling grain in an Indiana farm operation. Foreman's advice for young men and women eyeing trucking careers: "Don’t get in a hurry, and learn from the old guys."
December 24, 2024
Overdrive Extra
'Don't hold your breath' on a trucking turnaround in 2025
With high hopes for the incoming Trump administration and the new year, Clifford Petersen warns against waiting for the cavalry on overtime pay for drivers, parking and/or any positive regulatory push. All will require plenty oxygen.
December 13, 2024
Overdrive Extra
A freight world without brokers: 'Carriers United' daring to do more than just dream
With time, this small fleet owner aims to build what he calls an "army of carriers" to deliver on goals: namely, to "put money back in the pockets of the carriers" in service to shippers, and relieve drivers of parking fees, tow threats.
December 11, 2024
Hours of Service
Sleeper berth: Should more truckers be able to split as they see fit?
Essentially, that's what team operators hauling for McKee foods have been able to do -- including 5/5- and 6/4-hour combinations -- since 2015, when granted an exemption. Weigh in with this update utilizing Overdrive's new poll module.
July 10, 2024
Overdrive Extra
Post-election optimism yields opportunity: A new start for your trucking business
A big shift in mood post-election -- with so many owners having hung on for months, even years for the chance to move forward with optimism -- delivers opportunity for a reset. Yet don't let knee-jerk reaction overtake the necessity of careful planning.
December 3, 2024
Overdrive Extra
We're thankful! And: Kick the tires of Overdrive's new 'Load Profit Analyzer'
A message of thanks to all the owner-operators in the audience. And: First look at a load profit comparison calculator we'd love for you to kick the tires on. Take a run through Overdrive's Load Profit Analyzer.
November 28, 2024
Overdrive Extra
Broker 'confessions' novel aims at seedy underbelly of digital freight culture
"Confessions of a Freight Broker" is authored by a former broker and here reviewed by Long Haul Paul, who notes it's time for a serious conversation about money, and how much of it in trucking is making its way to those behind the wheel.
November 27, 2024
Overdrive Extra
Time to put an owner-operator behind the wheel of FMCSA?
"I like a challenge," said owner-operator Lee Schmitt of his campaign to head FMCSA. Schmitt has been working the incoming Trump administration, and promises to bring experience, hard work to the agency.
November 26, 2024
Overdrive Extra
You don’t get any do-overs: A word of caution about expanding by leasing on owner-operators
"Once it goes wrong, just like it did for me, it’s too late." The words of W. Joel Baker here offer a warning for one-truck owners against too-quick expansion without careful preparation and due diligence around operators you're contracting with.
November 13, 2024
Overdrive Extra
The 'death-defying adventures,' songwriting, rig-rock rise of The Franklin County Trucking Company
The bad boys of trucking music are back with their fourth studio album in seven years, “The Death-Defying Adventures of The Franklin County Trucking Company.” It's a doozy of a listen, and Long Haul Paul here details the record with the bandleaders.
November 6, 2024
Overdrive Extra
Academia to OTR: Leased operator Wes Harman and 'The Bee' 2024 Cascadia
Prime-leased Wes Harman has almost paid the rig off in full. When Long Haul Paul met Harman, he notes, "I could have as easily believed the former English professor turned reefer hauler to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 trucking concern."
October 29, 2024
Overdrive Extra
$1/gal: A fuel holy grail?
Or just an example of the limits of technology? In this case, despite two different fuel-price-info apps showing $1/gal. at the same South Dakota truck stop, turns out ...
October 23, 2024
Overdrive Extra
After the accident: Understanding downtime claims for owner-operators and small fleets
Attorney Kelsea Eckert notes truck owners have a right to downtime compensation from at-fault parties in most states. Those parties' insurers, however, may not volunteer the information. It’s important to prove the loss, push for rightful compensation.
October 22, 2024
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Regulations
Hours of service should be front and center in DOT deregulatory effort: Truckers
There's near-unanimity on evaluation of additional flexibilities for drive and rest periods in the HOS, yet not everyone agrees on the ELD mandate. Among other top issues highlighted by truckers, groups for modification or repeal in recent docket comments: speed limiters, broker transparency and AEBs.
Custom Rigs
Every smart mod to Trucker of the Year's 4M-mile 1995 KW T600
Hours of Service
Are you Roadcheck-ready? Inspectors to key in on PC, false logs
Overdrive Extra
'Promise to a friend': The Wheel Jam Truck Show, staying alive
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