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Overdrive Extra: Page 25
Overdrive Extra
Tough year behind, tough year ahead — but rumors of trucking’s death are greatly exaggerated
A slowdown is not a downturn, though it may feel like one. Notes on carrier bankruptcies, spot market rates and the “bloodbath” that never was…
November 20, 2019
Overdrive Extra
Disruptions that will reverberate beyond 2020 — strategies for weathering, or taking full advantage
“The small business owner-operator does have certain advantages navigating market disruptions. An example of this is when natural disasters hit communities it’s the independents who step up to fill the gap, aided and abetted by our ability to make decisions faster, react quickly, tighten our belts and trim unnecessary fixed cost.”
November 12, 2019
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March 24, 2025
Overdrive Extra
As truckers protest around California, Uber coalition seeks shelter from state’s contractor law
Owner-operators took to various cities across California this week to air their grievances against the state’s new, restrictive law that could block owner-operators from working in the state. The protests come as moves Uber and Lyft could give trucking some leverage in landing an exemption from the California law.
November 7, 2019
Overdrive Extra
Help wanted? FMCSA could have a lingering absence at the top after Martinez departure
After 20 months on the job, Ray Martinez has officially left the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, effective as of Monday. And his exit could leave FMCSA without a true administrator for the foreseeable future — perhaps as long as several years, should recent history serve as a barometer.
November 1, 2019
Overdrive Extra
The heart of a trucker: Chance to make a stand against child abuse
Clifford Petersen on the All Truckers Together Against Child Abuse (or ATTACA) group, with an anti-child abuse mission, founded by Western Flyer Express’ Rodney Timms: “We connected for less than three minutes on the phone … yet I knew right away I had to do something to help his cause. Like Rodney, I grew up in the home of an abusive father.” …
October 28, 2019
Overdrive Extra
The underappreciated asset of off-duty hours
Gary Buchs on strategies toward effective task/goal definition and prioritization to be wise when it comes to hours: “For too many years, we’ve viewed time off as a liability. … No matter how a person calculates their hours of service, logically there is no way to drive or work more hours than the time off-duty we need to recover to care for ourselves.”
October 22, 2019
Overdrive Extra
Faces of the Road: 45 years a team, with two independents
“Moss doesn’t grow on a rolling stone.” Longtime specialized independent team owner-ops Kay and Ken Wagner don’t exactly divulge the secrets to remaining married while running as a team for forty five years, yet their history speaks for itself in this latest “Faces of the Road” installment.
October 15, 2019
Overdrive Extra
Addressing a common mistake in a tough load choice
You might be surprised at what the numbers have to say about waiting an extra day, even when that higher-paying load surfaces.
October 10, 2019
Overdrive Extra
Can you hear me now? Anybody out there?
Gary Buchs on the “lost” art of communication: “When I think about the way brokered freight seems to be going — tap a button on a screen, get a load – the phrase ‘trust but verify’ comes high to the mind. Don’t give up on due diligence with the shippers and receivers in such transactions. … In small business ownership, everything is personal.”
October 4, 2019
Overdrive Extra
A dissenting voice on hours reforms: Owner-operators could be undercut by sliding rates
Be careful what you wish for on hours reforms, says broker Jeff Tucker, CEO of Tucker Company Worldwide, who predicts that the DOT’s hours of service proposal could tilt trucking’s supply-demand market forces and cause rates to tumble.
October 2, 2019
Overdrive Extra
‘I like aggravating truck drivers’: Maxie Satterfield of Terrell, Texas
“Maxie Satterfield of Terrell, Texas has been working a truck stop counter for most of the years since 1948,” Long Haul Paul notes to begin this, his latest in the Faces of the Road series. “I first met Maxie eight years ago, when I started driving for the outfit I’m with now….”
September 30, 2019
Overdrive Extra
Detention study thorough, but meaningful change proves elusive
One in five small carriers don’t even charge detention, using brokers that don’t try to collect it, and believe not billing it gives them a competitive edge.
September 26, 2019
Overdrive Extra
Never underestimate a South Carolina watermelon hauler: Carroll Fulmer and Leon Everette
The latest in “Long Haul Paul” Marhoefer’s “Faces of the Road” series with country legend and current gospel singer Leon Everette: “I was surprised to learn that Everette attributed his past success in the music business in part to a trucker by the name of Carroll Fulmer. … Yeah, that Carroll Fulmer …”
September 25, 2019
Overdrive Extra
Study: Truckers rank high among sleep-deprived workers
Among professional drivers and others in transportation, sleep-deprived workers rose 28% from 2010 to 2018.
September 23, 2019
Overdrive Extra
Why do drivers leave? Pay has a lot to do with it, but …
Many are quick to say it is a driver-pay problem, but that’s not all. In trucking companies’ rush to grow, they devalue the freight market, notes owner-operator Clifford Petersen, and in doing so trade their pricing power in favor of a questionable status quo where driver time itself is devalued.
September 20, 2019
Overdrive Extra
Though fleets churn through drivers, there’s no evidence of ‘driver shortage,’ says DOL economist
Driver turnover is persistently high, and carriers have trouble filling seats. But that doesn’t mean there’s a shortage of those willing to drive a truck, says DOL economist Kristen Monaco. She penned a report in March painting the “driver shortage” as a myth — and tiffed ATA in the process…
September 12, 2019
Custom Rigs
A truck with its own Facebook page: Mark and Holly O’Donnell’s “Family Tree”
A big winner among several at the first-ever American Pride Truck Charity benefit show for St. Christopher, held in truck parking at GATS, was “The Family Tree”, a mural-wrapped 2018 Peterbilt 579 owned and operated by the O’Donnells, of Tennessee. It’s intended “to celebrate the history and culture of trucking,” Holly says.
September 9, 2019
Overdrive Extra
Confusion over ‘relaxed’ regs and rested drivers
It gets worse when those outside of trucking presume safety performance goes up or down in lockstep with changes in cherry-picked numbers. This led, for example, to widespread reports that the proposal would “relax” existing regulations, thereby automatically increasing fatigue.
September 6, 2019
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