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Overdrive Extra: Page 4
Voices
Carrier lease-purchases: Let’s not just throw the baby out with the bathwater
NASTC President David Owen sees the FMCSA Truck Leasing Task Force's recommendation to abolish carrier lease-purchases as a "typical bureaucratic one-size-fits-all, throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater, knee-jerk reaction" to a complicated situation.
March 11, 2025
Overdrive Extra
What's 1 extra mpg worth in profit at today's freight rates? An extra 3 mpg?
Tariffs and more are delivering freight-market uncertainty, though some bright spots shine through in recent news. Increase your own profit certainty by cutting costs. Just one diesel mpg gained in efficiency yields thousands of dollars annually.
March 5, 2025
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February 19, 2025
Overdrive Extra
What to do with the lease-purchase bad apples
"Rather than just banning carrier lease-purchase, perhaps we should take a cue from the apple industry and take the bad or imperfect apples to the press to become juice, so that something good might ultimately come out of them." --Clifford Petersen
February 24, 2025
Overdrive Extra
It's February: Did you already give up on your New Year's resolutions?
Truth is, as Clifford Petersen sees it, you don't need a New Year to resolve to improve health if you set goals that are achievable -- "It's like climbing stairs. With each step, a small goal hit that gets you closer, ever closer, to the top."
February 7, 2025
Overdrive Extra
Brokers' contract nickel-and-diming incentivizing speed, fatigue?
Brokers may be as optimistic as their carrier partners about freight markets ahead, yet too many are going to great lengths to hold fast to as much revenue as they can -- at the expense of carriers and, plenty owner-ops say, bedrock safety, too.
January 31, 2025
Overdrive Extra
The fine art of rates negotiation in today's go-go-go freight markets
If the offer rate wasn’t posted right there with any load's details, what rate would you assign to the load? More truckers should be able to answer that question, according to Gary Buchs. Here's a path or two forward.
January 29, 2025
Overdrive Extra
Hotline offers pre-trip help to truckers hauling watercraft
Boat-hauling truckers can help prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species by utilizing the "Call Before You Haul" hotline to set up free pre-trip checks -- and decontamination, if necessary -- of any watercraft hauled.
January 29, 2025
Overdrive Extra
This trucker's modest take on his truck
Good fuel mileage? Check. Solid construction, functioning doors? Check. The 2025 model Freightliner Cascadia "is about the nicest truck I’ve ever driven," says Long Haul Paul. Yet there's low-hanging fruit for improvement in the AM/FM radio's reception.
January 24, 2025
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
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
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Trucker of the Year
Kelsey, Penn, Shelly: Overdrive's 2025 Trucker of the Year finalists
Down to the wire in 2025, it's due time to celebrate what's been a year full of inspiring stories of triumph over adversity for Overdrive's Trucker of the Year contenders. Big congrats to all 10 competitors in the field, and especially this year's finalists, three independents at the top of their owner-operator business game.
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Partner Insights
Compute the potential profit in any truckload, access per-day and per-mile breakouts with Overdrive's Load Profit Analyzer
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.
