At the 2021 Shell Rotella SuperRigs truck show in the Chicago area last month, Overdrive News Editor Matt Cole asked five owners variations on a couple of central questions:
- The first asked owners to look out into the future and forecast business prospects five years ahead, given the current market and business plans in place.
- The other had all to do with technology – alternative powertrains like those in the electric-drive trucks we’re seeing trickle into short-haul markets, natural-gas power elsewhere, and those increasingly automated driver-assist features that continue to proliferate.
The responses vary and overlap in significant ways that are illuminating in terms of where small trucking is today – and where it might well one day end up, hopefully with bedrock profitability intact or better. Take a listen:
The owners who participated in this podcast, clockwise from the top left: Gary Jones: Owner, SPB Trucking; Clayton Driskill: Owner, C&C Logistics; J.R. Schleuger: Owner, Lifetime Nut Covers; Dave Marti: Owner, Dave Marti Trucking; and Mike Wilkinson: Owner-operator, leased to Floyd Gibbons Trucking.
