Off the top of the Overdrive Radio podcast this week, a personal invite to all the small fleet owners in the audience to take this final month to get into the competition that is Overdrive's Small Fleet Championship.
Time is ticking down fast to the July 31 deadline to compete to be one of four finalists who will net a trip with us to the annual conference of the National Association of Small Trucking Companies in Nashville in October.
Every year, we end up telling the stories and sharing the business best practices exemplified by so many hardworking owners competing from around the country, and we’d love the opportunity to share yours, to recognize and celebrate your success.
That's particularly the case in light of the boost in freight-market dynamics we’ve seen this year so far, after four truly difficult years all around trucking. Right on time, too, for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. For any independent among you whose made your own declaration, grown to at least three trucks, and exceled through the tough times, July 31 is the deadline to get into the running here.
Enter to compete in the Small Fleet Championship.
The podcast otherwise is dominated by the voice of Overdrive contributor Michael Singleton, former second-career OTR truck driver and writer who’s clearly got a gift for story, for capturing the chance moment OTR, the relationships formed and lost, the disasters experienced.
Regular readers have probably caught some of Singleton’s short tales of OTR joy and hardship, finding humor even in the big mistakes made. Yeah, including the one you’ll hear about, a bad angle taken to a parking spot that truly left a mark on his reefer trailer -- other marks, too.
"There are mistakes you make on the road and forget by the next fuel stop," Singleton narrates at the top. "Then there are the ones that get named. This one got named."
Michael Singleton, pictured during his OTR days
In the podcast, walk through Singleton’s journey in trucking in fairly recent years after a decades-long career in information technology, and his route to a project he’s calling “The Blacktop Chronicles.” Part of it's the series of short stories charting moments OTR that we’ve been publishing since late last Fall occasionally on the Ovedrive Extra blog.
Today, in his own words, Texan and former OTR driver, current writer and Richmond, Va., resident Singleton, on something of a mission to give voice to the camaraderie he found with so many OTR. Take a listen:
[Related: Trucking insurance: How to make underwriters fight for your business, with a Small Fleet Champ]
