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Equipment and Maintenance

Equipment and Maintenance
Acquiring your first truck: Purchase or lease?
Will you purchase or lease the truck? If purchasing, where will you get the money? Here, find information about financing, how to find a good lender and more.
January 1, 2025
used trucks on lot
Equipment and Maintenance
Move equipment financing terms to your favor
When purchasing a truck and looking to take out a loan, you have several options for negotiating with lenders to help get the terms to more favorable footing.
January 1, 2025
Trucks on dealership lot
Sponsor Content
Overdrive's Partners in Business - The leading business training program for owner-operators.
Fusable
Overdrive's Partners in Business - The leading business training program for owner-operators. 
March 24, 2025
Overdrive's Partners in Business - The leading business training program for owner-operators.
Equipment and Maintenance
Used trucks: How to evaluate a rig to protect long-term value prospects
Used-truck market conditions have stabilized somewhat since the COVID-19 pandemic -- good news for a market where most owner-operators source equipment, particularly early in their careers. Here's a lot to consider when evaluating a used purchase.
January 1, 2025
used trucks on lot
Equipment and Maintenance
Ways to assess truck market value for purchase, trade or sale, insurance
Every truck buyer, likewise every seller, should embrace some sense of reality to avoid costly missteps. Use this tool to get a good assessment of current market value for any truck model.
January 1, 2025
Get started with Price Digests' Commercial Truck Single Search, whatever your market-valuation needs, via this link.
Equipment and Maintenance
There's plenty to consider before entering a lease-purchase agreement with a motor carrier
Lease-purchase plans have traditionally been somewhat well-used paths to truck ownership, particularly among operators with otherwise shaky credit, but they also generate the most controversy.
January 1, 2025
Chapter 13
Equipment and Maintenance
Traditional loan, TRAC lease, full-service lease: Making the comparison
This comparison table offers quick-glance terms for three routes truckers can take to acquire powered assets. Likewise: A few tips for anyone going the lease route.
January 1, 2025
Truck Traffic Highway Adobe Stock 313923692
Equipment and Maintenance
How to improve your credit rating for better truck-loan interest, and so much more
Clean credit is important for owner-operators in many areas, including lending terms on equipment and sometimes even getting freight. Here, find out why, along with tips on improving your credit score.
January 1, 2025
credit report
Equipment and Maintenance
The case for trailer ownership -- and tips on spec'ing the wagon
While leased operators don’t always have the pressing need to provide a trailer that most independents do, many find trailer ownership brings significantly added earning potential.
January 1, 2025
tractor-trailer on highway rear view
Equipment and Maintenance
Routine preventive maintenance will pay owner-operator dividends long-term
Brakes, tires, lights, batteries... The list goes on and on. Though a preventive maintenance schedule is sometimes hard to set up and follow through on, and certainly can be costly, neglecting maintenance is sure to cost you even more in the long run.
January 1, 2025
diesel mechanic working on engine
Equipment and Maintenance
Effective PM starts when you buy the truck: How to deal with dealer service
The best time to start a regular PM program is when you’re buying your truck. If the dealer doesn’t volunteer detailed information, use your leverage before you buy to get it. Long-term, good maintenance records will help determine time to trade.
January 1, 2025
truck in shop
Equipment and Maintenance
Save money, and stay out of inspectors' crosshairs, with smart maintenance
When asked why they’ve done a poor job of preventive maintenance, too many owner-operators say they were trying to save money. But there are many ways to save money on maintenance without skimping and courting disaster.
January 1, 2025
truck with hood up
Equipment and Maintenance
Aftertreatment demons: Keep your diesel emissions system clean to prolong life
If your truck is equipped with a diesel particulate filter and/or selective catalystic reduction aftertreatment system, it's important to understand what they do, and why. Routine attention through PM can prevent downtime.
January 1, 2025
clean me drum barrel
Equipment and Maintenance
Pull off extended oil drains for your diesel with routine analysis
An owner-operator extending the truck's oil drain interval by just 10,000 miles, over the 1-million-mile expected life of an engine, will save a ton of money.
January 1, 2025
oil change
Equipment and Maintenance
Beating predatory truck tows -- the Partners in Business guide
For owner-operators, an egregious tow or recovery bill can spell out a death sentence for a trucking career, maybe ruin life at home, too. Until the wider world acknowledges the grave realities, truckers need a resource.
January 1, 2025
truck being towed
Page 1 of 1
Top Stories
Ovd Radio Thumbnail (you Tube) 7 1
Overdrive Radio
Owner-op Kevin Bruns: A Millennial's journey through car haul and tanker to dump and now step deck
Owner-op Kevin Bruns raced his 2019 LoneStar in this past weekend's Semi Stampede at Kuhnle Motorsports Park in Ohio. With his authority today, Bruns pulls a step deck after several years of local dump truck ownership and work around quarries and construction sites in the Nashville, Tennessee, region.
Used Trucks Adobe Stock 64411041
Equipment
Used-truck market rife with uncertainty
Owner-operator Scott Smith with one of his 2017 Peterbilt 579s at home in Searcy, Arkansas. His current hopper-bottom/flatbed trucking business builds on early oilfield experience and benefits from a close attention to detail when it comes to revenue and costs.
Trucker of the Year
Betting on equipment diversity as failsafe: Trucker of the Month
Truck In Right Lane Highway Bridge
Regulations
DOT set to eliminate speed limiter proposal, keep pre-2000 ELD exemption in place
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Overdrive Radio
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Owner-op Kevin Bruns: A Millennial's journey through car haul and tanker to dump and now step deck
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Partner Insights
The ALL NEW JBL FLIP 7 - Featuring AI sound boost, deeper base, longer battery life, and Auracast... it's MADE to be HEARD.
The ALL NEW JBL FLIP 7 - Featuring AI sound boost, deeper base, longer battery life, and Auracast... it's MADE to be HEARD.
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