"If it continues like it's going, it'll probably be our best year. ... The way it started out and the way it's going so far, it'll be our best year." --Flatbed owner-operator Ollie "Rufus" Morris reflecting on the year thus far
May Trucker of the Month Rufus Morris of Youngsville, North Carolina, was sounding a lot like April honoree and fellow flatbed owner-op George Kincaid reflecting on the year thus far. Morris is leased today to Material Logistics Management out of Pennsylvania, operating from that home base in North Carolina, and was nominated for Overdrive’s 2025 Trucker of the Year award by his wife and business partner in the one-truck, two-flatbed-trailer outfit Midnight Rider Transport. We featured Morris late last month in Overdrive Senior Editor Matt Cole’s story about the decades of trucking experience behind Morris.
In this week's Overdrive Radio, hear Morris directly in conversation with Cole, walking through his current operation and long history -- this is his second stint as a trucking business owner, after hauling logs in the late 1990s into this century as an owner-operator.
Overdrive's 2025 Trucker of the Year competition: Enter your business
We're halfway through the entry period for the 2025 Trucker of the Year competition. Read about our semi-finalists named thus far via our nomination page. All have persevered through freight-market difficulties and cost pressures in these last years. If that describes you, too, you’re no doubt a worthy contender. Click/tap the image to enter your own biz or nominate another owner-operator you admire.
Morris hauls flatbed steel, a good bit of it oversize, in a 2004 model Peterbilt 379 he purchased several years back. It's in tiptop shape, shined up and outfitted with plenty in the way of bright parts and lights and just generally well-maintained, delivering all manner of benefits from the pocketbook on down to the scale houses. He takes pride in safety, clearly, the truck too. "Get out there and stay consistent," he advised others on the safety front. "You just can't be in a hurry." Also: "Be proud of what you're doing. Keep maintenance up on your truck. I know they say, 'Chrome don't get you home,' but it does. Believe me."
Most of the time crossing scales he's skipped over for closer scrutiny, the immaculate appearance of the rig he feels a big part of that. (If your dog bites the inspector, though, all bets are off. Catch an account of just such an incident in a recent-memory inspection in Matt Cole’s story about the Morrises.)
Morris and Midnight Rider you can for sure call a little old-school in approach, in some ways, yet he clearly keeps an eye on new ways and new people, too. In today’s episode of Overdrive Radio you’ll hear from him a clear priority placed on business relationships invested in, cemented over time, a key characteristic of so many a successful trucking business owner.
Morris offered this word of encouragement for the next generation coming up behind him:
"A lot of people say, 'I wouldn't get into trucking for nothing in the world.' Don't get me wrong, it's dfiferent than it used to be. ... but I won't tell nobody don't get into it. If they want to do it? Trucking's done me good all these years. I can't complain one bit about it. If they've got a dream and want to do it, I'd say do it."
Dive into Morris’s history trucking: an early business hauling logs, decades driving otherwise, and the biz reboot that was inspired in part by Patricia Morris herself after her own 25 years in real estate. Rufus Morris, May 2025 Trucker of the Month, take a listen:
[Related: Prospects for a 'phenomenal' flatbed years: Trucker of the Month George Kincaid]
Hear podcasts featuring all of the 2025 Trucker of the Year contenders thus far via the playlist below.
