December’s here, and it’s time for the big push through to 2026 and opportunity a new year always brings a business owner to set goals, to lay plans and start acting on them.
Yet as you’ll hear in this week's edition of Overdrive Radio, it’s also true that in so many ways the time for all of that is now -- for any small trucking business owner, at any given moment. Like a football coach responding to what the opposing team throws at his own, a quarterback changing the play at the line, successful owner-operators are nothing if not masters of the art of getting prepped for the unforeseen. That's an impossible ask of anyone in some ways, but also a reality you’ll hear invoked throughout through today’s talk with four Overdrive Trucker of the Year contenders for this year’s title.
The reality came home in October to owner-operator John Treadway, our September Trucker of the Month. He delivered the shocking news of his pristine "Teal Appeal" 1998 Peterbilt 379's catastrophic engine failure. How might one prepare for that? Owner Treadway's long experience taught him, as the same did for others featured in the podcast, the importance of the back-up plan. Not only could he afford what will ultimately be a reman Caterpillar crate engine powering the unit -- the original Cat in the 1998 379 he's hopeful to rebuild with some close associates, to in future repower his back-up power unit.
Owner-operator Treadway this year had his 2017 Great Dane reefer painted to match his primary 379, "Teal Appeal."
With plenty miles on the odometer itself, that backup 2006 379 is yet another element of Treadway's effective prep for the October catastrophe. It's enabled him to continue serving his primary and other customers as Caterpillar works through issues with the engine replacement.
His isn't the only update you'll get from owners in this podcast, where I put two principal questions/topic areas to the four owners featured:
- How's business looking as we head into 2026, and have any goals set early in year 2025 been brought to fruition?
- Reflecting on your own history trucking, what's the single best piece of advice you might deliver to new and/or aspiring owner-operators to help on the long road to success?
Featured independents in the talk, along with Indiana-headquartered Treadway:
- Likewise Indiana-based John Penn, our most-recent Trucker of the Month in October, hauling LTL furniture principally
- Similarly LTL-focused fresh meat reefer hauler Jason Shelly, based in Pennsylvania
- And two-truck dump fleet owner (with a third truck in more OTR work) Hunter Hubbard, headquartered in Virginia
Overdrive's Trucker of the Year competition is sponsored for 2025 by Bostrom Seating -- there's a new seat on the line for the contenders. You might consider this week's roundtable the "exit interviews" with each ahead of announcements late this month of finalists, after the judging round. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more featured contenders, too.
[Related: JP Transport's journey to maximum trucking efficiency]
