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Trucking History
60 years ago this month, Overdrive's first issue
It was 1961, truckers' numbers on the nation's roads were growing, and Overdrive founder and editor Mike Parkhurst was busy establishing an irreverent sense of humor with a serious tone as the Voice of the American Trucker ... download issue 1 here.
September 21, 2021
Channel 19
Looking back on 9/11's lasting trucking legacy
This retrospective on trucking history post-9/11 comes on the occasion of the 20th anniversary. While impacts of that event are impossible to exhaustively chronicle, Overdrive found shifts in security protocols, driver camaraderie, freight, and more.
September 13, 2021
Channel 19
Docmenting the 'Faces of the Road' with Long Haul Paul
Any retrospective on Overdrive's recent history would be incomplete without Paul Marhoefer's contributions to the magazine's multi-author "Overdrive Extra" blog with his "Faces of the Road" series of dynamic close-ups, delivering living history.
September 6, 2021
Overdrive Radio
‘Eastbound and Down’ celebrates Bandit's ‘naughty’ antics in classic movie
For this final "Songs of the Highway" podcast installment, arguably the best-known and most-loved trucking movie, “Smokey and the Bandit,” takes center stage with its signature song by Jerry Reed, “Eastbound and Down.”
August 30, 2021
Channel 19
Eye candy, business advice: Overdrive's top 25 custom-rigs vids
Marking Overdrive's sixth decade in existence, here's a compilation in one handy spot of the most-watched equipment-forward videos we've done since our Pride & Polish vid collection in 2015.
August 23, 2021
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Voices
A year after his passing, ‘Midnight Cowboy’ Bill Mack lives on in readers’ memories
Though he never met Mack, reader Ralph Hudson surmised the radio legend might have been "my best friend." Other memories of the 'Midnight Cowboy' here, including former Overdrive editor Max Heine's remembrance at the time of his passing one year ago.
August 11, 2020
Overdrive Radio
Songs of the Highway: Kay Adams' 'Little Pink Mack'
One of the first – if not 'the' very first – entertainers to use music to highlight the influx of female drivers into trucking was Kay Adams, with “Little Pink Mack.” Released in 1966, the song celebrated a can-do toughness and spirit.
August 9, 2021
Custom Rigs
1982 Peterbilt 359, W. Tim Miller's grain-to-market hauler, an emblem of owner-op history
Tim Miller's previous 1969 359 was featured in a 1990s edition of Overdrive prompted by the appreciation of his then-teenage daughter for her father's dedication to the family business. Miller's an emblem of owner-operator history from the farms.
August 3, 2021
Channel 19
Did Joe Biden drive a truck or didn't he?
Whatever the case, he did take a ride with an independent trucker in 1973, evidenced in this lookback. Trucking could use a little more of what Biden seems to have had back at that time, an empathy for the realities of the independent trucking business.
September 10, 2012
Overdrive Radio
What came before the CDL? 18 years old and hauling in 1917
This special edition of Overdrive Radio re-airs a talk with Jay Thompson, looking back on his family's history in trucking, all the way back to his grandfather Walter, 18 years old and trucking with a chauffeur's license in 1917.
July 27, 2021
Overdrive Extra
Overdrive founder Mike Parkhurst 'wasn't afraid of nothing'
Owner-op Donald Ridzon’s memories of Overdrive founder Mike Parkhurst haven’t dimmed: “He was always willing to dive into something that was different. He never backed out of it." Here find more memories of Parkhurst approaching 7 years since his passing.
July 19, 2021
Channel 19
Updating the top 10 trucking songs of all time
Ten years ago, we asked, you told, then voted. Here are those results. Likewise a call to action: What song would you nominate, either on this list or not, for the No. 1 trucking song of all time today? Drop us a comment toward an updated top 10 for 2021!
August 4, 2011
Overdrive Radio
‘Hello, I’m a Truck,’ and I’ve got a few bones to pick with you, drivers
Red Simpson’s “Hello, I’m a truck” hit No. 4 on the country charts in January 1972, making it the biggest hit single in Simpson’s long career. This latest "Songs of the Highway" installment channels that history, from the point of view of the truck.
July 4, 2021
Channel 19
Resurrecting the Rubber Duck's classic 1970 Mack RS700
This video showcases small fleet owner Anthony Fox of Rome, Ga., proud owner and caretaker of a piece of history that is one of the original 1970 Macks/60s trailer from the classic “Convoy” trucking film of the 1970s, released today 43 years ago.
November 16, 2017
Trucking History
Little-known movie showcased Overdrive founder’s Hollywood, Nashville forays
Go way back in Overdrive’s 60-year history and you’ll find more than a little dabbling in the bright lights of Hollywood and the country music scene of the ‘60s and ‘70s. At the heart of that is this little-known movie produced by founder Mike Parkhurst.
June 21, 2021
Overdrive Radio
Tales of three runaway trucks: Crises endured and averted, lessons learned
The advice was good then and it's good now -- see a massive pileup, a multi-fatality runaway, ask yourself, "Could it have been you?" Owner-operator Gordon Alkire's '70s runaway tale, among others, shows it could. When you least expect it.
May 3, 2019
Overdrive Radio
An era’s social unrest finds an anthem in the rebellious ‘Convoy’
The legacy of history behind the unlikely 1970s hit "Convoy," by C.W. McCall, aka ad executive Bill Fries. The song, heavily laden with CB slang and conversation, tells the story of a spontaneous truck convoy that clashes with authorities.
June 7, 2021
Custom Rigs
The day five famous 70s/80s rigs made history on 'Hollywood Hill'
A firsthand account of the event, bringing together restored trucks from movies “Duel,” “Convoy," and “Smokey & the Bandit” with “Movin’ On” and “B.J. & the Bear” TV rigs — among others at the Southern Classic Truck Show in 2016.
December 21, 2016
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Trucking History
60 years ago this month, Overdrive's first issue
It was 1961, truckers' numbers on the nation's roads were growing, and Overdrive founder and editor Mike Parkhurst was busy establishing an irreverent sense of humor with a serious tone as the Voice of the American Trucker ... download issue 1 here.
Channel 19
Scenes from first-annual SHE Trucking Expo in Tennessee
Pride & Polish
Custom champs: Chris Kulow's 2007 Peterbilt 379
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