Voices: Page 62

Colin Young has a message for Colorado State Patrol: Enforce increasing problem of unsafe passing on mountain roads

Dashcam Central video from Colin Young shows a precarious Loveland Pass two-lane pass made by a pickup’s driver with just a hair of space available between the pickup, oncoming traffic and the nose of Young’s rig. “Worst part is that the State Patrol does nothing to stop this increasing problem.”

February 12, 2019

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Overdrive Extra

61 years trucking — and counting

Truck driver James Tharp shares some of history based on his 61 (and still going strong) year career as a truck driver. Read what he has to share here.

February 11, 2019

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Truckers say no to partisan gerrymandering of electoral districts

A dislike of partisan gerrymandering of districts cuts across partisan divisions. 87% of Overdrive readers either noted simply that it should not be legal or that independent state commissions would be appropriate arbiters of district boundaries with a goal of taking politics out of the process.

February 11, 2019

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Overdrive Radio

Further dissection of post-ELD mandate crash rates, and the blues of Watermelon Slim

The Overdrive Radio podcast highlighted a recent study around potential safety-sensitive impacts of the ELD mandate. Get more details on it here on Overdrive.

February 8, 2019

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POLL: Have you considered — or followed through on — moving beyond a single truck?

For many owner-operators, the possibility of expansion beyond one truck is a common goal — have you ever considered building beyond the one truck, or actually followed through on such a plan?

February 4, 2019

Overdrive Radio

Local/regional fuel hauling and the winter volume boost, cost tradeoffs and more

This week’s Overdrive Radio podcast features small fleet owner Dave Marti of Forrest, Ill., with six power units leased to Transport Services of Sullivan, Ill., hauling fuel in the region around his home base, and a newly built six-bay shop. Balancing the volume/cost tradeoffs is one of the many calculations the owner’s learned to make over his years in business.

February 1, 2019

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Assessing the ‘hard market’ for liability insurance

Premium increases in the past year have followed increasingly difficult conditions for insurers, watchers note, for a variety of factors. 10 percent might be a good rough average for independents and small fleets. At once, it’s not hard to find contrary examples on either side of that 10 percent among readers.

January 29, 2019

Insurance That Fits

Overdrive Radio

Preparing for the impossible, shutdown pessimism and the divisions in trucking history

Steve Bixler on those situations when contingency plans come up short, his long advocacy for an experienced-driver regs-review panel, the history of the “shutdown” and what’s changed since he started in the 1970s, and more in this Overdrive Radio podcast. Also: Slow roll convoy in the offing in Illinois this weekend …

January 25, 2019

Steve and Doris Bixler and their 1989 Freightliner COE

Mobility pays off on the road: Owner-op’s trailer-mounted two-wheeled personal transport

Using a 500-lb. pedestal-mount crane and winch mouted behind his sleeper for load and unload, owner-operator Kenny Capell devised a way to mount a relatively lightweight on-/off-road motorcycle to the front of his van trailer on a platform. His bike: a lightweight 2009 Honda CRF250M.

January 23, 2019

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POLL: What is the most difficult aspect of growing beyond a single truck as an owner-op?

Small fleet owners and those in the midst of an expansion plan beyond a single truck: Which of these areas — finding dependable drivers, dealing with more maintenance, equipment investment, insurance, administrative burdens and more — has proved the most difficult for you in growing the operation?

January 21, 2019

Old Time Express 2001 Freightliner Classic XL

Overdrive Radio

Growing pains of small trucking: Midnight Xpress on blown motors, hiring mistakes and more

In the half-year since we first talked with Midnight Xpress co-owner Andre Jackson for the Overdrive Radio podcast, small fleet expansion plans continue to be implemented, though they’ve shifted with a breakdown of the first truck Jackson and partners added, among other issues — including hiring mistakes made.

January 18, 2019

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‘Secrets of trucking shall remain secret’: An elegy for the counter of knowledge

Gordon Alkire’s whimsical (but not all fun and games) take on so much that is gone into the past: the “In the sit-down diners was … the all-knowing, never-wrong counter of knowledge, usually manned by experts 24 hours a day.”

January 17, 2019

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Govt. shutdown ripples out — though not toward military freight

And leased owner-op Jerry Boyd’s somewhat sanguine view on the year just ended, at odds with some independents running spot freight: “Everywhere you went,” Boyd said, “you could get a load of freight [with a good rate] – I’ve never seen it like that, just unload and reload.” …

January 16, 2019

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An eight-hour tour through Oregon in five minutes with Alan Sheain Jr.

It’s not all truck theft, near-misses with distracted four-wheelers and other catastrophic events in Overdrive’s Dashcam Central repository for reader-submitted dashcam vids. This one chronicles an eight-hour haul through big evergreen forests in Oregon in five minutes’ worth of time-lapse photography out the picture window of Alan Sheain Jr.’s windshield.

January 14, 2019

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Overdrive Radio

‘Dynamex’ ABC test ‘an unfair hammer to legitimate contractors’ — view from a small fleet, and a contractor

The latest podcast is talk with the owner of, and a contractor with, Southern California-based Angus Transportation, the now three-truck business of Jimmy Nevarez, the source of the quotation in the headline, hitting on the problematic nature of the independent contractor classification test for truckers who value entrepreneurial leased relationships and much more.

January 11, 2019

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POLL: Independents, will sale of the business figure in financing your retirement?

Do you expect to be able to sell your business, including direct-ship accounts and other assets? How significantly do you expect the proceeds to figure in financing your retirement?

January 10, 2019

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Grease distribution: Easy, neat and quick

The first in Overdrive’s new monthly “Highway hacks” series details owner-operator and 50-year trucking vet Gordon Alkire’s system of hoses and aluminum blocks engineered with guidance from a fellow trucker more than a half-decade ago to keep his back off the ground — and his history free of citations for excess grease.

January 8, 2019

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POLL: Ever been an employee owner-operator leased to a carrier?

As the independent contractor worker classification typically applied to leased owner-operators attracts scrutiny from a variety of quarters, one way for carriers to avoid allegations of misclassification is to designate O/Os as W-2 employees of the carrier and restructure contracts accordingly. Have you ever operated under such an arrangement?

January 7, 2019

business money taxes

Page 62 of 124

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Court pauses DOT rule seeking to push 200,000 non-domiciled CDL drivers out of commercial work

DOT's most aggressive regulatory action in years was stopped in its tracks at a court in D.C. on Monday. The rule will remain on pause as the court deliberates.

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Owner-ops adapt conservative approach to ever-expanding diesel service intervals

Owner-operator Raiko Graveran might be the 'nicest dude in all of trucking,' a version of which has been said by more than one truck showgoer who's found him and his 1995 Freightliner FLD 120 parked up. Here he's showing off fairly recent wins at the Old Town Rig Down event in Nacogdoches, Texas. Look for Graveran out at the Stars, Stripes and White Lines event this week in Atlanta.

Red, white and 'Little Blue': The story of owner-operator Raiko Graveran

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The ‘Maximum Overdrive’-themed 1999 Western Star that made a marriage

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Roadside war stories, camaraderie, ownership advice: Small Fleet Champs deliver

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