Overdrive Radio

In this edition of Overdrive Radio, a talk with trucker Stephen Michaels, who for 10 years this week has been proprietor of a website, BigRigTravels.com, through which people around the world have been able to ride along with Michaels through his windshield-cam live feeds. Among the more well-known among truckers who engage the public this way, Michaels reflects here on friendships made with his m...

The ICG ProfitCalc app for Android and iOS devices is a bidding app that allows owner-operator users to input their annual cost projections as a benchmark for load-by-load rate calculations to ensure a chosen profit margin. In this Overdrive Radio podcast, creator and small fleet owner Scott Jordan runs through some of the app's history with use in his own business. Also: Did you hear the one abou...

Though there's an ever-expanding rift between state law and federal law regarding marijuana use, the issue is clear for carriers and drivers, say Joe Rajkovacz, of the Western States Trucking Association, and Tim Doyle, VP of the Maine Motor Transport Association, both of whom reside in states where aggressive action is being taken to upend drug testing practices regarding marijuana use. Hear them...

Listen to owner-operator tax experts Kevin Rutherford and consultants at ATBS discuss how 2017's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act impacts owner-operator businesses. Read more at OverdriveOnline.com.

"Planning better" will only get you so far when it comes to a 14-hour rule with rigid ends, says owner-operator Mark Kirbyson in this latest edition of Overdrive Radio. Kirbyson, and many other operators, find themselves this new year dealing with a variety of headaches with their last-minute switch to ELDs as mandate went into effect on December 18 -- issues discussed here range from the problema...

CCJ Tech Editor Aaron Huff provides a high-level overview of how fleets are using the influx of data from in-cab systems to monitor, coach and score drivers.

Paul Marhoefer's "Odious Death of the Cracker King," from "Raw Cuts" record of acoustic folks, tells the story of a fictional character in the title, which Marhoefer describes as something of a composite of two men he'd known long ago, the "sons of outlaw bull haulers" both, plus a little of that mythic dirge treatment Marhoefer's a master of.

A wide-ranging talk with owner-operator Gary Buchs on emotion around the ELD mandate and need for greater calculation in future business decisions, among a variety of others subjects related to freight, pricing and cost reduction. “We want to get emotional and say, you know, truck driving died on Dec. 18," he says, "but you know what, it didn’t die, it just changed, and with every change there’s o...

Voices from the December 4 anti-ELD mandate rallies held across the country as well as from the Overdrive Radio podcast message line as the temperature continues to be raised by many in the trucking community against the electronic logging device mandate. If nothing changes, enforcement of the requirement for most interstate truckers to use ELDs will begin Dec. 18.

Overdrive Equipment Editor Jason Cannon, speaking with KC Phillips on the “Road Dog Live” program, discussed the Tesla Semi electric truck recently, including responding to numerous owner-operators' call-in questions about the big recent Semi reveal in California, which Cannnon attended.

This talk with Bill Frerichs of Frerichs Freight Lines touches on issues that will no doubt arise with wide use of ELDs industrywide, likewise Frerichs own beginning implementation of the Telogis ELD platform in his nine-truck dry van operation. Bonus: A key difference between AOBRDs, ELDs' regulatory predecessors, and the new devices -- administrator/back-office edits of drivers' logs are not req...

As a trade-off for the ultimate hassle of mandated e-logs, owner-operator and Rates & Lanes podcast host Rico Muhammad's hopeful owner-operators can both individually and collectively use the change as a cudgel to their advantage when dealing with brokers, shippers, receivers ... anyone in the supply chain who would insist on wasting drivers' time. He doesn't have his head in the sand to the chall...

Among perhaps the biggest ripple effects from the ELD mandate protests could be, some truckers believe, a new appreciation for the cultural diversity within the owner-operator community. That's something that both Scott Reed, part organizer among the different groups that came together in D.C., and owner-operator Mike Landis, who participated, certainly agree on. In this Overdrive Radio podcast, y...

As ripple effects continue to emanate from some sense of camaraderie among many anti-ELD-mandate partisans -- a result of protest efforts around the country a week or two back -- this Overdrive Radio podcast runs through some of the various conversations had during Overdrive Senior Editor Todd Dills' few days in D.C. as the efforts there got under way. The podcast rounds out with more messages on...

Rounding up sounds and some news from the grassroots influence campaign on lawmakers/protest against the ELD mandate in Washington, D.C. An interview after Day One with Tony Justice, and a bevy of responses on Overdrive Radio's podcast call-in line from around the country, among other news. A small group of demonstrators, meanwhile, as the podcast was wrapping up, were meeting with FMCSA officials...

It’s been quite a while since the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration had an administrator appointed to head it up, but this week, the news was that Ray Martinez had been tapped for the role. Career bureaucrat Martinez, currently serving at the head of New Jersey's Motor Vehicle Commission, should focus, say Overdrive readers, on a bevy of hours of service-related issues, in addition to ot...

in this week’s edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast, we’re taking a run through the mailbag following last week’s conversations with organizers of two ELD mandate protest actions set to take place in Washington, D.C., beginning Oct. 3.

Two unaffiliated groups -- Tony Justice and company's ELD or Me, and the Texas-headquartered Operation Black and Blue -- share details for ELD mandate protests coalescing around a beginning date of October 3. Owner-operator Erick Engbarth, not involved in either effort, distills his anti-ELD rationale. Will you participate in protest efforts 10/3 through the rest of that week? Tell Overdrive why o...

In this special edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast, Overdrive Senior Editor Todd Dills walks you back to the 2017 Trucker Talent Search event at the Great American Trucking Show, for a run through the series of performances, from Bill Weaver introductory tune through competitors Michael Lochmiller, Terrance "Jake Brake Junkie" Mathis, and Richard Woods. Finally, host Tony Justice played two tr...

Flippin, Ark.-based Bill Weaver opened the 2017 Trucker Talent Search with this classic from his "Every Mile I Drive" record.

Las Vegas-based Michael Lochmiller's Trucker Talent Search competition performance at the Great American Trucking Show. "Hitch your wagon" is a Lochmiller original.

Jake Brake Junkie Terrance Mathis performs a parody of Jerry Reed's "She got the goldmine" as part of the Trucker Talent Search competition at the Great American Trucking Show.

Owner-operator Richard Woods' winning original, a tune written for his grandfather, in the 2017 Trucker Talent Search at the Great American Trucking Show.

Trucker singer-songwriter Tony Justice, host of the 2017 Trucker Talent Search competition at GAT, did a pro turn as judges tabulated the results and delivered beautiful renditions of two songs from his "Stars, Stripes and White Lines" record, including the title track and "Live, Laugh, Love and Dance," written with his wife, Misty.

Owner-operator Bill Ater, based in Fort Worth, had his "feet in the starting blocks, hands on the floor" and was "waiting on the starting shot" when Overdrive Senior Editor Todd Dills talked with him August 29, staged in South Texas for relief shuttles associated with Hurricane Harvey. "Welcome to my world when I’m working FEMA," he said. Ater's worked 14 or 15 hurricane relief efforts over the ye...