Overdrive Radio

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...

After an introduction by trucker/singer-songwriter Michael Lochmiller, listen in on Overdrive Senior Editor Todd Dills' discussion of roadside enforcement of the ELD mandate set to go into effect in December -- with Sergeant Dana Moore of the Texas DPS, who urged officers to 'punt' to administrative review in questionable situations and get the driver on his way. Todd Amen of ATBS, further, delive...

Finally in our Overdrive Radio podcast round featuring interviews with this year’s Overdrive/Red Eye Radio Trucker Talent Search contestants, this one features Michael Lochmiller, with a rendition of a classic from Merle Haggard in "Honky Tonk Nighttime Man." Lochmiller hauls for System Transport out of a home base in Las Vegas, and following (or above) hear Red Eye Radio’s Eric Harley talk music,...

Owner-operator Richard Woods earned his spot in this year's Overdrive/Red Eye Radio Trucker Talent Search with a cover of the famous John Denver tune, "Country Road." He's one of three finalists in the talent search, coming to a close with a final winner Friday, August 25, at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas. Woods is an owner-operator hauling rail containers, largely, and lives in Hicko...

This edition of Overdrive Radio spotlights one of our three Overdrive/Red Eye Radio Trucker Talent Search finalists, set battle it out Friday, August 25, at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas. Red Eye Radio's Eric Harley talks here with Rockford, Illinois, resident and Kloeckner metals driver Terrance Mathis. Mathis is the man responsible for the great Johnny Paycheck parody you'll hear a...

Independent owner-operator and longtime flatbedder Tim Klaus re-entered trucking early in the last decade and soon enough found himself at the center of the natural gas drilling boom, hauling frac sand. It dried up earlier for him than many owner-ops, but since then he's made several moves in his pick of freight, trailer spec and more to build a core of direct customers that keeps his brokered loa...

Owner-operator Randy Carlson, with a 2001 Freightliner Classic powered by an older B model Caterpillar, got his start in trucking when his dad trucked, then mechanicking after attending trade school, providing a solid base from which to forget an owner-operator business. He's been at it since at least 1993, first with a mid-1980s KW T600 he came to own in quite an interesting way. In this edition...

Blue Ridge Transport step deck hauler Joey Slaughter presented at Expedite Expo about the bevy of smartphone apps he uses in his business, antidote to the situation suggested by his presentation's lead image -- a lone rig on a highway sits under an illuminated road sign alerting icy winter conditions ahead.without much more than that a driver is flying blind into the unknown. Today, though, you’ve...

Expediter Greg Huggins three years ago made the transition to the need-it-now/high-touch freight niche after two decades and more hauling as an owner-operator with a moving van, also in a straight truck. The transition entailed more than you might think, somewhat akin to a driver who’s relied on a dispatcher for his entire career going out and getting his own authority and navigating the fragmente...

A culture of maximum profit, whatever the cost in toil or honesty be damned, clearly infects some corners of the trucking industry, to the detriment, too often, of those doing the work of hauling the freight. That's the message of independent owner-operator James Woods, who spoke for this edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast on subjects of transactional transparency, fair dealing and more that a...

This talk with Mark and Mitch White of 25-truck fleet Old Time Express ranges over the company's transition to electronic logs a few years back now, made in part to help get it out of a Conditional rating purgatory. It hasn’t all been without its bumps in the road, as you’ll hear in the conversation. But with focus on improving rates with customers, expanding the use of pre-loaded trailers on eith...

In this edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast, take an audio tour with Everhart Transportation driver and songwriter Tony Justice and his wife, Misty (cowriter on one track), through his new Stars, Stripes and White Lines record, out June 30 officially. Here the two talk with Overdrive Senior Editor Todd Dills about several of the stories behind the tracks on the record, likewise the “ELD or me”...

For Keith and Vickie Sampson, leased to Landstar for most of the last decade, that dedicated run has delivered healthy profits, too -- the best of both worlds for their team operation. In this podcast, Keith tells his trucking story and offers perspective on what he's learned over the years when it comes to maintaining his business' health. Sampson's take-closest-care-of-what-you-can-control messa...

Shipper-direct freight and managing customer relationships are the bread and butter for all-owner-operator (including himself) 9-truck B.L. Reever Transport owner Monte Wiederhold's business. Wiederhold’s based in Southwest Ohio, hauling out of a variety of manufacturers in the area, utilizing brokers on occasion. Here he stresses the value of communication throughout all participants in the fleet...

Following Clifford "Chappy" Petersen's letter to the President of the United States -- http://www.overdriveonline.com/letter-to-trump-parking-14-hour-rule-congestion-ever-more-urgent-issues-with-elds/ -- stressing the need for hours of service change in light of the mandate for most truckers to use electronic logging devices, owner-operators looked out at the revenue equation with ELD and hours of...

It's an increasingly common scenario: identity theft, which can be a huge negative to your credit rating. It happened to owner-operator Scott Reed a few years back. His identity was stolen by a still-undetermined individual far west of his Ohio home, and after being surprisingly denied on a simple credit application, he was pulled over in the normal run of trucking and notified that there were sev...