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Overdrive Extra
Overdrive Extra
From daily habits to business decisions, how to choose the right fork in any road
At a fork in the road, making the most productive choice by anticipating outcomes is a goal any operator can pursue. Get there, and fate is not out of your control at all, writes Clifford Petersen in this meditation on choice.
August 10, 2022
Overdrive Extra
Admission of emissions anxiety: A look at roadside testing, now and into the future
An emissions check at a New Jersey scale house sparked this look at implications for the rest of the country into the future from Gary Buchs. "It’s not a far stretch to think trucking may begin seeing additional random testing" in years to come.
August 2, 2022
Overdrive Extra
Leasing out equipment? Call your insurance agent first
Both trucks and trailers that are leased out bring increased potential to be damaged, stolen, abandoned or vandalized. Coverage necessarily will be the responsibility of the party leasing equipment from you. Be extra careful who you do business with.
July 25, 2022
Overdrive Extra
California just doesn’t get it, or maybe just doesn’t care
An open letter from the Port of Oakland to owner-operators who have halted port operations this week while protesting the state's AB 5 independent contractor law extends an olive branch but largely misses the point of what the protests are about.
July 22, 2022
Overdrive Extra
Eulogy for a friend: Ken 'Shoestring' Waugh, 1955-2021
With a new podcast in the 'Over the Road' series, Long Haul Paul remembers a friend lost, longtime trucker, storyteller, musician and more -- Ken "Shoestring" Waugh.
July 22, 2022
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Overdrive Extra
Say no to legalized theft: Rein in exorbitant nonconsensual tow fees
Colorado trucking association's Greg Fulton calls for an end to tow company abuse of "the privilege of being on a state’s safety rotation" -- trucking companies, he says, "should not be at the mercy of unscrupulous towing operators'" excessive fees.
July 15, 2022
Overdrive Extra
The slip-seaters of your nightmares, and how not to be one
Nothing will reveal to you the true depths of your character deficits like a small herd of goats and a bad fence -- or a slip-seating situation with an absolute slob. Long Haul Paul shares more than one path to maximum cab freshness.
July 11, 2022
Overdrive Extra
Forget speed limiters: Safe parking, highway infrastructure should be top priority
Clifford Petersen argues that lawmakers/regulators should set aside legislative and regulatory projects pushed by those with little to no familiarity with OTR realities, in favor of a push for real progress on parking, highway infrastructure needs.
July 6, 2022
Overdrive Extra
Understanding costs/profit in relation to time for better load evaluations
Trying to select the loads based on the information showing on the load boards, or received from a broker on the phone, can play out with huge differences when it comes to bedrock costs/profit. Use these cost strategies for better self-dispatch results.
June 27, 2022
Overdrive Extra
How to change your decision-making for successful self-dispatch
Are you moving to assume greater control of your load selection, negotiation, planning? This two-part feature, by longtime owner-operator and business coach Gary Buchs, looks closely at aspects of self-dispatching that can set you up for success.
June 27, 2022
Overdrive Radio
OTR to home: Making local trucking work with Mike 'The Boston Trucker' Gaffin, Terry Shelton
Gaffin, with a growing profile as a videographer, details his long history in, and huge love for, OTR trucking, running back to childhood with a trucking father, a Teamster turned OTR post-deregulation. Gaffin's run the reverse path back to local work.
June 24, 2022
Overdrive Extra
'What do I do now to stay in business?' 5 tips toward reining in costs
W. Joel Baker answers the question in the title, one he's been getting increasingly from struggling small fleet owners. The answer? Part of it is to avoid the self-inflicted wounds common to trucking business owners who've grown too quickly.
June 20, 2022
Overdrive Extra
Have the 'good old days' arrived? A case for the value of automation
Despite record fuel prices, continuing dock delays and other inefficiencies, Verlen Larsen makes a case for what he sees as a series of positive business-process developments that help this trucking generation "earn a living and be happier doing it."
June 14, 2022
Overdrive Extra
Faces of the Road: Dave Nemo on history at 50 years in trucking radio
Long Haul Paul's interview with Nemo speaks to the historical importance of all-night radio formats, birthed in part with Nemo's initial mentor Charlie Douglas at New Orleans 870 WWL AM, for overnight truckers, including himself in the 1980s and '90s.
June 7, 2022
Overdrive Extra
If we're going to limit vehicles' ability to speed, start with the real problem: Cars
Clifford Petersen's take on the FMCSA's recent moves toward mandating speed-limiting technology in heavy trucks: "If regulation is required, then perhaps you should look at regulating those more likely to be at fault" in a crash.
May 27, 2022
Overdrive Extra
This could be the year: Recollections of Great Recession trucking side gigs, successes and failures
With recessionary fears rising, "Long Haul Paul" Marhoefer looks back to his early-'08 brush with a small farming operation -- with mixed results. Here, read the tale of his wife's bottle-calf-rearing success, and his own side gig's ultimate failure.
May 23, 2022
Overdrive Extra
Increasing insurance requirements for trucking increases costs, not safety
Transportation defense attorney Bill Chamblee: "As advocates for the industry, we must be prepared to push back against any attempts by plaintiffs’ attorneys or others to simplistically position the road to improved safety as paved with more money."
May 17, 2022
Overdrive Extra
How William 'Porkchop' Honey and his dump truck saved dozens
The latest in "Long Haul Paul" Marhoefer's "Faces of the Road" series chronicles what's now the stuff of blue-collar lore around Indianapolis -- operator Honey's act of heroism to cut off a high-speed chase headed straight for a late-night paving crew.
May 10, 2022
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Pride & Polish
Overdrive's 2022 Pride & Polish competition
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