This edition of Overdrive Radio features Overdrive Senior Editor James Jaillet's conversation with Northeastern University academic Alex Scott, who with colleagues at Michigan State and the University of Arkansas completed a recent study around potential safety-sensitive impacts of the electronic-logging-device mandate. The upshot, which you know if you saw the headlines, is that a comparative analysis of various carrier size groups, average weekly crash volumes, and hours of service violations, among others, showed that, while hours violations were down quite a lot for small carriers, there was little change in crash volumes before and after the mandate was being fully enforced in any size grouping. If anything, average weekly crash volume ticked up a bit for those most directly affected by the mandate – the smallest of fleets. It all seemed to lend at least a little further credence to the notion that the mandate, ultimately, might not be about safety at all, also the widely held contention that the hours of service rule could use some work to reintroduce flexibility for professional truckers in how they utilize available hours, within limits. Also: Running through the trucking blues of former highway hauler Bill "Watermelon Slim" Homans, with pieces of his mammoth performance last weekend, Feb. 2, in Redkey, Ind. More from his performance, and that of opener "Long Haul Paul" Marhoefer, via video: https://www.overdriveonline.com/watch-bill-watermelon-slim-homans-long-haul-paul-marhoefer-live-from-indiana/