Today we’re peeking through a window onto a conference in its second year and coming up down in Houston, building on a thus-far-four-year journey of one New Jersey-based Rahmel Wattley, host of the 2019-founded Truck N' Hustle podcast.

That's right, for this edition of Overdrive Radio, it’s host-to-host, as it were. Truck N’ Hustle, well-known among entrepreneurs of a variety of stripes all around trucking and transportation, pitches to owner-operators and small fleets in a variety of trucking niches, among other transport pros. Freight Fest, then, is Wattley and company’s conference upcoming next month in Houston, building on the success of his podcast in bringing together disparate communities around the business.

Among presenters there are anyone from reps at freight-factoring company OTR Capital, a sponsor of the event, and voices many of you will be familiar with from Overdrive Radio, too, like Innovative Logistics Group founder Adam Wingfield, whose tale of his start trucking as an owner-operator and subsequent growth featured on the podcast earlier in the year: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio/podcast/15540815/owneroperators-can-master-worklife-balance-in-trucking

Rahmel Wattley hopes Freight Fest is a place where small fleets and owner-operators, specifically, can lay the groundwork for a fundamental goal of many -- growth.

Along the way, we’ll also hear his own story in trucking, from his first experience getting a CDL in the early part of this century to dispatching for, then managing a small fleet and opening his own businesses aimed at putting CDL drivers in a position to garner longer-term employment with fleets, and more.

With all of his endeavors, he’s always got growth in his own mind, but also other concerns, too. One trucking media talking to another, the subject came up of Overdrive’s 60-plus-year history, reaching way back to times well before your friendly neighborhood Overdrive Radio host’s birth. Wattley's, too.

For longevity in any business, Wattley noted, the desire for growth is necessarily tempered by greater needs. He hopes Truck N' Hustle is laying a steady, solid foundation such that it, too, will be around come 2079.

Find a list of presenters scheduled to speak at Freight Fest via the event website: http://freightfest.com

Listen on for more detail on how Wattley envisions the event, in part inspired by the SHE Trucking expo back in 2021 in Chattanooga: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio/podcast/15279870/growing-trucking-influence-of-minorityowned-business

Find Truck N' Hustle wherever you listen to podcasts.