Overdrive Radio

The freight spot markets are undeniably tough right now, that's sure, with rates continuing their slide for vans and reefers nationally in the last week, and profitability strained for all manner of independent owner-operators and small carriers with authority. Yet Adam Wingfield, whose talk early on the last day of the Mid-America Trucking Show Saturday, April 1, makes up the bulk of today's Overdrive Radio edition, wanted to make clear to all the owners in the audience a central message:

"You're going to be OK," Wingfield said early in his "Weathering the storm" talk.

OK, that is, if you do the work to solidify your relationships with the brokers, shippers and others who take care of you as you take care of them. If you truly own your backyard, so to speak, and take the time to connect with freight customers in your area. You'll be OK if you predict maintenance needs with well-timed interval tracking and stay compliant to enhance competitiveness in negotiations -- the difference between good and terrible safety scores will translate to dollars on the bottom line, in the end.

And, perhaps most importantly, know your numbers inside and out, Wingfield emphasized early and often, echoing a central message of Overdrive's own Partners in Business seminar with ATBS the day before and throughout the PIB program's two-decade-plus history: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15382511/how-to-boost-profitability-in-challenging-times-the-extra-load (Click through that link for video of our full session, if you missed it. Podcast listeners, stay tuned for an audio-only special edition in the coming week.)

Ultimately, though there's much more to it all, Wingfield urged owners to ignore the noise, to truly take full control of what you can control, double down on all of it, and keep your eye on the finish line.

Also in the podcast: More from my talk at MATS with Overdrive Radio sponsor Howes' President and Chief Testing Officer Rob Howes about issues of fuel quality rearing their heads more and more as the company hears of new issues from customers. Howes details results, too, of a survey in which the company asked its customers a series of questions about their fuel-treatment habits.

Overdrive's 2023 Trucker of the Year central nominating form: https://www.overdriveonline.com/page/toptrucker

Do you know a worthy owner-operator contender? Nominate them -- or your own business -- today.

Much more from MATS at http://overdriveonline.com

With an FMCSA regulatory update session just concluded at MATS, one thing that stood out was that the agency didn't mention a plan to advance a rulemaking around its safety rating system for motor carriers. FMCSA Associate Administrator Larry Minor, however, speaking to the specialized carriers' Specialized Transportation Symposium just a month ago, revealed potential to begin a rulemaking process to possibly change the system as early as this year.

Should the three-tiered Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory, and Conditional rating system remain? Minor asked SCRA attendees, characterizing the fundamental early question any move toward a change would ask. Or: Should a two-tiered, "Fit or Unfit" system be adopted?

That’s what some small fleets and associated advocates have been calling for for years, as so very many have sat in that Conditional limbo -- some even for decades -- after an adverse review, despite efforts to improve. It's only gotten increasingly difficult to then get FMCSA out to any carrier's site to do the only thing that can result in a Satisfactory rating in today’s system -- a fully comprehensive on-site audit, generally, though there have been limited exceptions to that rule, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic: https://www.overdriveonline.com/regulations/article/15064263/dotissued-safety-ratings-more-scarce-in-2020

In today's edition of Overdrive Radio, we'll hear more from Larry Minor in his talk at the symposium early this month to specialized carrier attendees. As it concerns FMCSA's failure to mention the safety rating issue here at MATS, ongoing through Saturday, April 1, maybe regulators believe owner-operators really could care less about ratings and how they’re conducted. It's safe to assure them they’re off the mark, there. While few one-truck owners with authority are likely to ever be rated, the same business issues that arise for small carriers from a Conditional rating -- difficulty doing business with many brokers, to name one -- hits them equally.

The smallest of small carriers, too, like holds less capability to get the feds back out to their place of business for a follow-up audit to potentially move them back to the Satisfactory category.

We’ll hear from Minor also on the DOT’s National Roadway Safety Strategy and FMCSA’s place within it, about how the Entry Level Driver Training program is going, about getting that program more effectively interoperable with state licensing agencies, about the late-fall ELD regs questions asked, about the notion of Universal Electronic ID for every truck (asked for by CVSA). And speed limiters, of course, and changes to Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse reporting requirements of states.

Also in the podcast: Drop for a bit of fun, too, with Rob Howes, executive vice president and chief testing officer of the company that bears his name, Overdrive Radio sponsor Howes. A bit more lengthy talk over interesting results of a Howes company survey we’ll visit in a later podcast, but Rob filled us in for this one on just what’s happening for the company here at MATS, likewise plans for the next Howes Hall of Fame announcement.

Hear Overdrive Radio's interview with owner-operator Angelique Temple, the last member inducted, in the December 9, 2022 edition: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio/podcast/15304180/hazmattank-veteran-driver-now-on-her-own-meet-angelique-temple

With truck-show season fast upon us, Long Haul Paul Marhoefer takes the mic for this week's Overdrive Radio edition as the Mid America Trucking show's set to commence on Thursday, March 30th.

There will be the pageantry and the pomp, the polish and the shine. Influencers, thought leaders, and micro-celebrities. (Oh my!)

But you know what Marhoefer looks forward to the most? It's the war stories. It's the accounts you hear while you're waiting on a table to open up at a steakhouse, or maybe while tipping back a cool beverage or two. It's the unguarded things people tell you about their lives and work when they've had a few days to step away and decompress.

This episode features one such conversation. Owner-operator Bill Douglas is an old truck show friend. Marhoefer met him at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas back around 2016. Back then, Bill was just thinking about becoming a trucker. These days, he's a six-year veteran of the super slab, hauling with a mission, too, to be a mentor to new drivers he's training for Prime.

This time last year, the pair went out for that steak, and along the way Bill gave Paul the lowdown on big fleet training -- the good, the bad and the ugly.

Also in the podcast: Join ATBS VP Mike Hosted and Overdrive's own Gary Buchs 1:45 p.m. local time Friday, March 31, for the annual Partners in Business seminar. Stay tuned for the updated version of Overdrive's Partners in Business manual, too, to be released next week. Read more about the session via this link: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-extra/article/15352892/new-owneroperator-business-manual-updated-for-release-at-mats

And for a full schedule of a bevy of MATS business-related programming, visit the show site here: https://truckingshow.com/education/

Hope to see you there.

Owner-operator Andy Freeman, headquartered in Richland Center, Wisconsin, hauls in a 2014 Freightliner 122SD pulling a much newer Trail King RGN mini-deck, outfitted for what are mostly oversize loads on the hook. Overdrive Radio caught up with Freeman in Orlando, Florida, on the site of the Specialized Carriers and Rigging Association’s annual Specialized Transportation Symposium.

Freeman, leased to Landstar now for many years and hauling most aviation-related freight -- “airport to airport,” as he puts it -- had his rig empty and set up in the conference hotel parking lot where Florida Highway Patrol inspectors demonstrated a walkaround Level 2 inspection of it for conference attendees.

The trailer was empty, that is, unless you looked a little more closely: About dead center lengthwise on the minideck was an itty-bitty chained-down toy loader. Turned out it wasn’t just Freeman's attempt at good humor for conference attendees -- and those inspectors -- but rather a long-used tool for cheering up fellow travelers along the road, among other things.

There’s more to it in the conversation with Freeman in this week's Overdrive Radio podcast, likewise the owner-operator's fortuitous find delivering a solution to a long-suffered problem of many a heavy-specialized and/or other open-deck hauler. "Sometimes you just want to have a shower," he said, doing this kind of work, particularly after solving the securement puzzle on hot days.

For those of you with no more than your standard sort of 70-inch sleeper, as is the case for Freeman's 122SD, listen on for an off-the-shelf (mostly) solution to that issue he's carried with him since this past December.

Also in the podcast: Long Haul Paul Marhoefer's "The estimated opening is unknown" read by the author, detailing a rough week spent partially along I-80 in Wyoming shut down in Laramie with extreme winter weather. This year, it's been a "winter from hell" for all on the road in that state.

Read the original story via this link: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-extra/article/15352433/winter-from-hell-on-i80-in-wyoming

Owner-operator Chris Smith, one half of the team that is Dreamline Trucking, is today headquartered in Crossville, Tennessee. His trucking career follows a beginning far from U.S. shores across the pond in continental Europe, the Middle East and where his family's originally from, Britain. As regular readers will know, he and the other half of the Dreamline team -- Ruth, his wife and business partner -- were Overdrive’s Truckers of the Month for February. Follow this link if you missed Overdrive News Editor Matt Cole’s feature report about the business: https://www.overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year/article/15307364/how-this-owneroperator-team-earned-success

After meeting and marrying during those early UK days, the Smiths’ Dreamline business is now anchored by their long relationship and team operation leased to Southern Pride Trucking, hauling jet engines and other aviation-related freight. They’ve got almost 10 years behind them as business owners, hauling today in a big-bunk 2020 Peterbilt 389 that is their second unit, outfitted a 192-inch ARI sleeper with the creature comforts of a home on the road.

In addition to their history, in the podcast you'll hear about general maintenance practices -- a regular 15,000-mile oil change interval, coordination with a preferred shop in their home area even with long stretches of time out -- as well as some bigger work upcoming. The beautiful yellow Pete took damage down the driver's side and to the Herd bumper on the front end in an accident. A "perfect storm," as Chris put it, of distraction factors and rash lane-change decisions saw two four-wheelers collide in the lane right in front of Beverly II in Arkansas. Hear Chris narrate the disaster and much more in today's podcast.

Catch plenty more views of the Peterbilt in this story, written after the Smiths bagged first place in a category of Overdrive's 2021 virtual Pride & Polish custom-truck competition: https://www.overdriveonline.com/pride-polish/article/15114201/the-bigbunk-389-of-ruth-and-chris-smith-beverly-ii

As February's Trucker of the Month, Ruth and Chris Smith's Dreamline Trucking is in the running as a semi-finalist for Overdrive's 2023 Trucker of the Year award. If you’ve thrived even through the tough conditions of the last year, or if you know of a deserving owner-operator who fits that description, get over to our nomination page for the Trucker of the Year award and get in the running. It’s open to owner-operators leased or with authority, operating up to a maximum of three trucks as part of the business: https://www.overdriveonline.com/page/toptrucker

For this edition of the podcast, Mark Karnes tells the story of the petition that the Cobra company put to the Federal Communications Commission some years back to allow the use of FM rather than just standard AM in CB Radios. With the petition granted in 2021, Cobra is now out with AM/FM dual-mode versions of all of its most-commonly-used models.

Karnes, a vice president with Cedar Electronics, Cobra's parent company, notes the transition from AM-only radios to dual modes won't happen overnight, yet notes when more FM-capable radios are in play, owner-operators will find better voice clarity over the radio when used in FM mode on both ends.

Hear a measure of that improved clarity here, as Overdrive Radio host Todd Dills recorded transmissions between two dual-mode versions of Cobra's Mini 19 radio, while running the same route in one vehicle as the other vehicle remained stationary. But for slight adjustments to squelch on both units, each radio remained at standard out-of-the-box settings other than dialing up Channel 15, otherwise quiet the night of the test. Drop into a little bit of the squawk between Ghostwriter and T-Bone in today's podcast, and get a feel for the principle difference in AM and FM modes –- sound quality and clarity when you're nearing the edges of range, or in situations with plenty interference that sometimes plague AM transmission.

More about what's currently available from a variety of makers of AM/FM radios: https://www.overdriveonline.com/equipment/article/15114521/fcc-approves-fm-mode-for-cb-radios

More about Cobra's line of dual-mode radios: https://www.overdriveonline.com/gear/product/15306989/cobra-electronics-cobra-unveils-first-dualmode-amfm-cb-radios

And as mentioned in the podcast, track back through our 2021 60th-anniversary special-edition episode exploring the CB's role in trucking culture as the "original social media," as many truckers have called it through the years: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio/podcast/15064061/the-cb-radios-historic-role-in-trucking-culture

Louisiana-born-and-raised longtime operator Edward Jackson has been running for Overdrive's 2022 Small Fleet Champ John McGee Trucking since the operation was but a project of owner-operator McGee and a just a couple other employed haulers. These days, McGee "has a whole lot more on his plate," Jackson told me, testament to the small fleet's strong growth to around 20 trucks the last several years. Jackson and I were bumping and jostling about in the cab of one of McGee's late-model Macks on our way down a narrow lease road to an oil/gas well site not far from the fleet's Simsboro headquarters, there in the northern part of the Pelican state.

What we were after? A load of John McGee Trucking's bread and butter, production water that comes up from the ground with oil and gas and separates into one of two tanks down in a bottom at the end of this road. The big tanks flanked an area just big enough to turn that rig around, quite muddy in ruts from the big trucks that visit the site regularly at the behest of pumpers working the wells. The salty concoction of groundwater that Jackson pumps into the specially-lined Dragon tanker trailers he pulls, then, is destined for offload at a saltwater disposal pipeline, or in some cases blown back into the ground at an idle well site.

It's short work, the single round I accompanied Jackson on, but with time enough to get a feel for the operation, Jackson's work particularly, and all the potential dangers inherent in working around oil and gas wells, to say nothing of the occasionally harrowing difficulty on those sometimes quite slippery and/or remote lease roads. In today's edition of Overdrive Radio, drop into the run with us to hear, too, more from and about the man behind the wheel.

Jackson's is lucrative work, in the end, and McGee lauds his steady-eddy nature. He and other top operators at McGee are well-rewarded for their on-the-job consistency, pulling in anywhere from about $70,000 on the low end to well into the six figures at the top, where Jackson sits.

He works hard for it, of course, starting at 4 a.m. and hauling multiple rounds through 4 p.m. most workdays, in and out of oil and gas well sites and saltwater disposal intakes. McGee pays operators hourly, with weekly time-and-a-half for anything over 40 hours.

Find plenty images from the run at this link: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15307317

Read more about 2022 Small Fleet Champ John McGee Trucking via this 2022 profile of the business: https://www.overdriveonline.com/small-fleet-champ/article/15295593/john-mcgee-trucking-embraces-golden-rule-toward-steady-growth

The last couple weeks have been a bit heavy for several of us here at Overdrive, since learning of the passing of an operator we knew who took his own life. It's a difficult subject to know how to approach, to communicate, and one Overdrive Extra contributor/longtime hauler Clifford Petersen notes still comes with a stigma attached to it that make it all the more difficult. Namely, and more broadly, we're talking about mental health, and just how to be an effective means of support for all with whom we come into contact.

On this special-edition Monday podcast -- apologies for all who were expecting our usual Friday drop -- dive in with Petersen to talk through his own journey to where he is today, with a mission to be a lifeline of support specifically to those who, like him, work over-the-road and struggle with anxiety, depression, in his case PTSD, and/or a myriad other issues. Petersen's trained in substance-abuse counseling and life coaching broadly, likewise a variety of psychological diagnoses and techniques. Though as he emphasizes, he's not a licensed practicing psychologist himself.

As he's written in varying degrees of detail in Overdrive before, his journey to realizing the mission has been a long one, and to anyone who's ever felt like they were truly at the end of the the rope, as it were, as he's said many times before, "you are not alone ... Truckers need to know they're not alone. ... We are your community, and we are here, willing to help. You can always call me at 573-730-2370. I still truck, and I still work with truckers -- and I’ll never charge you a dime. I’m here to help.”

Catch Petersen's stories from the last several years for Overdrive here: https://www.overdriveonline.com/authors/contact/14865336/clifford-petersen

He’s written about a lot of topics, but most often on the techniques he himself uses in ongoing efforts to battle his own demons since the PTSD diagnosis sent him down the path of mental health education almost two decades ago now. A lot of what he’s written around the subject he thinks of as "tools that a person can put in their toolbox to help them out. ... The trucker knows what it means to have the right tool for the right job. If you're having an issue, get the right tool and use it. Life is the same thing. Get the right tool, and use it."

Petersen's story is one we hope anyone listening will see as, yes, though the road might well be a tough one looking ahead, there is hope, if we all do our best to truly support each other. Petersen’s still here, still trucking, and his mission is clear evidence of that.

In the podcast, Petersen also notes road chaplain organizations, staffed by people with willing ears and free of judgment, including Truckstop Ministries: https://www.truckstopministries.org/

And the organization he's a part of himself, Channel 21 Ministries: https://www.lonesomeroad.org/channel-21-ministries-home.html

You can also call or text the 988 national crisis hotline, 24/7.

Owner-operator Kelvin Schmidt, Trucker of the Month for January in Overdrive's 2023 Trucker of the Year program, didn't come to a formula for enduring success without a tour through the proverbial school of hard knocks, as it were. In today's edition of Overdrive Radio, hear his own account of his start as a flatbed-pulling hotshotter in a one-ton dually, his stumbles through other trucks and growing "as bad as an accountant" focus on costs, revenue and profit per-trip to keep a guiding hand on the business.

"You've got to know what your costs are, and I do that for absolutely every trip I do," he said. "Every trip." Diligence in tracking costs enabled some of the big early shifts in his approach to equipment. After bad experiences with a variety of used trucks -- then with a newer yet no-less-problematic glider, he changed tack and began purchasing new, realizing full well the costs not just of repairs of accompanying downtime.

His end-of-year profit-and-loss statement for 2022 showed the above-average results of all of it, even with massive cost inflation and an ungodly-looking fuel bill for year.

In this podcast, he tells his trucking story, which follows a childhood and decades as an adult in Canada. His move to U.S. citizenship set him on the course he's charting today trucking, likewise as a proud father of six young children with their mother and his wife, Jennifer.

As January Trucker of the Month, Kelvin Schmidt in the running as a semifinalist for the Trucker of the Year award. If you, too, have thrived even through the tough conditions of the last year, or if you know of a deserving owner-operator who fits that description, get over to our nomination page for the Trucker of the Year award and get in the running. It’s open to owner-operators leased or with authority, operating up to a maximum of three trucks as part of the business: https://www.overdriveonline.com/page/toptrucker

Read more about Kelvin Schmidt's journey via our January in-depth profile of his one-truck business, today pulling power-only for T Bros. Logistics out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota: https://www.overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year/article/15306211/how-this-owner-built-a-trucking-business-to-deliver-consistently

In this week's Overdrive Radio, drop back into more from host Todd Dills' November run with Oakley Trucking-leased owner-operator John McCormick out of Robards, Kentucky, near Henderson. Regular readers and listeners will recall the prior podcast, where we dug into McCormick's Pride & Polish-winning 2021 Kenworth, christened "Bandit" given its paint scheme’s resemblance to the Snowman’s rig in the 1970s classic movie Smokey & the Bandit.

There, we heard plenty about just how that rig got its name, McCormick’s approach to financing -- in this case direct through the finance arm of MHC Kenworth, the dealer group from which he bought the W900L late in 2020 -- and more. Today we pick up with more about the two rounds he makes daily, between Cresline Plastic Pipe in Henderson, where he unloads PVC powder picked down in Calvert City, Kentucky, from the manufacturer there.

Dills spoke with McCormick this morning and, after a few OTR runs farther afield over the holidays, when the plant he hauls from was shut down for annual maintenance as usual, he’s back in gear on this his bread-and-butter run, no sign of business slowing down. Hear more about just how the owner-operator got to where he is today -- and the other McCormicks he's managed to bring along for the ride. His "little brother" Bill and his father, Charlie, are part of the team working the PVC runs, both also now leased to Oakley. While John McCormick's been leased there going on 15 years, that's not the case for the rest of the family.

Follow this link for pictures of Charlie McCormick's 2020 Peterbilt 567, likewise video and more with the 2021 "Bandit" W900L: https://www.overdriveonline.com/15306419

Overdrive profiled John's truck more in-depth at this link: https://www.overdriveonline.com/pride-polish/podcast/15303882/custom-champs-a-run-in-the-bandit-21-w900l