Broker group TIA petitioned FMCSA to limit dispatch services to working with a single carrier or, in cases where they work with multiple carriers, require a broker authority and bond. Today in Overdrive Radio, what that could mean for dispatch providers and client owner-ops -- and regs alternatives.

The Transportation Intermediaries Association's August-filed petition is well-known for its request to FMCSA to essentially throw out the transparency reg in place since the early 1980s, and in other forms earlier than that. What's been discussed far less, however, is the second part of the broker group TIA's petition, that having to do with independent dispatchers. 

TIA asks the agency to provide formal guidance officially limiting dispatchers to working with just a single carrier and, in cases where they work with multiple carriers, require a broker authority and bond. 

For today's edition of Overdrive Radio, hear the voice one such independent dispatch service, the one-woman shop of Brittany Hamstreet's Brittany Dispatch business, headquartered in California, likewise the Brittany Dispatch customer owner-operator Brian Bent, who weighs in on just what it would mean to his business if additional regulatory requirements eventuated in Hamstreet no longer being available to negotiate loads, collaborate on scheduling and more with his business.

Also, viewpoint from two larger businesses that bring technology to bear in efforts to provide value-added services to their independent owner-operator and small carrier clients -- Justin Taylor with Merge Transit and Guillermo Garcia of SmartHop.

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This week's Overdrive Radio podcast offers music and storytelling to take you through the weekend and into next -- interviews with/music from trucker-songwriter John Malayter and bluegrass pro Tina Adair. A pandemic tale, finally, from our own Long Haul Paul.

In this week's edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast, a little music and storytelling to take you through the weekend and into next, whether you're still off for Thanksgiving or on the road:

**A tour through the Nashville session at Jay Vernali's Jay's Place studio on music row with our 2020 Trucker Talent Search winner, John Malayter. Hear the results of that session, as Malayter tells the stories behind four tracks any fan of folk-blues and bluegrass is likely to enjoy. The Jordan Carriers hauler, who lives in Rogersville, Tenn., picked up the guitar at a young age and learned to finger- and flat-pick, bluegrass-style, mostly self-taught, and has made music an integral part of his life for decades since.

**Bluegrass pro Tina Adair talks through the June session that delivered the first single from a forthcoming, as yet untitled record, along with her performing and songwriting history in part with the Grammy-nominated and otherwise award-winning all-female bluegrass group Sister Sadie. Adair's music video for that single, a cover of trucking-song classic "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses," premiered here on Overdrive this past Tuesday.

**"Long Haul Paul" Marhoefer's "When a pandemic becomes personal," another intimate look at life between the road and home in this tragic year, read by the author.

Read more about Malayter: https://www.overdriveonline.com/musician-switch-to-trucking-pays-the-bills/

Adair's "Eighteen Wheels" video: https://www.overdriveonline.com/video-18-wheels-and-a-dozen-roses-new-bluegrass-single-tina-adair/

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For this edition of Overdrive Radio, we sat down with Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association President Todd Spencer and Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh in an attempt to forecast some answers to the question in the title. The conversation touched on potential Congressional and/or administrative initiatives around infrastructure (parking infrastructure being a principal component), interest (or not) things few in trucking want to see like insurance hikes and speed-limiter mandates, the recent and potentially further hours of service changes, the profile of the brokered freight transparency issue, and much more.

Find further editions of Overdrive Radio via our Trucking Business playlist here on SoundCloud or via http://OverdriveOnline.com/OverdriveRadio

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Regular Overdrive readers may well recall the case of a William Hickey of Maryland last year -- Hickey was convicted of operating as a U.S. runner for a mostly overseas ring of identity thieves targeting both brokers and carriers in a double-brokering scheme that's sucking hundreds of thousands in freight payments out of trucking. In today's edition of Overdrive Radio, U.S. postal inspector Steve Cohen of the federal U.S. Postal Inspection Service offers clarity on how the scheme operates, and just what brokers and carriers can do to put a stop to it. As he well knows, Hickey's capture and conviction was just a blip -- as the scheme is still well in operation as thieves adapt.

Given limitations on extradition in the countries where these rings operate, Cohen and his team, including local and state partners around the nation, are mostly limited themselves to targeting the money launderers operating here. Over the phone lines where the ID thieves ply their trade, though, it's you that can have the biggest impact.

Read more about these issues via our early 2020 "Broker Reforms" feature series: http://overdriveonline.com/tag/broker-reforms

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2020 Overdrive/Red Eye Radio Trucker Talent Search winner John Malayter of Rogersville, Tenn., was gifted a studio session at Jay's Place with producer/engineer Jay Vernali and session percussionist Tony Graci, on Nashville's Music Row. Here are a few early versions of the original songs Malayter recorded.

2020 Overdrive/Red Eye Radio Trucker Talent Search winner John Malayter of Rogersville, Tenn., was gifted a studio session at Jay's Place with producer/engineer Jay Vernali and session percussionist Tony Graci, on Nashville's Music Row. Here are a few early versions of the original songs Malayter recorded.

2020 Overdrive/Red Eye Radio Trucker Talent Search winner John Malayter of Rogersville, Tenn., was gifted a studio session at Jay's Place with producer/engineer Jay Vernali and session percussionist Tony Graci, on Nashville's Music Row. Here are a few early versions of the original songs Malayter recorded.

2020 Overdrive/Red Eye Radio Trucker Talent Search winner John Malayter of Rogersville, Tenn., was gifted a studio session at Jay's Place with producer/engineer Jay Vernali and session percussionist Tony Graci, on Nashville's Music Row. Here are a few early versions of the original songs Malayter recorded.