Overdrive Radio

Trucking’s rise in pop culture was well underway when “Convoy” was released in late 1975, capturing the hearts of not just truckers but many Americans.

The song, heavily laden with CB slang and conversation, tells the story of a spontaneous truck convoy that clashes with authorities. It was by C.W. McCall, who was actually a character co-created and voiced by advertising executive Bill Fries.

“It hit at a conjuncture of a lot of different things,” said Todd Uhlman, assistant professor of U.S. socio-cultural history of the University of Dayton. “First of all, the trucker movie had really begun to take off.” “Duel” had come out in 1971 and “White Line Fever” debuted in 1975. “Simultaneously, the CB had really begun to expand outside of the trucker circle and become a kind of pop culture phenomenon.”

The song led to the movie “Convoy,” released in June 1978. Directed by Sam Peckinpah, it starred Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw and Ernest Borgnine.

That movie and perhaps the most famous of movies involving trucking, “Smokey & the Bandit,” also released in 1978, solidified the image of trucker as not just a highway cowboy but an iconic American rebel, bucking political and regulatory authorities, Uhlman said.

Catch more installments in Overdrive's 60th-anniversary series involving lookbacks on trucking history via this link: http://overdriveonline.com/trucking-history

Also in this edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast: Intro'ing a new dispatch provider in S2 Logistics, with hotshot hauler S2 Transport co-owner Scott Sabatini at its helm and stressing integrity in operations, a response to his own early difficulties.

When the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Medical Review Board met May 20 in part to take up a revised sleep-apnea-related section of the FMCSA’s official handbook for the fine folks that perform DOT physicals all around the country, doctors on the board discovered that handbook drafters had made pains in that section to remove a detailed set of screening, testing and treatment recommendations. The Medical Review Board had originally come up with those in 2016, when FMCSA was considering pursuing rulemaking around the condition. Those recommendations were then in a draft update to the official medical examiners’ handbook that came to light about a year ago but had yet to be officially published as the agency worked on finalizing an update with the board in an advisory capacity.

Handbook drafters as of the May 20 meeting had cut that and added language making it abundantly clear that there was no regulation that required sleep apnea driver screening, referrals for testing or treatment. Board member Michael Kelly worried over that addition in particular, and was joined by the entire board in protest over the lack of specifics.

As Truckers for a Cause sleep apnea support group cofounder, and longtime driver Bob Stanton put it recently, commenting in the Overdrive's Trucking Pro group at Linkedin, though, “the Medical Review Board seems to have forgotten what Congress mandated through Public Law 113-45.”

Namely, that FMCSA must go through public notice and comment rulemaking in order to issue any further guidance on the condition when it comes to required or recommended screening, testing and treatment guidelines for CDL holders. Dr. Kelley went further, too, expressing disappointment over what he predicted would be the reality if this handbook draft was made final. As was quoted in my report from that day, Kelley beleved "it will be very rare for drivers here on out to be tested and treated for sleep apnea unless they truly want to be."

His statement of that disappointment sounded to some truckers in the audience quite differently than how he intended it.

Read more background on the MRB meeting and the sleep apnea issue via https://www.overdriveonline.com/regulations/article/15065662/strict-sleep-apnea-screening-criteria-not-in-latest-draft-handbook

Find links to S2 Logistics' business pages via the post that houses this podcast at https://www.overdriveonline.com/15065897

... and plenty more. At the East Coast Truckers Jamboree truck show early this month, Overdrive news editor Matt Cole spoke with these six owner-operators about a lot more than just the custom rigs they were showing (speaking of which, keep tuned to http://overdriveonline.com/custom-rigs for views on/videos of all mentioned here through the next weeks).

A year following the depths of the early-pandemic downturn, it felt like a fine time to reflect on the experience of the past year. Here find perspectives on the trials, and some joys, of trucking through the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as thoughts on where truckers go from here in terms of addressing the biggest issues of the present well into the future, chief among them the parking situation all around the country.

Featured owner-operators here are:

**Robert Davis, out of Vermont, hauling Cabot Cheese in a 2012 Great Dane 53-foot slide and spread reefer, with a 1988 Freight FLC120.

**Austin Kiser drives for his dad’s operation, Greg Kiser Trucking, based in Rosedale, Virginia. They pull mostly pneumatic tanks and some dump trailers: https://www.overdriveonline.com/custom-rigs/article/15065658/austin-kisers-2018-peterbilt-389-at-kenly-95-east-coast-jamboree

**Greg Eudy, owner of Greg Eudy Trucking, out of Monroe, North Carolina. Eudy hauls sand and rock to concrete plants for Reynolds Trucking out of Indian Trail, North Carolina, in a 2000 Pete 379 that he converted from a day cab to a sleeper: https://www.overdriveonline.com/custom-rigs/article/15065773/blank-canvas-daycab-to-stretched-flattop-2000-peterbilt-379

**Jeff Walters, owner of J&N Trucking out of Bath, New York. Walters hauls dry freight as an independent with his 2006 Pete 379 and 2019 Great Dane van.

**Steve Johnson, based in Apple Valley, California. He’s currently leased on with Landstar and hauls pretty much anything that will fit on a flatbed in a flattop 2019 Pete 389.

**Daniel and Phyllis Snow, whom regular listeners will recall as owners of "Goose" custom Freightliner. Hear their contemporaneous pandemic-trucking experience tale from this time in 2020 via this link: https://www.overdriveonline.com/overdrive-radio/podcast/14897705/refusing-to-run-at-a-loss-a-solution-for-low-freight-rates

This week's special edition of Overdrive Radio features the words and music of singer-songwriter Stephen Flatt, native of White County, Tennessee, and current Nashville resident. Flatt's first record as a solo artist, "Cumberland Bones," came out last month and features the "Hold You Tonight" single that in part takes the point of view of a long-distance hauler on his way home to the family.

As you might well have guessed, Flatt’s no stranger to trucking, having worked for years in shipping and receiving and thus with plenty trucking companies, owner-ops and drivers, for a few different outfits. Today he’s doing logistics work in the health-care space, dealing with smaller packages but with similar concerns.

If Stephen Flatt’s name sounds familiar, that’s because he’s got bluegrass royalty a few generations behind him – one Lester Flatt, in fact, was his Great Uncle. I had the chance earlier this week to sit down with him for a half-hour to run through some of the tracks on the record, including the new single and so much more -- it's traditional country, a couple tracks with a little bit of that bluegrass influence, though as Flatt notes some might call it "alt country" today. It's a record full of narratives about characters, "whether your in-laws or outlaws, people you've worked with and been friends with."

There's a lot about it to like. Listen to hear how you can get a copy of the CD mailed to your doorstep.

Find a video for the new single via the post at Overdrive that houses this podcast: http://overdriveonline.com/15065688

Where does the loveable-outlaw image of the professional trucker first come into play in a big way in American culture? Perhaps the earliest notable instance came with Dave Dudley’s hit, “Six Days on the Road.” American culture expert Todd Uhlman makes that association in this ongoing "Overdrive’s Songs of the Highway" series, part of Overdrive's ongoing 60th anniversary celebration with coverage of trucking history: http://overdriveonline.com/trucking-history

“Six Days” remains in contemporary times one of trucking’s most popular songs -- a decade ago around Overdrive's 50th anniversary, readers voted the track as the No. 1 trucking song of all time: https://www.overdriveonline.com/channel-19/article/14875984/results-the-top-10-trucking-songs-of-all-time

It was initially record by Paul Davis and released in 1961, but it was Dudley who put it on the map with his version in 1963. It reached number two on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and crossed over at No. 32 on its broader Hot 100 chart.

A former trucker, Dudley packed the lyrics with details from the road. The song included references to speeding, popping pills, a “Georgia overdrive,” emitting black exhaust, dodging scales and being behind on his logs. ...

In late 2019 going into 2020 the state of Colorado became what's believed to be the first to ban statewide the practice of booting an occupied vehicle, just what you’re about to hear in this edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast, with audio courtesy of the 911 call April 21 from Louisiana-based owner-operator Glenn Keller to dispatch in Gaston County, North Carolina, due west of Charlotte. Regular Overdrive readers may well be familiar with Keller from past coverage of his leased operation, some of it towing- and Gastonia-related, interestingly enough.

That's where Keller was when this happened, idling while sitting in the driver's seat in a place where there is no express prohibition on the onerous occupied-vehicle-booting practice. Keller was surrounded by three tow trucks, whose operators who demanded money, and Keller promptly involved the police when he realized there was no escape.

In this edition of Overdrive Radio, we talk further with Keller about just what happened here, as it’s yet another example of tow and boot operators in some locales all around the country whose plenty aggressive tactics are inspiring angst among folks like him -- and not just angst, not just anger –- nay, rage might be a better word there. And there’s fear, for sure. Were it not for the police showing up when they did, well, things could have gone all sorts of sideways.

Keller remains hopeful his post-incident efforts might have a lasting effect where this incident occurred –- in Gastonia, North Carolina.

See the following Charlotte Fox affiliate news report on the location where Keller was booted via: http://overdriveonline.com/15065549

Read more about the issue nationwide: https://www.overdriveonline.com/channel-19/article/14894396/truck-booting-and-towing-traps-in-light-of-eld-mandate

Could Colorado's ban on booting occupied vehicles be a model for the nation?: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/14897201/could-colorados-pending-vehicle-booting-regulation-be-a-model-for-the-nation

In late 2019 going into 2020 the state of Colorado became what's believed to be the first to ban statewide the practice of booting an occupied vehicle, just what you’re about to hear in this edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast, with audio courtesy of the 911 call April 21 from Louisiana-based owner-operator Glenn Keller to dispatch in Gaston County, North Carolina, due west of Charlotte. Regular Overdrive readers may well be familiar with Keller from past coverage of his leased operation, some of it towing- and Gastonia-related, interestingly enough.

That's where Keller was when this happened, idling while sitting in the driver's seat in a place where there is no express prohibition on the onerous occupied-vehicle-booting practice. Keller was surrounded by three tow trucks, whose operators who demanded money, and Keller promptly involved the police when he realized there was no escape.

In this edition of Overdrive Radio, we talk further with Keller about just what happened here, as it’s yet another example of tow and boot operators in some locales all around the country whose plenty aggressive tactics are inspiring angst among folks like him -- and not just angst, not just anger –- nay, rage might be a better word there. And there’s fear, for sure. Were it not for the police showing up when they did, well, things could have gone all sorts of sideways.

Keller remains hopeful his post-incident efforts might have a lasting effect where this incident occurred –- in Gastonia, North Carolina.

See the following Charlotte Fox affiliate news report on the location where Keller was booted via: http://overdriveonline.com/15065549

Read more about the issue nationwide: https://www.overdriveonline.com/channel-19/article/14894396/truck-booting-and-towing-traps-in-light-of-eld-mandate

Could Colorado's ban on booting occupied vehicles be a model for the nation?: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/14897201/could-colorados-pending-vehicle-booting-regulation-be-a-model-for-the-nation

The fears among many in the diesel-powered owner-operator community of late are real when it comes to rising oil prices with constraints on production and promotion of alternative sources of energy, as we've reported. All of it seems to mean little more than added costs for those fearful, but for the man whose voice is featured in this edition of Overdrive Radio, it all feels less like a problem than an opportunity.

That’s Jim Grundy, headquartered in Texas and owner of Sisu Energy LLC, an all-owner-operator/leased-small-fleet carrier hauling mostly dry bulk in the oil and gas business. Grundy's got a multifaceted trucking background, which includes past work with the 1845 company, likewise heavy in oil and gas-related hauling.

Farther back, as you’ll hear, he came up in the trucking world in more over the road operations, and when COVID hit last year he put that experience to work to take advantage of OTR opportunities in a new division of the company that’s power-only for owner-ops coming in.

Otherwise, Sisu Energy owns no trucks or trailers itself, nor do dispatch personnel at the company. That’s a feature owner-operators there take to heart as evidence the company’s sticking to its mission to be a platform where owner-operators can thrive, with support people invested in their success.

And thrive they have been. Over just two years since Sisu Energy’s founding the company's managed to attract in the neighborhood of 150 owner-operators/small fleets, most running in and around Texas oil fields and some to points farther afield.

Read more about the dry bulk niche more broadly via this recent-past feature report: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/14897244/dry-bulk-hauling-offers-easy-freight-handling-steady-work

Our recent coverage of fuel-price worries among owner-operators: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15064976/independents-worry-fuel-prices-will-keep-rising

This special edition of Overdrive Radio is part of our weekly 60th-anniversary series of stories with a significant historical aspect, as it's got no doubt in spades. It features the voice of former trucker George Ruelens, telling his tale in a 2019 interview about what’s become a veritable institution out of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania -- the annual Mother’s Day truck convoy benefiting the Make-a-Wish foundation. In 2019, the convoy featured 650 trucks in its 30th year, a huge amount of growth over the course of three decades from the first one, which Ruelens well-remembers.

With last year’s event sidelined amid the initial COVID outbreak, the 2021 event on May 9 upcoming should be every bit as impressive: https://secure2.wish.org/site/TR;jsessionid=00000000.app208a?fr_id=3758&pg=entry

Find more pictures from Ruelens' archive from the first even in the late 1980s via http://overdriveonline.com/14896399

Read more of our weekly 60th-anniversary series of dispatches from trucking history in Overdrive: http://overdriveonline.com/trucking-history

From the advent of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s CSA Safety Measurement System in 2010, its shortcomings were well-evident to carriers and baked into its structure. At that time, carriers were laser-focused on equities in scoring, particularly when comparing the way a small carrier's scores moved wildly with very little data input versus the slow climbs and falls with more data on the large-carrier side. As the years have gone by there's been refinement of a sense among critics of the program that the very public nature of the data underpinning what passes for CSA today is its fatal design flaw, with far too many "unintended consequences," in the words of Payne Trucking Safety Director Chris Haney, that have been at best unfair to carriers forced to contend with them on a daily basis.

That’s inclusive of small fleets and owner-operators, and company drivers to an extent, too, given the increased importance of every violation you could possibly think of, large and small.

For today's edition of Overdrive Radio, we're turning back to my February discussion with Haney and CVSA data director Chris Turner, formerly of the Kansas Highway Patrol, to highlight various aspects of the discussion, including Haney's view that, despite efforts to better contextualize publicly available data, too many of those unintended consequences continue to be big problems for carriers. The entire trucking, enforcement and regulator community should do a lot better, both he and Turner contend.

The February discussion centered around Overdrive's Setting the Record Straight package of investigative features looking closely at FMCSA's DataQs system for correcting data collected about carriers and drivers. Access all the pieces of that package via this link: https://www.overdriveonline.com/regulations/article/15063803/criticism-of-dataqs-review-system-continues-to-rise