Overdrive Radio

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/

Subscribe to Overdrive's daily newsletter for more trucking news, views and analysis geared to owner-operator businesses: http://overdriveonline.com/newsletter-signup

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.

The answer to the question depends on many factors. Hear several answers, though, from three small fleet owner-ops in this Overdrive Radio podcast, with insights on delegating, liability insurance, retaining the best drivers, and more.

Is there an ideal size for an owner-operator as he/she adds trucks, drivers and freight? The answer to that question is probably, well, "it depends." It's certain, though, that whether leased or independent with carrier authority, any owner is bound to reach a point where administrative and/or sales/operational demands outstrip his/her ability to handle everything -- and still haul. 

Cadle Trucking owner Ben Cadle is just about at that breaking point, and feels he may have reached his "sweet spot" of sorts at 11 full-time drivers and trucks in operation (12 if you count him and his "Joy Ride 3" cabover, too, though his hauling frequency seems less and less as time goes on). His fleet's size has doubled over the course of the last five years, and "I don't want any more trucks at this point, he said, “It gets to a certain point it’s like, 'Yeah, I’m good.'”

As have so many small fleet operators I’ve talked to through the years, Cadle credits his drivers as the bedrock of his success. Not that he’s getting rich, he emphasizes, but rather “trying to get to a comfortable point, and that’s about it. Trying to secure the future.” As are no doubt our three Small Fleet Champ finalists you’ll hear in today's edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast: James Davis of JDT out of Oregon(platform freight), Evan Guckien of Indiana-based Ed Burns & Sons (mostly platform), and Louisiana tank hauler John McGee Trucking. All three here offer insights on hiring and retaining the best drivers, on the issue of size and manageability, on learning to delegate, on the huge challenges that small fleet owners with motor carrier authority are facing with insurance costs when it comes to primary commercial auto liability. And more.