Overdrive Radio

In a wide-ranging but broad interview, FMCSA Administrator Ray Martinez spoke with Overdrive in an exclusive interview about trucking industry pain points, the ongoing transition to electronic logging devices, evaluating hours of service reforms, implementation of automated vehicle tech and what he hopes to accomplish as FMCSA's administrator.

In a wide-ranging but broad interview, FMCSA Administrator Ray Martinez spoke with Overdrive in an exclusive interview about trucking industry pain points, the ongoing transition to electronic logging devices, evaluating hours of service reforms, implementation of automated vehicle tech and what he hopes to accomplish as FMCSA's administrator.

In this Overdrive Radio special editor, you'll hear a little more directly from each of this year's Overdrive/Red Eye Radio Trucker Talent Search finalists – Mandi Jo Pinheiro, James Nelson and B.J. Williams, all of whom were interviewed by Red Eye Radio’s Eric Harley in advance of the final competition. That will take place Friday, Aug. 24, at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas. For those attending the show, don’t miss it –- it’s scheduled for a 3 p.m. start on the America Strong Stage in Hall A at the Dallas Convention Center. For general information on attending GATS, including how to get registered and full schedules and the like, visit truckshow.com.

In this Overdrive Radio special editor, you'll hear a little more directly from each of this year's Overdrive/Red Eye Radio Trucker Talent Search finalists – Mandi Jo Pinheiro, James Nelson and B.J. Williams, all of whom were interviewed by Red Eye Radio’s Eric Harley in advance of the final competition. That will take place Friday, Aug. 24, at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas. For those attending the show, don’t miss it –- it’s scheduled for a 3 p.m. start on the America Strong Stage in Hall A at the Dallas Convention Center. For general information on attending GATS, including how to get registered and full schedules and the like, visit truckshow.com.

In this Overdrive Radio special editor, you'll hear a little more directly from each of this year's Overdrive/Red Eye Radio Trucker Talent Search finalists – Mandi Jo Pinheiro, James Nelson and B.J. Williams, all of whom were interviewed by Red Eye Radio’s Eric Harley in advance of the final competition. That will take place Friday, Aug. 24, at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas. For those attending the show, don’t miss it –- it’s scheduled for a 3 p.m. start on the America Strong Stage in Hall A at the Dallas Convention Center. For general information on attending GATS, including how to get registered and full schedules and the like, visit truckshow.com.

If you’ve ever had the experience of a starter going bad at ever-decreasing intervals — the first one on the truck from the factory lasted 500,000 miles, the next one 200,000, etc. — you could be experiencing a phenomenon noted by Danial Mustafa, TA Truck Centers’ Director of Technical Services. Absent the right diagnostic equipment to troubleshoot conditions all along the loaded-up electrical and electronic systems of modern diesels, too many technicians, he says, essentially throw parts and components at any given problem, particularly in the starting and charging system. This special edition of Overdrive Radio is Mustafa's presentation at the Expedite Expo conference in July, where he detailed the increasing electrical demands in modern diesels and offered ways to troubleshoot them, and troubleshoot technicians' recommendations for maintenance, as it were. Find a related video in the August 14, 2018, post on the Channel 19 blog -- OverdriveOnline.com/Channel19.

If you’ve ever had the experience of a starter going bad at ever-decreasing intervals — the first one on the truck from the factory lasted 500,000 miles, the next one 200,000, etc. — you could be experiencing a phenomenon noted by Danial Mustafa, TA Truck Centers’ Director of Technical Services. Absent the right diagnostic equipment to troubleshoot conditions all along the loaded-up electrical and electronic systems of modern diesels, too many technicians, he says, essentially throw parts and components at any given problem, particularly in the starting and charging system. This special edition of Overdrive Radio is Mustafa's presentation at the Expedite Expo conference in July, where he detailed the increasing electrical demands in modern diesels and offered ways to troubleshoot them, and troubleshoot technicians' recommendations for maintenance, as it were. Find a related video in the August 14, 2018, post on the Channel 19 blog -- OverdriveOnline.com/Channel19.

In the relative calm before a storm that walloped Lexington, Ky., as the first day of the Expedite Expo let out last month, Overdrive Radio sat down with the two finalists and ultimately runners-up for the Expediter of the Year award: AD Transportation driver Nancy Hudson and cargo van small fleet owner and Class 8 straight truck owner-operator Eric Escobar. The two shared insights from decades in business between them, Escobar after a prior career in the Army and Hudson following long work in a hospital as a patient care technician.

In the relative calm before a storm that walloped Lexington, Ky., as the first day of the Expedite Expo let out last month, Overdrive Radio sat down with the two finalists and ultimately runners-up for the Expediter of the Year award: AD Transportation driver Nancy Hudson and cargo van small fleet owner and Class 8 straight truck owner-operator Eric Escobar. The two shared insights from decades in business between them, Escobar after a prior career in the Army and Hudson following long work in a hospital as a patient care technician.

This Overdrive Radio edition checks in with a more complete introduction to Clifford Petersen’s leased operation with Christenson transportation, headquartered near Springfield, Mo., with more than 100 power units hauling mostly dry freight, Petersen notes. For regular Overdrive readers, Petersen probably needs no introduction, as he’s written several blog posts in recent times in which he draws on his experience over a few decades now in and out of trucking. His last time away, from 2005-15, though, gave him a new purpose in his approach to the industry and, as he notes, a desire to leave it better than he found it initially growing up in the 1970s.