Today's edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast features a long talk on subject matter in the headline, and more, with owner-operator Steve Bixler of Valley View, Pa., the relatively recently former OOIDA board member and hauler of sand to natural gas drilling and fracking operations in his region. He resigned from OOIDA board in 2017 amid business issues at that time, and today, he’s working with an intrastate log and wood-chips hauling operation that uses its company trucks in Pennnsylvania. Independent owner-operator Bixler’s interstate authority, then, affords him plenty opportunity contracting with the operation for runs to a facility in New York State. Bixler has long been a strong advocate for the notion of a panel of experienced drivers to serve as a regulations-review board of sorts, his thoughts about which lead the podcast. One principal subjects of the podcast: preparation for the worst – whatever series of events you can imagine that threaten your continued operation. Bixler himself was in the middle of paying off a couple bank loans when his daily-driver 1996 Kenworth went down last year, needing an engine rebuild or replacement that was going to take some time to complete, if he could muster up the money to do it. He knew it was coming time for the engine work, and even with the aggressive moves on the bank loans limiting his ready cash flow, he had a contingency plan in place that he moved on. That contingency plan involved his trusty 1989-model Freightliner cabover, the Lady in Red.