The subject of retirement is always a hot topic among owner-ops -- the diligence it requires to set yourself up well to leave the road is such that it's not exactly easily achievable. Yet this well-matched pair of owner-operators -- Bruce and Kellie Cone of Redding, California -- have set themselves up well as they start to run out their last half-decade in business. That's the long-range plan, anyway, for the proud of owners of a pristine pair of Peterbilt 389s you'll hear all about in this edition of Overdrive Radio.

It jumps off with the sound of the antique train bell that’s mounted under the deck of owner-operator Kellie Cone’s 2022 Peterbilt 389. The bell’s activated by the in-cab switch that formerly controlled the sliding fifth wheel – which slides no longer, as you’ll hear her tell. Kellie comes from an education background career-wise, originally, but several years back met Bruce and took to trucking in an outsize way originally on ridealong trips in-cab with the third-generation owner-operator. Bruce has hauled longtime for direct customers in California and Oregon, today mostly home every night after a 30-year career that took him all over the Western States and occasionally farther afield.

Bruce and Kellie aren’t team operators, though. Bruce’s own 2020 389 replaced a 2010 that Kellie got her start in as an owner-operator before upgrading to the 2022. Both rigs we caught a close look at out at the A.J. Soza Memorial Truck Show two weeks ago in Merced, in "sunny" California, as they say. The old adage didn’t disappoint -- there wasn’t a drop of rain in sight for the show, and temps rose in the afternoon above 100 on the mercury. The heat, the then-specter of the AB 5 contractor law coming into play, $7-plus diesel and everything else the state has thrown at the trucking world in recent memory didn’t tamp down the spirits of the owner-ops we’ll hear from today.

Also in the podcast: we’ll hear from another owner, one in his very early days trucking – Tony Gonzalez. Like the Cones, it's clear Gonzalez has the bull by the horns, so to speak. Get a closer look at Gonzalez' rig, leased to his father's San Miguel Transportation under-10-truck small fleet, via this link: https://www.overdriveonline.com/custom-rigs/video/15293971/owneroperator-tony-gonzalez-and-his-2015-peterbilt-379