Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/1009508
CONTENTS August 2018 | Vol. 58 | No. 8 August 2018 | Overdrive | 3 Join all our friends at facebook.com/ OverdriveTrucking Follow breaking news and commentary at twitter.com/ OverdriveUpdate Subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/ OverdriveMag Subscribe to daily newsletter or monthly magazine at overdriveonline.com/subscribe/ Exercise your trucking business mind at "Overdrive's Trucking Pro"group at Linkedin.com Share industry headlines via the "Overdrive magazine" page at plus.google.com Share and comment on photography from around the trucking world at Instagram.com/overdrivetrucking. EDITORIAL Editorial Director: Max Heine Equipment Editor: Jason Cannon Senior Editor: Todd Dills, James Jaillet Managing Editor: Dean Smallwood News Editor: Matt Cole Video Editor: Andrew Guinn Contributing Editors: Jill Dunn Contact: truckingeditorial@gmail.com DESIGN & PRODUCTION Art Director: Kenneth Stubbs Production Designer: David Watson Quality Assurance: Timothy Smith Advertising Production Manager: Leah Boyd Contact: production@overdriveonline.com TRUCKING MEDIA Director of Content Marketing Services: Carolyn Mason Special Projects Manager: Kathleen Craft Web Developer/Analyst: Marlin Caddell Contact: sales@truckingmedia.com 3200 Rice Mine Rd NE | Tuscaloosa, AL 35406 800-633-5953 | randallreilly.com CORPORATE Chairman Emeritus: Mike Reilly President/CEO: Brent Reilly Chief Operating Officer: Shane Elmore Chief Financial Officer: Kim Fieldbinder Senior Vice President, Sales: Scott Miller Senior Vice President, Editorial and Research: Linda Longton Senior Vice President, Acquisitions & Business Development: Robert Lake Senior Vice President, Data: Prescott Shibles Vice President of Events: Stacy McCants Vice President, Digital Services: Nick Reid Vice President, Marketing: Julie Arsenault EDITORIAL HONORS Subscription inquiries: For subscripton info call 800-517-4979 in the U.S., or 847-763-9610 outside the U.S. Rates for non- qualified subscriptions: US & possessions $34.97; Canada/ Mexico & foreign $65.00, payable in U.S. dollars. Single copies are available for $6 US, $9 Canada/Mexico, and $12 foreign. Four-time Magazine of the Year finalist plus 57 other awards. Only trucking magazine to win five Editorial Excellence Awards Overdrive (ISSN 0030-7394) is published monthly and is a registered trademark of its publisher, Randall-Reilly Publishing Company, LLC., 3200 Rice Mine Road N.E., Tuscaloosa, AL 35406. Periodicals postage-paid at Tuscaloosa, AL, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: SEND ALL UAA TO CFS. (SEE DMM 507.1.5.2); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: send address corrections to Overdrive, 3200 Rice Mine Rd NE, Tuscaloosa, AL 35406. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Copyright (c) 2018 Randall-Reilly Publishing Company, LLC. ® ® ® ® overdriveonline.com For change of address and other subscription inquiries, please contact: overdrive@halldata.com Six-time winner of Jesse H. Neal Awards, including 2014 Grand Neal Award VOICES 4 Remember relationships when talking rates. 5 Pulse: Driving skills for tomorrow's trucks. 6 Making a health case for hours change. 12 Podcasts on broken ELDs, reefer washouts. 12 Readers mixed on tariff freight impacts. LOGBOOK 16 Ruling keeps restrictions on glider kits. 16 FMCSA denies e-log exemp- tion request. 17 FMCSA to test new CSA scor- ing system. 18 Younger driver pilot proposal advances. 18 Medical examiner registry functions improve. CUSTOM RIGS 44 Putting old-school Pete in the new school. 46 Bright orange W9 grabs attention. 48 Morgan, Ball pick up first Bandit wins of '18. 50 Reader Rigs: '13 389 all in the family; '15 389 is Louisiana blue; '06 379 beats the heat; '16 Western Star 5700 lives on the road; '16 VNL 780 a Peach State Volvo. UNFORGIVING CLOCK | For all the attention on hours reform, it's ELDs that still stir the most ire. Page 8. DEPARTMENTS Cover photo by Max Heine. 42 EQUIPMENT SPOTLIGHT CBs and accessories. 52 GEAR GUIDE Prefilter, tires, suspension, more. 55 FLEET NEWS A. Duie Pyle opens Bronx service center. 64 BETTER HEALTH Prostate health can decline with aging. 24 Business: Flatbed leads broader gains in owner-op income Net income for leased owner-operators and inde- pendents in the first three months of 2018 contin- ued to march upward. Operators across all three segments took home more in 2018's first quarter on average than the same time a year ago. 26 COVER STORY: Some pain amidst the gains Overdrive's annual CSA's Data Trail update of national enforcement trends shows that it's the smallest carriers that are catching the brunt of issues arising from ELD malfunctions and user errors. They're also getting a larger share of hours of service violations, while bigger carriers are seeing the opposite. 32 Today's flatbeds lighter, stronger The newest flatbed trailers, if spec'd properly, are more productive, require less maintenance, are safer and are built to last lon- ger. Aluminum alloys offer the durability of high tensile-strength steel at less than half the weight. 38 Combating heat's toll on batteries Winter weather takes a lot of blame for battery failures, but the damage caused by hot-weather driving is often the primary culprit. Battery wear can go undetected for months, but routine checks can head off potential failures.