Overdrive

October 2014

Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info

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Voices 10 | Overdrive | October 2014 Overdrive news editor James Jaillet got a rare close look at a truck stop near Shanghai on a trip to Chi- na early in the summer. Find a bevy of photos from the visit in his July 7 post to the Overdrive Extra blog: OverdriveOnline.com/overdrive-extra. Responding to images ranging from onsite brokers to cabovers with coffin sleepers, more than one reader echoed this comment from a reader posting only as Bobby on the website: "Looks like the Valley in the '70s." Chinese truck stop reflects trucking's past James Jaillet Roughly 70 percent of the trucks on the road in China are owned and driven by sin- gle-truck own- er-operators like this one, noted Jaillet's guide. The operator gave the writer a tour of the cabover. Shipping contain- ers at the stop were used as freight broker- age offices. The brokers working the offices wrote load details on dry-erase boards. James Jaillet Chilly 'Challenge' popular at show The Great American Trucking Show in Dallas this August might have marked something of a high point for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge phenomenon as it relates to trucking, with more than a few dousings taking place. It also showcased its origins in an original challenge delivered by the folks at Baylor Trucking in Milan, Ind., who continued their quite personal campaign in the Lone Star state. Baylor Trucking's leader, Bob Baylor, was diag- nosed with ALS within the last year. The company's ice-bucket challenges to people in the industry spread like wildfire, reaching company owners, no small number of their drivers and, eventually, Overdrive. Owner-operator George Parker and his wife, Overdrive contributing blogger Wendy Parker, along with Quest- leased operator Bettina Cameron, challenged Overdrive Senior Editor Todd Dills. Bob Baylor's daughter, Cari, was on hand at GATS outside the main entrance, facilitating donations and dumping ice along with Baylor-leased owner-operator Richard Lindom. Search "ALS ice bucket" at OverdriveOnline.com for videos from Dills, Parker, Cameron and others, including a Werner Enterprises team as well as mem- bers of the Trucking Solutions Group of owner-oper- ators. In Parker's "Ice buckets and wet blankets" post accompanying her video, the former nurse explains the unique challenges of ALS treatment. In her video, she challenges all drivers to rise to the occasion. Know the value of your asset " There is a disconnect between management or the executive boardroom and the drivers. Executives who run these trucking companies need to understand that without drivers, their greatest asset, they are out of business. " — Chattanooga-based small fleet owner Michael Goodman, commenting in the Overdrive's Trucking Pro group at LinkedIn.com, on news related to a growing truckload driver shortage. Amid the late summer heat of Texas, Overdrive Senior Editor Todd Dills chills under the ice bucket. Milan, Ind.-based leased owner-operator Richard Lindom of Baylor Trucking helped facilitate the small fleet's efforts to fund-raise for ALS research at the Great American Trucking Show. For a look at his 2011 Kenworth T700, one of two Baylor-leased tractors that Bob Baylor, a military veteran, selected to decorate in patriotic colors, search the operator's name at OverdriveOnline.com.

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