Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/649008
80 | Overdrive | March 2016 ReaRview From risqué to recognition BY JAMES JAILLET The cover of the October 1968 edition of Overdrive. The April 1977 issue of Overdrive featured this model posing in front of a Kenworth. The May 1981 issue of Overdrive was one of the last to feature models posing with trucks. Livestock hauler Maggie Stone was the first Overdrive's Most Beautiful winner in 2013. I n the 1960s and '70s, Overdrive featured outspoken articles and opinion pieces, calls for organizing trucker strikes and attacks on powerful lobbyists and unions. At the same time, the magazine included features about the on-highway lifestyle of the independent truckers who made up its reader- ship, highlighting the free-spirited image that was celebrated in that era's pop culture. That coverage often included attractive women, presented on covers and in regular departments, such as the monthly Overdrive's Date Master. These profiles spotlighted a reader's tractor along with photos – often awkward eye-candy shots by modern standards – of the Date Master posing around the rig. The Date Master series and similar pin-up-type coverage faded in the early 1980s, shortly before founder Mike Parkhurst sold the magazine to its current owner, Randall-Reilly. Its mission was broadened from being primarily an advocacy publication to encompass more on equipment and the owner-operator business model. Since 2013, when Overdrive's Most Beautiful was introduced, the magazine has presented a more modern take on women and trucking. The contest recognizes a hard-working female trucker for positively promoting the industry's image.