Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/709236
VOICES 12 | Overdrive | August 2016 Owner-operator Eric Turner began to take his father's Atlanta-area towing business a step further after he fi nished school in the 1990s. The 39-year- old, who at that time had worked off and on in his father's business, began us- ing the company's two-car roll-back fl atbed straight trucks to run cars to and from auto auctions. He acquired a bigger truck for car hauling later, then more in 2004 when his wife and business partner, Stacey, urged him to grow the one-truck business. To- day, after surviving the big downturn in the car business with a variety of belt-tight- ening measures, the business is up to seven trucks. The most recent addi- tion, a 2015 Peterbilt 389 Detroit-powered glider kit, is the fourth glider Turner has added. Emissions issues with post-2007 model-year engines were what drove him toward Fitzgerald Glider Kits, the company he's worked with on each. The 2015 tractor and 2016 Wally Mo open-car hauler took home Best of Show in Working Combo at the Tennessee edition of Overdrive's Pride & Polish series of truck beauty shows in July, hosted by Fitzgerald. For his fi rst show, Turner knows he did well, punch- ing his ticket to the Nation- al Championship in Dallas this month. He sees it as furtherance of the mission Stacey put him on more than a decade ago: Take it to another level. At the Tennessee show, he was joined by Stacey; youngest sons, Braxton and Carter; his father-in- law; and fellow Turner Transport drivers Warren Wiseman and Dane Thomas. Before they even knew of their Best of Show fi nish, Turner was confi dent in the growing profi le of his business, urging fellow owner-operators to pick up their game. "We're here to stay," he said. – Todd Dills Car hauler takes it 'to another level' "Johnny Be Good," the nom de plume behind the JBG Travels Youtube channel of an otherwise unidentifi ed trucker, captured this recent Good Samaritan mo- ment on his dashcam. A motorcyclist, broken down amid the left lanes of the mam- moth I-90/94 in downtown Chicago just ahead of the 18th Street exit, needed a way to get her vehicle to the apron. JBG was more than happy to off er "a little cover," as he puts it toward the end of the dashcam clip, blocking traffi c so she could push the bike out of continuing traffi c. Catch more video views through readers' windshields, or upload your own, via Overdrive's Dashcam Central repository for reader-submitted videos at OverdriveOnline.com/ dashcamcentral. Mr. Be Good defuses a bad scene Scan the QR with your mobile device to pull up a video interview with Eric Turner, detailing his seven-truck car- haul business and its newest custom addition, this 2015 Peterbilt 389 glider. Or find the video by searching his name at OverdriveOnline.com.