Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/873209
VOICES 10 | Overdrive | September 2017 Disaster was averted ahead of Barry Moore in July on Ohio State Route 13 just north of Mansfi eld, he says, but no doubt not without more than a couple of white knuckles. Moore caught the incident on his dashcam — a passenger van with six or seven people passed his trac- tor-trailer while coming around a left-moving blind curve, "almost colliding with an oncoming car," as he tells it. As you can see in the still from the video, there's clear- ly two solid lines dividing north- and southbound lanes when the van fi nally merged back ahead of Moore, barely in time. Visit Overdrive's Dashcam Central repos- itory for reader-submitted videos to view Moore's video in full and/or to share your own: OverdriveOnline.com/DashcamCentral. Head-on near-miss The expedited freight niche is owner-opera- tor-heavy in both the Class 8 and smaller truck niches. That extends to the cargo van space in which small-fl eet owner Steve McNeal operates. McNeal, based in Holland, Michigan, runs Ram ProMaster Sprinter-type vans leased to Load One, prominent among expedited-niche carriers, particularly in automotive-related freight. He's also put this initial prototype Ford Transit into service with its cus- tom box/sleeper body. McNeal and partners in his shop put it together with a mind toward maximizing payload with a non-DOT-regulated vehicle, one of the perks of the cargo van niche — he's plated under 10,001 pounds. The box on the 2017 Transit cutaway is designed to accommodate up to six 4-by-4-foot skids as long as they're no higher than 69 inches. McNeal and company did all the design, fabrication and build work themselves, customizing the entire exterior in aluminum to minimize weight. On the driver side below the sleeper, McNeal built custom compartments for a generator and a spare gas can. And while it's no 72-inch raised-roof condo, the sleeper concept is surprisingly spacious, with windows on both sides that tilt open, a roof vent/fan and a microwave. Find a video run through the unit on Overdrive's Youtube channel at You- tube.com/Overdrivemag. As McNeal notes in the video, his company's got more of these cutaways on order, so he may be looking for drivers or potential customers soon. In Load One's booth at the Expe- dite Expo in July, which also included one of Brad Keselowski's actual NASCAR racecars, I'd say this unit was getting the lion's share of the attention. - Todd Dills Crafting a sleeper-equipped cargo van for expediting Small fleet owner Steve McNeal