Overdrive

May 2016

Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info

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VOICES 12 | Overdrive | May 2016 I am in the process of an in-frame on my 2008 ProStar tri-axle. I thought about selling and going with a pre-2000 truck, but the truck was not sellable with a blown head gasket, and I could not in good conscience pass this problem off to another like many guys would. The truck is outfi tted with a lot and has not depreciated much in the past two years. She can go from tanker to lowboys and everything in between. It is hard to part with that kind of equip- ment when it is paid for in this economy. "Best to be prepared" is my thinking, and the reason I really do not think parting with this tractor is a good idea. Right now, I'm leased to a Canadi- an outfi t running local/regional and pulling a dry van in the Detroit area. A long run for me is 250 miles one way. I know the ELD will cost me. Right now, it is a waiting game. My company has no desire to install anything. We are all hoping that this will be stopped and that common sense will prevail. I've been in this racket 26 years now, and everything is upside down, and it is not looking to get any better. My only hope is to continue my niche jobs with the right companies, or just going back to my own authority. Tough call. — Michael Wright, Michigan-based owner-operator When cold, wet conditions in January translated to no shortage of that most invisible of on-highway hazards, black ice, in Missouri, Overdrive reader Dan Lagoon bore witness to quite a scene. "A car did a 360 on the free- way next to me," Lagoon noted with his upload of a clip from his dashcam to Overdrive's Dashcam Central reposi- tory for reader-submitted vids. What it shows, other than a couple of the near misses up ahead that the four-wheeler caused, is Lagoon's quick reaction as the four-wheeler worked to regain control. Catch the video, or share your own clip with your story, via OverdriveOnline.com/ dashcamcentral. Four-wheeler does 360 spinout on black ice ELD mandate is 'tough call' for owner-operator Since Overdrive queried readers in 2014 about prospects for the $7.25/ hour federal minimum wage, more truckers today believe it's time to raise it, following a series of states and localities that have raised their own minimums. In some cases, those hikes bring those areas to a minimum-wage status more than twice the current federal minimum. California is in the process of a years-long phase-in of a hike to $15 per hour. While most interstate employee drivers, to say nothing of owner-oper- ators, may not benefi t directly from a minimum wage hike, California has been the jurisdiction of legal developments around driver pay in recent times. To the extent that employ- ers based there or employ- ing drivers who live there become subject to the state's wage and hour laws in the future, minimum wages could eventually apply directly. As with prior reports, some of Overdrive's mostly owner-operator readers voting yes to a hike showed support on account of the indirect eff ects on the trucking business: Rock-bottom wages = less consumer spending = less freight. Hardliners against a hike were more vocal. "If you people don't like what you are being paid, improve yourself and go somewhere else," noted Bob Walker under the poll. "You have that freedom to do that now, don't give it up. When everybody makes more, the cost of living goes up for everybody." Minimum wage hike support growing among truckers Should the federal $7.25/hour minimum wage be raised? OverdriveOnline.com poll No 43% To $15 or more/hr 18% To between $12 and $15/hr 15% To between $10 and $12/hr 11% But it should remain less than $10/hr 13% YES 57% WAGES WAGES HOT BUTTONS

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