Todd Dills

Here's a huge thanks to every small fleet owner who's put their trucking company in the running for the 2026 awards, and good news for those who haven't: we're extending the deadline a couple weeks through to Aug. 15 for initial entry.

Owner-operators were asking that more than a year ago now, just a few months into the Trump administration, after a late 2024 transparency rulemaking proposed to put more onus on brokers to share freight-transaction records. Since the release, favored by big majorities of owner-operators, there'd been no further action at that time by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

The counting is done, and owner-operators and sponsors at the 2026 Large Cars & Guitars truck show raised upward of $14K for breast cancer research, advocacy and support. Founder Tony Justice's show blew past $200K in lifetime donations to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Just more than a year since the English proficiency requirement returned to out-of-service treatment at roadside, FMCSA proposed to codify OOS orders for ELP violations, including the recent tightening of border-zone violations. Accompanying analysis estimates an annual 9K more drivers OOS as a result.

Overdrive July Trucker of the Month Jeffrey Crise is motivated, like most owner-ops, by prospects for profit. But if you take one thing away from the hotshot hauler's story, listen for the passion behind a primary goal: To be a true source of support for drivers as his business grows.

Starting Aug. 23, Brake Safety Week inspections will see troopers fan out to scales and the roadside with a particular focus on drums and air-disc systems' rotors. There's some good news about truckers' prevention in the data, though intensity of brakes violations in the wider mix nationally just keeps rising. Detail here on the most intense states, more.

Just last year, the state of North Carolina explicitly banned the booting of commercial vehicles, yet private-tow tactics for parking enforcement clearly remain available to towing companies with latest headlines reporting a $9K tow bearing hallmarks of a parking-lot trap.

Almost two months to the day since making a public appearance to cut the ribbon at the grand opening festivities of her Dolly's Tennessean travel stop, music icon Dolly Parton has passed: Her nephew shared the news with this moving message.

Independent flatbedder Dee Zeeman combines OTR and mechanical knowhow with the steady hand in the back office of his wife, Bev, whose quick thinking in a critical moment might well have saved his life.

Two carrier-authority suspensions with active insurance on file, one brokerage-authority grant with no bond? July Trucker of the Month Jeffrey Crise, DPW Inc. owner Kristin Crawford detail Motus mixups they're still at a loss to explain, worth tens of thousands in lost income. There could more than 1,000 other similarly situated carriers.