The Over the Road podcast today begins a 16-week release of episodes for a national audience. The coproduction between PRX’s Radiotopia, a critically acclaimed podcast network, and Overdrive features primary episodes every two weeks narrated by Indiana-based Moeller Trucking driver and former owner-operator “Long Haul Paul” Marhoefer, an Overdrive contributor the Los Angeles Times recently called “a natural storyteller [whose] descriptions are never dull.” On off weeks, Overdrive Senior Editor Todd Dills hosts mini-episodes with the Channel One Nine Special, answering listener questions about trucking.
In the debut episode, “Over the Road” visits the 2019 Mid-America Trucking Show, where the subject on everyone’s minds is – what else? – the newly implemented electronic logging device mandate and the potential for change in the hours of service.
Scenes feature individual drivers and owner-operators on the show floor as well as in both truck lots — the truck beauty-show rigs and their owners in one, and in the other, “steerage” in the Papa John’s parking lot, chatting late into the night. A central conundrum emerges: Just as many truckers are benefiting from technological advancements, efforts to contend with the effects of an accelerating pace of change to the business and lifestyle of trucking prove frustrating and further distance contemporary trucking from the traditions of yesteryear.
Listen in the player above or subscribe via your preferred podcasting app.
Brief primer on podcast listening
If you’ve never used a smartphone app for podcasts, popular options, most available free of charge, include both dedicated podcasting apps like Apple Podcasts and Stitcher and broader listening apps like Google Play Music and Spotify. Add the podcast to your favorites on Stitcher, for example, and when new episodes are available you’ll be able to see that with a quick glance at your favorites playlist.
In the Google Play Music app (Google Podcasts in another app dedicated to podcast listening from the company), you’d need to search “Over the Road” and navigate to the main podcast page, where you’ll see:
