Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association
146 episodes listed below
Truck talk with lived-in road sense.
Trucking with OOIDA treats trucking as both a business and a lived trade. Through relaxed interviews and practical conversation, Ashley Blackford and Scott Thompson move from tax deadlines and CDL training to mental health, trafficking awareness, truck shows, hobbies, and family operations.
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Trucking with OOIDA is built for people who understand that trucking is never just trucks. It is money, weather, family, safety, habit, isolation, pride, and a thousand small decisions made while the clock is running. Ashley Blackford and Scott Thompson guide the show with a relaxed interview rhythm, usually opening with ordinary banter before letting the subject grow serious or specific. The conversations are plainspoken. They also give guests space. A story about human trafficking becomes less about a headline and more about what a driver notices in a small window of time. A CDL trainer talking about students turns into a lesson on respect at fuel islands, parking spots, and the unwritten codes drivers learn by watching. Tax talk is practical, not glossy, with Barry Fowler framed around the business end of trucking and the pressure that comes with April 15. The show is equally comfortable at Mid-America Trucking Show, where the scale of the event becomes a way to talk about how wide the industry really is. It can travel farther, too, through Jer Highland's perspective on Irish haulage, island supply chains, rest facilities, detention time, and advocacy. Then it can swing back to the personal: Bill and Luke Rethwich, family trucking, show trucks, and the satisfaction of building something instead of buying it ready-made. Lighter episodes still feel connected to road life. Amateur radio, bass fishing, puzzles, Legos, and hobbies are treated as real ways people hold onto themselves around demanding work. The mental health episode is especially direct, linking loneliness, therapy, food choices, sugar habits, water, energy drinks, and the slow work of changing patterns. Nothing here sounds like a corporate explainer. It sounds like an industry conversation where the guest's experience carries the weight. For drivers, owner-operators, trucking families, and people adjacent to freight, the show offers news, culture, practical advice, and human texture in the same lane.
Made for: For truck drivers, owner-operators, trucking families, industry workers, and freight-curious listeners who want practical issues tied to real road experience. It especially suits people who prefer conversational interviews over polished business commentary.
What sets it apart: The show pairs OOIDA's industry focus with long, grounded guest stories from working drivers, trainers, tax voices, and association voices. It treats policy, safety, culture, and personal strain as parts of the same job.
In the spirit of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which has had the back of truckers since 1973, Trucking with OOIDA puts the issues that are relevant to the trucking industry front and center. Trucking with OOIDA, hosted by Ashley Blackford and Scott Thompson, aims to inform and entertain with a mix of industry experts, over-the-road truckers and other interesting guests, along with news and analysis that gets to the heart of what you do each and every day. So hop on into the cab, and get to Trucking with OOIDA.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Practical guest conversations reveal how trucking's economics, operating pressures and human costs meet inside the cab.
Ashley Blackford and Scott Thompson treat trucking as both a business system and a working life. Their guest conversations connect operating pressures with what happens inside the cab, moving from CDL instruction and fuel-stop etiquette to mental health and human trafficking…
Fuel-island manners meet Route 66 history, if your curiosity travels with a logbook.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical look at how truckers can notice and respond to trafficking.
This episode treats human trafficking as a roadside problem with routine patterns, not a distant headline. It follows truckers along familiar routes and shows how small things can register as wrong in time to matter.
Patient CDL training, practical road etiquette, and the small habits that keep trucking moving.
Trucking is framed as a trade built on patience, parking discipline, and fuel-island courtesy. James Murphy, a CDL instructor at Danville Community College in Virginia and a proud OOIDA member, speaks with clear, practical confidence about the habits he teaches and the small…
A St. Patrick's Day trucking conversation that connects Irish freight realities with familiar U.S. driver and advocacy issues.
Scott Thompson and Ashley Blackford mark St. Patrick's Day with a conversation that links Irish trucking to the plain work of keeping an island supplied.
A grounded discussion of trucking stress, loneliness, and the habits that help drivers keep going.
This episode puts mental health at the center, with plain talk about loneliness, stress, and the way trucking can wear on people over time. It does its best work when it stays close to the rhythm of daily life, especially in the talk about therapy and the idea that mental health…
A steady Route 66 listen that connects trucking culture with regional memory.
Route 66 is framed here less as a postcard and more as a living corridor of memory, food, and community. David Dunaway gives the conversation its spine, tracing how the road helped open the American Southwest to travelers from the East and North and why its 100th year still…
Trucking news from the working lane.
Odd questions, followed patiently down to the incentives.
Trucking with OOIDA examines record diesel prices, with the EIA national average at $6.40 a gallon during the Monday recording.
A routine stop turns urgent.
James Murphy sounds at home in the work.
This episode discusses trucker taxes with expert Barry Fowler and features a trucker who turned his semi-truck into an amateur radio station.
This episode discusses the upcoming Mid-America Trucking Show, highlighting its significance as a major industry event with something for all truck drivers and operations.
Scott Thompson and Ashley Blackford open with St.
This episode features an interview with Bill and Luke Rethwich, a father-son duo who built a successful family trucking business in Wisconsin, discussing their journey, passion, and achievements like show trucks.
This episode explores bass fishing as a hobby, discussing its appeal, the science behind it, and how truck drivers and others can balance work with recreational activities like fishing.
Scott and Ashley open with a straightforward check-in on mental health.
Scott Thompson and Ashley Blackford mark the 100th year of Route 66 with historian David Dunaway.
This episode features an interview with Angela Griffin from Simple Living on YouTube, discussing how truck drivers handle Christmas, her recent snowy travel experiences, and her YouTube content about trucking lifestyle.
This episode features an interview with Dustin Ross, an OIDA senior member and owner-operator, discussing the freight recession, industry challenges, and his experiences, including truck shows and advice for others.
This episode discusses Pennsylvania's plan to add over 1,200 truck parking spaces by 2026 to address the truck parking crisis, featuring an interview with PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll.