Long legacy, good humor of LNL Trucking owner Larry Limp: From a '79 White COE to fleet of 12

Overdrive Radio

"As I get older, I like electronic logbooks a lot better than I would have in my 20s. Now that I'm 63, I like that 10 hours off. My work ethic really started to wane when I found out that feed mills are open at noon. You didn't have to be there at 7 o'clock in the morning. You can get there at noon and still unload." --LNL Trucking small fleet owner Larry Limp, reflecting on big changes in trucking over his four-plus decades in the business Good humor? Yep, LNL Trucking small fleet owner Larry Limp’s got plenty of that. Overdrive’s 2023 Small Fleet Champ in the 11-30-truck division, LNL’s built a solid direct customer business specializing mostly in animal fats pulled in 6,800- and 7,000-gallon stainless tanks to supply businesses in various production chains -- gear lubes, cutting oils, you name it. Based on Bedford, Indiana, Larry Limp’s sense of humor’s probably served him well in decidedly less humorous endeavors than contemplating his own psychology and the shift to electronic logs in 2017, that’s sure. He’s served as Chairman of the Indiana Motor Truck Association, participates annually in the IMTA’s trips to Washington to visit with reps and Senators, and generally keeps his nose to the grindstone building business -- "hanging on" to business might be the better phrase in the current environment -- with a strong do-it-yourself ethic borne of 40-some years trucking. Almost all of that has been as an owner-operator and, now, small fleet owner. Ahead of the Mid-America Trucking Shown in Louisville, Overdrive ventured about an hour and a half’s drive north and west of the Kentucky town to Bedford, Indiana, to LNL's shop and world headquarters on a beautiful parcel of land on U.S. 50 east of the center of town. Limp, who still runs one of the rigs in the fleet of mostly Peterbilt 579s, was headed back from St. Louis after a delivery Tuesday morning pulled behind the longest-serving Pete in the fleet. It’s not a 579, but rather a 2000 Peterbilt 379 Limp’s partial to for a variety of reasons we’ll hear about in this Overdrive Radio edition. He’d picked up Monday evening, hauled out to St. Louis the same night to stage for morning unload. We sat down for a talk through the history of that 2000 379 – ELD-exempt, it turns out, though he’s running an e-log in it as in the rest of the fleet. Likewise: His history trucking, marking time by major engine work, by truck model years and big moves, and more besides. Keep tuned for more from Limp in future podcasts, and read more about his business via this link: https://www.overdriveonline.com/small-fleet-champ/article/15637786/butterfly-xpress-lnl-trucking-overdrives-2023-small-fleet-champs