Truck Parking Club: The Clubhouse

Drew (Drew the Trucker) tunes in from West Haven, Connecticut, Connecticut's youngest city, to tell Michael Lombard how a former geriatric social worker ended up hauling hazmat. After a layoff in 2016 he turned to 1099 work, rideshare, delivery and medical transport, until COVID dried up his biggest gig. In 2022 he paid his own way through CDL school in Bridgeport rather than signing a year away to a mega carrier, then went OTR pulling reefer for Knight-Swift. His first solo trip was ice cream from Hazleton, Pennsylvania to Henderson, Nevada, his truck broke down on day one, and he stayed out for 10 straight weeks that winter. Since late 2023 he has been with Clean Harbors, the environmental services company, driving for an owner-operator leased on to them and running a mostly dedicated lane from the Northeast to Arkansas. He shares the 2 a.m. door-banging at the Petro in Glade Spring, Virginia off I-81 that he caught on his Insta360, which works like a ring camera for your truck, why truck stops are cracking down on drivers who make their own spots, and his first Truck Parking Club booking at a new fuel station near Little Rock. He and Lombard also cover whether a brand-new CDL holder can find work, and the trucker Discord he's part of where drivers share jobs and lanes. His advice for new drivers: take your time, don't let anyone rush you into a spot, and get out and look.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/5DOETv1TABk

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Daniel King (19 Wheelz) tunes in from Norman, Oklahoma, right off I-35, to tell Michael Lombard how a baseball cap in the road launched his career. On his way to CDL school in Enid, he pulled over to grab a Tyson Foods hat and told his class it was a sign, even after his instructors said Tyson never hired drivers straight out of school. Days later Tyson emailed him about a new program doing exactly that, and he spent his first year running reefer for them. The money he made that year convinced his dad, a music teacher, and his brother, a firefighter, to get their CDLs too, and the three of them ended up at Waggoners Trucking hauling Mercedes Sprinter vans from South Carolina to the West Coast for three years, until the contract was lost almost overnight. After a year at NT Solutions out of Chicago, a short lease-on showed him what the money could look like, so he bought a 2020 Freightliner Cascadia with 255,000 miles straight from Waggoners and is now leasing on with JLM Trucking in Mena, Arkansas, pulling a dry van while he weighs flatbed. The name comes from the 19th wheel, the 25-pound electric unicycle he charges off his inverter and rides into every city he can, and he shares how Truck Parking Club put him a few blocks from the Metro in Washington, D.C., so he could ride the National Mall for the first time. His advice for new drivers: be patient, and if you ever feel out of control, stop and breathe.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/MaQ5dnSzOBo

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Aaron Knight (10-4 Talks) joins Michael Lombard during Truck Driver Appreciation Week, and it turns out he was born into trucking: his father was one of the early founders of Swift in 1969 before leaving to start Knight Transportation. Aaron grew up lumping Kodak film loads into reefers, worked in the shop, spent two years as a yard hostler, then moved into dispatch, driver development, recruiting and marketing, plus about five years at a brokerage. He tells the story of the trainer who handed him a notepad and told him to write down everything he promised a driver and cross it off before he went home. After telling his wife for years that he wanted to interview drivers at truck stops, he finally started 10-4 Talks last November, and his videos have since gone viral, with a $20 Love's gift card for every driver he talks to. He and Lombard dig into why advertised pay and real paychecks don't always match, why mileage pay is here to stay, why retention comes down to communication starting with the very first recruiting call, and his tip for new drivers: pick a company with a terminal near home so you can build some camaraderie. He says roughly 88 percent of the drivers he asks name parking as a problem, and that when there's a parking problem, there's a safety problem. Catch him on I-40 between Memphis and Nashville, on I-24 down to Atlanta, and at MATS.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/K8Adu5xzMfY

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Austin (Austino) tunes in on Labor Day from Robesonia, Pennsylvania, right in the heart of the 717, the stretch of Lebanon and Berks County that turns out some of the best-looking trucks in the country. He tells Michael Lombard how he grew up around his uncle's show trucks, tried diesel-mechanic vo-tech in high school and dropped it, then spent five years at a car wash, working his way up to managing about 75 employees and the P&L, all without a college degree. When COVID hit he went for his CDL through a buddy's dad's school, did a stint in a straight truck at a local dairy, went back to washing cars, and then found an old-school Pennsylvania carrier running a 1985 Ford LTL 9000 with a B-model Cat, hauling reefer, molasses and fertilizer down I-95 to Florida. For the last four-plus years he has been at a small, family-run specialized carrier out of Mount Aetna pulling step deck, flatbed, Conestoga and some RGN, currently in a baby-blue 2003 Kenworth W900L flat glass on a 293-inch wheelbase, where every seat is full and the drivers hang out together when they are home. He and Lombard get into why that is so rare, the countdown to MATS, and why, with his co-workers running long, stretched-out trucks and oversized loads, Truck Parking Club beats pulling a wide load into a crowded truck stop, including staging loads near York so drivers can go home for the night. He talks about vlogging the fun side of trucking, concerts and NASCAR races on the road, to bring some passion back into the industry. His advice for new drivers: look local for that first job, record everything, and remember that bad days are not a matter of if but when, so don't give up.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/QT1lhtK6hUA

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Rob (Rob DAT Driver) tunes in from Chicago the same day he walked out of the DMV with his Class A. He tells Michael Lombard how he got started more than 20 years ago as a helper on a moving truck in Ventura, California, raising his hand when nobody wanted to drive the box truck on a big job, then spending 13 or 14 years over the road moving military families from base to base. When the pandemic hit, a neighbor who kept parking his trailer in front of Rob's house broke down the hotshot game for him, and Rob went straight to his own authority: an F-250 with the back seats ripped out for a bed, a fuel cell upgraded from 32 to 70 gallons, then a RAM 3500 and a 40-foot gooseneck hauling cars, oilfield pipe and industrial freight for about seven years. He walks through why brokers were the hardest part with no history, the truck he would tell a new hotshotter to buy, and why he chose Schneider's company-sponsored CDL program, with a $2,400 buyout, over paying $5,000 to $10,000 for school with no job waiting. He and Lombard get into the automatic-restriction debate and his plan to test out in a friend's manual, his new authority, Kings Carriers, that he is letting age while he gets a winter of experience, and his free tip for aging an authority properly. On parking, he is candid about years of off-ramps and unlit streets and people trying to steal his cargo, until a rainy night this April when he booked a Truck Parking Club spot near Hammond, Indiana, hit a button, and the gate opened. His advice for new drivers: be patient, plan, plan, plan, and don't be a slave to your ELD clock.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/hMeJEaUe43o

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Mike (Truck N Things - trucknthings.com) went to school for social media marketing at Madison College, then looked at the money, entry-level marketing jobs paying $40,000 to $50,000 versus truckers pulling six figures, and changed course. He talks with Michael Lombard about getting his CDL in 2015 alongside his dad, and how the whole family followed: mom, dad, and brother all ended up driving. He walks through starting on flatbed at System Transport out of Spokane, bouncing through JB Hunt, intermodal and Home Depot flatbed in Chicago, and PODS work, before landing at a Chicago-area carrier as a 1099 contractor on percentage pay, which he prefers, the kind of split where a single 300-mile load can pay $4,500. He and Lombard get into the 1099-versus-W2 debate that lights up his content, why his wife's health insurance is what makes 1099 work for him, and the rhythm he runs now: grind two months, then take two or three weeks off, plus a long family vacation every year, this year a full month in Orlando. On parking, he is candid about sleeping on the shoulder when he had to, a storm south of Dallas, police now knocking door to door, and finding Truck Parking Club when the I-40 rest areas were closed and the Pro and TA outside Albuquerque were packed, booking a spot near the airport instead. His advice for new drivers: put in your two years at a mega, then find a small family company and actually read their drivers' pay statements, and above all, truck your way and make it fun.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/h3YiuOiS_-U

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www.truckinglifewithshawn.com
Shawn (Trucking Life with Shawn) is back, and this one is a story. The Georgia driver has run 17 years with zero violations, but he's candid about how he got here: a GED earned in prison, then driving himself to CDL school in 2008 on six rotating car batteries after his alternator died, crawling under the truck to shift a broken linkage by hand, and calling Rosedale Transport five days straight until they finally hired him despite his background. He walks through losing 92 pounds on the road, writing seven books including his Amazon bestseller and the new "Carnivore in the Truck," and the reason he's opening a CDL school. He turned down a $100,000 investor who wanted to run it like a mill, then watched drivers fund the whole thing themselves, a lot, two trucks, a trailer, an office, and the last $150 of a $15,000 goal landing at 5 a.m. on the deadline, every name going on a Founders Wall. He and Michael Lombard get into why he teaches on manual transmissions with four students per truck, the free state-by-state truck parking guide he built with Truck Parking Club spots baked in, and the free trucker GPS he's piloting that trip-plans around your hours of service and routes you to a reservable spot before the clock runs out.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/HIQk0DW0Aug
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Stephen Fagg was a personal trainer and bodybuilder living paycheck to paycheck when a best friend's paychecks pulled him into trucking in 2018. He got his permit solo, was the last driver Hersbach took on a permit, trained eight weeks under that friend, and passed his CDL first try. He explains grinding a lease-purchase to bank about $28,000 in eleven months, putting $14,500 down on the 2020 Volvo VNL860 he still runs and paid off last year, running a year under a friend's authority on an 80/20 split before jumping to his own, and switching off refrigerated freight to dry van for the sleep and the sanity. He gets into surviving the 2023 rate crash by running loads nobody wanted into New York City, why he calls the five boroughs his playground and backing his favorite thing in trucking, and how a blind-side Bronx dock back turned into viral reels (one at 6.3 million views, another at 9.4 million) after his accounts kept getting shut down over the Big Fagg Trucking name. He found Truck Parking Club looking for monthly parking near Midlothian, Texas, has since used it from Minneapolis to Seattle, and wants to buy a lot of his own someday. His advice for anyone eyeing a CDL: if you have a family, run local, and whatever you do, watch your health.

Jordan (Jordan's Way) was a full-time stay-at-home dad who fell into trucking almost by accident, jumping in an automatic day cab to haul corn during harvest because it was the only truck his brother's boss had available. He got his CDL in December 2021, just before training became mandated, and jokes that he was self-taught. He explains working his way up from local cattle feed to tanker to step deck and now running oversize on the detach out of the Oklahoma panhandle, hauling a John Deere 8R the day of the call. He talks about what being his own boss really means (one text message a day, nap when tired, run when he's got energy), the overwhelming reality of parking over the road as a new driver (his first night was spent on an on-ramp), and finding Truck Parking Club off the tags at a lot south of Wichita. He gets into the amenities that actually matter to drivers, a bathroom over showers, DoorDash range, and cameras for peace of mind since he travels with his family, why he's a Kenworth guy stuck in a 2013 Peterbilt 367, his multi-camera Insta360 content setup, and his advice for new drivers: watch what you say out there, and loosen up your grip.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/vWCUgUtwLjU?feature=share
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