Truck Parking Club: The Clubhouse

Trucker DC earned a culinary arts degree and was cooking in Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton kitchens until COVID closed the restaurants and laid everyone off. He explains why he paid five thousand dollars of his own savings for CDL school in Colorado rather than take free training tied to a work contract, and how an instructor's connection put him straight into doubles and triples for a FedEx Ground contractor in Denver at 21. He calls in from I-5 in California with his wife driving, headed to a couple of pickups before turning back toward Missouri.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWmKXWP5CaQ

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Rich of Trucking with Rich worked a Volvo warehouse full time and Estes part time before talking to enough drivers coming through the dock to go get his own CDL in 2017. He runs through the path since: flatbed at Maverick, LTL team work at FedEx Ground, a stint at Landstar, then Southeastern Freight, and back over the road now that he owns his truck. He calls in from the TA in Wildwood, Florida, surprised to find open spots on the back row.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2p1NEOOxgI

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Joe of Trailer Slangin was managing a FedEx line haul operation in Las Vegas and got a CDL when nobody else on the line would, then met her husband in CDL school and never went back to the management job. She explains how the two of them ran team through the height of COVID, and how they later split an ammonia route across West Texas and Oklahoma, one loading and one delivering, so somebody was always home with the kids. The handle came off the CB and stuck.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5dwgqT50nY

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DJ Dunaway comes from a family of drivers and started out on the other side of the dock, loading trailers in a warehouse before deciding he wanted to see the job from the seat. He maps out the eight years since: three and a half at Stevens Transport, two at US Express running dedicated Dollar Tree and Dollar General freight, and the last three at Hirschbach, whose lease program walked him through setting up an LLC and going owner-operator. He now pulls refrigerated Tyson loads and works the load board himself.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADuetA-zkpo

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Jamie, known online as Just Another OTR Guy, is a military veteran who used his GI Bill to become a licensed crane operator before finding out the jobs he wanted all required a CDL. He describes getting that license through the VA, being recruited by TMC Transportation's flatbed division while still in school, and the eight years on the road since. He calls in on Labor Day from a consignee lot near Buffalo, having pulled in to find the receiver closed for the holiday.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI9sTDI7tT0

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Manuela Lozano runs a trucking company in South Florida with her partner, both second generation truckers who started driving at the end of 2019 and opened their own authority the following year. She explains that no lender would finance them at 24 and 26, so they bought four trucks and three trailers in cash to use as collateral before anyone would write a loan. She also talks about working as a logistics coordinator in Fort Lauderdale first, having sat on the shipper and receiver side before the carrier side, and about pushing her county on its truck parking shortage.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPwAsLMUDvk

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Austin, who goes by Monkey, is with the Truck Drivers of America charity and came to the road in 2019 after a housing recession ended his framing work in Michigan. He walks through the resume since: reefer at Stevens Transport, three and a half years on flatbed as a lease operator at Prime, and the recent move back to company driving for more home time and less liability. He also explains where the nickname came from, and why nobody who has watched him tarp a load questions it.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q2sxHBfFoA

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Russ Edwards grew up in Colorado around a family of drivers and found his way in through the oil field, where hauling equipment between sites in Texas and North Dakota gave him the itch. He explains how he started in RV transport out of Elkhart, Indiana, moved into hot shot work with his own authority and a gooseneck flatbed, then stepped up into oversize freight. He calls in from Crawfordsville, Indiana with an 8 Series John Deere tractor on the trailer headed for North Carolina.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rwgAen1JyU

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Chris Thomas, known as the Indie Trucker, hit his 20 year mark this month, having left a job as a 911 dispatcher at the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky airport to team drive for Schneider. He traces the road from there through FedEx Custom Critical, buying his own truck in 2009, and settling into a single dedicated lane hauling pneumatic freight as a one truck owner-operator. He is blunt about the current down market, why an established operator weathers it better, and what he tells people who ask whether now is the time to buy.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-s4IGlqR20

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Ilya Denisenko came to trucking from the restaurant world, with a degree from the Culinary Institute of America and a stretch in sales at Yelp, and got his CDL through Prime when he decided he wanted to buy a house before 30. He explains his plan to grow a fleet by recruiting out of restaurant kitchens, arguing the nights, weekends, and long hours translate directly, minus the managers and customers yelling at you. He also makes the case that industry events are worth the miles you give up to attend them.

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4uKmxuUkgU

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