Truck Parking Club: The Clubhouse

Truck Parking Club

The Clubhouse is Truck Parking Club's partner show. Michael Lombard, truck driver, triathlete, and Partner Development Manager for Truck Parking Club sits down with the drivers and creators who partner with us out on the road: the people running the miles, pulling into our lots, and telling it straight about life in the truck. Real conversations about the road, the parking, the freight, and everything that comes with it. If you drive, park, or just want the unfiltered version of what's happening in trucking, pull up a chair. New episodes weekly.

  1. Oct 20

    Strap Happy

    Josh, who goes by Strap Happy on TikTok because he believes you can never put too many straps on a load, joins Michael Lombard from Texas to talk about his first two years in flatbed. Based in Monroe, Louisiana, he worked in corrections, juvenile corrections, security, and maintenance before talking his wife into the idea of trucking. A love of travel, with 23 states visited as a kid, had kept trucking on his mind since he was 21, and at 28 he paid his own way through CDL school and flew to Tulsa for a pre-hire evaluation with Melton Truck Lines. He credits Melton with some of the best securement training in the industry, but after 15 months the three-weeks-out schedule pushed him to Jordan Carriers, whose terminal sits 94 miles from his house. There he hauls steel, lumber, pipe, and angle iron, earns 66 and a half cents a mile after two raises, gets home on weekends, and earns a week of paid time off each quarter plus monthly performance and safety bonuses. He started using Truck Parking Club while his father was in the hospital, after paying $70 each way for an Uber from parking 20 miles away. He found a $10 location a mile and a half from the hospital with a bathroom, air conditioning, and a driver's lounge, cutting the trip to $18. He also likes the Hot Spot Travel Center off I-55 in Crystal Springs, Mississippi for its free showers, and says grass areas make life easier with his dog, Binx. His advice for new drivers: never get comfortable, and never think you can't learn from someone with less time in the industry. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/vFPQgg3EV8Y Use code strap20 for $20 off your next booking. List your space or find parking at truckparkingclub.com

  2. Oct 13

    Milos

    Milos tunes in from a Truck Parking Club location in Alabama, about 60 miles from his shipper, to tell Michael Lombard how a former lifeguard who had never driven a car became a hazmat tanker driver. He arrived in the US in 2016, paid his own way through CDL school in Miami, and earned his license in 2017 on a manual with no restrictions. He started local and regional for a Macedonian company hauling Amazon loads, and with little time to practice parking he caused seven to eight thousand dollars in damages before he learned, a lesson he later passed on to the three or four drivers he trained. He went over the road in 2018, drove for a Serbian company until 2021, and now runs hazmat and tanker loads east of I-35 for Matrix Inc, a Bulgarian company based in Hoffman Estates that runs legal logbooks and hires drivers with two years of experience and a hazmat endorsement. He rents his truck and splits the year between a few months on the road and time back in Serbia. He first saw Truck Parking Club on a trucking app in 2023 and started booking in 2024. His favorite spot is in Calhoun, Georgia, north of Atlanta on I-75, where the owner charges $10, keeps a clean shower, and a Mexican food truck sits nearby. He also recommends a lot in East Dundee, Illinois off I-90 with showers and security patrols that has logged more than 3,000 reservations. His advice for new drivers: pay for your own school, stay independent, and buy your own truck when the market is bad. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/NHOkxjvMcLU Use code baya20 for $20 off your next booking. List your space or find parking at truckparkingclub.com

  3. Oct 6

    Convoy of Chaos

    Andrew, co-host of the Convoy of Chaos podcast, joins Michael Lombard from Salt Lake City. He grew up riding in his grandfather's truck from the age of five, spending a week at a time on the road with him and his cousins. He got his start in towing at 19 as a light duty operator, working private property impounds and repossessions. After a falling out with a tow company in North Carolina, his godparents, who ran a trucking company in Oklahoma, told him he would have a job if he got his CDL. He moved his family to Oklahoma, and he and his wife both went through the state workforce program, which paid for five weeks at American Truck Training in Oklahoma City in 2022. When that job fell through, the family moved to Salt Lake, where he spent about a year running heavy wreckers of 35 tons and up. He then went over the road, and today he hauls equipment and vehicles on step deck and flatbed for IMT Transport out of Garner, Iowa, which hires drivers with five years of experience. He tells Lombard about the night he hauled a Cascadia into Phoenix at 3 a.m., found no parking, and slept in front of a Freightliner dealership, the Truck Parking Club spot in Jacksonville, Texas that saved him when he ran out of hours short of Kilgore, and the gated Thermo King dealer lot in Salt Lake where he parks every time he comes home. He also explains how the unedited Convoy of Chaos podcast started in Discord and lives on Spotify. His advice for new drivers: know why you want the CDL, because the money takes time, and more doors open after your first six months to a year. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/kWeWA0Mb7B4 Use code chaos20 for $20 off your next booking. List your space or find parking at truckparkingclub.com

  4. Sep 29

    Drew the Trucker

    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 Use code drew20 for $20 off your next booking. List your space or find parking at truckparkingclub.com

  5. Sep 22

    19 Wheelz

    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 Use code 19wheels20 for $20 off your next booking. List your space or find parking at truckparkingclub.com

  6. Sep 15

    10-4 Talks

    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 Use code t4t20 for $20 off your next booking. List your space or find parking at truckparkingclub.com

  7. Sep 8

    Austino

    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 Use code austino20 for $20 off your next booking. List your space or find parking at truckparkingclub.com

  8. Sep 1

    Rob DAT Driver

    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 Use code robdat20 for $20 off your next booking. List your space or find parking at truckparkingclub.com

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About

The Clubhouse is Truck Parking Club's partner show. Michael Lombard, truck driver, triathlete, and Partner Development Manager for Truck Parking Club sits down with the drivers and creators who partner with us out on the road: the people running the miles, pulling into our lots, and telling it straight about life in the truck. Real conversations about the road, the parking, the freight, and everything that comes with it. If you drive, park, or just want the unfiltered version of what's happening in trucking, pull up a chair. New episodes weekly.

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