Former driver from Buda now advocates for truckers

BUDA — Truckers face many challenges in their job. Buda resident Mike Lombard, a former trucker turned recruiter and advocate, reflected on his experiences on navigating those challenges.

Like many young adults, Lombard was unsure of his purpose. While he did not initially want to pursue going to college — questioning how he would pay for it — he decided to get his degree in business after serving four years in the Marines.

“I was working in sales and daily rental. And then I got a job in 2017 where I worked for a supply house, like a plumbing and heater wholesaler, and that’s what kinda got me into logistics ... This was dealing with a lot of ordering and purchasing. This is where I dealt with trucks more and talking with truck drivers. I did a lot of inventory control. And in 2019, I was offered a promotion to run a store and warehouse in northern New Jersey and my wife was working in New York City at the time,” said Lombard.

After obtaining his Commercial Driver License (CDL), Lombard followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, who was a trucker for 30 years, when he moved to Texas from Connecticut at the age of 30 with his wife. He continued his career in logistics while driving trucks for three years and is now a recruiter and advocate for truck drivers.

According to Lombard, one of the biggest struggles as a truck driver was that there are not enough rest stop parking facilities for truckers off IH-35, which is a corridor for moving freight throughout the country.

“Parking is the biggest safety concern. This is all over the country … Central Texas, I think, has the worst between San Marcos and Jarrell,” said Lombard. “This is a true stat, for every 11 trucks, there’s only one safe parking place for trucks that are currently on the road right now.”

There are multiple issues that the trucking industry is facing besides parking, including the lack of experienced drivers, according to Lombard. He suggested that the process of obtaining a CDL should be a little bit more rigorous.

“Would you want to live in a town where your police force had new cops every three months? ... These are the people who are on the highway with you … This is an industry where the quote is, ‘When you think that you know it all, that is when you should hang your keys up.’ We are putting people on the roads sometimes who should not be,” said Lombard.

Often in isolation and living a sedentary lifestyle, truckers are away from their families for long periods of time. Lombard said that truckers should create good healthy habits that will be beneficial to them in future.

“So, the mental health is definitely there because you are with yourself and your own thoughts, but tied right into that is physical health. A sedentary lifestyle is bad for you. It leads to chronic disease,  high blood pressure [and] pre-diabetes to be sitting for that long time. It takes 11 years off a truck driver’s life, [if] they don't do the right things to correct it. Basically, the average life expectancy for American truck drivers is 61,” Lombard said. “While you're out there on the road, if you're not walking, you're not getting in regular exercise [or] if you're not getting the right amount of sleep. Both of them correlate because if you're not physically sharp, it will affect your mental sharpness as well.”

Despite the problems facing the trucking industry, and although Lombard has transitioned to a recruiter and advocate with his own company, he’s not one to discourage anyone who aspires to be a trucker in the future.

“Basically, the mission of the founders — a friend of mine — we always want to be able to find good drivers, good jobs. We want to be one of the top companies out there that, number one, is known to drivers as a company that has drivers’ backs,” he said.

Lombard can be reached at www.lombardtrucking.com.