33 www.ortrucking.org Issue 4 | 2023 Combined Transport Raised on a farm in Minnesota, Combined Transport founder Richard Card loved driving and decided at an early age that the only way he was going to be able to make money was to become a truck driver. As an owner-operator, Richard found his way to Alaska in the late 1970s where he helped move products along the Alaska pipeline. According to his son, Mike, rumor has it his dad would hide a couple bottles of Jack Daniels under the dash of his truck and bring them to the dry pipeline camps north of Fairbanks, selling them for $100 each. “The rumor is we’re like the Kennedys— we got our start bootlegging whiskey,” laughs Mike. “Dad says that if the pipeline company ever discovered he did that they’d never rehire him. He’s 92 now.” A few years later, Richard and his wife Virginia moved to Central Point and took advantage of the deregulation happening in the trucking industry to found Combined Transport in 1980. Today, that company operates 500 trucks in 48 states and Canada. Mike swore he’d never join the trucking industry, graduating from University of Oregon in 1981 with a degree in Finance. “I went to Los Angeles to make my fame and fortune, but with a recession happening, it wasn’t easy. I was making $900 a month working for a bank. Dad came down to LA and said, ‘I started this new company and I need your help and I’ll pay you $1100 a month,” said Mike, who opened a Combined Transport office in Dallas, TX. Over 40 years later, Mike is the owner and CEO of the company and works closely with his son Nick, who also found his way into the family business after earning his degree in engineering from Harvey Mudd College and working as a patent agent for a few years. Nick now serves as Combined Transport’s VP of Operations and as a City Councilor for the City of Medford. “Nick has the engineering degree, so he knows everything about the trucks and all the technology,” said Mike. “You have to be more of a tech wizard than a mechanic these days to run these trucks. He’s learning all the aspects of the business.” Mike is proud of the business his father built and says he enjoys being a part of a family company. “When I was living in LA, I was just a number,” said Mike. “I was driving a Toyota pickup, living in LA not making any money and it’s hard to make a place for yourself. With a family business, you get to build something, and I also get to work with my son every day.” Richard Card passed away on October 24, 2023 at the age of 92. OTA extends our deepest condolences to the entire Card family and our gratitude to Richard for the legacy he leaves behind in the trucking industry.
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