When you think about truck drivers, what image comes to mind? Most likely, it’s a man — likely wearing a ball cap — behind the wheel of a big rig.
That image is changing as more women tackle the challenges of learning to maneuver a semi-truck, earning their CDL and hitting the road as professional drivers.
Women remain a minority in the trucking industry. They face numerous obstacles, challenges and fears that are seldom seen by their male counterparts — from gender bias to access to bathrooms/showers, family obligations and safety issues.
Even so, women are making a big difference in the trucking industry, filling roles from the driver’s seat to the C-suite, as the saying goes.
NFI Industries is working to make the industry a positive place for women in trucking. We recently had a chance to visit with three women who drive for NFI. Their stories paint a vivid picture of what it’s like to work in trucking.
Becky C.: ‘It was something I needed to do.’
Becky, a mother with four children, has driven for NFI for almost three years. She says her husband was initially hesitant about her joining the ranks of drivers. But Becky had a friend in the industry who encouraged her to take a chance.
“I got a little guy at home, and my husband was like, ‘I’m not sure, you know, if I really want you to do it,’” she said. “He told me, ‘It’s a whole different lifestyle and a different career.’
“So, I waited,” she continued. “(I have a friend who) was originally a dispatcher for a different company. They hired her as a driver when she came out of school. She said it changed her life. She told me, ‘You need to do it.’”
Becky was still hesitant but says her friend told her, “If I can do it, you can do it!”
Encouraged, she found a local school who would let her learn part-time while raising her youngest child.
“It took me about three months to get through it,” Becky said. “I passed my test NFI as a recruiter at that time, and I lived very close to this distribution center. I didn’t even know they were there! I applied for a job. They called me and I was hired within two weeks.”
She says that even then, her husband, who drives for another company, was still unsure because of the many challenges women drivers face. Ultimately, however, he supported her dream.
“His thought was, ‘I don’t know how easy it’s going to be for you because you’re a woman and I know it can be scary. I don’t know if I want you over the road. I don’t know if I want you to be at a truck stop at two in the morning. But, if this is something you want to do, I’ll support you,’” she shared.
Becky admits to having her own worries about some aspects of the job.
“Can I drive a 53-foot trailer with a sleeper over the road?” Becky said. “Am I going to be able to hook up? How can I do it? How am I going to be able to back in anywhere? Am I going to be able to handle it? It’s intimidating.”
She says learning how the parts of a tractor-trailer work was intimidating, as was the thought of being responsible for making sure the cargo was secure.
“It was a whole new lifestyle. I asked myself, ‘Am I going to be able to handle a vehicle of that size on the road for a long period of time?’” she said. “Because let’s get real. You’re not driving 30 minutes one way and dropping load and then coming right back. So, it was a little bit scary. Am I going to be able to handle a 450-mile one-way trip alone? What if I break down? What if I have to sleep overnight in a truck somewhere? That was a fear.”
Joining the team at NFI has changed her life, Becky says, adding that the company has supported her as a woman driver. She has also found a family among the other women drivers.
“I’ve never felt unsafe here,” she said. “And that’s a big thing that I’ve was worried about.
“We are in a male dominated industry, but, and NFI has never made me feel less than or different (because I’m a woman),” she continued. “They don’t see gender here. They don’t think, ‘Oh, she’s a woman; she probably can’t handle it.’ I’ve never felt that way.”
In her day-to-day work, Becky says the biggest challenge she has faced is being underestimated by other drivers while on the road.
“On the road, if people see a woman behind the wheel (of a big rig), they’re automatically think, ‘Oh gosh!’ Or if they see me backing in somewhere, they’re going to automatically think I can’t do it,” she said. “But you know what? Clearly, I can!”
Veronica O.: ‘Everybody at NFI is so welcoming.’
When Veronica O. decided to learn to drive a semi and hit the road as a professional truck driver, she says her mom supported her goal of entering the male-dominated trucking industry.
However, she says, she did have her own concerns when it came to safety and other issues women drivers face. As she gains experience on the road, many of those concerns have become less troubling.
“The challenge that I usually face as a female truck driver is the bathrooms,” she said. “Not having a bathroom to be able to go into while I’m on the road. Some of the rest stops do not have bathrooms — and if they do have bathrooms, they’re like porta-potties, and they’re not as sanitary as you want them to be as a female truck driver. But other than that, I like being a female truck driver.”
Veronica says NFI has helped her in her journey in the trucking industry, especially the company’s programs and support for its women drivers.
“Everybody here is so welcoming,” she said. “Being a female is a little intimidating, because sometimes there’s nothing but men.
“But they’re awesome here. They’re very welcoming,” she continued. “If I need help with anything, they’re right there to address it and help me. If I get lost, they’re there to guide me and I really love that.”
Crystal R.: ‘I’m home every night.’
Crystal chose to drive for NFI because of the company’s local route options. She says she simply wasn’t interested in driving over the road.
“It’s a lot of stuff happening over the road, especially for women,” Crystal said. “It was not something I wanted to deal with.
She chose a dedicated route so that she could be home every night, and she was excited to find that NFI had options available.
“(Having a dedicated local route) definitely gives me a level of protection,” Crystal said. “I know where I’m going every day. Of course, I get to know the people that I’m delivering to every day. Like I said, I come in at one o’clock in the morning and by 12 o’clock I’m back at home. So, I get to still take care of business and sleep, come back into work.”
To find out more about NFI Industries and its driver programs, click here.
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
