Marcia Luchenbill really likes to cook. So much so that she earned a college degree in nutrition and moved to New York City to work at some of the finest restaurants.
“I’m a foodie,” she remarked. “I’m a serious chocolate lover, and I wanted to live the life in New York City. So yeah, I moved there after college.”
That’s a long way from her Central Ohio roots.
Like many drivers, Luchenbill’s route to a trucking career was a convoluted one — a career in the high-end restaurant industry, followed by a stint in the U.S. Army, marriage and children before CDL school. Her tenacity and drive to excel helped her to succeed at each stage, resulting in her selection as a 2026 TCA Professional Driver of the Year.
“They had (the awards ceremony) down in Kissimmee, Florida and it was such a great experience,” she said, describing the association’s 2026 annual convention. “I mean, TCA is the premier trade organization for trucking. I’ve been to driver events like the Mid-America Trucking Show, but TCA is more on the corporate side. You were made to feel very special, and it was a lot of fun.”
During the event, Luchenbill participated in some industry panels and received a certificate of achievement from Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.
“It was an honor,” she said. “Then we had the banquet at the end. We were introduced and got to make a little speech. It was wonderful.”
Her son accompanied her to Kissimmee, where she represented her employer, Knight Transportation. Luchenbill began her trucking career with Knight and is still there today.
“Marcia receiving the 2026 TCA Professional Driver of the Year Award is an incredible honor for her and for everyone at Knight Transportation,” said Paige Field, Knight’s director of marketing and communications.
“Marcia embodies the values we strive to foster at Knight: service, humility, resilience, safety and genuine care for others,” Field continued. “Throughout her career, she has represented Knight with integrity both behind the wheel and in the communities she serves.”
Searching for something bigger
Luchenbill’s value of service to others was a factor in her decision to leave the New York City restaurant scene and enlist in the U.S. Army.
“Working in restaurants can be fun and exciting. It’s fast-paced and you meet a lot of people, and you have a lot of fabulous food and desserts and drinks,” she said. “But it didn’t have enough meaning to me, if that makes any sense. I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself, something really meaningful.”
Luchenbill reported for military duty in August of 2001. While she was out on live fire exercises during Basic Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, the 9-11 terrorist attacks brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center back in New York City, and the world was changed.
She shipped out to Germany after training and later participated in American offensives in Kuwait and Iraq.
“I was a 31 Foxtrot,” she said, describing her Military Occupational Specialty (MOS). Officially, the job was Army Network Switching Systems Operator/Maintainer. Luchenbill used her talents to keep lines of communication open between military units and their command staff.
“It’s all Signal,” she said. We had a team of three Humvees. We would drive literally anywhere and then raise an antenna and set up a telephone and internet communications link. We were like the mobile Verizon of the Army.”
She brought home more than new skills from her Army service, meeting and marrying her husband, another Army veteran.
“I got promoted to wife and mommy,” she said with a smile. “I was a stay-at-home mom for several years, which was really my dream job.”
Her husband remained on active duty for nearly 10 years, serving three deployments to combat zones before being medically retired with combat injuries and PTSD. His last duty assignment was near El Paso, Texas, where the family still lives today. When the bills began piling up, the couple made the decision that Marcia would re-enter the job field while her husband handled the domestic duties at home.
A new road forward
“Truck driving was something that I actually had thought about for quite a long while,” she said. “When I was younger, I’d kind of romanticize about it, how cool it must be to drive those big vehicles around the country. But back then, it seemed like, ‘That’s not a job for women. That’s a man’s job.’”
Her mind was changed when she attended a job fair in El Paso and had a chance to visit with a woman driver, who answered her questions.
“I went to the Phoenix Truck Driving School on Fort Bliss,” she said. “They catered to military, so it was all people at the end of their active duty commitment or veterans in the class.”
Luchenbill began driving in January 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Knight is a good fit,” she explained. “They’re a really good company. They treat their drivers really well. When I started in 2020, my kids were in junior high and high school. Knight has been really great about getting me home to go to cross-country meets, wrestling tournaments, graduations and Boy Scouts. I’m gone a lot, but I still get home for my kids’ major events.”
Giving back from the driver’s seat
Luchenbill was assigned a Knight “Fleet of Heroes” truck decorated with a military theme, and she became a driver trainer for Knight in 2021.
“It was nice to be able to mentor the other ladies coming in,” she said. Luchenbill is credited with training 22 women professional drivers. She’s participated in several Wreaths Across America Arlington convoys while racking up nearly 650,000 miles with Knight.
“Marcia is a combat veteran, a military spouse, a mother and a professional driver whose journey has been shaped by service in many forms,” said Field. “She has faced personal challenges, supported her family through difficult times and built an outstanding career while continuing to represent Knight and the trucking industry with grace and professionalism.”
How did she do it all?
“I’ve relied on my faith,” Luchenbill said. “I know that God is in charge, and that being a truck driver is exactly what me and my family needed.”
She’s still cooking, too.
“I love being in my kitchen, cooking meals, baking,” she said.
And the kids? One will soon be serving in the U.S. Navy. Another is a student at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. It seems service runs in the family.
This article first appeared in the November/December 2026 print edition of Truckload Authority, the official publication of the Truckload Carriers Association.
Cliff Abbott is an experienced commercial vehicle driver and owner-operator who still holds a CDL in his home state of Alabama. In nearly 40 years in trucking, he’s been an instructor and trainer and has managed safety and recruiting operations for several carriers. Having never lost his love of the road, Cliff has written a book and hundreds of songs and has been writing for The Trucker for more than a decade.
