Women have always been truck drivers. In fact, women as freight haulers pre-date the age of the eighteen wheeler: Calamity Jane, of American historical lore, was a teamster for the Army. Lillie Drennan is the first woman recorded as having been given a truck driving license in 1929 to haul oil field equipment, explosives and soft drinks at the company she owned in Texas. Both Calamity and Lillie were colorful and rough-spoken women with an ethic of hard work and a need to prove they could do the job as well as any man.
Throughout the history of American road transportation, women have driven trucks, although usually with a male partner and usually as owner-operators. Until the early 1990’s, power steering was a rarity and it took a strong woman to handle a rig at slower speeds. However, about the same time power steering became popular, more women sought trucking jobs as it afforded a chance at better wages than the traditional jobs usually available to women. At first, there was much discrimination in the industry: truck owners assumed women would be too weak, tire too quickly and be unable to handle the rough living conditions existent on the road. Affirmative action, however, forced carriers to open the field to women even though reluctantly. Now, many carriers actively seek out female drivers as they feel they are safer and more reliable.
In the early days of my career, there were few accommodations for women drivers. Showers were often placed in men’s locker rooms and bathrooms. As I often teamed up to run with a man for safety, I could usually have a trusted man run interference at the door. If not, I might have to forego the shower and be content with alcohol wipes til I got somewhere with better accommodations. I usually found men singly to be of great help, although some turned into mis-behaving adolescents in a group. As I didn’t start driving til I was in my forties, after my children were grown, I didn’t have much problem knowing how to deal with adolescent, rude behavior.
Trucking is still a mans world. . .some men resent the imagined affront to their manhood that a woman driver represents. That will always happen. However, I learned quickly to be cognizant of the fact that, if I wanted their respect instead of simply their leers, I had to learn to do the job as well or better than they did. As women typically don’t have the same type of spatial relationship skills hard-wired into the brain, it was a little harder to learn how to back up. As I tend to be stubborn, I just kept at it til I had it down pat-then kept practicing. To this day, I sometimes pick a particularly difficult dock to get into just to figure out a way to do it. Learning exactly what the tractor-trailer unit will do in a given situation is an on-going process. Any driver that thinks they’ve learned it all probably hasn’t learned much. I cant count the number of times some young, beginning driver has tried to prove how much more competent he is at driving simply because he’s male. And I also cant count the equal number of times I’ve told them, “you aren’t old enough to know what you don’t know yet!”, then shown them up with my skills at backing, balancing a load or routing. Of course, I’ve been trucking almost 20 years-and the average trucker these days has two years experience.
Work as a female trucker encompasses a wide range of driving jobs. Some jobs are out-and-back, home daily jobs, or making several stops during a day servicing regular customers. This is usually one of the toughest trucking jobs for women as there is usually the expectation that the driver will unload-it’s the one part of the job that takes actual strength. I have done it, but as I’m now sixty, don’t do it any more. An injury is more likely to be serious if you’re weaker or older. Most women settle into a dedicated run of some sort within a few months as it gives them regular time at home and a predictable schedule. Some few do long-haul-over-the-road. The opportunity to earn the best money is usually in long-haul, but be aware you often wont see home for three weeks or more. You must be able to not only plan your time and your routing but be able to handle solitude. Often the best companionship available to a trucker is her own company-if you can’t handle loneliness and cant occupy your mind, this isn’t the job for you.
Trucking is also not a job for a woman who wants to be babied. Those who enter the field thinking they can just show a little leg and someone will do the job for them are soon disabused of the notion. Nobody’s going to volunteer to unload a 53 ft trailer for you without expecting something in return so you’d better have a contingency plan before you bump the dock. It’s also no place to be flirtatious: not all men out here are the gentlemen you are used to in your life. I often encounter young girls entering the industry that are convinced that the company policy against sexual harassment will protect them. They don’t appear to understand their employer can do nothing against the driver from another company who can insult her in the most outrageous ways. It can get rough and a wise woman quickly learns not to lead anyone on in any way. It can be dangerous-although some of the best people in the world drive a truck, the job also attracts some anti-social kooks. Its a good way for someone who’s hiding something to travel un-noticed. If it seems like an over-abundance of mass murderers are truck drivers, remember, trucking didn’t make them that way, but the job was attractive to them because it allows them to travel anonymously. Always behave accordingly. Be aware, alert, don’t wander around in the dark and act assertively.
There are little tricks to staying safe out on the road: take showers in the middle of the afternoon instead of at night to avoid a long dark walk through the parking lot. Don’t carry a big purse-thieves hang out in truck stops very often. Always look around the truck and scout the scene before you get out of the truck-if there are loiterers that look suspicious, don’t walk into danger. Stay in the middle-the widest, best-lit area on your way to and from the rest room or truck stop. Don’t wear provocative clothing: most women in the truck stop who dress like that are plying a different profession. It can get uncomfortable to be taken for one of them. Keep your doors locked at all times, and tie a strap or rope from door handle to door handle to secure it in a tough-looking parking spot. Close your window curtains, not just the bunk curtains so you can comfortably sit in the driver’s seat and read and do paperwork without calling attention to the fact you are female. Don’t be quick to strike up conversations with strangers. Don’t engage in sexual banter on the CB. And walk assertively, with purpose. You can drive a truck-and still be a lady in every sense of the word.
Be aware that there are health considerations in driving a truck for both men and women. Trucking has one of the highest work fatality rates of all professions and the highest on-the-job injury rate. Falls are common, as are sprains, bruises and hand injuries, rotator cuff tears, back and ankle injuries. There is strong evidence that whole-body vibration caused by driving long distances is dangerous in itself to the lumbar spine, and that it is exacerbated in women, as are reproductive organ problems. Some diseases common among truckers are hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, kidney problems and lung disease. Some studies show the average life span of a male truck driver is 55 years-at least 15 years less than the average. No studies have been done on woman drivers. It is almost impossible to get adequate exercise, a decent diet and getting home to regular doctor or dentist appointments is almost impossible, leading to more undiagnosed serious illness.
After all of the above, if you still want to drive a truck, you can make far more than you would make working in an office or at the local K-Mart store. Be aware, however, expenses are high and actual after-tax income is far less that what the advertisements will lead you to believe. If you want to know more about possible income, read my article on “How to Make Good Money Driving A Truck”. This will detail some of the costs involved in the job. Be aware you may get benefits; however they will be less than in most industries, particularly health benefits. Carriers are also looking to lower wages and using women to fill the gap when they have starved out many of the men in the field can put a new woman driver at an economic disadvantage. Make SURE you are getting a fair wage as compared to the rest of the employers in the field. If not, move on to the next company that promises you a better deal. And get it all in writing!
By all means, if you decide you want to drive a truck, join Women In Trucking (www.womenintrucking.org ). This is a professional association dedicated to helping women enter the industry and succeed. They lobby actively for better working conditions for all drivers and mentor women in particular. Even though there are more women in the field now, they only account for about 7% of the driving force. Women In Trucking is looking at some of the ergonomic issues and ways carriers can make the job safer and more attractive to women. If you decide you want to enter the field, welcome!
Reference:
- Women In Trucking www.womenintrucking.org
