EEOC Sues Trucking Fleet Over Training; Says Policy Denied Women Opportunities

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a class action suit against New Prime Inc., charging that the driver training policy the truckload carrier created to protect itself from sexual harassment suits actually delayed or denied women employment opportunities.

Women driver applicants ended up on a “female waiting list” because Prime, as the company is known, dictated they be trained by women drivers or male drivers they knew, such as a relative or friend, the EEOC complaint said.

Male applicants, meanwhile, were not on “a waiting list because male trainers were plentiful and available,” the EEOC said.

The suit was filed Sept. 22 in U.S. District Court, Western Missouri District, on behalf of Deanna Roberts and other female applicants at Prime.

Prime’s general counsel, Steve Crawford, said the training policy is designed to protect “everyone” involved in an industry where women drivers have complained of sexual harassment by male trainers.

“It’s to protect the females from being in an uncomfortable situation; it’s to protect the males from being in an uncomfortable situation,” Crawford said. “It’s to do what’s in the best interests of all our driver associates and our company.”

Headquartered in Springfield, Mo., Prime is a refrigerator, flatbed and tanker fleet that ranks No. 22 on Transport Topics’ list of the top 100 for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada.

The suit raises thorny issues for trucking at a time when a severe driver shortage has carriers actively looking for more women drivers, said Ellen Voie, president of Women In Trucking, which advocates for women across the industry, including drivers.

“The fact that women make up 6% of the industry, it just makes it a challenge to find enough trainers for female trainees,” said Voie.

Training is especially complicated in the longhaul sector where Prime operates and where driver teams are on the road for weeks at a time sharing limited cab space 24 hours a day.

“You try to do the right thing, what is the right thing?” said Voie.

“The trucking industry is unique because you’re putting two unrelated people in a cab for days on end,” she said. “And I can’t think of any other industry where people have the sleeping berth inches away from them while they’re working.”

Crawford said: “They can be out for weeks at a time, so they’re basically living out of the truck in interstate commerce, coast to coast, in very tight quarters.”

That’s why Women in Trucking prepared a sexual harassment training guide to help carriers develop a female-friendly work environment, Voie said.

“Everyone has the right to be trained,” she said.

Prime is not the only carrier whose first choice is that ex­perienced women drivers train women trainees.

After a creditable sexual harassment complaint against one of its male trainers by a female trainee, one of the nation’s largest longhaul carriers, which asked not to be named for this story, decided only women drivers would train other women.

However, 15% of that carrier’s drivers are female. Prime attorney Crawford said he did not know what percentage of Prime’s drivers are female or how many women are on Prime’s waiting list for hiring.

In the longhaul sector, the highest percentage of women drivers at any carrier is 18%, Voie said. She named the carrier but it also asked not to be named in this story.

Industrywide, 5.2% of the nation’s truck drivers are female, according to the 2011 issue of American Trucking Trends published by American Trucking Associations.

Crawford was open about what prompted Prime to adopt its training policy: In 2003 the carrier was sued by some female drivers who said they were sexually harassed by male drivers, and Prime had to pay an “undisclosed” sum to at least one of the women, Crawford said.

In the wake of that case, Prime “instituted a very aggressive and progressive sexual harassment training program for every associate,” Crawford said.

The firm also decided male drivers would not train women drivers unless the woman presented Prime with the name of a male trainer with whom she had a relationship prior to being hired, Crawford said.

The man could be a husband, a brother, a boyfriend, a cousin, or even a neighbor, Crawford said.

An EEOC press release about the suit said the commission “anticipates that New Prime will contend that it established [its training] policy to reduce claims of sexual harassment of female trainees.”

The suit — which asks for an end to the policy and back pay and other damages for the women — said the policy “deprived” the female applicants of equal employment and “adversely” affected their status as applicants because of their sex.

Voie said the trucking industry “really needs to move beyond these situations,” to “get ahead” of legal actions by creating a “healthy driver environment.”