Opportunities Abound for Women in Trucking, Observers Say
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DALLAS — Trucking provides women with career opportunities that allow them to chart successful paths, but consideration must be given to challenges they face, experts said at an industry conference.
During her 20-year career at UPS Inc., Miriam Arnero has worked her way up the ladder. She started out as a part-time loader and later became a driver. These days, she is a safety supervisor with responsibility for anywhere from 90 to 250 truck drivers.
Speaking with Transport Topics from the Accelerate! Conference and Expo, hosted Nov. 13-16 by Women In Trucking Association, Texas-based Arnero said she enjoys the numerous career opportunities UPS has provided. That includes learning to drive a truck, such as the one she piloted onto the exhibit floor at the event.
Elizabeth Gomez tries out a simulator. (Noël Fletcher/Transport Topics)
Although driving a truck “looks big and scary, anything can be managed if you learn the rules and have good business and safety practices,” Arnero said. Her message to women hesitant about trucking is that the industry can provide a good livelihood.
Walmart driver Sheena Sweetwood speaks enthusiastically about the transition she made nine years ago into a truck driving career, following years of working in office jobs that ranged from hospital admissions to supporting a workers’ compensation attorney. The Ochelata, Okla.-based Sweetwood said she not only enjoys the freedom of driving and lack of office-related stress from her prior jobs, but also the ability to set and meet financial goals through driving as a major benefit to working in the industry.
Ellen Voie by Noël Fletcher/Transport Topics
“You’re actually going to be compensated for your work [as a truck driver] and they [Walmart] actually care about you and show it. That’s the best part,” Sweetwood said.
She noted, however, the challenge presented by the industry’s widespread lack of safe truck parking. Sleeping along interstate off-ramps is far from ideal due to safety concerns, including the potential for a car to leave the highway and hit a parked truck. Rest is also compromised by vehicles on the road passing by and causing vibration in the sleeper.
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“If you don’t have anywhere to park, you don’t have a place to use the restroom. It’s not easy for us like men,” Sweetwood noted. “There’s an awareness you have to have. If you park at a truck stop, you need to be aware not to get yourself in a bad situation if you don’t know what’s lurking around.”
Still, Sweetwood said she loves her job because “there’s a lot of freedom in it,” and also because her friends “think it’s awesome.”
Elizabeth Gomez, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., marketing manager at truck leasing firm Fleet Advantage, tried her hand at a winter-weather truck-driving simulator on display from Amazon.
“I wanted to see how it felt and it’s a lot harder than it looks,” she said. “There are so many elements to pay attention to. It’s very intimidating even though I know it’s fake. It took me 30 minutes to do a left turn!”
Kyle Keith by Noël Fletcher/Transport Topics
“That’s because you were being safe,” Jessi Sheyka, senior training manager at Amazon, responded encouragingly. Sheyka conducts commercial driver license training for drivers working along the Eastern Seaboard. She said the simulator has realistic winter conditions on screens that can strengthen driving skills, especially for new drivers who obtain CDLs during summer months.
Ellen Voie, CEO and founder of nonprofit Women In Trucking, said this year’s eighth annual event drew a record crowd of 1,700, mostly women, and far outstripped last year’s crowd of 750 attendees.
“Our event is to empower and support women in the industry,” said Voie, who founded the group in 2007.
Taylor Gut, marketing and development manager at Marion Body Works Inc., said she came to the conference to network with and learn from like-minded women. Her company, headquartered in Marion, Wis., builds custom trucks and bodies.
Among the men at the conference was Kyle Keith, logistics and procurement director at Arcosa Inc., who said he came from neighboring Oklahoma to support women in the trucking industry, especially as drivers.
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