Business Feature Story

'She's Always a Woman to Me'
Women in the trucking industry
By Ronald Sitton
Trucker Staff

The trucking industry isn't just a man's world anymore. Women are having an impact at all levels of the industry workforce. Consider, if you will, the following:

Of the 8.9 million trucking industry workforce in 1995, 15 percent of the jobs were held by women. Women represented 4.5 percent, or about 131,000 of the 2.9 million truck drivers; however, they represented 18 percent of the industry's managers.
Of the 2,683 current American Mover's Conference members, 250 or 9.3 percent are female. These members are the companies' person of record, usually the CEO.
An Owner-Operator Independent Driver's Association random survey shows about 4 percent of all owner-operators are women.

It's been a long haul ...

   Karen Bartley will tell you things are much better now than 30 years ago. Ask what drew her to the traditionally male-dominated world of trucking, and you can almost hear her cast her mind back to 1965 in bittersweet reminiscence.

   "You didn't see hardly any women back then," she recalled of her over-the-road beginnings over 30 years ago. "There were no facilities for us, so when I went by a small town I'd go to a motel and give 'em five bucks for a clean shower and a dirty room."

   These days the 131,000 women drivers traveling the roads have bathrooms of their own, and that's not all. They have the company and solidarity of other women.

   "It was lonely back then," Bartley said. "If you saw another woman on the road, you waved with both hands."

   Bartley has been with Navajo Express Inc. for the last six years. She's driven 3.5 million miles, she said, with no chargeable accidents. She's good because she had to be.

   "They watched you closer, they expected more," she said of being a woman among men. "You had to be tougher. They gave you the hardest routes. They were looking for you to fail."

   But, at 52, Bartley is still hauling freight, and what brought her into the business three decades ago keeps her in it still. "I always wondered what was around the next corner," she said.

   More women are turning those corners today, and the industry has cut a few corners to aid their movement.

   "Many companies have found they're more likely to retain drivers if their spouse is involved," said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner Operators Independent Driver's Association. "[Truck driving] has become a profession that's accessible by more women because the physical requirements of trucking are not as strenuous as they use to be."

   Partly in an effort to become more female-friendly, the industry has added power equipment such as mirrors, sixth wheels and power steering, said Sherry Bass, vice president of Human Resources at US Xpress Inc. Another thing attracting women to the workforce is the opportunity for equal pay, she said.

   It's important to attract women since demographics show both women and minorities will become "the workers of the future," Bass said. "Companies that are not effectively able to recruit women and minorities will go out of business or it will be difficult for them to grow [in the future]."

   Women comprise 23 percent or 750 of US Xpress drivers. Bass said the company's dependence on teams contributes to the larger proportion of women drivers as compared to the industry standard.

... and not everything is roses yet ...

Beronica Vincent
Flatbed owner-operator for Seaman Combined Transport

   Beronica Vincent, an owner-operator who is a flatbed team driver leasing to Robert Seamen Combined Transport, said safety concerns keep many women from driving by themselves.

   "A woman shouldn't be driving a truck by herself because there are a lot of lunatics that will molest a female whereas a man can fight," she said.

   Vincent, 29, has been driving for 15 years. Her dad taught her how to drive a tractor, putting her alone behind the wheel when she was 9. Besides the physical difficulties of trucking, she said women drivers also have to contend with other problems.

   "This type of life is a lot harder and a lot of stress for beginners," Vincent said. "Some DOT officers want sexual favors [in lieu of] tickets; but women get away with a lot of s--- that men don't — that ain't right."

   Some women drivers put others down because they are jealous, she said. Also, the police sometimes harass women drivers at truck stops under the assumption that they are prostitutes.

   "A lot of women give [women truckers] a bad reputation because they are selling their bodies while driving the trucks," Vincent said. "It gets other drivers in trouble because [male drivers] think we're all lot-lizards [prostitutes]."

... but the road is always open.

   Although there are some down-sides to the driving sector, women do not seem to find as many in the corporate side where their unique qualities enhance the industry.

   Nancy Shevell Blakeman, vice president of administration for The Shevell Group which operates NEMF (Northeast Motor Freight), Phoenix Motor Express and Eastern Freightways, said women are organized, methodical and have "terrific intuition." In these days of computerization, the expertise women have to offer are a welcome addition, she said.

   "There are so many opportunities for women in transportation," Blakeman said. "It's an excellent career. I love being in this industry."

   Katrina Blackwell, who became president of American Red Ball Transit Co., Inc. on April 1, echoed Blakeman's sentiments.

   "I have found it rewarding ... By virtue of being a woman in a predominately male industry, sometimes the visibility is greater if you work hard and learn the business," Blackwell said. "If you have the ability, there is opportunity."

   In moving for 28 years, Blackwell remembers when there were virtually no women in the business.

   "There was a time you could go to the industry meetings and there would not be [another] woman in attendance," Blackwell said. "Now it's different."

   She said she believes women have helped bring the moving industry to a more consumer-oriented service with more attention to the customers needs.

   Women are becoming a force on the front line of safety, said Jeffrey W. Arnold, executive director of the National Committee for Motor Fleet Supervisor Training Certification, whose membership consists of safety managers and directors. He has observed about 20 percent of students attending the courses and applying for certification are women. It's a drastic change from 10 years ago when he could count the number of women who had taken the course on one hand, Arnold said.

   And it's not only safety. Women are making their mark in accounting and traffic managing as well, Blakeman said.

   "Trucking right now is a business like any other. Running a terminal is like running a small company," Blakeman said. "It's become a bottom-line business and is not nearly as sexist as it used to be. It's a results-orientated business."

   And the results are looking good.

This business feature appeared in the June 23-July 6, 1997, issue of The Trucker..