Lillie first drove in 1977 with her former husband, she mostly rode along with him. He taught her to drive and back up the truck. Back then she says, there was much more freedom on the road.
Though Lillie wasn’t a licensed commercial driver she had the skill to operate the truck and would on occasion back it in for her husband.
She recalled one delivery she made in which the receiver was on the phone to her husband’s company and remarked "your lady driver is here” the employer company said, “What lady driver?”. When they returned to their home terminal, they had a welcoming committee waiting on them and they were issued a new truck.
Lillie was mostly a passenger and a stay-at-home Mom. Being a truck driver wasn’t her initial ambition but in her later years she realized that trucking was something she knew quite a bit about.
In 1998, she got her Class A CDL but soon realized getting work as a truck driver was difficult despite decades of industry claims of an ongoing critical shortage of drivers. She encountered many obstacles; finding a decent company where she was valued for her professionalism and commitment to safety proved to be much harder than she anticipated.
Recently in October 2024, on our Instagram we posted about some of our experiences with the Women in Trucking (WIT) Association whose image team members have literally turned their back to us when we and other women truck drivers have attempted to speak to them about working together on serious issues affecting women truck drivers. Issues like being authentic about the prevalence of sexual assault and sexual harassment in truck driver training fleets, discrimination and participating more on "Jason's Law" - truck parking movement workgroups.
These are issues we have been working on since 2009 and they are the very reason for our existence when it became apparent no other associations would step up to have the hard conversations about it.
Lillie saw the post and sent us a message that she was a former member of WIT as well and her experience with them made her feel used.
Over the years, numerous women have expressed these same concerns. WIT has a well-documented history of blocking and censoring women truck drivers who have sought help from them or wanted to know why they take corporate support from companies where the most discrimination and sexual misconduct occurs.
The lack of authenticity and inclusiveness. The blatant tokensim over diversity, the conflicts of interest, these are significant concerns for women truck drivers that have been negatively affected and do not trust the WIT association. The practices of WIT, the ATA and ATRI to utilize a token diverse individual who receives special treatment by them, that is put upon a pedestal as an example for other women truck drivers only serves to empower bad actor companies and shames those seeking help into silence. It is grooming and we see it.
Many of the companies where women experience the greatest obstacles happen to be the ones that provide WIT, ATA and ATRI either corporate support and/or sit on their Board of Directors.
Lillie wrote that she had joined WIT in 2008, just after they first formed. She was seeking an association of like-minded women that wanted to create change in the industry.
Shortly afterwards she was introduced through WIT to someone doing research on the industry and they asked to interview her. She agreed to participate because she wanted to be heard. She wanted to be part of changing the trucking industry culture.
Lillie wanted to share her experiences with the researcher in order to help pave the way to make improvements for those who came after her. When the research was published, Lillie felt there was nothing in the final report about the experiences she took the time to share. She was deeply disappointed.
She also received the following very an impersonal email inquiry from WIT:
Dear Member,
Would you please take a moment to respond to these four questions? This is very important to us, as we have been approached by companies looking to expand their diversity supplier base. Women In Trucking is considering working with carriers, shippers, and logistics providers to help them meet their diversity goals. Your response if VERY appreciated.
1. Is your company a woman or minority owned business? Criteria: the company must be at least 51.0% woman owned and controlled, woman must hold the highest office, be active in daily management, and be a U.S. citizen or legal resident
.2. Does your company hold a current certification as a WBE (Woman Business Enterprise) or MBE (Minority Business Enterprise)? If so, by whom - city, county, state, federal, NWBOC, NMSDC, or WBENC?
3. If your company has been certified, how many power units are under the authority of your company?
4. If your company is not certified as WBE or MBE, would you be interested in pursuing this designation?”
While on the surface this message may not seem like a big deal, it touches a nerve when you are a lady truck driver. You often ask yourself.
When will there ever be representation that is specifically for me? Not dispatchers, recruiters, salespeople, brokers, or women trying to claw up the corporate ladder, when will women truck drivers get some representation? When is it my turn?
The tone-deaf nature of the WIT letter speaks not about what WIT is doing for women truck drivers but what women can do for WIT. The message is: “We don’t care about you, we care about us, we need your help to check our boxes”.
The letter says nothing about serving the interests of truck drivers who are women, in fact, it doesn’t mention them at all. The WIT website is very misleading. It appears to be an association that represents women truck drivers but in practice this in not so.
When push comes to shove WIT puts companies over women truck drivers. Their founder testified against women truck drivers in the EEOC V Prime discrimination case and in the Jane Doe v CRST sexual assault case. They have for years used pictures of women who may or may not be truck drivers for their marketing materials. The perception is that they are united truck drivers but in truth they have very few individual memberships purchased by women truck drivers. There has never been any solid advice from WIT on how to deal with a toxic trucking workplace, discrimination, sexual assault and sexual harassment at companies that are their sponsors. The canned responses from WIT that direct women seeking help to resources that do not make any sense for their current situation are insulting. Many women are struggling to stay in this industry in a sea of bad employers and they need help.
Lillie shared with the researcher her experiences in trucking, her experiences trying to seek help through other organizations and email exchanges that explain the difficulties she was experiencing and her notice to the employer she was filing a complaint which she also shared with us:
Notice of Intent to file Complaint of Sexual Harassment
Many people don't realize the many obstacles’ women have to overcome just to do their chosen jobs effectively and in peace. This is just one that many people never even think about. I was told that it's just trucking. The end result is that I was terminated in an underhanded way. I did file a complaint with EEOC, but it is still pending only to get lost in the shuffle. I contacted OOIDA and was told to get a private attorney, but they didn't hesitate to ask me to renew my membership. It seems to me that unless a person has a complaint that will get recognition of these companies in Washington DC that are supposed to help protect the rights of truck drivers, they don't want to help you. Then nothing will be done still because these companies and the politicians feed each other. No one is going to bite the hand that feeds them.
Some of the incidents Lillie was experiencing was working for a company that required her to cohabitate with a man she had no relationship with to do team driving.
She had an incident while working for Prime.
She had an incident with a man
that behaved inappropriately and who jumped out of the bunk in his boxer shorts at her inside the tractor.
She had a co-driver who kept urine bottles in the storage compartment and refused to stop at rest areas or proper bathrooms. When she reported that she found the conditions sickening, she felt she was being targeted and retaliated against. She was re-assigned to other people with “issues”. Still, she persisted and reported it as a form of sexual harassment. She was offended by the conduct and expressed that her workplace was a hazmat biowaste scene.
Another incident resulted from a co-worker who was allegedly speaking to the wife of another driver inappropriately and was making remarks about Lillie’s status with the company on the company property.
Retaliation following reporting inappropriate behavior included having her loads manipulated so that she would not make it in time to enjoy any of her designated time away from the truck.
Over time it became tiresome for her to have no support.
These situations are some of the reason trucking cannot retain drivers. Many good decent people who are safe and qualified truck drivers have left the industry not because they don’t like trucking but because they can no longer put up with the widespread lack of accountability at trucking companies.
Lillie had enough of it, but she still wanted to stay in the industry somehow. She wrote to WIT again in 2023 asking, “…what kinds of programs there are for retired drivers who want to remain in the trucking community but because of health or other reasons, prevent them from driving? It seems as though once you become a driver, you're condemned to staying out on the road. Companies seem to not want drivers to branch out into other fields of trucking…”
This is a common issue for truck drivers. How can I transition into a non-driving job in order to remain in the trucking industry?
We often hear about new job creation that will come as a result of AI, but we do not hear anything about
prioritizing a “retrain-to-retain” program for truck drivers. Drivers who have already retired or are retiring soon from driving are taking with them valuable vast knowledge that isn’t taught anymore.
Many also still need to earn an income.
Lillie received a response from WIT from her query that referred her to a carrier list of corporate members, none of which took her resume seriously except to try to recruit her for an over the road driving position. She wasn’t even considered for anything else. She applied through the Louisiana workforce commission for a DMV position in the CDL division testing office. She was overlooked for a position she applied to for logistics coordinator and didn’t even get a response even though she has 13 years of shipping/receiving, warehousing and dispatching experience.
Her case worker wanted her to go work in a nursing home but that is not what she wanted to do. She wanted to stay working around trucking.
Many of us have experienced the same thing, when the last listed employment on our resume is “truck driver”. We are often dismissed as unqualified for anything else, even when we have past experience in another field all together.
It’s a missed opportunity for transportation sector companies seeking recruits. The retired truck driver population carry vast insight on supply chain operations. These individuals may very well be the subject matter expert you have been trying to find and they have firsthand experience.
Transportation equity initiatives should include retraining for truck drivers who need to brush up on their computer skills in order to transition into office support positions. There are a variety of local driving jobs with State and Federal agencies such as CDL required bus drivers or shuttle bus drivers at national parks.
Amusement parks like Disney and vacation tour operators offer CDL motor coach driver positions. State DOTs nationwide are experiencing difficulties hiring people for a variety of non-driving positions, many of these positions may be a great fit for former truck driver since they know infrastructure coast to coast.
As AI becomes more integrated into the trucking industry it is important the truck drivers are not left behind. Lost jobs to AI with no plan on how to transition workers to viable new jobs that pay a fair living wage with benefits is critical. Retiring from truck driving is a hard breakup.
Despite the numerous issues that are going on in the industry that have made it difficult to stay in love with it, it is all many veteran drivers know. Retirement is generally due to health concerns. Many of the drivers leaving the industry right now have provided decades of service to the industry and do not receive any sort of adequate retirement package. These drivers still need to support themselves and have limited computer skills or very rusty skills. Lillie wanted to be heard, just as many other drivers who have been marginalized, want and deserve some recognition. We appreciate Lillie and thank her for sharing her story with us and allowing us to publish it.
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