Women in Trucking - A Woman's Perspective

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Some women, especially when they first enter the trucking industry, feel that they should run team with an experienced driver-usually male. These newbie women, and even some experienced lady drivers, tend to feel safer and more secure with a male co-driver. In some respects, this thought is valid but you have to find that right male driver to run team with first.

Back in the day, most trucking companies that hired women and required team running or hired students would allow experienced drivers to choose from the women available for second seats. There was little organization and company driver's lounges resembled meat markets. It worked but it wasn't very efficient or safe for the women or the men either, in some cases.

Many co-drivers back then met on the CB radio. Some of those teams are still together decades later, but they are few. Most of these types of teams were of short duration, perhaps a few months or a year or two. Some didn't last even that long. I teamed up that way once. Two weeks later, he got drunk while we were laid over, beat me up, and stole the truck. I got the truck back with the help of the local police. I quit trucking after that for a while.

Teaming up with married male co-drivers is never a good situation unless they are family or you have known them and their spouses for years. Your co-driver is going to know your every secret before long and that truck, even though some have two beds, provides too intimate of a setting. People being people, some do not always stay well behaved when they know there is someone of the opposite sex in the bed behind them. Their intentions may be good and you may have no intention of getting emotionally or physically involved, but it does happen.

I do know of one new lady driver who put herself through school and went team with a married driver from the company where she had worked in the office. She knew him for five years both professionally and socially with his wife and her husband. He agreed to take her up in his truck and train her. It is working well for them. The key to their success is that they knew each other and each other's spouse for many years before driving together.

Recently, a newbie woman posted on an online group I belong to about how she had found a male driver to team with. "I met this guy online," she related. "He was married and offered to let me run with him. I even met his wife when I went to get on the truck. Everything was OK at first, but then she got jealous for some reason. We didn't do anything. I don't know why she got jealous."

After a few replies from a couple of members of the group, this woman again posted "the honest truth of the rest of the story." She wrote, "We didn't do anything wrong. We laughed and had fun a lot though. I never knew when I was in the bed what he would do. One time, I rolled over to find him standing there with my panties over his head. We had a green wig and for St. Pat's Day, we would take turns wearing it and I would sit on his lap and wave at people. But I don't know why his wife got jealous." Alrighty then!

This woman made a mistake a lot of women make with modern technology. She found someone online to team with. Yes, she allowed inappropriate behavior but if the guy wanted to put a stop to it he could and so could she. It appears to me that he was probably a predator-user and predators-users abound behind the anonymity of the computer screen. Of course, she exhibited inappropriate behavior too and one has to question why she entered the profession.

We have seen examples of two ways not to find a co-driver. Does that mean that meeting someone on the CB or online is a bad way to find someone to team with? Not necessarily, but one should take one's time in getting to know the other person and I do not mean just talk on the computer or cell phone a couple of times for a week or two. This is your life, your career, and your reputation in someone's hands we're talking about. In a full time team situation, it should take a couple of months of talking and meeting face to face and perhaps even doing a criminal background check before making the decision to team up.

If you are a new driver, in my opinion, you are better off working for a training company that will help you find a co-driver among their other drivers. That way, you will know that the person has been checked out and you have the protection of the company if things go wrong. Even then, take some time to get to know your co-driver. Set down your boundaries and make sure your co-driver understands them.

Ya'll be safe out there!