Women in Trucking - A Woman's Perspective

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With only approximately 7 percent of the truckers on the road in the U.S. being women, it follows that there would not be enough female trainers to go around. Therefore, many companies put women students with male trainers. For the most part, this system works well, but every so often (thankfully rarely) one will hear a horror story of a woman being subjected to blatant sexual harassment or even rape by a male trainer.

Recently, a major carrier was sued for allowing sexual harassment by some of their women students. It was not clear how many women were involved in the suit. The women claimed that they were subjected to repeated sexual harassment by their male trainers. The company denies the allegations.

Many companies provide their male trainers with sensitivity training so they will know how to conduct themselves when training women. An acquaintance of mine went through one of these sensitivity courses for a company where he was going to be a trainer. He related that the course was simple. The prospective trainers were told to keep their eyes above the shoulders of the female student and even if they thought she was drop dead beautiful, they were not to even think anything of a personal nature about her. I am sure that this simplistic type of sensitivity training is not the norm, but it shows just how prevalent and feared sexual harassment is.

To be fair, not all claims against trainers are valid. There have been many instances where the woman just could not drive the truck and when the trainer tried to tell her that, or took her from behind the wheel as unsafe, the woman yelled sexual harassment in retaliation. These types of instances create real problems for women who actually experience real harassment. Too many women crying unfounded and untrue sexual harassment charges makes companies tend to not take another woman seriously even if her claims are valid.

If you are going to be trained by a male trainer, take a few minutes out of the truck to talk to them first. You should be able to tell if he is going to be a flirt or not (or worse) in the first few minutes in some cases. If you are uncomfortable with him and if you have any issues with the trainer, then go to talk to your training supervisor.

Most, though not all of the cases of true sexual harassment by trainers-and I am not talking about some guy telling you a dirty joke or calling you "hon"-consist of asking for sexual favors to allow the woman student to move up to her own truck. In most cases, coercion is used rather than violence to get the woman to have intimate relations with a male trainer.

Though I would never propose the idea that a woman ever asks to be sexually harassed, there are some things that a woman student can do to train their trainer.

You can state up front your unwillingness to engage in inappropriate behavior. Do it nicely though. I used to say "I'm out to get paid to drive this truck, not to get...you get the picture?" Do not talk about intimate parts of your personal/private life; do not dress suggestively; do not wear excessive makeup; do wear pajamas or shorts and T-shirts to sleep in; do not tell vulgar jokes; and do not give in to his story that you can not move up without the intimate relation thing.

If you end up with a trainer who is actually sexually harassing you, you have to judge your safety and the level of harassment. If he is just telling you dirty jokes, or using bad language that you cannot tolerate, it is minor and you may be morally offended until you can get to a terminal to get another trainer, but you are not at risk personally. If he says that you must be intimate with him to move up and it is just talk, document what he is saying. Write down what was said and time and dates, or use the little recorder on your cell phone. Turn it in as soon as you get to a terminal. None of the above is worth getting off the truck away from a terminal and ruining your career with an abandoned truck or load rap.

If he puts his hands on you other than to help you up and you feel threatened: As soon as you safely can, call your company and talk to someone in safety, human resources, personnel or an executive. Don't leave voice mails or messages. Keep your cell with you at all times and call from a restroom if you have to. Play sick and stall until you can talk to someone. If he exhibits violence or forces you to have relations with him, get off the truck at the very first place there are people. Call the police and your company. Do not get back on the truck with him!

I do not perceive being called an endearment such as "baby," rough language, dirty jokes told in my presence, or some nice guy holding a door for me as sexual harassment. I never allowed anything to escalate with a lead seat (back in my day with a trainer) to where I felt threatened physically. Perhaps I was lucky or it was my knowledge of working with men that help me avoid such situations. If so, then I hope that you lady students who read this are wise and lucky too and get an already-trained trainer.

Ya'll be safe out there!