Posted 9/9/2006 4:52 PM ET
Divorced and childless at age 69, Nancy Finley logs 10,000-12,000 miles a month driving across the United States and Canada.
Toni Chandler began driving big rigs to earn more than the $7.50 an hour she was making as a security guard and to see the country on her employer's dime.
These women represent the changing face of the American trucking industry. The driver of that big rig on the interstate may not necessarily be a man. Women are increasingly getting behind the wheel of trucks small and large, from tractor-trailers that haul merchandise across North America to smaller delivery trucks on local roads.
There were 129,000 women drivers in 1995 and 154,000 last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the American Trucking Associations. Their numbers peaked at 183,000 during the post-Sept. 11, 2001, economic doldrums before falling back.
The number of women is expected to climb as the trucking industry targets female retirees and empty-nesters as part of a strategy to fill thousands of driver vacancies. Millions more trucks are expected on the nation's roads in the coming years because retailers rely on them to keep their shelves stocked as Americans buy more.
Women no longer endure as many stares, or hear as many propositions or sexist comments, Walker said. But she still feels she must prove herself to male drivers, especially while performing the challenging tasks of backing and parking the tractor-trailer rig. After all, truck driving remains a male-dominated profession — about 5% of the more than 3 million U.S. truck drivers are women.
"You get comments like, 'Where's your husband? Does he let you go out here like this?' " Walker, who's single and 30, said at a truck center in Carlisle, Pa., operated by her employer, Schneider National. "You stay focused and do your job."
"Typical" males, she said, "stand around and watch if you can park. ... I've had men offer to park for me because they thought I was going to hit their truck."
Balancing life, work
The daughter of a truck driver, Walker shrugged off such annoyances and began hauling loads from Texas to Maine to Florida, spending weeks on the road at a stretch. Now she has a different job with the Green Bay, Wis.-based Schneider that allows her to drive shorter distances and return home to York, Pa., every night, although she still puts in 14-hour days as she did before.
Women have always worked in the trucking industry as dispatchers and office staff. Some, like Rochelle Gorman of CalArk of Mabelvale, Ark., own trucking companies. But the growing trend is women sitting in the driver's seats, Gorman said.
Most women drivers pair up with their husbands or partners for long-distance trips. That helps women feel safer and also reassures their family members worried about safety in remote places.
Like Walker, Finley is a rarity among women truckers — she drives solo. Finley said she and other women turn to trucking for the same reasons as men: The opportunity to travel and earn good money and benefits in a rapidly expanding industry.
Gorman said CalArk was one of the first trucking companies to switch to automatic-transmission vehicles about a decade back. That has caused a jump in the number of women applying to her firm. Of the 850 drivers CalArk uses, 100 are women. Unlike the old days, long-haul truck drivers no longer have to manually load and unload heavy cargo. That's also encouraged women to sign up.
Women easily land jobs after they finish driver training — sometimes beating out men — because they're viewed as safer drivers, said Tony Marra, who runs a transportation institute at Prince George's County (Md.) Community College in suburban Washington. It's a well paying and stable career for someone without a college degree with annual starting salaries around $33,500, he said.
Seasoned truckers like Finley, who lives in Okmulgee, Okla., earn $50,000 or more plus benefits.
Money mattered to Chandler, but the bigger draw was the freedom to travel. At a Carlisle truck stop, she spoke fondly of delivering freight in Portland, Ore., and taking a couple of days off to take in the sights in her favorite city.
Chandler, 45, and her 53-year-old husband, Leslie Paugh Jr., have a mobile marriage. They sold their house and live out of the 18-wheeler that belongs to her employer, CalArk. If they need a break, they check into a motel or stay with relatives in Virginia, Florida or Texas.
Chandler acknowledged their lifestyle works for them because they have no children. She discouraged women with children from taking up long-haul trucking. She and her husband have been traveling together for 10 years; Chandler does all the driving and Paugh navigates.
Not a 'paid vacation'
But Finley cautioned against romanticizing the trucker lifestyle as "one continuously paid vacation."
For one, it can get lonely. Safety is also an issue, but drivers said they take precautions like staying in touch frequently with family, remaining inside the vehicle after hours and sleeping near well-lit areas.
And driving a rig requires skill and concentration and is a lot harder than driving a passenger vehicle because of the higher weight and more complicated handling. Then there are health and sanitation considerations: How to avoid a sedentary lifestyle when spending so much time behind the wheel? How to skip daily showers and still stay clean? What to do if you have to use the restroom and there's not a facility in sight?
Such practical concerns transcend worries about sexism, said Finley, who's employed by Tulsa-based Hoffmeier Inc.
She acknowledged that she loves it when men are surprised by the sight of a petite woman driving a big rig, hauling hazardous substances such as jet fuel.
Once when she got lost in South Carolina, Finley pulled into a strip mall parking lot. A young man saw her climb out the truck and his "jaw unhinged. He looked like I'd hit him right in the eyes with a pole or something. He just turned around and walked off," she said.
"I have heard women out there — men hit them, (are) rude to them. That's never been my experience. You meet a jerk once in a while. Who doesn't?"
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