Regardless of whether you are involved in the trucking industry this is an important message that needs to be spread. This piece was written by my friend Rusty Wade and published in the current (February 2011) issue of OOIDA's Land Line Magazine. Many of my driver friends are familiar with Rusty who goes by the handle of Yoda.
Trucker Perspective: Women Truck Drivers Are Unappreciated
By Rusty "Yoda" Wade
My wife has been driving a truck for the last 17 years. She has watched the number of women involved grow, but the treatment they receive has changed little.
Women are met with ignorance and derision by drivers. But worse than that, they are met with mistreatment by the very vendors who make their living feeding drivers, or fueling and repairing the trucks they drive.
At customers' shipping docks, and even more at restaurants, fuel desks and other locations that women drivers encounter - they should be treated with dignity, but are treated like dirt.
I know truck stops where a woman alone, or in a few cases even accompanied by a male driver, may be accosted walking from the restaurant to her truck by security or even law enforcement personnel demanding to see her CDL [Commercial Drivers License] as if saying "prove to me you are not a prostitute."
All too often I myself have interrupted a waitress or clerk who was ignoring a woman alone - only to be told "I don't wait on her until her husband sits down" or "this is a fuel desk and I am waiting on people who are buying fuel." As if no woman would be fueling a truck?
My wife was in a truck stop one morning. When she asked the waitress why she was being ignored, she was told, "I don't wait on lot lizards." (for the folks not connected with trucking, "lot lizard" is a term used to describe truck stop prostitutes). This is a symptom of a prevailing misunderstanding and a poorly managed business that apparently has not bothered to accept that there are many women alone driving trucks.
Customer docks and repair shops are seldom much better, with women who are alone being ignored or even told to "go get your husband. We want to talk to the driver of the truck."
When will these things change? When will people who claim to be working to resolve gender issues in this industry address real issues instead of specious ones? When will they be willing to talk truthfully about problems rather than smooth them over to curry favor with potential sponsors of their organizations?
Meanwhile, women will continue to rack up millions of safe miles moving the goods of America from point to point and will continue to be mostly ignored by those who need their business and their efforts.
Trucker Perspective: Women Truck Drivers Are Unappreciated
By Rusty "Yoda" Wade
My wife has been driving a truck for the last 17 years. She has watched the number of women involved grow, but the treatment they receive has changed little.
Women are met with ignorance and derision by drivers. But worse than that, they are met with mistreatment by the very vendors who make their living feeding drivers, or fueling and repairing the trucks they drive.
At customers' shipping docks, and even more at restaurants, fuel desks and other locations that women drivers encounter - they should be treated with dignity, but are treated like dirt.
I know truck stops where a woman alone, or in a few cases even accompanied by a male driver, may be accosted walking from the restaurant to her truck by security or even law enforcement personnel demanding to see her CDL [Commercial Drivers License] as if saying "prove to me you are not a prostitute."
All too often I myself have interrupted a waitress or clerk who was ignoring a woman alone - only to be told "I don't wait on her until her husband sits down" or "this is a fuel desk and I am waiting on people who are buying fuel." As if no woman would be fueling a truck?
My wife was in a truck stop one morning. When she asked the waitress why she was being ignored, she was told, "I don't wait on lot lizards." (for the folks not connected with trucking, "lot lizard" is a term used to describe truck stop prostitutes). This is a symptom of a prevailing misunderstanding and a poorly managed business that apparently has not bothered to accept that there are many women alone driving trucks.
Customer docks and repair shops are seldom much better, with women who are alone being ignored or even told to "go get your husband. We want to talk to the driver of the truck."
When will these things change? When will people who claim to be working to resolve gender issues in this industry address real issues instead of specious ones? When will they be willing to talk truthfully about problems rather than smooth them over to curry favor with potential sponsors of their organizations?
Meanwhile, women will continue to rack up millions of safe miles moving the goods of America from point to point and will continue to be mostly ignored by those who need their business and their efforts.
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