Schneider Donates Trucks; Congress Considers Women-driver-friendly Bill

Raising awareness of an opportunity and offering support to those who are interested is not to imply that anyone is blind or helpless. They're saying, "Hey, you can do this too and we're here to help."

Yes, call me "Jaded" and "Pessimistic" when it comes to Politics...

If the true intent of the Bill is to raise awareness and it actually occurs as such; "great", "all for it". Women are absolutely capable of becoming great truck drivers. No doubt.

I guess time will tell, if this Bill ever goes to vote, remains intact and is carried-out in the means Brett described.

The reason I'm inclined to believe this is a sincere effort is that Ellen Voie of Women In Trucking is behind this. I admire and respect Ellen. I believe she's sincere in her efforts to promote women in the trucking industry, not only as drivers but in all roles.

I also think it's crazy that only 6% of drivers are women. That's a head-scratcher for me. This is an awesome career that women can do as well as men. Why are the numbers so skewed? The only reason I can think of is the reputation this industry developed decades ago as a bunch of roughnecks and outlaws turning wrenches on their own rigs. There was no power steering or air conditioning, and the truck stops were....let's just say....not healthy, upstanding places to be.

None of that is true anymore, but bad reputations are hard to overcome. That's a major goal here at Trucking Truth is to promote a far more professional image for the industry and let people know that things have changed dramatically from the "Smokey And The Bandit" days.

I believe trucking is an extraordinary career for extraordinary people. I'd like to see more people promoting that message.

Focusing on changing the behavior of a specific demographic is by definition discriminatory.

The board would be given the task to remove “the barriers that get in the way of women pursuing and retaining careers in trucking is key,” one of the co-sponsors said in a news release.

What, pray tell, might such barriers be? Which trucking company is looking at applications and saying, "Oh... You're a woman. Sorry! Can't hire you! We really, REALLY, REALLY don't want women driving for us!" Any of the megacarriers? No? Could we find a small trucking company engaging in discriminatory behaviors against women? Maybe? Aren't there already laws on the books prohibiting that?

What percentage of the truck driving workforce being female is going to be enough? How is that quota going to be made to happen? What percentage of women choose to pursue a career in trucking vs women who are not accepted into the driver's seat? How does that compare to the numbers for men? Are women going to be forced to go into trucking to improve the numbers and give certain people more of the feelgoods? No? What is the alternative? Put an upper limit or a hiring freeze on the number of the over-represented demographic from entering the trucking industry? Who would that affect? How would that improve the driver shortage?

Women are the minority in trucking, but, at 165.92 million women to 159.41 million men in the US in 2017, not the minority of the overall population. If we are talking about a boosting a minority in a particular industry then is it not also fair to take a look at the demographics of something like the NBA and who the minority of players are there? Should there be a bill passed to remove the barriers to more Asian NBA players? Hispanic NBA players? White NBA players?

How does the "Promoting White Men in Professional Basketball Act" sound? How do the white men here respond to the thought of such legislation in their favor being passed into federal law? Is it discriminatory?

Cantankerous Amicus, you have addressed quite a few concerns about ideas that no one has proposed. No one said anything about passing Federal laws or forcing people to behave a certain way. Here's what they've said:

Specifically, the board would advise FMCSA with:

• Industry trends that directly or indirectly discourage women from pursuing careers in trucking.
• Ways trucking companies, nonprofit organizations, and trucking associations may coordinate to facilitate or support women pursuing careers in trucking.
• Ways to expand existing opportunities for women in the trucking industry.
• Opportunities to enhance trucking training, mentorship, education, and outreach programs that are exclusive to women.

They want to raise awareness of the opportunities available to women in trucking and support the women who would like to pursue those opportunities. Let's not turn it into something it's not.

They can't even agree on the numbers of women drivers... i have seen more and more OTR in the last 4 years. Brett just quoted 6% which im guessing came from WIT? the senate.gov site says on the bill that it is "10% of drivers and 24% of the trucking industry of non drivers". that means 24% of the trucking industry are women who choose not to drive. and those numbers are probably a few years old. 18% of Prime and 15% of Covenant are women according to the dept of labor numbers i last saw... but that was 2017. swifts was lower but the numbers were close due to the large number of drivers. My guess is the OTR numbers are way up, but local is down.

it comes down to kids. Im telling you. Women don't want to miss birthdays and basketball games, dance recitals etc. 27% of white families are single mothers. 72% of black families are single.mothers. So how are those mothers going to commit to the obligatory 1 year OTR that we promote? Liz on here just flew home during TNT to console her 23 year old adult son. She just got her license and didnt even make 2 mos OTR. So what happens when a 10 year old breaks a leg in a hockey game? Kim left after a month solo to go back to her office job cause trucking realities were too harsh.

The "barriers" bringing women in are kids. and women are going to want to go to local schools while working during the day... then have to pay for child care while at school and then try to get local jobs while competing with experienced drivers, not expecting to have to unload themselves or get into situations like i was in last week. then they will be frustrated with the 12 to 14 hour days and have child care issues. think about it.. if she works 6am to 6pm.. she didnt see the kids off to school or come home. she will see the kids 2 to 3 hours per day. if she doesnt get the job she will sue for discrimination.

The whole concept of "women don't know of the oppotunities and that they can do a man's job" is a bunch of baloney. I have a picture of my mom in the military from 1956 to prove women have known for decades they can do men jobs. The push for the ERA back in the early 80s was even on Family Ties so a whole generation of women my age grew up with this feminism of "we want equality, but we want to be special. Men make.more than us so let's push them down to pump us up". i was in 7th grade when all of the girls in our school were taken to NJ Bell & Lucent Technologies to prove to us that women could be anything, even engineers. We had a Vice Presidential female candidate, Geraldine Ferraro most don't remember in 1984. We had a female teacher my 7th grade year who flew on the space shuttle.before it exploded and made international news. Women know we have opportunities, they just dont want them. And if i was married with kids..or just had kids and no hubby..i wouldnt be here.

Funny thing is... i have asked all of my friends if they make less money than men. None of them claimed to. in jobs like trucking where you must run so many miles before a raise, or union jobs like the USPS where you must work X numbers of hours...women who have children and take maternity leave fall short of those miles and hours which puts them below men they started with. then people scream sexism.

swift has signs and billboards with one white woman and one black woman "Swift stands behind us". diversity and women.

I fail to see why any one group should be targeted.

I also think it is funny that someone who claims to be for promoting women's issues said i misinterpreted the bill... aka I cannot read and comprehend. I read the actual bill and it states it wants to give women training exclusively, ie, not give equal training to men. How do gay, transgender, and "gender fluid" fit in?

if someone is female one day or male the next... do they get the training only half the time?

people are never satisfied. and well meaning people with the best of intentions can sometimes make matters worse. trucking companies get sued for discrimination.. then sued for sexual harrassment. i saw what women did to the USPS... it wasnt pretty. i even see the petty BS complaints women have at Prime during training. "my trainer was mean to me.... i couldn't shower at 0600 every morning... im tired...im getting married in vegas can you drop me off? im not walking in that mud...my FM is sexist cause he said i couldnt change trucks."

I have no patience tonight hahah

I have to commend rainey on her response.I was a firefighter in the mid 90s.All the large departments and police forces were wrestling with these issues then.They were changing pt standards and giving preference points to women and minorites.And it brought about reverse discrimination lawsuits.I am all for organizations exposing their members to opportunity.But to legislate it I do not agree.I wish their was some way to track how many people that got jobs due to affirmative action stayed in the program.Seems like when people earn something they appreciate it more then just being handed it.wow 2 posts in one night.I usually never have anything to contribute

Only about 9% of the construction workforce is women.

Women in Construction OSHA

My wife works in education where about 77% are women.

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_clr.asp

I think you have two factors.

1. Many women and men still pursue careers that are traditional for their gender. Men could be educators, but they don't pursue it because it has been traditionally a woman's career.

2. Some careers became traditional for a particular gender based upon our cultural gender values and also the physical requirements of the job. Overall, men are physically stronger so military combat roles and construction were traditionally men's jobs. The OTR trucking lifestyle involves significant time away from home. Women traditionally have been the primary caregivers in the home. Remember the movie "Mr. Mom" in the 80's? Women are still the primary caregivers in the home. And even more so in the black community. To increase opportunities for women in careers that involve time away from home, men need to step up to the plate as caregivers.

I'm certain that having children is one of the primary reasons many women don't want to travel. I've looked up some statistics on the U.S. population and the percentage of women who have children and did some quick math.

There are approximately 65 million women between the ages of 20 - 60. Of these women, approximately 21 million do not have children.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics approximately 3.6 million people are "Driver/sales workers and truck drivers" and 6.6% of those are women. I'm not sure how many are specifically OTR drivers, but let's call it 2.5 million for our purposes.

That means approximately 165,000 women are OTR drivers out of the 21 million that qualify by age and do not have children.

If you could get just 165,000 more women out of the 21 million who are available to become truck drivers, you would double the number of women truck drivers in the U.S. That's fewer than 1%.

Statistically you can't make the argument that there aren't enough qualified women available. There are tens of millions.

There's an article on CNBC called, "Just 6 percent of America’s truck drivers are women—here’s what it’s like. They interview a female truck driver. The article says some concerns for women are:

• The truck stops can be disgusting
• The parking areas can be dangerous, especially at night
• Male truck drivers are sometimes smelly and dirty
• Female drivers are met with skepticism or face criticism from their male peers.
• Women drivers hear derogatory remarks from male drivers

Those are all cultural issues that need to change.

Here's another thought. People want to be part of a group. The larger the group, the greater the attraction. Having so few women truck drivers doesn't do much to attract more women. The more women you can attract, the more interest the career will get from other women. To hear that only 6% of truck drivers are women creates a natural skepticism. Sure, women know they can be truck drivers, but if so few are doing it there must be a reason for that. Only 6% does not make it sound very appealing to other women. If you can raise that number you'll begin to get more interest from women, and the numbers will grow.

We have another problem in trucking, and that's the average age of the workforce. It's almost 50 years old. OTR trucking should be a young person's game. It's full of excitement, risk, and adventure. You're piloting a massive big rig across the great United States, which few young people have seen for themselves. You get to live like a gypsy in today's beautiful trucks, and you make great money doing it. It's a career that's relatively quick and inexpensive to get started with and your wages can grow by 50% within the first three years. You're creating great memories and great stories to tell all the time. Drivers are also in high demand.

Yet it's hard to get people involved. Why is that? In my opinion, it's the bad reputation that trucking has earned over many decades. We've come a long way in terms of professionalism and standards in this industry, but it's hard to overcome a bad reputation.

Brett reminds me of Virginia Slims.

We've come a long way

Picture this:

Kearsey laying in the sleeper, tucked into fine linens. Her eyes comfortably closed and her blond hair flowing over her pillow and comforter. Goofball is curled up beside her. A soft light illuminates the scene.

"It's been a long day and you're tired. You were up before dawn and drove 500 miles. In your well-appointed Volvo. All 80,000 pounds that you handled with skill, confidence, and your particular feminine touch. You saw a blazing red-orange sunrise over the Rocky Mountains and some of the most majestic scenery America has to offer. You see different places every week that many people only see on a one in a lifetime vacation. You spent some time chatting with your BFFs that was only cut short, because their work does not allow them to talk for hours with their friends. Or maybe you prefer to listen to your favorite author while driving. No nagging boss, no demanding husband, no screaming children. Just peace and quiet and the freedom of the open road. At the end of your drive today, your tender lemon herb chicken breast, cooked sous vide, and wild rice with hari covert was ready for you. Maybe a little social media before you lay down on your luxury mattress for the night. You've come a long way baby."

Here's a news story Errol just pointed out in another thread that pertains to this conversation:

Notice she confirmed what I had said earlier about people wanting to belong to a group and that having more women in trucking would attract even more:

"I see a lot more women are doing it now and that made me feel more comfortable....We kinda made our own little click like, "Hey, girl power. We can do it! Let's show the guys!"

I think that's the purpose of these proposals they're making - to increase awareness and encourage people to consider trucking from a different perspective than historical stereotypes would have you believe.