REAL Women in Trucking seeks to help women transition into trucking safely

Maria

Diet Coke
Staff member
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — The promise of a fresh start and great pay draws thousands of people, including many women, to become truck drivers, but “fundamental flaws in the driver recruiting and training process are putting female truckers, and all drivers on major highways, at risk,” according to a new group, REAL Women in Trucking Inc. (RWIT).

An RWIT news release says some prospective women drivers have found the driver training process “to be a harrowing experience, as they received little training, even driving tractor-trailers without proper instruction. Worse, training often included being paired with drivers who verbally and physically abused the women, and made aggressive sexual advances” to them.

One of RWIT’s founders, Desiree Wood, had such an experience “ … and was ultimately left stranded far from home with little support from the carrier company overseeing her education,” the news release stated.

“I learned that my experience — which was extremely traumatic — was, in fact, very common,” Wood said in the news release. “We believe we can change the industry for the better. REAL Women in Trucking raises awareness of misconduct and violence toward women, and builds a community of mentors and resources. We need everyone’s attention and support to make a difference.”

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I hate fear-mongering groups like this, painting the industry to look like nothing but criminals, rapists and assholes. I have not experienced this nearly as much as some say they have and that bit of abuse and harassment I have experienced has been almost exclusively on the CB or on the internet, where the moron can remain anonymous or distant. If women are going to complain about harassment and abuse, they'll complain to another woman first, expecting that woman to understand and commiserate. My conversations with other women driving trucks pretty much reflect my own experience.

I will not deny I have gotten some very few anecdotes of the abuses described by RWIT, but in my eight years, I can count them on one hand. While I will agree those few are too many, I can't bring myself to believe it's as widespread an issue as they're trying to portray it. Sure, there are asshats driving trucks. But by and large, the vast majority of men out here are gentlemen who would sooner tell me about their wives and children than try to get in my pants.
 
Isn't the focus on the Training Period?

You know, that part that requires new CDL holders to spend weeks in a confined space with a "trainer"?

I believe they have reason. A good friend from Boise was so excited to get her CDL and hire on with a company....

To this day she won't reveal what transpired with her "trainer" but I can imagine. She never finished and is happily employed as a store manager for Maverick now.

The abuses being referred to by our esteemed Injun are more likely to occur ....after...the trainer turns over the keys, not during the training process.

Any industry suffers the same type of harassment. Boys will be boys when they have an audience that will sni gg er at the immaturity levels.
 
I was trained by a man. He was the perfect gentleman the whole time. Most other women I've talked to who have been trained by men say the same thing. There have been (as said above) a very, very few who complained about harassment on their trainers' trucks. Also, as I said above, I'm not going to say it never happens, because I know better. I just don't think it's as epidemic or one-sided as some say.

I have to believe in the inherent goodness of the vast majority of men. Unfortunately, organizations like this one appear to paint the entire industry with the same brush. The blame is placed on all men, including you, not just the very few predators who take advantage of the situation. That's not fair to the men...or the women who think they need to fear you.

This is a touchy subject, with strong views and "witch-hunters" on both sides of the equation. I think there are women who take advantage as well, by either lying around nude during off time (happened to my trainer) or by saying if they're failed, they'll holler harassment.

I don't know if there ever will be a solution to this. Restricting women to being trained by women only is not a viable solution. Prime recently got into some very expensive hot water over such a policy. I won't get into that argument. It has played out here a hundred times already.

My main irritation with this group is its willingness to make all men out to be predatory harassers who have no self-control. That's just not reality.

Perhaps trainers' trucks would be an acceptable application for in-cab cameras.
 
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Well, if these new to the industry women are trained by experienced women, What kind of excuse are the ones that wash out going to use now?
I have seen both men and women make accusations of one kind or another when they fail.
Some need more work and some just can't drive for shit.
 
Well, if these new to the industry women are trained by experienced women, What kind of excuse are the ones that wash out going to use now?
I have seen both men and women make accusations of one kind or another when they fail.
Some need more work and some just can't drive for ****.
We live in a world where failure is never the fault of the one who failed.

I will not get into the heated who-should-train-whom debate. My own belief is a competent and consenting trainer should be able to train a competent and consenting student regardless of either of their genders or preferences. By consenting, I mean they each have consented to living in a truck with whatever demographic the other is a member of.
 

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