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Archive for the ‘Entry-Level Driver Training’ Category

No Cancel Culture in Trucking , No Matter What!

Posted in CDL Training, Entry-Level Driver Training, Sexual Harassment, Trucking, Women Truckers, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 14, 2021| 1 Comment »

In 2003, Colleen Morse wrote about then Executive Director of Trucker Buddy , Ellen Voie “Why would anyone stick-up for a pedophile rather than children?” 

In 2021 , I am STILL asking when it comes to Ellen Voie , “Why do so many people in the trucking industry give this woman accolades, support and awards when she does not stick up for women who have been sexually assaulted during truck driver training?” 

The term “cancel culture” does not exist in trucking. The way it was explained to me when I was a new driver by veterans was “… trucking has a very incestuous relationship with itself …” , meaning that the dirtier you are, the more you are welcomed into the “establishment“.

The best example I can provide is how a former executive director of the trucker buddy international pen pal organization, Ellen Voie had her name and character issues written about on a website that explains how pedophiles operate but is still able to thrive in trucking. Though Ellen was forced to resign from trucker buddy, she went on to form the Women in Trucking Association where she now acts as a expert witness against women truck drivers who have experienced discrimination (EEOC v new Prime, Inc.) and sexual assault (Jane Doe v CRST Expedited, Inc.) . Ellen is lavishly supported by the vast majority of trucking industry companies though fewer than 600 individual women truck drivers believe she represents them.

In February 2010, Heather Rose asked Ellen Voie to explain the trucker buddy issue to her in writing in the published with permission post called “32 Questionable Answers from Ellen Voie“. I had also spoken personally to Ellen Voie and Marge Bailey by phone about the incident. I was concerned since it revealed a character flaw that should not be ignored. The remarks of Colleen Morse about Ellen reveal an individual missing a sensitivity chip in her DNA, a woman who blames victims , an advocate for predators. Ellen Voie has proved to be just that since the Women in Trucking Association was formed in 2007.

In question .17 Ellen’s response was defensive and blamed the Mother which is exactly how her deposition came across in Jane Doe v CRST Expedited when she appeared as an expert witness for the perpetrator rather than the victim in the case. It may have been stunning for many who took the time to read her deposition but it was not to me. I knew how little she cared about women truck drivers since 2008, especially those who have been sexually assaulted in training.  Still, she is a “team player” , and in trucking , that means you are cut from the same cloth.

Colleen Morse had identified in 2003 that it was dangerous to have a woman who makes excuses for predators leading an organization like trucker buddy and action was taken to remove Ellen Voie from her position. The pressure to remove her did not come from the trucking industry. The warm glove of what is the incestuous trucking establishment family welcomed her and “groomed” her to become what we have now.

A million dollar trade association that claims they represent women that is really a corporate apologist machine, propped up by fewer than 600 individual women truck drivers who allow themselves to be pimped out in red shirts for trucking industry events.

Cancel culture does not exist in trucking, no matter what. Enabling means nothing here. That’s all there is to say about it except … what cloth are you cut from?

 

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What Makes ME an Expert in Trucking?

Posted in @TruckerDesiree, CDL Training, Entry-Level Driver Training, Sexual Harassment, Trucking, Women Truckers, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 6, 2021| 4 Comments »

In March 2021, a landmark $5 million dollar settlement was reached in a single sexual assault case against CRST Expedited, Inc. (Natalie Weatherford and John Taylor Secure a Record Setting $5 Million Settlement in Rape Case against CRST Trucking | Taylor & Ring (taylorring.com) by the law firm Taylor & Ring .

Anyone who has not been spending their days splitting hairs on Facebook over the minutiae of trucking topics and other non-issues would know I have specifically focused on rape in truck driver training since I entered trucking nearly 15 years ago.  Why? because no one else would say anything, though it seemed to me that nearly everyone knew something about it.

Because of my writings on this subject over the years, I have been regularly contacted by law firms for insight on a variety of cases. They have involved rape, sexual harassment, lease schemes, wage theft, gender discrimination, the arbitration act that was heard by The Supreme Court, pregnancy discrimination, even the Tracy Morgan Walmart crash. Many times, I have helped willingly for free but when a case requires many hours of reading and research on policies and practices, being compensated for time spent on a case designates you as an expert. If you were not aware of this, you were not paying attention.

Law firms contact me because I am the only one who has written about certain topics extensively even though others might be better situated to write about such things but have chosen to ignore them. Over the years, I have received hundreds of distress calls from drivers because there are few others to call for help. They should be able to get a response from those who are better funded and who claim they set up shop to help women overcome obstacles, like the women in trucking association for instance. Isn’t being raped in truck driver training an obstacle? It would seem to fit the WIT mission statement wouldn’t it?

I formed REAL Women in Trucking as a working driver when I didn’t even have a place to call home. The organization was informal in 2010 because I thought if I raised this issue, people in trucking would care to help. I thought I could go on in a year and fade into the background. After all, Why should a driver need to spend over a decade holding a mirror up to the face of trucking to expose them the their own enabling of rape and exploitation of truck drivers in this industry? I found there were few who had the courage to challenge the establishment and many who would sell their soul for 15 minutes of fame wearing a red shirt. The so-called “influencers” and “leaders” have a blind spot when it comes to rape happening in truck driver training.

Jane Doe was sexually assaulted at CRST in 2017 , nearly 10 years after my first post about this troubled training fleet on this very blog ( My 1st post about CRST from 2009 ). Silence, excuses and failed leadership is why sexual assault allegations have continued at multiple training fleets with the same business model. Pretending you are not aware may help you sleep better at night, but it doesn’t make the problem go away.

Perhaps the worst of the worst enablers are the women in trucking who “KNOW” but dig their heels in to lie to themselves and to others about how much they know. Insisting instead on keeping their head in the sand, their eyes and ears covered. Spoiler Alert: You nice ladies are part of the problem, you are a rapist’s best friend because they know they can count on you to look the other way, make excuses, and give them an out.

It has been nearly 2 months since the law firm published the landmark settlement, what some in trucking might call a “nuclear verdict” in Jane Doe v CRST Expedited, Inc. , some do not think the settlement was nearly enough. While we see trucking publications write about how they support women and diversity, we have yet to see any notable trucking trade publications like FreightWaves, HD Trucking, Fleet Owner, Transport Topics, Landline or others speak a word about this significant case.

All of these publications employ women writers who form the “Women in Trucking” association, most who do not drive. It’s interesting since Ellen Voie, President of Women in Trucking testified in this rape case for the perpetrator. Yes! The President of the Women in Trucking Association testified against the woman who was raped.

This is true, despite the censorship, pearl clutching and gaslighting taking place on the WIT page damage control team claiming Ellen Voie was hired to give best practices in this case.

For anyone who takes the time to read the public document deposition of Ellen Voie, you can read in her own words that she was hired to refute the expert witness testimony for the plaintiff. The expert witness for the plaintiff was ME and the plaintiff was a female truck driver student who was sexually assaulted. Ellen was hired at the conclusion of the case to refute me and she failed miserably.

Ellen Voie was absolutely NOT hired to present best practices. For one, she has none, and any she does have, she likely lifted the content from someone else. That has been pretty much documented here on this blog since 2009. Furthermore, if Ellen was indeed supposed to do such a thing as present best practices in Jane Doe v CRST Expedited, she sunk the ship with her testimony. You can download and read her entire deposition HERE .

I would need a month off just to highlight all the misleading answers she gave in her sworn deposition. I covered some of them in the post on the REAL Women in Trucking blog, Ellen Voie Testifies Against a Woman in a Sexual Assault Case – Real Women In Trucking

It’s difficult to pick the worst of the worst statements Ellen made in her deposition but one of the most glaring of her attempts to mislead under penalty of perjury was on how long she has known about the rape problem CRST.

She certainly remembered being called a pimp on this blog so she should certainly recall that this blog also holds a key timeline that contradicts her testimony. I only wish this case could have been heard by a jury trial. By the way Ellen, ( who claims she doesn’t read this blog but her friend “Dick” apparently does it for her) I was never terminated from any trucking job.

So anyway, I received some email inquiries following the 1st publication of Ellen’s damning deposition performance from women truck drivers from two camps, the majority who are already WOKE about Ellen and glad to see her show her true colors and then there is the minority who were “concerned” but mostly because they wanted to know how I could be considered an expert. They really did not care about the woman who was raped or knowing about the other cases pending right now by other women truck drivers who have yet to get justice.

These types of women in the minority I hope reflect what will be the past of trucking very soon since we finally learned in this deposition that the Women in Trucking Association has less than 600 individual women truck drivers who are members. Ellen also confirmed that WIT corporate support is making up the $1 million in revenue being generated by the association which pays her hefty salary. As I have said before on this blog, Ellen Voie is a woman who has never been a driver but has made a living off the backs of women WHO ARE drivers and she was eager to testify in a sexual assault case against a woman who hoped to be in trucking. Did her sponsors know? She testified that they didn’t.

Isn’t ironic that the Women in Trucking Association claims they are “bringing gender diversity to transportation” while calling mutual prospective sponsors to have them ignore the most diverse trucking groups that exist, S.H.E. Trucking Sisterhood, and trying to claim WIT supports LGBTQ truckers while ignoring the actual work of the LGBT Truckers group! These are examples why the Women in Trucking Association has less than 600 actual individual members who are women truck drivers. Ellen testifying against women in a class action gender discrimination case and now a sexual assault case is just the icing on the cake. Newsflash: You aren’t BRINGING Diversity to trucking, it’s already here, you’ve just been cherry picking who you want to see.

For those who want to see my deposition so they can “compare” what I said to what Ellen said without ever asking about the rape problem that has been going on for two decades in this industry, my first response is, the case is not sealed, all you need to do is order my deposition from the court. I will make it publicly available when I receive it but you can always put forth the effort and the .50 per page to obtain it yourself. But honestly, what the hell is wrong with you that the only thing that triggers you to have the inclination to write to me after 14 years upon hearing that Ellen Voie, President of Women in Trucking testified in a rape case against a woman truck driver is to ask me what makes me an expert?

Maybe you should ask yourself how you could be a better human being by becoming an expert yourself instead of selling out and brown-nosing the devil.

These words you cannot UNSEE , you are defending less than 600 individual women truck drivers in an industry with 3.5 million truck drivers in which 6.5% are women. Most who have never heard of WIT and those who have, know Ellen is no friend to women and never has been.

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Is there a truck driver shortage?

Posted in CDL Training, Entry-Level Driver Training, Trucking, Women Truckers on December 25, 2018| 1 Comment »

I will keep this brief.

In the following court documents from two separate cases involving two separate major entry level truck driver training fleets a number emerged that caught my attention. It is a number not widely cited when we hear about every three months from the trucking lobby industry groups that claim they are suffering from a crisis they call a, “truck driver shortage”.

In the 10 years since I became a truck driver, I have seen over recruiting, low pay, poor and unsafe training, thousands of new people attempting to become truck drivers but being churned through below minimum wage trucking jobs and leaving the industry before they reach the six-month mark. During that time, they work for such low wages they can barely survive but regardless, they move America’s freight and it gets delivered to it’s destination. The business model to use student low wage labor until they quit, use mainstream media and novice journalists to run “truck driver shortage” articles and stories on a recurring basis is a scheme to feed new people into a meat grinder. Some survive, like me, most do not. Even those who might survive that first year may jump from fleet to fleet without fully realizing how they are set up to fail.

Experience has little value in most major fleets represented by the trucking lobby because experience requires the pay and benefits a reasonable person would expect to perform one of the top 10 most dangerous jobs to have. Student truck drivers are a dime a dozen. They are clueless, vulnerable and the job is so invisible, the industry can easily conceal crash rates in student fleets and the turnover rate which is much higher than the industry average which by itself it grossly high.

So, let’s get back to that number.

Here is the testimony from one of the cases:

“Turnover among drivers new to the industry is higher. Further, turnover in Truck Driving schools is often much higher, sometimes as much as 200%.” ~ Tom B. Kretsinger, Jr

The late Tom B. Kretsinger, Jr was a former president and CEO of American Central Transport, he served on the Board of Directors of the American Trucking Association, he was a Chairman of the ATA Litigation Center, the Truckload Carriers Association, and the Missouri Trucking Association. His testimony that cites this turnover rate not widely known to most people who work in the trucking industry appears EEOC v New Prime, Inc. on Page 2-3

When I first read the number, I thought he must have exaggerated. Although I personally saw a system of churning student labor at Covenant Transport and have worked closely with student truck drivers over the past 9 years, I wouldn’t have thought that a turnover rate that high could be so well concealed.

To claim you have a shortage of labor when you have a 200% turnover rate of your labor very simply says you have a horrible place to work!

In August when the organization I founded REAL Women in Trucking received the first documents from our Motion to Intervene to unseal documents in the CRST Sex Harassment case were sent to me, again I stumbled upon this very large turnover rate that is much high than we hear from the trucking lobby organizations.

“Driver turnover rates in the over-the-road transportation industry reach approximately 165% annually. (D-App. 2, Brueck Declaration, ¶4). Given the difficulty posed by the labor market in hiring experienced drivers, CRST focuses on hiring entry-level drivers and offers both in-house and third-party training opportunities. (D-App. 5, Declaration of Laura Wolfe Declaration, ¶4). To keep pace with labor demands and turnover, CRST’s goal is to hire 7,000 drivers per year. (Id.)” (Unsealed Resistance to Motion for Class Certification Notice Regarding Filing of Redacted Documents: Cathy Sellars, Claudia Lopez and Leslie Fortune vs. CRST EXPEDITED, INC., Page 7)

The section above was written by lawyers for CRST based on testimony in the case.

To anyone who has moderate intelligence it is clear to see that these training fleets have developed a model to hire thousands of new people who work over 70 hours a week pulling freight for companies like Boeing, Victoria’s Secret, Bath and Body Works, Alcoa and many others while also working off their tuition, and are paid barely enough to cover their expenses. The company never seems to fill its labor shortage with the thousands of workers it trains which they admit by citing the turnover rate.

Eight years ago I wrote this article comparing the truck driver shortage to the movie Pinocchio and it’s as true today as it was when I wrote it. Then there is the “Qualified” Truck Driver Shortage, this is a little different.

Training fleets like CRST, Covenant Transport, New Prime and other carriers like them do not target experienced qualified drivers. They do not pay well enough to retain them.  Therefore, the types of companies who ONLY hire experienced drivers and ARE truly experiencing difficulty finding qualified drivers must ask themselves a couple questions. Are we paying enough to retain a qualified driver to perform one of the top 10 most dangerous jobs to hold? Do we have a toxic work culture affecting retention? and finally , If you are wondering why so many people are entering truck driver training but they never become qualified truck drivers that apply for experienced only fleets, look n

o further than the major training carriers who are getting special treatment from the FMCSA.

The moral of the story on the “truck driver shortage” is the same as when I wrote about it back in 2010 here.

Don’t turn into a Jackass like Pinocchio believing that entering truck driver training will be like going to Pleasure Island. For many people it’s just a way to get donkey’s to work in the salt mines for as long as they last.

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Does this Sound Safe to You? If Not, Please Take Action …

Posted in CDL Training, Entry-Level Driver Training, Trucking, tagged , , , , , , on January 18, 2016| 4 Comments »


crst truck rolloverWhat do you think? Would it be okay with you if people just learning to drive, that held only a learners permit and who had little to zero highway experience, could legally operate an 80,000 lb. vehicle for work in a 24/7 operation while their “on-the-job” instructor slept and was not sitting in the front passenger seat to observe and teach them?

That is a pretty scary thought, isn’t it?

Unknowingly to many, this is exactly what is happening within the trucking industry TODAY.

Does it sound safe to you?  Whether the learners permit holder is a teenager, a newly licensed adult or a commercial learner permit (CLP) holder, a written test is all that an individual is required to pass in order to receive any kind of learner’s permit. It is only a permit to learn the driving portion requirements for the designated license with an instructor; it does not signify the ability or aptitude to drive. While a finals skills test is the ticket for a CLP holder to become a commercial driver’s license (CDL) holder, it does not mean that the individual actually knows how to operate a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) moving real paying freight loads on the open highway.

Background on CDL training for CMV drivers:
For over 20 years, many within the trucking industry have been seriously concerned about the entry level training standards for CMV drivers. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which is the regulating body over the trucking industry has also recognized that there is a lack proper training standards.

In 2014 the FMCSA announced that there was need to establish truck driver training standards since few requirements were in existence. They established the Entry-Level Driver Training Advisory Committee (ELDTAC) to conduct a negotiated rulemaking on entry-level training for drivers of commercial motor vehicles.

– See more at: “About the Entry-Level Driver Training Committee”
The ELDTAC committee is still working on a rule to IMPROVE training standards.   Ironically, CRST Van Expedited of Cedar Rapids, Iowa has requested an exemption from the FMCSA in regards to the very same existing training procedures which are in question by the FMCSA that are making our national highways less safe rather the improving safety. While it may seem obvious that the FMCSA would soundly reject such a request, the truth is that they have granted another carrier in the same class as CRST this type of exemption despite broad public opposition. The exemption request letter submitted by CRST Van Expedited of Cedar Rapids, Iowa to the FMCSA asks to grant permission so that CRST commercial learner permit CLP holders may operate a tractor-trailer while another CDL Holder is in the truck but not in the passenger seat. In the letter that CRST Van Expedited wrote to the FMCSA, they stated that the CLP holder will have completed a skills test which would entitle the student to return to their home state to receive their actual hard copy commercial driver’s license CDL but they claim that it is a financial hardship for them to do this, and that they are losing “control” of the student. Therefore, CRST is requesting a safety exemption. CRST goes on to request that the FMCSA allow them to let the CLP holder be able to drive on the learner permit for the duration that it is valid, which can be several months.

Please understand something: CRST Van Expedited operates a “team driving” business model. This means that they have established customers who want their freight moved 24/7 without stopping for sleep breaks. That means that the entire operation is based on freight moving fast. Student truckers work from day one at CRST to make a profit for CRST. These students often choose CRST because they cannot afford to pay for truck driving school on their own and they want to learn to drive a truck. They agree to repay their tuition in exchange to learn on the job. The debt they incur to CRST is about $6500.00 which is comprised of food, lodging and instruction to become a qualified truck driver.

The internet is littered with complaints about CRST Van Expedited training practices, they are easy to find, just Google “CRST Complaints” and start reading.

This morning I spoke to a female trucker who is still in her 1st year of trucking. She has finally been able to get out of the clutches of CRST Van Expedited. I told her about the exemption request and she said none of it made sense to her because she came to them with her hard copy CDL in hand which meant she had only driven around the block a few times at her CDL School in Florida. She said the testers at the state facility included a former CRST employee who was really easy to pass students. She said there were people being sent on public transportation (Greyhound) back and forth before they were even hired for things like not having a background clearance by the company before arriving at their facility, so why is CRST claiming a “financial hardship” to send their graduate CLP student’s home on public transportation in the exemption letter to the FMCSA?

Here are a few other things I learned from this student:

There is no pay during CDL training while they are a CLP holder. The student is charged for lodging and food in addition to the tuition.  The students are told the tuition repayment will be $40 a check but in reality it is $80.00 a week since they are paid twice a week. The first few weeks the students have no check at all so they are pretty broke and their personal bills are going unpaid. In her case it was about 5 weeks before she got her first check.

So how much is the pay? She said it was about .24 CPM range but that amount was split so she got about .12 cents per mile. If you are not a trucker you may not understand the way many truck drivers are paid which is only when the wheels are turning and mostly not every single mile at that! Here is an example: her first week she did about 2400 miles with her trainer so let’s do some simple math:  2400 miles x .13 CPM = $312.00 gross pay. Let’s say her taxes were about $18.15 and take out her $80.00 tuition payment:   $312.00 – $18.15 – $80.00 = $213.85 net pay after going 5 weeks of no pay and letting her bills get behind.

She said that her and her trainer did a lot of sitting since her trainer was pretty unmotivated, an owner operator that got paid by the load. Still, she had been away from home all of this time so technically she was at work 24/7. If they had been running team miles she could log legally 70 hours and so could her trainer.

When I asked her how much time her trainer sat in the passenger seat supervising her, she said none. She said that when she got on her trainer’s truck she drove from day one at night until after midnight unsupervised which was technically against company policy. Is this an isolated incident? Not according to the vast driver complaints available on the internet from past CRST students.

This particular student ended up quitting CRST after a number of unsafe situations occurred. The problem though was that she wanted to keep driving someplace else and no one would hire her because she left CRST before her debt to them was repaid. Remember, they bill each student like her $6500.00 for their “training”, food and lodging.

For months she tried to get hired at other carriers but when the prospective employers heard the letters “CRST” they said they could not hire her. She had been blacklisted.

It took threatening litigation for some of the things that were done to her to get CRST to release her from her contract to them. She wants to drive and work, not sue the carrier, nor does she want to be blacklisted by the trucking industry.

When I applied what I learned from her to the letter CRST wrote to the FMCSA for an exemption to safety I saw that CRST wants to control more students who quit on them before they have repaid their debt rather than address their poor training and they want the federal government to help them do that.

The “Skills Test” that CRST claims makes the CLP holder qualified to drive on is only a test after just a few weeks of driving the truck at a fenced in yard and going around the block a few times. It is not open road 18 wheeler driving experience with passenger cars whipping and weaving around you and cutting you off.

Of course CRST is entitled to get their tuition investment back from the students they are sponsoring but if those students are not really getting the instruction they thought they were paying for and they are scared to death by the situations they are being placed in they probably do not feel they should have to pay for an education they did not get.

Let’s all understand that a written test is all that is required to issue a commercial learner permit CLP. The FMCSA itself confirms that a few weeks of instruction does not constitute qualified truck driving for the open highway.

Student/Trainees overwhelmingly report that they are pushed to drive “team” right after passing a their “skills test” but some say that there was methodical coaching given to them during the test and that they really didn’t understand what they were doing to the extent that they could operate the truck alone.

The exemption request letter from CRST to the FMCSA asks to legally sanction CLP holders who have passed such a “Skills Test” and who have no open road driving experience to operate the truck with another Commercial Driver’s License CDL holder that is not required to be in the passenger seat. The exemption request letter does not specify if the CDL holder would be a trainer. Since CRST is known to allow two students to do team-driving I think this is important to clarify.

CRST claims in the letter to be seeking the exemption to safety due to financial hardship for transporting CLP holder’s home on a Greyhound bus to get their hard copy CDL.  They go on to claim that the exemption will be a “…equivalent level of safety that is greater or equal to the level of safety provided under the current regulations…” though they offer no data, studies, safety statistics or financial documentation to support such remarks.

One part of the letter mentions a “…severe shortage of qualified and well-trained drivers…”, though the CRST business model is not reliant on qualified and well-trained drivers to move their freight. Instead, they rely on new entrants who are a low wage, exploitable workforce with very little truck driving skill that are indebted to them in exchange for an education to become qualified drivers. They are also not producing a significant number of well-trained qualified drivers from their program.

Another concern I see in the exemption request is that CRST asks the FMCSA to allow the CLP holders to drive in a team driving situation with another “CDL holder” for potentially as long as the CLP is valid which can be several months.

This could create an obstacle for the student later if they decide to quit. These are students who have been away from home already for several weeks with no pay. They are entitled to some home time. The argument CRST presents in the exemption letter about delays at state DMV facilities for students to get appointments makes no sense to whether the “CDL Holder” should be in the passenger seat supervising or in the sleeper not supervising them. This has no impact on how fast someone can get an appointment at a State DMV.

What this exemption can do is help CRST control student truckers who have a tuition debt to them. It can prevent students who are being trained in an unsafe manner from quitting and going to work someplace who will train them the right way to be a qualified driver. It can make them more un-hirable elsewhere since they really do not have their CDL yet. It encourages student truckers to be unsafe because they have no other choice and it increases CRST Van Expedited profits.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is supposed to be overhauling the entry-level driver training system to improve safety standards, therefore they must not grant such exemptions that degrade and compromise safety for certain carriers like CR England who they have already granted this exemption despite broad opposition and CRST Van Expedited who both operate a “Team Driving” business model using student trucker labor.

If you believe the FMCSA should NOT grant this exemption to CRST Van Expedited, please sign this petition on “We the People” and do not forget to validate your signature by checking your email after you sign and clicking the correct link that will validate your email address. If you did not get a validation email please check your spam folder for it.

Thanks for Reading.

Desiree Wood

President

REAL Women in Trucking, Inc.

You can read the actual letter CRST Van Expedited wrote to the FMCSA to request this exemption with this link:

Request Letter for Exemption to Safety by CRST Van Expedited to FMCSA

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The “Image” of Women in Trucking

Posted in @TruckerDesiree, CDL Training, Entry-Level Driver Training, Sexual Harassment, Trucking, Women Truckers, tagged , , , , , on August 3, 2015| 10 Comments »

Here is some personal insight on why there is a sudden 2015 “image” of Women in Trucking campaign targeted at women truckers. Perhaps the “image” that needs improvement the most is industry executives, including the women who colluded to cover-up sexual harassment and discrimination in entry-level driver training carriers.

2014 was a year of milestones for the REAL Women in Trucking which was founded in response to the lack of responsible representation from the trucking industry. We finally launched our membership organization and experienced a number of transitions, triumphs,and bittersweet moments. Each achievement, no matter how small has moved us a little closer to the organization we wish to become.

The big news on December 23, 2014 was that an appellate court overturned the $4 Million fee award granted to CRST Van Expedited in the Class Action Sex Harassment Case. Here is the link: “Universal Finding” that EEOC claims against CRST Trucking are without foundation fee award reversed“.

The history of the legal debacle that served injustice to so many aspiring women truckers is worthy of a suspense motion picture script. Here is the synopsis> Poorly educated , disenfranchised women struggling to make a new life for themselves, driven by faith and determination enter truck driver training. They naively believe that if they work hard and show aptitude for the work, they can live a life of freedom from office shackles, the loneliness of empty nest syndrome or escape from toxic relationships. Alas, something sinister is underfoot, a corporate system set up for failure, a training system chock full of internal support that does not work, trainers and co-drivers who are empowered by a weak misconduct reporting system and a female trucking student population that are viewed as “fresh meat” , an opportunity for predators and controls freaks. A potential victim to be isolated for selfish pleasures. Not all of the victims are women, the men rarely report the abuse and the few courageous women that make it through the trucking obstacle course to reach out for help find they are shouted down into silence by seasoned female drivers. Intimidated into silence by female executives and organizations who accept sponsor dollars from the most offensive carriers. The road to becoming a qualified lady truckers becomes an abyss for those who dare to “STAND UP AND SPEAK OUT ON INJUSTICE“. (more…)

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Should teenagers be allowed to get behind the wheel of big rigs?

Posted in @TruckerDesiree, Entry-Level Driver Training, Trucking, tagged , , , , , , , on August 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

M3My response to an article from a recent NPR story about the campaign to lower the age to earn a commercial driver’s license.

See> To Get Big-Rig Drivers, Senate Bill Would Give Keys to Teens

Notice I used the words “earn”.

My answer? No.

My reason > Because, I think CDL licensing should be a graduated process for the adults who are being recruited now. The stages of learning and responsibility should come in phases. I also do not believe that the commercial driver’s license learner’s permit should allow new drivers to also get their hazardous materials endorsement processing before they have even passed the skills test to drive the truck in the first place. It’s unfathomable to me that few people realize this.

Training carriers bring in hundreds of new CDL Trainee’s each week and most of them get poor and unsafe training. For women this sometimes means sex assault. There is no accountability of the mega training carrier’s turnover, there are no exit interviews of the trainees, and there are no caps on how many students can be recruited each year.

The industry that has a despicable 100% turnover rate and congratulates itself when it dips (according to them) to the high 80’s is never asked why it should continue to be fed students of any age when they are not able to be retained. Would you send your child to an academic school that has a failure rate of 80 to 100 percent without wanting to know what the problem is and how it is being corrected?

Why would anyone want to send a student of any age through a training system like this?

In the trucking industry, the solution is to launch a campaign to have access to indoctrinate teenagers. (more…)

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REAL Women in Trucking, Inc. Launches to Advocate for Urgently Needed Industry Changes while Supporting Female Truckers

Posted in CDL Training, Entry-Level Driver Training, Sexual Harassment, Trucking, Women Truckers, tagged , , , , , , , on February 11, 2015| 3 Comments »

MEDIA CONTACT: Kristine M. Gobbo

561-463-0777, Kristine@spectrum-pr.com

REAL Women in Trucking, Inc. Launches to Advocate for Urgently Needed Industry Changes while Supporting Female Truckers

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (February 11, 2015) – 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. A newly launched trade association, REAL Women in Trucking, Inc. (RWIT), is working to change the industry from the inside out, and seeks the community’s help to raise awareness and support for issues that put drivers in danger.

RWIT was initially formed in 2010 by female truckers to protest poor conditions that were not being effectively addressed by the trucking industry. The women 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. (more…)

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“Mind Your Loan Business”

Posted in @TruckerDesiree, CDL Training, Dan Rather Reports, Entry-Level Driver Training, tagged , , , , , , , on January 11, 2010| 2 Comments »

Dan Rather

Dan Rather Investigates Trucking

The Dan Rather Report Investigative Series into the Student Trucker Industry is available on iTunes. Three shows so far have been produced based on the clues I touched on from my Student Trucker Horror Story called:

” A Day in the Life of a Lady Trucker “.

The Dan Rather Report series into trucking began with Part 1 “Queen of the Road” , Part 2 “Truck Talk” and this FREE link is for Part 3 “Mind Your Loan Business“. It will only be good for 2 weeks.

The 2009 year end episode of Dan Rather Reports also includes “Queen of the Road” as one of the most controversial. Uh-Oh Spaghetti-O!

The other two shows had free links but those have expired. You can still buy these shows for $1.99 on iTunes. I have provided you a link HERE Once you download itunes to your computer you can shop online for Movies, Music and TV Shows. Just search the iTunes store for “Dan Rather Reports” and each title will appear. Scroll until you find the episodes you want.

It does take a bit of time to download them but they are saved on your computer to watch more than once.

This new episode called “Mind Your Loan Business” came out the same day as the unemployment numbers from Detroit were estimated at 50%, this makes me very sad to know that targeted recruitment is occurring in areas hit hardest by our economy.

I noticed this when I was in CDL training that there were targeted demographics in particularly high unemployment areas. I noticed that it was more about “Selling Loans” to go to CDL School not about making you a success a a trucker. Another thing that prospective students are not told is that even if you are recruited to train , you may not be able to stay employed after that period because freight does not frequently move from where you live. Many companies will not hire from areas like Michigan & South Florida but they will make you believe that when they sell the loan.

Truck Driver recruiting is a business, Student truckers are a business.

Please take the time to watch “Mind Your Loan Business” while this free link is available.

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