In Episode 3, Tobenna chats with Ellen Voie, founder of Women in Trucking, an organization formed to promote the employment of women in the trucking industry, to remove obstacles that might keep them from succeeding, and to celebrate the successes of its members.

Ellen shares her background and the journey that led to her becoming founder of Women in Trucking. She speaks about the unique challenges women face in the trucking industry and how the industry has evolved over the years to accommodate more women truck drivers. In closing, Ellen shares her vision for women in the trucking industry and her excitement about the role of technology in the industry.

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Tobenna Arodiogbu: You founded the organization in 2007 and here we are in 2021. What were some of the challenges you saw those years ago when you first started the organization that you still see today?

‍Ellen Voie: That’s a great question. So fourteen years ago, when I'd speak in front of trucking executives, they’d insist that they just hired the best person for the job because they didn’t care about gender, race, and ethnicity. Then I started pointing out that the uniforms are all made for men, the trucks are all designed for men, women couldn’t have access to showers and restrooms at truck stops years ago because they were like a locker room.

We started pointing out things like that and the truck cab manufacturers have been very receptive to making sure women feel just as comfortable in the cab of a truck as men. Women typically have shorter arms, legs and wider hips so they have to be able to reach the pedals as well as see over the dash.

The other change was at the truck stops, they’ve been very open minded as to how they could make things better. One truckstop put in hair dryers and big fluffy towels and guess what? Men like fluffy towels as well so it’s not just for women. However, one of the things that’s still a concern is safety. We did a best practices survey and on the scale of 1-10 we asked our female drivers how safe they feel. Their response averaged 4.4. We asked drivers where they feel least safe, a majority of them said at truck stops.

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Truckers & Nerds is hosted by Tobenna Arodiogbu, CEO and founder of CloudTrucks.

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Want to learn more about CloudTrucks? Visit our website at cloudtrucks.com.