When Vanita Johnson was a little girl, she dreamt of driving a big truck. Her family took a lot of road trips as a kid, but she never minded the long drives. Johnson would sit happily in the back seat watching semi-trucks ride off in the distance. She pictured herself behind the wheel of her very own 18-wheeler with a trusty lap dog by her side.
Now, Johnson cruises along I-24 with her hands at 10 and two, grateful that her dream came true (minus the lap dog).
“I make sure to thank God every day that I get to do this,” Johnson says.
Johnson is part of the small but growing population of female truck drivers who travel coast to coast delivering vital goods to Americans. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women only make up 10% of the truck driving industry. Johnson and her Women in Trucking “sisters,” Angelique Temple and Ingrid Brown, have made it their mission to change that.
“None of us are special,” Brown says. “We came and made something in a career that most women don’t realize they can do, too.”
Women in Trucking is a nonprofit organization that connects female truckers from across the United States. The organization sets out to encourage and welcome women into the trucking industry while giving them a platform to promote their accomplishments and a community to fall back on. WIT has over 4,000 members, a blog, a radio show and an annual multi-day conference, Accelerate.
“Transportation is just its own little culture, its own little community,” says Director of Driver Engagement Andrea Adeyanju. “It gets in your blood, and once you’re in it, it’s hard to get out.”
Johnson, Brown and Temple have all been in the trucking industry for varying amounts of time. Johnson, the youngest of the crew, has been driving for two years, whereas Brown is wrapping up her 43rd year on the road. However, age and experience don’t divide them; it allows them to create a dynamic of mentorship.
“When you’ve been out here this long, I look at my time and say, ‘Oh, my God, 43 years, where has it gone?’” Brown says. “And I think to myself, ‘How do I wanna pass this to somebody?’”
Brown is a truck-driving veteran. She has been a driver since she was 18, but transitioned to later becoming an owner/operator. As an owner/operator, Brown owns her own truck and is responsible for all aspects of her business. This means that Brown is in charge of maintaining her truck, finding loads and finances everything on her own. She also dedicates her time to writing for the truck-driving blog, Free Wave, and producing a show where she interviews folks in the trucking industry.
Brown drives coast to coast, covering all 48 states and Canada.
“I wanted to grasp what everybody else lived,” Brown says, “and this has been how I’ve done it.”
While Brown’s craving for new places and faces is what drew her to trucking, other women were attracted to how liberating life on the road can be.
“Life after I began truck driving has been freedom,” Johnson says.
Johnson started trucking in her early 50s, but her dreams of driving a semi-truck began when she was a little kid. However, her aspirations of starting a family and becoming a teacher seemed more feasible. After her husband tragically passed away around 12 years ago, Johnson started to reconsider. She began looking into how to get into a driving school and brought the idea up with her son. They agreed that when he started college in 10 years, it would be time for Johnson to start her journey to becoming a truck driver.
Johnson has only driven for two years and is already an owner and operator.
“I can see the world on my time and get paid for it,” Johnson says. “I’m pinching myself every day.”
The way Temple describes her journey to truck driving makes it seem less like a choice and more of a calling.
“I’ve known I wanted to be a truck driver since I was 12 years old,” Temple says. “It was the independence. I’ve always been a keep-to-myself kid, and I craved that independence.”
Temple is an owner and operator based out of Virginia who has been driving since she graduated high school. She has buried her brother and raised six children, primarily on her own, all while driving a semi-truck.
In all those years, Temple has never missed out on being a mom.
“I never missed a football game,” Temple says. “I might show up with a whole truck and trailer, but I’m gonna be there, and I always yell when I come in.”
Temple makes heroically driving across the country to make it to her son’s high school football seem like just a normal part of being a mom.
“You just have to do it,” Temple says. “What other choice do you have?”
Gender disparities are rampant in the trucking industry. According to the Women in Trucking Index, 90% of women drivers have faced some form of gender-based harassment while working. The constant need to prove oneself was a consistent theme among all of the women. Even Temple, who has been driving for 24 years, will step out of her truck only to be greeted with a remark she knows all too well: “Oh, you sent the woman.”
These women are well-versed in how to answer questions such as, “How long have you been driving?”
“I just start counting on my fingers,” Temple says. “I say, ‘Do you mean including today?’”
At Coburg’s Truck n Travel, a Lane County truck stop, cashier Kaycee Rater typically sees around one female driver a day but is awaiting the day that number changes.
“The women drivers I do see are badass,” Rater says. “They have to put up with so much, but they just do it. I don’t know how, but they do.”
Rater comes from a family tree of truck drivers. Her dad, uncle and grandfather have all been drivers, and her mom is the manager of the Truck n Travel in Coburg.
As a woman, working at a truck stop comes with its own set of challenges. Rater is used to politely turning down compliments from men passing through, but just because she’s accustomed to it doesn’t mean it’s any less irritating.
“It’s frustrating because I’m just trying to do my job, and I’m 18 years old,” Rater says. “It’s gross.”
Rater describes seeing women drivers as something that is always a nice surprise.
“It’s empowering to me,” Rater says, “because they’re showing the world it’s possible to do this.”
Seasoned drivers like Brown and Temple have watched America change through the glass on their windshields. They reminisce about truck stops before people were glued to their phone screens. They miss having more conversations with strangers back then.
But they’ve also seen a lot of change for the better. They’ve witnessed a movement of women starting to take up space in what was previously known as a “man’s world.”
Brown remembers times before truck motels had a women’s restroom. “I would literally have to find a man I trusted to watch the bathroom door while I showered to make sure nobody came in,” she says.
Now that more women have entered the industry, the members of Women in Trucking believe it’s their duty to give them a reason to keep trucking.
“When you’re at a truck stop and you see someone having a hard time, you have to say something positive so their day doesn’t go from bad to worse,” Temple says. “That’s what your mission is.”
Temple and Johnson both agree that mentorship is key in this industry. One piece of advice that Temple will always preach to new drivers is to leave personal issues outside of the truck.
“You have to practice it until you can get it, because it’s very important,” Temple says. “You have distractions and you will be turned over somewhere looking at the sky like ‘What just happened?’”
Temple recalls a time she was on the road and received a call from her mother. Her mother’s house had caught on fire. With a load to drop off, Temple reacted swiftly by appointing her daughter to deal with the situation until she could come home. She says that leaving personal problems in the rearview mirror is a difficult but necessary part of the job.
While some drivers find letting go of their personal issues for the sake of their job difficult, others find that their time on the road helps them make peace with their lives at home.
A wave of serenity washes over Johnson when she looks out the windows of her 18-wheeler truck. Johnson and her colleagues describe the soothing sensation as “windshield therapy.”
“I do a lot of talking to God out here,” Johnson says.
For Johnson, the long periods on the road by herself give her the chance to connect with her spirituality in a way she wasn’t afforded in a typical 9-5 job.
“I have time out here to pray. I have time to call my family,” Johnson says. “It’s really calmed me down.”
“It’s meditative,” Temple adds.
But at the end of the day, it’s not the breathtaking views or quiet moments that keep these women on the road. It’s knowing there’s another woman behind the wheel of an 18-wheel truck, just like them.
