Posts Tagged ‘Sexual Harrassment’

Welcome to REAL Women in Trucking, this site is to disseminate FREE Information to help keep you Safe and Informed without judging your personal self or lifestyle.

It is the result of a campaign by Industry Spokewomen to cover up, discredit , repackage and take credit for the obstacles that have been overcome by REAL Women Truckers.

At this time, there is No Guidance by Trucking Industry Leaders to make Enforcement of Federal Laws a Priority with regards to Women. At the same time, Women are being heavily recruited into the Trucking Industry and the internet is full of misleading ads, charlatans and carpetbaggers who seek to benefit from recruitment but do not want to address personal safety unless they can make a buck off it.

Change is coming , but until then it’s really up to YOU to know who and what the obstacles are and find your own way around them.  This may not be so easy if you are just entering the trucking industry. The nice lady in the office might not really be inclined to assist you. The nice organization you buy a membership for may not care about little ole YOU. The structure may be so large that even people who want to help are forbidden to share inside info.

Even with all the good and bad advice you can gather, you will have to rely on your own good judgment, and sometimes this might get you in trouble. This site is about telling you the Truth.

Trucking is good if you are adaptable, don’t mind not being able to shower every day, can be away from home for long periods of time.

To survive your first couple years you should have no overhead, no car or rent to pay, otherwise you will be stressed out and that is no way to learn. Do Not Believe ADS or Recruiters, their objective is to get a commission; they could care less about your success. Also, you must realize many trucking organizations exist to further confuse and are actually a front for a recruitment machine and even insurance sales.

Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people – Eleanor Roosevelt

The method to confuse truckers and new trucking students is so prevalent that personal attacks should be your first red flag that a collaborative cover up exists. Complacency and vague answers are another clue. Retaliation for speaking out in trucking is legendary.

This is why there are No Memberships & No Forums where you have to include your personal information. This is a place for you to gather information and not be attacked.

We are proud to say we have made the topic of Harassment “HIP” to discuss on many Trucking sites. This is due in part to the Dan Rather Report Series into Trucking. The four part series is based on CLUES Desiree Wood provided to discuss topics she saw as a civilian entering trucking.  Desiree Wood wrote about her experiences from CDL School and as a Student at Covenant Transport. The show titles are “Queen of the Road”, “Truck Talk”, “Mind Your Loan Business” & “Haul or High Water” they can be viewed by going to the iTunes Store and Searching up “Dan Rather Reports”, each episode is $1.99.

 The story is on the web site “Ask the Trucker” and it is called “A Day in the Life of a Lady Trucker”. To read it in its entirety you must first scroll to the bottom of the comments and click the link that says “Read all ### Comments”, then they drop down from top to start the beginning of the post.

The back-story and commentary of cover-up are on the “Trucker Desiree” site.

The desired effect in writing these posts was to prompt action, awareness and it is working as more drivers both men and women are coming forward to talk about this longtime problem which is an abuse of power.

As we come together to form unity among Male and Female truck drivers, it also clear WHO is NOT unifying but rather seeking to divide. This is how we can begin to determine who may benefit from covering up abuse and misconduct.

There are tons of tools for corporate training, certainly no one in the trucking industry needs to reinvent the wheel BUT enforcement is an issue. Retaliation is an issue. The endless articles and media campaigns for solutions cannot fix this problem if there is no guidance at the very tippity top.

That’s where our Media Savvy comes in.

Women Truckers have proven they CAN competently do the job of Trucking for a number of years.  The First Licensed Female Truck Driver was “Lillie Elizabeth Drennan” who received her license in 1929.  Doing the job is not the problem though.

While luxuries such as Private Showers have advanced, some of the situations have remained the same, such as the topics in this 1976 Article in TIME Magazine about “Bitsy” Gomez, The Sexes-Women Truckers

Fast Forward to 2009 when CRST Van Expedited had the upper hand on the EEOC in a case that began with 265 Females Truckers reporting various degrees of abuse. The case was reduced to 35 and then dismissed because the EEOC was unable to file it properly but thankfully the Judge left to door open for an appeal with her comments given in the opinion that the cases have “Meritorious Credit”, some cases were settled out of court by the lucky few Women who could afford a private attorney.

The appeal for the CRST Sex Harassment Cased was filed on November 30, 2009, you can read more about it by clicking HERE , Should this appeal fail the taxpayers will be left to pay the enormous $4.5 Million in attorney fees.

 This should make every American very angry and take action to see these government funded trucking companies continue to do more of the same and use high powered law firms to sweep their dirt under the rug.

Another recent case involves Prime and brings up number of other questions in this debate forum about how far behind the Trucking Industry is when it come to seeing the “Big Picture” ahead as more Women show the desire to become Truckers. Read the Prime Judgment and Opinions HERE

Now that we have Anne Ferro as FMCSA Administrator maybe we can get more people to listen to REAL Women in Trucking and have a shot for a REAL change, not just a smoothed over version.

More Female Trainers is only part of the Solution, better training for all with check and balances to eliminate the abusive system both in-house and inside the industry. Perhaps an aggressive outside Human Rights Group might help the Trucking Industry wake up and smell the Organic Coffee.

I’m inviting you to make your voice heard and if you don’t like change then just sit back and enjoy the ride baby!

REMEMBER: “Well behaved Women rarely make History” ~ Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

All are invited to Become a FAN of REAL Women Truckers on Facebook:

“REAL Women In Trucking”

Technorati Tags: Anne Ferro, Covenant Transport, CRST, Dan Rather, FMCSA, Prime, Sex, Sexual Harrassment, Truckers, Trucking, Women

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