Posts Tagged ‘Women’

About

REAL Women in Trucking was created as a volunteer group to provide information resources for fellow drivers, prospective student truck drivers, trucking executives and the non-trucking community who are ill-informed about the human indignities and greed which has become pervasive in the trucking industry.

This is a free informational website that was intended to connect and network self-help tools utilizing social media networking.

This site is funded privately.

Paid advertising and Banner Exchanges are available under certain terms which include ethical business practices.

Desiree Wood is the Founder of this Awareness Action Campaign. She is a Divorced Mother of 2 grown Children and has 6 Grandchildren. She began writing about her experiences as a single female entering trucking in 2008 on the “Ask the Trucker” blog. The still unedited story was written using mostly a cellphone. It is called “A Day in the Life of a Lady Trucker“.

In 2009 it became the basis of 4 Dan Rather Investigative reports into truck driver training. The theme of labor abuse in America went on to inspire an additional series of installments by Dan Rather on guest worker abuse programs which have affected the IT industry.

All of these programs can be found on iTunes.

Desiree Wood primarily used Twitter to share her story but at the urging of politically active friends on Twitter began a personal blog called “Trucker Desiree” to provide RAW insight of what was going on behind the scenes as attempts to intimidate her from telling her story began to unfold.

Currently, she uses You Tube to retell her story to a new audience of prospective student truck drivers and to educate about labor abuse by mis-managment in trucking.
She also manages several other social media projects to teach others and is completing her degree in Global Business & Public Policy.

Ms. Wood has been quoted in the “Wall Street Journal, Appeared in a Workplace Bullying Documentary about the trucking industry , and she and her Dog @TruckinDogKarma appear in the Documentary about Twitter called “Twittamentary“.
She has spoken out in numerous magazine interviews and radio programs about how the trucking industry lures people into training situations which are unsafe, particularly for females.

One of her many other interests is alternative energy. She proudly received an autographed book from Billionaire T. Boone Pickens her work on Twitter speaking out for energy independence.

While the primary focus of Desiree Wood in social media has been unsafe truck driver training, discrimination & violence against Women entering the trucking industry, she has been vocal on a number of other issues of human injustice and animal welfare.

She encourages others to understand that “One person CAN make a difference” and frequently reminds truck drivers to:
STOP waiting for phony trucking organizations who are FALSE PROPHETS only seeking to Profit off the backs of little people they believe have no ability to be heard individually”.
Her wish is for more individuals to LEARN how to use social media for positive purposes.

Be Part of the Solution, Not Part of the Problem!

The art work for this site was done by Alex Raffi Editorial Cartoonist & Artist who also did Artwork for “Jason’s Law“.

The intent of “REAL Women in Trucking” is to show diversity because one of the biggest obstacles Women face is trying to control things that only lead to division. There are too many Women in the trucking industry trying to portray a false image and many of them are not now nor have ever been truck drivers themselves.

The independent life of a trucker might seem to eliminate that problem for our gender but Women are the last minority primarily due to our own infighting and willingness to become corporate apologists.

You cannot expect positive change if you do not STAND UP to be heard and continue to follow organizations blindly.

This site is not just for Women, it is to help anyone seeking information for the betterment of the industry overall. There are Gay Truckers, Intersexed Truckers, Vegetarian Truckers, Cowboy Truckers, Christian Truckers, Pagan Truckers, Hare Krishna Truckers, Politically Active Truckers, Computer Geek Truckers, and some who simply should NOT be out on the road for reasons of highway safety & personal safety to others.

This website and our Facebook “LIKE” page is a where we can communicate what is going on and help each those who wish to learn.

Are you ready to GET REAL?

You can find our Facebook FAN Page at “REAL Women Truckers

If you would like more information for Advertising, Interviews, Trucking Social Media Services OR would like to purchase a “Get Real” T-Shirt with our banner on the back they are now available.

For more information, Contact:
Desiree Wood (760) 975-6868 or (760) 621-3325


Technorati Tags: "Desiree Wood", "Wall Street Journal", "Workplace Bullying", Alex Raffi, Artist, Cartoon, Cartoonist, CDL Training, Computer, Cowboy, Dan Rather, Discrimination, Diversity, Gay, Intersexed, Jason's Law, Social Media, T. Boone Pickens, Trucker Desiree, Truckers, Trucking, Twittamentary, Vegetarian, Violence against Women, Women

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REAL Women in Trucking

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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