Trucking through the ages – a woman’s perspective
October 13, 2008
A number of women heading up trucking companies have experienced it all: the chauvinism, the discrimination, the lack of respect – only to come out on top stronger and in charge. Debra Gioia, president of Elite Fleet in Moncton, N.B., is one of these formidable women. She owns 50 per cent of Elite and serves on the board of directors of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association. Canadian Sailings contributing writer Kathlyn Horibe spoke with her recently about her experiences on the road.
Canadian Sailings: How long have you been in the trucking industry?
Debra Gioia: Since 1983. My father was a driver running long haul and one day I went along to keep him company. I stayed on the truck with him for the next year and moved into dispatch by 1985.
CS: What positions have you held in the industry?
DG: I’ve been a driver, a lumper, a loader of trailers, an accounting clerk, a dispatcher, an operations manager, a general manager and now president of Elite Fleet. A lumper, by the way, hand bombs loads off of a trailer.
CS: What attracted you to trucking?
DG: My father was the epitome of a male chauvinist and truly believed that females were severely limited in their capabilities. Being of Italian descent, he wanted his children to be male. Unfortunately, he had to endure three female babies in three years and another seven before his boy arrived. I was the youngest of the three girls and would have done anything for his approval, including being his boy. By the age of eight, I was driving a Volkswagen and, by 10, the farm tractor and a dune buggy. In my early teens, I worked side by side with him in his body shop and did everything a son might do, such as hunting, fishing, mucking out barns.
One night after consuming too much alcohol, my father decided I was driving him to Sydney, N.S., to visit his brother. I was 12 years old. It was a 200-mile drive and he woke up just as we arrived in the city. My fear paled in comparison to my need for his approval. Dad didn’t show any pride in my feminine accomplishments but he would brag that I had operated a back hoe or a boom truck. I think he was truly surprised that a female could actually do these things.
By the time he became an owner-operator, it was natural that I would follow as I loved operating heavy equipment. But more so, it was his pride in me when I backed a trailer into the dock for the first time or shifted gears smoothly or hand bombed a full load of watermelons without complaint. So I learned early in life that I would have to work twice as hard to achieve half as much. The high energy and chaos in a busy transportation operation is what kept me at it.
CS: What challenges have you encountered as a woman in trucking?
DG: Going into truck stops to shower, eat and launder clothes in the early ‘80s was quite terrifying to a 24-year-old rather small woman. One evening, in the short distance between my truck and the fuel desk, I had two truck drivers approach me for sex. One asked me, ‘How much?’ Being a naive country girl, I asked, ‘How much for what?’ He quickly became belligerent trying to find out what my price would be. The second asked me if I was looking for business. I told him I was driving no different from him and he was very apologetic. This kind of thing occurred so often to the point I wouldn’t leave the truck without my father by my side.
Regarding breaking for directions, I learned very quickly not to break for directions or use the CB radio at all. Truck drivers break on the CB for directions in and out of cities while on the outskirts and locals are quick to help. I cannot repeat the things that were said and offered when they would hear my voice asking for help. Any directions I would get came from my maps – certainly not from my peers. And to pull off in a rest area for a power nap was absolutely not an option. A woman in the ‘80s could not get help on the radio, could not rest in a rest area, could not – without being accosted – walk the distance from the parking area into the truck stops. It really was difficult and degrading.
Although, I was doing exactly what men were doing on the highway, I did not last long. I felt abused and exploited.
Early in my career, I found out that some drivers had a very difficult time taking direction from a woman. In fact, I’ve worked with some who would deliberately sabotage their dispatch to try to prove that I was incapable. One company owner hired me to dispatch but his operations manager told me on my first day he would “never have a woman in his dispatch office.” I was hired at $15,000 and male dispatchers started at $24,000. I ended up inputting data until I had no choice but to quit or go insane with boredom. That was in 1987 and I had already spent two years being the sole dispatcher of 20 trucks for a small firm in Northern New Brunswick.
I had been hired to replace the owner of that company for a year while he was out of town. I remember his first day back. I had three lines on hold when he yelled from his office for me to get him a cup of coffee. I poured the coffee, stood at the entrance to his office and threw the coffee cup just to the left of his head. I left the office and moved to Southern New Brunswick that weekend. He called me over the next several months offering me the world if I would come back. Going from that pace to typing data into a computer was excruciating. I knew I was an excellent dispatcher and thought I had overcome much of the controversy that occurs for a woman in a male predominant industry.
After I left that firm, I applied at every trucking company in Southern New Brunswick. One dispatcher interviewed me and didn’t ask a single question that pertained to sales or logistics or tractor trailers for that matter. He informed me that he thought a woman in his office would make him feel good and that he needed the kind of positive reinforcement a woman could give him. I remember telling him I would make a comment when I thought that he was doing a good job. Anything to get my foot in the door, I suppose. I didn’t get the job.
I had calls from many companies with offers of clerical jobs but not one would consider me for dispatch. Over the next year or two, I took a few jobs as an accounting clerk/receptionist. I would have my work done before noon and then hound the boss for something more to do. I found the days so long that I didn’t last more than a few months. Again, I searched for a job in a dispatch office.
By 1987, I had a job offer from a husband and wife team of owners to run a fleet of 32 trucks. I had to relocate to a small town but the wages were fair and they were wonderful people to work for. He respected women in the industry having worked with his wife for many years. I stayed with this company for the next five years and built a reputation that would earn me my company.
CS: What challenges do you continue to encounter as a woman in trucking?
DG: I opened this company in 1995 and met my fiancé in 2001. In 2002, he joined the company as general manager. To this day, men, including new drivers, assume that he’s the owner and I take care of the accounting. Prospective vendors make appointments to see him and then find out they need to see me. They seem truly shocked to find out that Elite is not his company.
There are always those old school owner-operators who cannot work for a woman even though they try. I always ask the question during the interview process and I’m assured that it’s no problem. But over time I’ve learned to recognize those people who will not respect females telling them what to do.
CS: Tell me about your company?
DG: The other half of the company is owned by Paul, Peter and Tom Easson. In total, we have approximately 45 employees including between 39 to 42 owner-operators. Our trucks are all owner-operated. We have 79 trailers that transport strictly dry freight of all kinds all over North America, except to Alaska and Hawaii. We don’t have specialty trailers like reefers or flat beds, but if it fits into a dry van, we’ll load it.
CS: What suggestions do you have to equal the playing field for women in trucking?
DG: Old school company owners should give women a try in their operations. We’re great multi-taskers. Pay your employees based on their earning capabilities and skill set – not on their gender. Hire female owner-operators and drivers. They make great employees and their paperwork tends to be more legible for the most part. More women need to get involved in trucking associations. I’ve been on the board of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association for 10 years and there are 35 men to five or six women on the board.
CS: What suggestions do you have for a woman who wants to start a career in trucking?
DG: Learn the industry. Get out on a truck and run a round trip, even as a passenger, so you’ll be able to respect how hard drivers work to make a living. The best place to start is to drive – it’s the proverbial mailroom in the trucking industry. I have a professional driver on my fleet who’s been driving tractor trailer for 30 years. Without question, she’s one of the top five drivers in my fleet.
Take the course. Get the licence. Drive. Then move into dispatch. It’s been my experience that females make great dispatchers. However, I once heard a dispatcher ask a driver to zip into Toronto on a Friday night at 5 p.m. to add a skid. She thought she was asking for an hour of his time when, in fact, she was asking for several, if not five hours, of his time. Drivers need to know that you understand what it is they do and, if you haven’t done it, it’s difficult to get respect.
Build your reputation. Be matter of fact. No nonsense. Leave moods and PMS at home. Never lie. Never say what you think they want to hear if it’s not exactly what you believe. Be brutally honest – no matter what the situation. Never let them see you cry. Care about the people you take care of or get out of the business.
Use your brain – not your feminine wiles. Honesty and integrity are what will get things done successfully. Take more initiative and don’t expect a 9 to 5 job.
But the best advice I can give: Go work for a woman!