I started driving by myself in November 1999. When I first started driving there wasn’t really that many women drivers out here. I have tried my hardest to push myself further than what was probably necessary because I never wanted any of the older men to say I did a mediocre job because I’m a woman. I have pulled everything from a dry van, reefer, flatbed, grain wagon and livestock trailer during my years on the road, with grain and cattle being my favorite. I started off hauling cattle by running team with someone for a few months then moved on to doing it by myself. I’m not going to lie, it could be extremely difficult at times having to go to some of those old, run down sale barns down south where I did all my running at and having to hunt for light switches (if I was lucky enough to find them), then loading often cantankerous cattle at multiple barns all night by myself but I did it and I worked very hard to make a name for myself as a dependable and hard working woman cattle hauler. I then hauled grain with a walking floor around Mississippi and Louisiana for a few years until I decided that I should go back to college and see if I could find my niche in the healthcare industry instead.
I put myself through six years of school to earn my associate’s degree in applied science and became an X-ray tech with a specialty in radiation therapy. I really enjoyed treating cancer and I felt it was very rewarding, however, I very much missed hauling livestock and the trucking industry and realized that I was not ready to leave it behind just yet. I learned what I know from so many older drivers that didn’t even know they were training me at the time by following their examples I began to feel I that with my years of trucking experience I could still be a positive influence to hopefully at least a few of the new generation truck drivers so they, too, will hopefully push themselves a little harder to be better than the rest as I did. I feel that with so much bad publicity we as a whole get on a daily basis it is still up to me to do what I can to help contribute to a more positive example for our industry.
I’m a beautiful person because I’m driven. I’m a hard worker, I realize that life as a trucker is tough, tougher than most people will ever know. I’ve been through extreme hardships and have given up the life I thought I would have as a wife and a mother because of trucking, but I also feel that having given all I can for a career that has shaped me so much into who I am today makes me a more beautiful woman than I ever would have been without it. Plus, I have a good heart and because I take my dog with me and have dog food always on hand, I feel that it’s my responsibility to feed all the stray dogs I see wherever I happen to be, so if you see some chick dumping dog food out at the truck stops it’s probably me :)
Submitted by Zoe Sutton, company driver
Coffeyville, Kansas