Ever wonder about the unsung heroes behind the wheel of those massive eighteen-wheelers? Buckle up for a ride through history as we celebrate the remarkable women who have powered through the trucking industry, from the pioneering Mirah 'Yo-Yo' Worley, Joanna Wilson, to the resilient Jackie Gardner. Hear their inspiring stories, like that of Gardner teaching herself to master the art of backing in an empty Walmart lot, and discover the barriers they broke down to pave the way for future generations of female drivers.
Shift gears with us as we tackle what it takes to make the trucking industry more welcoming for women, and why this matters now more than ever. With insights from Gardner's nearly 4 million miles on the road, we examine the indispensable qualities women contribute, like a strong safety record and professionalism, that could steer the industry to new heights. We also tune in to the rhythm of the road with a trucking-inspired music recommendation, because who doesn't love a good soundtrack to their journey? Join us for a powerful look at the women who are not just driving trucks, but driving change.
Ever wonder about the unsung heroes behind the wheel of those massive eighteen-wheelers? Buckle up for a ride through history as we celebrate the remarkable women who have powered through the trucking industry, from the pioneering Mirah 'Yo-Yo' Worley, Joanna Wilson, to the resilient Jackie Gardner. Hear their inspiring stories, like that of Gardner teaching herself to master the art of backing in an empty Walmart lot, and discover the barriers they broke down to pave the way for future generations of female drivers.
Shift gears with us as we tackle what it takes to make the trucking industry more welcoming for women, and why this matters now more than ever. With insights from Gardner's nearly 4 million miles on the road, we examine the indispensable qualities women contribute, like a strong safety record and professionalism, that could steer the industry to new heights. We also tune in to the rhythm of the road with a trucking-inspired music recommendation, because who doesn't love a good soundtrack to their journey? Join us for a powerful look at the women who are not just driving trucks, but driving change.
Text me anytime with news, suggestions, and stories at (641) 990-5641. God bless, be safe, and keep it between the lines drivers.
Speaker 1:
Hello drivers, welcome to the Rollin' 18 podcast. I'm your host, walter Gatlin. I'm happy to report that my podcast, on over 19 different platforms, including iTunes, spotify, iheart, amazon Music, podcast Index, podcast Addict and 12 others, has over 3,000 downloads and growing. Not bad for just over a week. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Not bad for just over a week. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. If you haven't been to my own domain, I am at wwwroland18podcastcom. Remember that's Roland without a G R-O-L-L-I-N-1-8-P-O-D-C-A-S-Tcom Roland18podcastcom. Now, today's podcast is about women in trucking.
Speaker 2:
I'm a truck-driving woman.
Speaker 1:
My daddy taught me everything he knew.
Speaker 2:
I'm a truck-driving woman.
Speaker 1:
And this woman's gonna fill her daddy's shoes. Now, believe me when I say I have done plenty of research over the years on this subject. I did so because I learned that the number of women in trucking was decreasing. That was hard for me to believe, considering the stories I read and the TV I watched about women in trucking years and years ago, not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars the government has spent in the last several decades trying to recruit women in trucking. You know, years ago, as a young man and while admiring the trucking industry, I had heard stories of awesome women truckers, the first one being Myra Lisa. Yo-yo Worley Her handle is, of course, yo-yo the petite brunette in the black cowboy hat was featured on the popular NBC show Real People in 1979.
Speaker 2:
May I have your attention please, yo-yo, would you please come to the control center? Yo-yo, this was the lady we'd come to meet. Handle, yo-yo, 125 pounds, a down-home Tennessee woman. I'm a truck-driving mother. I drive from California to Maine. Clearly, yo-yo knew how to do a lot more than pack a pair of size 7 denims, so I asked her to show me around her office. Is this a gas tank, fuel tank, fuel tank. We don't say gas. Well, that's what runs this fuel. It's a diesel engine. Why does it have to be chrome? Or is that just decoration? Don't you think it looks better chrome? I think so. Well, it does. Is this your home? Yeah, step on it, okay.
Speaker 1:
Now. The full video will be down below in a link of the description on this podcast. She drove a 359p with a kta 600, 355 rears and a 13 over. That episode recently found its way back onto youtube and etched miss worley further into the stories of famous truckers. It depicts a stunning southern belle in the prime of her youth, strutting out of a tricked-out Peterbilt, dressed to the nines in trucking boots and regalia, with a Winston Ultralight 100 in her hand. Yo-yo started driving in 1973. I was 10 at the time.
Speaker 1:
The second is Joanna Wilson. Her video was produced for a news program decades ago and features Joanna Wilson, a 29-year-old independent truck driver with seven years of experience in the industry at the time, and as she delivers a load of washing machines to Newton, kansas, she stated. Every day is different. She says I like the freedom. There's no one breathing over my shoulder. They give me a load to Minneapolis and say take it to LA. And if it's in the middle of winter, it's up to me to decide which route to take, to make the decisions. The challenge when the trucks break down, being confronted with problems all by myself in the middle of the boonies, it's up to me to come up with a solution, wilson says. I also put a link to Wilson's video, which was done decades ago back. I believe it was a color video for color television, but I also believe she was leased on with Werner Enterprises.
Speaker 1:
The third is Jackie Gardner of Bloomsfield, indiana. She has been captain of her truck for more than 20 years, but her life in trucking started long before that, once she grew up. Gardner team drove of her truck for more than 20 years, but her life in trucking started long before that. Once she grew up, gardner team drove with her husband for almost a decade. She says they split the driving, but he was the one that always did the backing up. When the two divorced, gardner figured she had to learn to back up the truck if she was going to hit the road on her own. So that's what she did. She said I taught myself how to back up properly in the parking lot of an old Walmart in Linton. She said I spray painted some rolls of paper towels fluorescent orange and set them up like pylons. It was just me, my dog and those paper towels.
Speaker 1:
After that, gardner drove lease trucks for years. So when her Laredo Texas company unexpectedly went under in March of 2000, she was left without a job and without a ride. She says she parked the lease truck outside the company and walked to a motel to regroup. I hadn't been paid for three weeks and couldn't get a hold of anyone, she said so I walked back to the motel with my dog. It was me, my dog, everything I owned and $7.
Speaker 1:
When they heard what happened two trucker friends of Gardner they decided to help her buy the truck she had just dropped off at the now-defunct company. I charged the motel room bill and they came and picked me up for lunch. They had a contract all written out for $54,000, and it was a great deal. They let me pick the date of the month payments were due. I was pretty scared. I'd never owned anything worth that much. The truck was mine. The very next day I pulled out with my very first load.
Speaker 1:
She said We've been everywhere 48 states and Canada, me and my baby girl Yep. We've been everywhere, 48 states and Canada, me and my baby girl Yep. That's what she calls her 1996 Freightliner FLD baby girl. And I wouldn't trade her for a new truck. It's not all fancy like some of those you see, she's a work truck and she does her job well. We've been through three tornadoes and that last hurricane that came through Florida, where I sat in the parking lot at the Great American Chrome Shop parking lot, watching everything blow sideways.
Speaker 1:
Now, 28 years old, with over 3 million miles, baby Girl is kept in tip-top shape thanks to help from Gardner's current husband, who often diagnoses any mechanical issues over the phone while Gardner is over the road, and sometimes travels in his car to help Gardner fix Baby Girl if they ever break down. Gardner has been at home with Baby Girl parked in her special spot since October of last year due to health issues, but Gardner says she is anxious to get back out there and hit the four million mile mark. I had the special opportunity of interviewing her last week and here's our first conversation. I was asking her about her health. Now, ever since you parked in October, what has been going on with your health? How are you doing?
Speaker 2:
We parked it in October. In January I had a major surgery with stents and a new vein into my right leg because I was bad, and then January, prior to that, I had a double bypass. I got sick all at once.
Speaker 1:
Did they give you any estimate of when they think you might be able to get back on the road?
Speaker 2:
They told me as soon as I could pass a physical.
Speaker 1:
We're really hoping that she can pass that physical soon, because she wants to get to that 4 million mile mark. I also asked her about Baby Girl and how that truck was doing. So how's Baby Girl doing?
Speaker 2:
Baby Girl's sitting right out here. I'm looking out my kitchen window. I see her every time I'm there. She's fine. My son comes and starts her every now and then.
Speaker 1:
You know I love them type of freight liners. I love the way their hood is styled. When they came out, I was really happy with it. Years ago, metro Freight Systems out of Sumner Washington had me work for them for a while because they were shorthanded. So I parked my truck and went to work for them and they came out with a couple of those. They got a couple of those freight liners to test them out and they gave me one of them.
Speaker 2:
And I thought it was an amazing truck. It is and I've drove I've drove Kenworth's, I've drove Peterbilt's, I drove Mack, you know, and an international. I loved my international part of those were brand new trucks.
Speaker 1:
I was the first driver, jerry and I were the first driver in them well, the nice thing about those Freightliners too is they were a little bit lower and they were a little bit wider, so it seemed like they handle the road a lot better they do.
Speaker 1:
Now if you're curious as to what that is, google 1996 Freightliner FLD. Now she doesn't even have power windows in that truck, but she loves her baby girl and she wouldn't trade her for nothing. Now I also talked to Jackie Gardner about what companies can do to attract more women in trucking. You know you've got to remember Jackie's old school, just like me. Some of that advice could be very useful. Let me ask you one last question before we end this call. In all seriousness, if you could tell the truck companies, if you can give them one piece of advice to whatever changes they need to make or whatever they can explain to possible future women truck drivers, what advice could you give the companies that would make their life better and make women's lives on the road better?
Speaker 2:
A lot of it is attitude and a lot of it is dress vision. When you see somebody walking across the parking lot with a pair of cutoffs on and the round part of their ass is yeah, but that's about the driver, jackie.
Speaker 1:
What about the companies? What can they do? What? What can these truck stops and these roads and DOT and all that, what can they do to make it easier for women? What? What is the difference out there with men and women that that's not attracting women? What? What can these, what can the world do to attract more female drivers, besides that other stuff?
Speaker 2:
it is the way the women have to present themselves as a clean woman, not a lot lizard. I don't care, and I say the same thing. We, as single women drivers, have to handle our receivers, our shippers and our trucks.
Speaker 1:
So do you think when a truck company hires a woman, they should let them know this? They should say look, you know you need to be a little bit more presentable.
Speaker 2:
Exactly.
Speaker 1:
Now I understand that Jackie is 77 years old and she's old school like the rest of us. But let me explain to you folks something before you discredit or think that her advice to the trucking world and to women is a little harsh. This woman has almost 4 million miles in a semi by herself, not to mention the hundreds of thousands, if not a million miles in a truck with her first husband. So do not discount this woman's advice. If her ideas sit on the top of her head, she is a woman number one and number two she sees firsthand what is going on out there. So you have to take that into consideration. Never discount a woman, regardless of her age, regardless of anything, especially a woman that has millions of miles under her belt. That information is valuable.
Speaker 1:
Now I read a story from truckernewscom Dated April 18th 2024. Fairly new story and it's called Women from Trucking Industry Make Trip to Washington DC Earlier this week. It says 18 women trucking leaders from 10 states met with their members of Congress and White House officials for the American Trucking Association's inaugural Women in Motion call on Washington. The problems I have with this type of stuff and I'm not saying anything bad about the women that went to Washington DC, because anytime you can combat a problem you should go for it regardless. But whatever they're doing in Washington, it's not working and I hope they brought up new ideas, because I know they did a roundtable with members of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. You have to discuss the real issues, write down every single one of them, From the rounds of your butt hanging out from shorts that are too short all the way to situations that could benefit or degrade a woman out on the road. There should be no difference.
Speaker 1:
Women have been pioneering trucking since my lifetime, all the way from the 60s. The first person to win a NASCAR race on a NASCAR track was Yo-Yo. Now, it wasn't official, I don't believe, and it was in bobtails, which is generally how they do it, but it was a woman. Do you understand me? Excellent things can happen with women in the industry, and I'll tell you why. I like women in the trucking industry more so than I do men. They're cleaner, they're more safer. They don't have three foot of trash on the dash of their truck. They take care of their equipment greatly, just like Jackie Gardner, my goodness, she treats that truck like a baby girl. And guess what? That truck probably runs better than 90% of the new ones out there today.
Speaker 1:
So don't ever discredit women in the trucking industry. We need these problems solved and we need to work on them efficiently. I believe we can attract more women. We have lost 1% of the women out there. We went from 7-point percent to six point something percent women in the workforce, and if anybody says any difference, they're wrong. I have read the statistics. I went to the official websites. I know what I'm talking about. Do not discredit me and do not discredit women. We need to attract women in the trucking industry, but we have to find better ways to do it Now. If you guys are looking for something cool to listen to, something to remind you of Rollin' 18, check out Cody Johnson's new song Rollin' 18 Wheels. 18 wheels and 100 miles an hour Trying to make it on time Cause.
Speaker 2:
I want to get home. I'm going on home 18 wheels.
Speaker 1:
Now I'm trying to slow down. I don't know when or if or how I'll get home. That's Cody Johnson. You guys check it out on YouTube and be sure, and download it or whatever you've got to do, because that is one of many songs you can listen to going down the road and I guarantee you it's a fun one. I'm Walter Gannon with Roland 18 podcast. We'll catch you next time. Thank you for listening to Roland 18 podcast. Visit our website at wwwroland18podcastcom. Remember we have a new episode every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Be safe out there, drivers. We love all of you.