When she started trucking over the road nearly 30 years ago, Dorothy 鈥淒ottie鈥 Bryant figured she was probably one of the first of her gender to drive a big rig for a living. But she later discovered that at least one woman had preceded her 鈥 and by several decades.
Michael James - Transport Topics
Dorothy "Dottie" Bryant (left) and her daughter Kimaywin are among the industry鈥檚 160,000 female truck drivers.
At a tollbooth on the New Jersey Turnpike, Bryant, who was hauling a load of lumber, stopped to chat with a fellow woman driver. When asked how long she had been in the business, the woman said she had started while her husband was overseas fighting a war.
鈥淪he had been driving since World War II, and there I was in the 1970s thinking, 鈥榃ow, I鈥檓 a pioneer,鈥 鈥 Bryant said in a recent interview. 鈥淵et there were a whole lot of women out there [as truck drivers] that you just didn鈥檛 hear about, because they didn鈥檛 get the exposure in the news media. It was a humbling experience, but it also made me very proud to be in such company.鈥
These days, that company is growing. More and more, trucking fleets are targeting women in their search for drivers. Much of the industry realizes that women, along with other so-called minority groups, such as African-Americans and Hispanics, are part of a great, underused labor pool.
For the full story, see the Dec. 27 print edition of Transport Topics. .
