Ellen Voie (Voy-a) is an internationally recognized speaker and authority on gender diversity and inclusion for women working in non-traditional careers in transportation. She has been invited to speak to audiences in Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, France, Mexico, and Canada, in addition to being a popular speaker at conferences throughout the United States. Voie founded the Women In Trucking Association in 2007, and currently serves as the nonprofit organization’s President & CEO. The Women In Trucking Association was formed to promote the employment of women in the trucking industry, to remove obstacles that might keep them from succeeding, and to celebrate the successes of its members. Voie also currently serves on the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC) to provide recommendations and advice to the FMCSA on motor carrier safety programs and motor carrier safety regulations. Voie’s background in the trucking industry began as the assistant and later Traffic Manager for a steel fabricating plant in the upper Midwest. She then worked as a dispatcher for a grain hauling carrier before becoming co-owner of a small fleet. After starting a family, she used her background to become a freelance transportation consultant to carriers in Wisconsin, licensing and permitting trucks for more than 16 years. Voie also served as the Executive Director of Trucker Buddy International, Inc., a pen pal program between professional drivers and elementary students. Voie holds a Master’s in Communication degree from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, where she completed her Thesis research on the complex identities of women married to professional drivers. She also hold a degree in Traffic and Transportation Management from LaSalle Extension University. Voie has earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential from the American Society of Association Executives, the leading authority in association management.

Columnists,Education,Uncategorized |
April 11, 2013

Have you ever heard the saying, “the customer is always right?” There’s a reason vendors feel that your opinion matters. However, how often do you actually tell a company whether you like or dislike their product? As a professional driver, you are an influential customer. You buy fuel and supplies at truck stops, clothing and food at retail and grocery stores, and you purchase services from your tax preparer to your dog groomer.

What about your carrier? Are you treated as if you are a customer? Whether you are an owner-operator or a company driver, you’re more than an employee or contractor. When you are looking for a new company in an effort to increase your income, you are a customer. You’re in the process of “shopping” for a new carrier.

What do you look for when you’re “shopping?” Are you looking for a company with better pay? What about more home

Ellen Voie
Ellen Voie

time? Maybe the make and model of the truck is your top priority. What about the type of freight or trailer? Is the geographic region important to you? Are you looking for a carrier with the sexiest models in their booths or ads?

What does this have to do with trucking? Look around you the next time you walk into a trucking industry trade show. How many vendors and carriers use (and I mean “use”) women in short skirts or skimpy tops to try to bring you into their booths? Do you stop and chat with these “booth babes” because you are certain they represent all of the women at that trucking company? Maybe you stop and get your photo taken with the girls in the hot pants who are spinning the game wheel for you.

REALLY?

Do you walk by them because you have your wife and kids in tow? If you are a female driver, do you really feel that the trucking company or vendor is trying to reach YOU? Probably not.

Well, guess what? As a customer, you have some clout. If you are offended by the advertisers and carriers who use sex to get your attention, you need to let them know how you feel.

Maybe you enjoy talking to these young girls who obviously have no connection to the trucking industry. They are there to get your attention. That’s okay, we understand, you might be married, but you’re not dead. However, would you want your daughter or niece or granddaughter to be standing in a 10’ x 20’ booth with a short skirt and low cut top being ogled by truck drivers? Would you?

The last time I checked the calendar, it was 2013 and we are trying to embrace diversity and be inclusive. Using sex to sell products, services, or companies takes us back thirty years to the days when there were (almost) only men driving trucks. There were men running the trucking companies and men buying the tires, trailers, and just about everything associated with big trucks.

As a traffic manager at a steel fabricating plant in the late seventies, I was approached by sales “men” who wanted my business. They represented airfreight, truckload, and LTL carriers, as well as the rail and intermodal companies. They weren’t sure how to treat a young female traffic manager who was responsible for shipping steel fabricated products out and raw steel in. This was before deregulation, so rates were consistent regardless of the carrier. They had to sell me on service and region.

The methods these salesmen used to obtain my shipping business were often questionable and bordered on illegal. I was offered everything from dates with professional athletes to some products I had never experienced because of their tendency to land the user in jail. The competition was tough.

Deregulation brought with it a way to differentiate carriers in regard to shipping rates. They didn’t need to rely on other ways to convince customers to use their services. I didn’t “buy” their methods as the company’s needs were my priority. Choosing a carrier was about getting the product to the customer in the most efficient and cost effective way possible.

That was nearly 25 years ago. Although the industry has changed, there are still vendors that ASSUME all drivers are men. Don’t let them get away with it. Remember that when you see advertisements that use sex to sell a product or service. If the item is something you need, you’ll buy it. The short skirts and low cut tops aren’t relevant. It’s your job to tell them. You’re the customer. You’re always right!

About the Author

Ellen Voie is the President of Women in Trucking.

Mission:  Women In Trucking was established to encourage the employment of women in the trucking industry, promote their accomplishments and minimize  obstacles faced by women working in the trucking industry.

Ellen Voie CAE,  President/CEO

Women In Trucking, Inc.

P O Box 400  Plover,  WI 54467-0400

Ellen@WomenInTrucking.org

888-464-9482     920-312-1350 Direct

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Ellen Voie (Voy-a) is an internationally recognized speaker and authority on gender diversity and inclusion for women working in non-traditional careers in transportation. She has been invited to speak to audiences in Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, France, Mexico, and Canada, in addition to being a popular speaker at conferences throughout the United States. Voie founded the Women In Trucking Association in 2007, and currently serves as the nonprofit organization’s President & CEO. The Women In Trucking Association was formed to promote the employment of women in the trucking industry, to remove obstacles that might keep them from succeeding, and to celebrate the successes of its members. Voie also currently serves on the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC) to provide recommendations and advice to the FMCSA on motor carrier safety programs and motor carrier safety regulations. Voie’s background in the trucking industry began as the assistant and later Traffic Manager for a steel fabricating plant in the upper Midwest. She then worked as a dispatcher for a grain hauling carrier before becoming co-owner of a small fleet. After starting a family, she used her background to become a freelance transportation consultant to carriers in Wisconsin, licensing and permitting trucks for more than 16 years. Voie also served as the Executive Director of Trucker Buddy International, Inc., a pen pal program between professional drivers and elementary students. Voie holds a Master’s in Communication degree from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, where she completed her Thesis research on the complex identities of women married to professional drivers. She also hold a degree in Traffic and Transportation Management from LaSalle Extension University. Voie has earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential from the American Society of Association Executives, the leading authority in association management.