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,Ellen Voie |
March 9, 2020

The Women In Trucking Association board of directors has a goal to be a resource to the industry.  Whether that means trucking companies, drivers, the government or our members, we want to provide you with the best information (tools) to reach your objectives in creating a more gender diverse workforce.

In 2017 we teamed with Sawgrass Logistics to learn about best practices in hiring female drivers. We learned a lot and have changed our programs to reflect these challenges. However, we continue to survey our members to find out what they want from us, their association.

Last year, we created our own survey.  We called it our communication audit survey, as we were focusing on the best way to get our messages to you, but more importantly, we wanted to know how we can get your feedback.

We sent the link out through social media and our website as well as our e-newsletter. We had 216 respondents who completed the survey.  We asked for job titles, gender and generational information as well as whether the respondent was a member of Women In Trucking.

When you join any association, their primary focus will be on informing and educating their members. WIT is no exception.  We have a weekly e-newsletter sent to both members and non-members. We have a publication called, Redefining the Road which currently is sent to our members three times annually.

Our social media presence is immense.  Our Facebook group has nearly 11,000 members and our LinkedIn group reaches 8,000 members and our Twitter feed has 22,100 followers.  We are reaching both members and potential members.  But we want to connect with more of you.

So, what did we learn from our survey?

The weekly e-newsletter is our most popular method of communication (57%). However, social media is right behind (47%) and the publication is a close third.

Since this information is through my blog, it means that only 10 percent of you are seeing this article. (Sigh!)

However, for those of you who read my blog, the rating was 4.41 out of 5 for overall effectiveness. (Thank you!

In an effort to provide an online communication tool for our members, we created the Engage platform for members only.  Only eight percent of the respondents used this communication tool

Personally, I was surprised to learn that over a third of our respondents visit our website at least once a week.  The most popular feature is our “Member of the Month” article.

One of the complaints was that the emails are too frequent, especially those concerning the Accelerate! Conference and Expo.  The issue was that too many emails were sent AFTER the respondent had already registered for the event. We are listening and will take this into consideration in the future

We asked you what you want to learn more about and the overwhelming response was “industry news.”  This also surprised me, as there are hundreds, if not thousands, of daily and weekly emails about industry issues (believe me, I get all of them!).

Interestingly enough,” gender issues” was ranked as eleven out of twenty for topics of interest. Considering the fact that we are focused on gender diversity, this surprised me as well.  I would have thought our members had a higher interest in this issue

“Leadership issues” came in second in the information you are looking for from Women In Trucking. “Safety” came in as the third highest area of information.

Some of the most surprising responses came in response to the question, “what are your greatest challenges?” These included gender issues, a changing environment, sales challenges, industry issues, driver issues and interpersonal communication.

At the conclusion of the survey, we reviewed the recommendations and have determined that our website needs revamping and we need to be better focused in advancing our social media campaigns.

We appreciate the feedback we received from both our members and potential members. Please know that we are listening and responding.  Thanks for your input and continue to let us know how we can better serve (and communicate to) you.

Visit www.womenintrucking.org for more information.

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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.

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