Putting women in the driver’s seat

Most mornings, Alicia Fraser wakes up earlier than she needs to—around 4:30 a.m. She operates a waste collection truck for Houston-based WM Inc. in Oklahoma City. Four days a week, she gathers with fellow truck operators at 5:30 a.m. for a predeparture safety meeting. After a brake test and pretrip check of her truck, she ventures out with the rest of the fleet, running residential routes throughout Oklahoma City.

Fraser is a member of the crew responsible for collecting recyclables and delivering them to WM’s local material recovery facility (MRF). She speaks fondly of a young boy who races her truck through his neighborhood and, when he tires out, waves goodbye and returns home.

Andrea Ferguson, another driver on the crew, recognizes families along her collection route and says she stops to talk to parents, take pictures with excited children and play with dogs she has come to know and love.

As they navigate their routes, Fraser and Ferguson drive on the right side of their vehicles, looking into a mirror and using a joystick to lift containers at the rear end of their 37-foot-long trucks. Around midday, the women deliver their loads to the MRF and then return to the road for the rest of their routes.

Depending on the neighborhood, Fraser says a light day can wrap up in eight hours, but a heavy day can require 12 to 13 hours on the road. Unlike most people with commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs), their journey doesn’t involve chasing a horizon down a highway. Instead, the pair perceive everything in a 360-degree arc, taking care not only to serve their community with zeal and affability but also safely and precisely.

Fraser and Ferguson joined WM immediately after earning their CDLs, 12 and 18 months ago as of October, respectively. As with most new WM drivers, the women work 50-hour weeks and earn $72,000 per year. They are among 19 women who drive in the Oklahoma City WM workforce, which the company says ranks in the top two for employing women across its nationwide operations. Women also are employed in two managerial roles and six dispatcher positions; yet, women comprise only 13.5 percent of the approximately 200 employees working for WM in Oklahoma City.

Data from the Merrifield, Virginia-based Women in Trucking Association (WIT) index indicate that approximately 12.1 percent of professional truck drivers in the U.S. as of April are women, which is down from 13.7 percent last year.

Obstacles facing women in trucking

Trucking is and historically has been a male-dominated industry. With unpredictable, often long work hours, potential for heavy physical labor, safety concerns and widespread issues with harassment, women face myriad obstacles to entering and staying in the industry.

Ellen Voie, who founded WIT in 2007, says companies hoping to hire women must address these concerns and actively encourage women to join the industry by telling stories of the women already thriving as truckers. Through these stories, Voie says she has learned that women don’t envision themselves as truck drivers—even less so in a truck hauling recycling or trash.

“First of all, getting your CDL means making a commitment to go to truck driving school, and the cost could be prohibitive for some women,” Voie says. “There are ways to get training and some places that will pay for training, so it depends—you have to do your homework.

“Also, women think that they can’t handle a large vehicle like that,” she adds. “A lot of women think that they need to be big and burly, or that they need to be mechanically minded or they need to be able to shift. You don’t need to shift anymore; you don’t need to be fixing your engines. So, they have an outdated view of the industry. Especially in the waste industry, they think it’s just dirty, and we need to change their perception.”

Domenica Farmer, WM’s Texas-Oklahoma vice president, agrees with Voie. Both women say they believe that companies need to establish hiring and retention practices to better enable women to succeed in the industry.

Farmer says WM has established focused recruiting campaigns through social media and marketing. She says partnerships with organizations such as WIT, Women Work and Military Spouse Networks are essential to diversifying the company’s workforce.

“We look beyond traditional recruiting efforts by investing time and resources in social platforms,” Farmer says. “As for the retention of our employees, the key is engagement. We have extensive training and growth opportunities, competitive pay and open women roundtable discussions. As our female driver workforce grows, we are continuously updating our facilities to include women’s locker rooms and have customized their uniforms.”

Farmer adds WM trucks are equipped with cameras, tablet computers and artificial intelligence to improve truck automation, maneuverability and driver safety. Voie says companies also should integrate cab-facing cameras in training cabs to protect the trainer and trainee. With those cameras, Voie says, she hopes harassment will decrease while also mitigating instances of trainers going against company standards and practices.

 

Investing in technology, benefits and training

“I just did a panel at WasteExpo, and they asked the drivers, ‘If you were the CEO, where would you spend the money,’” Voie says. “‘Would you spend it on equipment? Would you spend it on wages? Or would you spend it on training?’ And it was interesting; they all said training, except for one driver, who said technology.”

Voie also emphasizes the need for benefits. She explains that women who have family commitments, such as aging parents or young children, might need special hours or daycare services. Sometimes, women drivers require access to more fundamental needs, such as restrooms or uniforms tailored for women.

WM has implemented several kinds of benefits, and Farmer says one of her favorites is its education benefit through Denver-based Guild Education.

“WM pays 100 percent of benefits-eligible employees’ and dependents’ tuition for more than 170 fully funded programs, including undergraduate and graduate degrees, short-form technology and business certificate programs and high school completion,” Farmer says. “Other benefits for our women employees include market-leading pay and free and/or discounted daycare through Bright Horizons.

“If you work for WM but do not have a CDL license, WM also has partnerships with CDL schools and established driver apprentice programs. WM offers learning and development programs to help team members better perform their jobs and deepen their skills and educational backgrounds. By making these programs widely available, we are leveling the playing field, which will allow more people to thrive at WM,” she says.

Voie says one of the most important steps toward retaining women drivers is having more women in training and management positions, a point echoed in WM’s goal of 25 percent female representation and 30 percent minority representation in leadership roles by 2030.

Colby Robinson, WM senior district manager for collection in Oklahoma City, highlights the women already working at his location in several kinds of roles.

“Here in Oklahoma City, we also have women dispatchers, ops specialists; we have multiple women managers here,” Robinson says. “We have drivers, senior drivers [and] some are fixing to be trainers; they want to be a part of the safety committee. Or we have a route manager shadow program: If they’re thinking they may be wanting to get into management, we bring them in and let them work with managers for a few months. A lot of it is self-motivated, but if they want something, it’s here,” he adds.

Fraser says when she first earned her CDL, she wanted to start her own company. However, she says her plans have changed since that time.

“I’ve been blessed, basically, and everything has been going so well, I don’t want to leave,” Fraser says. “So, I just want to work my way up. I want to have Colby’s job one day.”

The author was a summer intern for the Recycling Today Media Group.