Member of the Month

The Women In Trucking Association (WIT) has announced Julianne Mills as its June Member of the Month. She is the director of safety at NFI Transportation.

At 24 years old, Mills started at NFI as a safety analyst. Even though she did not have a background in trucking, her master’s degree in Education from Fairleigh Dickinson played a major role in her career development. Being a safety analyst at NFI consisted of learning driver qualifications and safety compliance.

In 2013, Mills led a pilot program at NFI that focused on how to quickly and compliantly hire safe drivers. The program resulted in a decrease of average days to hire from 22 to 8, which was instrumental considering the ongoing driver shortages. The pilot consisted of restructuring the recruiting team in different locations. This created accelerated application processing times and the ability to better work with the applicants on the opportunities at NFI. The safety department would then be in charge of running compliance reports to ensure the safety of a driver. After the pilot, Mills was promoted to an onboarding manager.

Women In Trucking (WIT) has announced Emily Soloby as its May 2020 Member of the Month. Soloby is the co-owner of AAA School of Trucking, based out of Philadelphia, PA, and the Founder and CEO of Juno Jones Shoes, a new company creating stylish steel toe work boots for women. She is also the founder of the group Hazard Girls (Women in Nontraditional Fields), and the host of the new weekly Hazard Girls show on the WAM (Women and Manufacturing) podcast.

Soloby has had a lifelong love of boots, but started her career on a different path. While majoring in Women’s Studies at the University of Minnesota, she volunteered as a courtroom advocate for abused women. That experience led her to apply to law school, and she later graduated from Temple University School of Law.

After earning her law degree, Soloby became a legal aid lawyer, helping women and children in divorce, child custody, and abuse cases. After a few years, she decided to return to graduate school for her Master’s Degree. While studying for her Master’s, Soloby met her future husband. After receiving their degrees, they developed an interest in a family business, AAA School of Trucking, located in Harrisburg, PA.

Soloby and her husband both went to work for the business, learning it from the ground up and eventually buying and expanding the business. They opened a second campus in Philadelphia, where they live. Her husband focused on overseeing the day to day operations of the school while Soloby focused on procurement. Together, the couple grew the business through both government and private contracts, and have now been successfully operating the school for over a decade. Under their leadership, AAA School of Trucking provides CDL training and licensing as well as equipment and safety consulting both locally and nationwide, and has amassed a long client list of high-level government agencies and billion-dollar companies.

One of things Soloby loves about her work at AAA School of Trucking is the opportunity to help others. With her background assisting disadvantaged families in legal cases, it was a natural fit for her to find a way to help people through the new career opportunities that trucking provides. AAA School of Trucking works closely with a variety of organizations that provide funding for individuals to get new career training and job placement assistance, which AAA has excelled at for over 20 years.

It was during these years at AAA School of trucking that Soloby often had to run from client meetings to busy work sites, and couldn’t find the footwear she needed. She was looking for something with heavy tread and safety features, but that was still stylish and would look good with both jeans and her professional clothing. She scoured the internet, and found nothing even close to what she wanted. That’s when she decided to combine her love of boots, her background in helping women, and her decade of running a successful transportation safety company, to create Juno Jones.

Soloby spent two years heavily researching the market, and speaking with hundreds of women in trucking, trades, engineering, construction, and many other fields, to learn exactly what was missing for them in safety footwear. She built a team including her husband and business partner, former Cole Haan designer Amanda Butler, and many industry professionals and advisors, and Juno Jones was born.

Their first release, the Meti Boot, is a classic Jodpur style ankle boot with a side zipper, steel toe, puncture-resistant midsole, and slip-resistant rubber outsole with a heavy lug tread. It’s water resistant and has a removable comfort insole. The boots are ASTM certified and OSHA compliant. But the thing that sets the Meti Boot apart the most is its style—it was designed to give women options in safety footwear, and to provide something they can wear from dropping off the kids, to the office, to the work site, and out to dinner. Soloby personally oversaw design and development of the boot, including eight prototypes and countless fit-testers for comfort.

Juno Jones launched the Meti Boot on Kickstarter in February 2020, and reached its funding goal in just 29 hours. The boots are now available for pre-order on the Juno Jones website, www.junojonesshoes.com.

Additionally, Soloby had the honor of debuting the Juno Jones Meti Boot at Philly Fashion Week, and Juno Jones was honored to be selected as a Company in Residence for the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator at Macy’s.

Soloby also founded the Facebook Community “Hazard Girls (Women in Nontraditional Fields)”, which is a positive place for women in transportation, engineering, trades, and all traditionally male-dominated fields to come together for networking, support and friendship in a positive environment. The group also holds in-person educational events to inspire young women and girls who may be interested in non-traditional careers.

Check out Soloby’s new weekly Hazard Girls show on the WAM podcast by Jacket Media, where she is the host, interviewing members of the Hazard Girls about their experience and advice working in different industries. Also keep an eye out for Soloby at the WIT Accelerate! Conference in September, where she will be available to talk about AAA School of Trucking, Juno Jones Boots, and Hazard Girls.

Sign up for the Juno Jones email list at www.junojonesshoes.com, and follow them across social media @junojonesshoes.

Women In Trucking (WIT) has announced Cindy Reaves as its April 2020 Member of the Month. Reaves is the vice president of Gulf Coast sales and marketing for Linden Bulk Transportation LLC (Linden), a subsidiary of Odyssey Logistics & Technology, in Montgomery, Texas. After an impressive 40-year career in the trucking industry, she is retiring in April 2020.

Through the past four decades, Reaves rose through the ranks at several trucking companies, excelling in communication, negotiation and relationship building with many high-profile Fortune 50 companies. Along the way, she developed meaningful customer relationships by taking care of their freight with the utmost attention to quality and handling deliveries the way her customers would if they did it themselves. Today, Reaves manages more than 50 of the most prominent supply chain brands in the southwest.

“I’m most proud of the relationships I’ve made with my customers and the time I’ve had to get to know them – they’ve become my friends,” said Reaves. “Most of them are asking for my personal phone number – if they don’t have it already – so that they can keep in touch with me after I leave.”

Throughout her career in trucking, Reaves has been devoted to providing outstanding customer service and went above and beyond to make sure her customers knew their business was valued. From monitoring police escorts for a forgotten load in the middle of the night to hand-delivering ice cream to the soccer game of a prospective client’s children, she did whatever it took to make her customers feel appreciated.

“It never mattered what time of day or what day of the week, Cindy was always available for our customers to solve a problem, find an emergency truck or just answer some questions,” said Michael Salz, president Linden. “Her dedication to Linden and her customers has always amazed us and exceeded our expectations for 18 years.”

As she prepares to leave the trucking industry, Reaves has one hope for its future—to see more women in transportation and logistics. She’s been a mentor to many women, an advocate for more diversity in leadership roles and has educated college women on career opportunities beyond driving a truck. While inroads are being made, Reaves also understands that equality is an industry-wide challenge.

“I’ve worked at six trucking companies in my career, including Linden, and too few leverage the incredible talents of women,” Reaves recalls. “We need more women recruiting women. When a woman is considering a career in any industry, they want to see that they are respected and valued.”

Reaves believes there are several keys to attracting more women to the trucking industry. First, upper management needs to buy into women being in leadership roles. Also, current women in trucking need to actively recruit other women and be advocates who lead the charge for more diversity. In addition, more representation is needed on high school and college campuses to expose young women to the industry. Lastly, the industry needs to communicate the wide variety of jobs that can be obtained at a transportation and logistics company—IT, sales, marketing, accounting, human resources, operations and more.

Throughout all of the miles she’s traveled, Reaves has also been a catalyst for drivers. When the competition was high, she worked tirelessly to ensure there is a steady stream of work. “Drivers don’t get paid if their wheels aren’t rolling. It makes me nervous, seeing them sit idle in a terminal, so I work hard to find loads to get them back on the road.” Reaves has also valued the opinion and experiences of dispatchers and drivers, encouraging leadership to consider the experiences of the people out in the field every day.

“It’s going to be hard to leave Linden, but I’m looking forward to not checking emails so frequently and spending more time with family. I’ll be watching my grandson play college hockey and my granddaughter playing volleyball. I’m also competing in two golfing tournaments this year.”

On her way out, Reaves has the following advice for young women seeking employment in the logistics industry. “Make sure this is what you want to do, be sincere and honest, and always do the right thing to help the customer.”

Women In Trucking (WIT) has announced Su Schmerheim, one of the few female solo horse haulers in the nation, as its March 2020 Member of the Month.

As a lifelong horse enthusiast, Schmerheim’s passion for horses began in her teenage years. Since the age of 23, she has been showing Arabian and Half-Arabian horses in Michigan and at regional/national events around the United States.

Finding a career that involved her love of horses always had seemed like just a dream, but when she left her corporate job in 2011, a friend suggested that Schmerheim consider finding work in the horse transport industry. Later that year, she began working for a local horse transport company, where she had the opportunity to obtain her CDL.

Five years later, a new opportunity presented itself. After connecting with Schmerheim through social media, Kyle Ecclestone, president of Ecclestone Horse Transport (EHT), offered her a new job. EHT is an international equine logistics company, providing worldwide horse transportation by both road and air.

This opportunity allowed Schmerheim to grow her career. Today, she is involved in both driving and logistics planning for EHT. She was assigned her own truck, a custom Kenworth T800 with a Doyle 15-horse trailer. Her feline co-pilot Jake often travels with her.

“The most exciting part of the horse transport industry is the unknown,” said Schmerheim. “Loading and hauling a live load certainly presents its fair share of challenges at times. No two days are ever the same.”

In the past year, Schmerheim has presented her truck at several truck shows, including the Trucker’s Jamboree in Walcott, Ia.; the Shiawassee County Truck Show; and the Richard Crane Memorial Truck Show in St. Ignace, Mich. She was also the recipient of the Women In Trucking Award, presented by association president and CEO Ellen Voie at the Richard Crane show.

Schmerheim encourages anyone interested in a trucking career to check out a truck show near them. She points out that it is a great way to connect and network with other people from the industry.

Women In Trucking (WIT) has announced Jacinda Duran, a third-generation female truck driver as its February Member of the Month.

Duran has been around trucking her entire life. With many family members in the industry, she says it was inevitable that she would be too. Her mother was a professional truck driver for 23 years and often took Duran with her on the job. Her father drove dump trucks and cement trucks. Her grandmother hauled produce in California for over 50 years. Her grandfather did his truck driving in the 1950s. They even have a relative who appeared on the television series, Shipping Wars.

Ten years ago, Duran started her logistics career at FedEx Express as a courier, then transitioned into big rigs in 2014. She has experience driving limos, buses, charter buses and everything in between.

Today, Duran drives enclosed car carriers for Plycar Transportation, based in Kings Park, N.Y. The company recruited her after seeing her social media page, Jacinda Lady Truckin. They recognized that her passion for trucking was a great fit for their elite trucking team. Through Plycar’s six-week training program, Duran learned to transport, load and unload unique, one-of-a-kind cars and became the company’s first solo female driver.

For the past year, Duran has driven from coast to coast and in all 48 states. She says the best thing about her job is the freedom. She continues to inspire women to reach for the stars through her social media platform. She makes every day an adventure and continues to explore this great country.

“I stay out on the road for a long period of time, living in my truck. I get to travel the country, seeing friends, making new friends and living the best life out on the road. I am blessed and thank God every day for my health, my life and my blessings,” said Duran.

Duran is a proud mother of two children. Her daughter is in nursing school at Northern Arizona University and her son is a cadet in the US Air Force Academy, obtaining a degree in Aero Engineering.

Women In Trucking (WIT) has announced Samantha Johnson as its January Member of the Month. Johnson is the service manager for Cumberland International Trucks.

Johnson grew up in the construction industry, working in a family-owned business. She has always had a love for diesels and recalls always working on snow and paving equipment with diesel engines.

Johnson started at Cumberland International Trucks (International Truck Dealer in Nashville, TN) in early 2015 as a service advisor. Within a few months, she was promoted to shop foreman. In October 2017, Johnson was promoted to assistant manager. In this position, she made it her personal mission to handle their Fire & App customers as the division was struggling. In the last year managing the Fire & App team, on top of her normal responsibilities, she’s turned the department around. She is forming relationships with Fire Departments across Tennessee and has been working with her team winning back former customers.

Johnson was recently promoted to service manager in August of 2019. She’s been a consistent positive force in regards to shop morale and has continuously improved shop efficiency.

“By being a woman in the industry, the biggest obstacle is always having to prove to everyone you are the right person for the job,” said Johnson. “But don’t let the industry scare you because it’s male-dominated. Push through and prove you have what it takes.”

Johnson definitely pushed through the ranks at Cumberland. She credits each step of her journey in preparing her for where she is today.

Women In Trucking (WIT) has announced Jessica Luttrell as its December Member of the Month. Luttrell is a professional driver for Umpqua Dairy in Roseburg, Oregon.

When Luttrell was 30 years old, she moved to Oregon in search of a new career. She noticed a lot of trucks in her area and researched what it would take to become a driver.

Luttrell did not grow up around trucks, but had always been fascinated with them. So, she felt becoming a professional truck driver was a good career choice. After obtaining her CDL, she started driving over-the-road solo. Most memorable during this time was transporting rescue animals who were close to being euthanized to new cities and states to foster homes.

Later, Luttrell’s husband followed in her footsteps, also obtaining his CDL. They drove team over-the-road for two years. At that point, Luttrell made a choice to drive locally so that she could be closer to her children at home.

Driving locally gave Luttrell the opportunity to drive a dump truck for a construction company and even a tanker for a farm company. She is currently running a refer unit in the Pacific Northwest and is able to be home every night.

“The company I currently work for has been around since 1931, and I am the first female truck driver hired here,” said Luttrell. “I feel like my job performance is setting the bar for future female drivers within this company.”

Luttrell’s goal is to move into a trucking management position and become the first female truck driver in a management position.

Women In Trucking (WIT) has announced Hannah Cannington as its November Member of the Month. Cannington is the Branch Manager for the Alabama Motor Express, Inc (AMX) Logistics office in Savannah, Georgia. As a rising star in the supply chain industry, Cannington has proven success comes from hard work and dedication.

Logistics wasn’t on Cannington’s radar as a professional career. In fact, she worked in healthcare for a few years, before a friend reached out to her about a job in logistics. Knowing nothing about logistics, but at a point in her career where she welcomed exciting new opportunities, Cannington joined the C.H. Robinson team. She started in operations, assisting with customer freight by tracking, tracing and dispatching truck drivers.

Her interest in supply chain and aptitude working with others led to her transition into the strategic side of the business and eventually into human resources. After three years at C.H. Robinson, Cannington knew it was time to pursue her passion for working with people.

Cannington spent three years at multiple recruiting firms where she worked closely with supply chain professionals. But something was still missing. Cannington loved the “on your toes” feeling that she had when working in supply chain. Her experience working in logistics and background in human resources made her the ideal candidate for the role as Branch Manager at AMX Logistics.

“When approached for branch manager, I had my doubts,” said Cannington. “I didn’t have 15-20 years of experience, but I kept telling myself that I was worth it – and that I could handle the challenge.”

Cannington now leads a team of talented logistics professionals that streamlines processes to provide superior service for customers. She has a simple strategy: Work quickly but be thorough.

“Logistics requires an incredible amount of problem solving in an incredibly short period of time,” said Cannington. “Anything could happen, at any time. Sometimes, information isn’t available until the last minute. Our customers expect us to have the answers anyway.”

When looking for the perfect candidate for a supply chain role, Cannington looks for someone like herself. She didn’t come from logistics, but it takes hard work and dedication to be in this field of work.

“Logistics experience is great, but I appreciate people who are always up for a challenge because I know they can work under pressure,” she said.

The future of the industry is unclear, but Cannington knows one thing is for sure – women in the logistics industry need to look at what they’ve done and know they’ve helped to break the pre-conceived mold of what a supply chain professional looks like.

“Logistics is more complicated, more interesting and more fun than most people assume,” said Cannington. “For a long time, there was a perception it was all about truck drivers. Or, that it’s dominated by men. I’m here as proof that logistics offers something for everyone.”

Women In Trucking (WIT) has announced Robin Maisel as its October Member of the Month.

Ever since she was a little girl and heard the sound of the Jake brake, Maisel knew that she wanted to drive a tractor trailer. What she didn’t know, is that one day she would be driving a truck and coming to the aid of another driver in an emergency situation.

At the end of March 2019, Maisel had been driving with CRST Expedited for a little more than a year. She rushed to action and assisted another truck driver during an unexpected medical episode at a Love’s Travel Stop near Amarillo, Texas. Maisel was parked and taking a DOT break when suddenly, she saw another truck come flying into the fuel station. She witnessed the driver plow over a row of fuel pumps and the truck finally came to a rest when it hit the truck one space over from where she was parked.

Maisel noticed the driver of the truck had fallen over in his seat. Her instincts immediately kicked in. She utilized her 20 years of nursing experience and ensured the driver was breathing, checked his pulse, and assessed his condition while she waited for the emergency medical technicians to arrive. She stayed with the driver the entire time and corresponded with the medical team so they would know the next steps to take when they arrived.

Maisel is no stranger to unexpected medical situations, but nothing can really prepare you for when one of those situations hits home. While working as a hospice nurse three years ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She didn’t let that get in the way of her dream of becoming a truck driver though. As Maisel once told her colleagues, “I’m going to drive a truck one day.” Now she is doing that and more. As a cancer survivor, Maisel loves to be out seeing the country. “It’s an adventure out here,” she said. “After what happened in March, I believe I am supposed to be out on the road.”

This driver was very lucky he crossed paths with Maisel on that day as she had the training and skill to assist a fellow truck driver on the road. “I was thankful the driver was not out on the interstate when this occurred,” she said. Thankfully, the driver was okay and proper medical action was taken. Maisel felt the driver may have been worn out and needed to take a break, which is very important for OTR drivers.

“We thank Robin for her quick reaction and helping another driver in need. She is a tremendous example for others and we are honored to share her story,” said Brooke Willey, VP Human Resources, CRST.

Women In Trucking (WIT) has announced Regan Morton as its September Member of the Month. Morton is a professional driver with 13 years of experience. She has been a line haul driver for YRC Freight for the past four years.

Regan Shane Morton is a transgender woman. She started out in life as Shane Regan Morton, a son to parents Sam and Shirley Morton. In 2017, she came out as transgender. A year later, she changed her name and gender.

Morton grew up in the trucking industry. Her dad drove for over 50 years. “When I was a child, he would take us kids with him, let us flash the lights and talk on the CB radio. Out of the four of the kids he raised, I was the one that wanted to go the most! I was driving his truck before I even had a driver's license. I knew then what I wanted to be,” said Morton.

After high school, her troubled youth caught up with her. She spent a year in jail. Once she got out, she was discharged from the National Guard. “I had to start life from the bottom of the barrel,” she said.

With nothing to lose, Morton decided to go after her dream. She contacted a local trucking company, only to learn she needed to be 23 years old and have two years of experience. So, she spent her younger years working as a volunteer and part-time firefighter.

“I had to show my community that I was a good person. After five years, the court overturned my conviction and expunged my records. They gave me a second chance in life. I went on doing contract work and running my own business for 10 years,” Morton explained.

By the age of 36, she could no longer ignore the call of the road. She attended driving school and went to work for a trucking company. She spent the next nine years driving and learning what she liked best. Knowing that she had an interest in LTL and Teamsters,she met with a YRC recruiter at the Mid-America Trucking Show. “That was the beginning of my dream job,” she remembers.

But that's not the end of Morton’s story. Something had troubled her all her life. In 2010, she started to understand that there were other people like her. The stories she heard and what she felt on the inside woke her up to who she really was. Over the next seven years, she started to understand herself better.

“In 2017, I sought out professional help and went on hormone replacement therapy. What I was doing couldn't be hidden from my employer, so I knew I had to tell my boss,” Morton explained. “At that time, I thought my job and career was over. As I grew into the new person I was going to be, I knew that the company would have to grow with me. Fortunately, I was blessed with probably the best boss I could have had. She did everything she could for me. As I grew as a person, she worked with the company and human resources to make YRC more inclusive.”

In March 2019, Morton joined WIT. “I joined Women In Trucking to support other transgender people and hopefully get more LGBTQ people into the trucking industry. Then, I found myself joining the gender diversity task force,” she said.

The gender diversity task force was recently formed by WIT to better understand the needs of the LGBTQ community. WIT realizes there is a growing number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer professional drivers and other transportation workers. As the voice of gender diversity, the association wants to ensure they are inclusive and to create an awareness within the trucking industry.

“We call ourselves the voice of gender diversity, and we’re stepping up to ensure we represent ALL of our members by including the LGBTQ community in our efforts to attract and retain both drivers and management in this traditionally male-dominated industry,” said Ellen Voie, WIT president and CEO.

In announcing Stephanie Williamson from Dart Transit as the 2019 Women In Trucking (WIT) Member of the Month for August, the Association is recognizing an industry professional who has literally made the career journey from the driver’s seat to the executive suite. Today, Stephanie serves as the Vice President of Revenue Management, overseeing all aspects of pricing with Dart. Stephanie’s route to become a member of Dart’s Executive Management Team began long before she joined the company as a fleet manager in 1994.

Stephanie was born into trucking, and a strong argument can be made that she has held a driver’s perspective on the industry since her earliest days in the world. Stephanie’s grandfather was a career driver. Stephanie’s parents served as drivers and they even worked as a team for a number of years in the 1970s and 80s. In fact, to say that Stephanie was born into the trucking industry with a view from the driver’s seat is not that great of an exaggeration. Stephanie’s mother was working as a dump truck driver when she went into labor on the job and drove herself to the hospital.

“Trucking has always been a part of my life through my family. There are pictures of me when I'm like two or three years old helping my grandfather rebuild a diesel engine, and I'm covered head to toe in grease,” recalls Stephanie. “My parents actually encouraged me to look at a career outside of the trucking industry. But, after graduating from college, I wanted to go into the trucking industry with the goal of helping to make things better for professional drivers – the men and women who are moving the American economy mile by mile.”

Initially, Stephanie worked in the areas of driver recruiting and orientation before landing an opportunity to oversee a carrier’s terminal in the Dallas area. While she was working with drivers on a daily basis, Stephanie still sought to have a first-hand perspective of what it meant to be in charge from the driver’s seat.

“I wanted to learn everything I could about this industry,” she explains. “You can't always make changes in any industry without gathering enough information. My initial input was in the recruiting process and the orientation process. But I wanted to do every job in a trucking company. With a wide range of experience, I thought I'd be qualified to help make those positive changes. At a certain point in working with drivers, I decided that I should get my CDL and drive. I knew it was the right thing to do for me, and I also knew that having a CDL would earn the respect of drivers who would see me in an office. So, I went out and earned my CDL.”

Following her time as a team driver, Stephanie wanted to get back into the office side of trucking. She had just welcomed her first child and looked into working at Dart. At the time she applied for a job, the company did not have any open positions, but Stephanie remained persistent, checking with the Dallas office almost on a daily basis. One of those phone calls paid off in a job interview to fill a fleet manager spot. As the company was looking to coordinate mutual schedules, Stephanie was asked if she could interview for the position at 5:30 a.m., and she was promptly at the location ready to answer questions. She immediately impressed the terminal manager with one of her initial responses.

“He asked me, ‘OK, where do you see yourself in five years?’ And I told him, ‘I want your job.’ Looking back on things, I was actually shooting a little bit low with that response,” recalls Stephanie with a smile. “I found a home at Dart because the company has a culture where everyone is given the opportunity to let their talents shine, and Dart has provided me with so many opportunities over 25 years.”

During her tenure with Dart, Stephanie has held a series of positions within operations, customer service and pricing at the company. As Dart plans to take time this fall to commemorate the company’s 85th anniversary, Stephanie appreciates the fact her career progression to an executive management position followed in the tradition of the important contributions that women have made to the growth of the Dart Network.

As the Vice President of Revenue Management for Dart, Stephanie has never lost touch with her experience in the driver’s seat or the memories of the time both her parents and grandfather spent on the road. Stephanie continues to be part of a group of Dart executives who spend time with company drivers and owner-operators as they go through Orientation.

“Through the years, I have gained an appreciation for a driver’s time. When you think about our industry and how we work with drivers, time is our greatest commodity. I am very sensitive to the fact that, for a driver, time literally is money,” says Stephanie. “In the hours of service that they have to work with, when someone delays them or impedes their progress, that costs them money. I cannot allow the company to align ourselves with businesses that we know will cost our drivers money. Businesses that hold drivers up for loading or unloading, businesses that won't allow our drivers to use a bathroom, businesses that just generally disrespect the driver – I can't be a part of that.

“I look at it from the standpoint that we have to be careful who we do business with because the driver is the most treasured member of our team,” she adds. “I believe if we take care of our drivers, they will take care of our customers.”

Looking back, Stephanie is thankful she became involved with the Dart organization. “I'm so proud of what we do and who we are,” observes Stephanie. “I'm proud as a woman. I'm proud as a member of this organization of who we are and what we do. I think that the Oren family has presented a great opportunity not only for me and everyone at all our facilities, but for every driver who has ever come through our doors. Through all these years and all the changes in the industry, Dart has always stood tall when it comes to the test of time and providing effective answers for the needs of the day.”

The Women In Trucking Association (WIT) has announced Debra LaBree as its July Member of the Month. She is the owner-operator for Castle Transport, LLC leased to Landstar Inway, Inc.

LaBree’s first career was a cosmetologist, but she always wanted to drive a truck. When the time was right, she and her husband obtained their CDLs and became professional drivers. They have been driving team since 2006 and have been owner-operators for the past six years. With over 1.4 million safe driving miles, LaBree has received six safety awards from Landstar.

Volunteering and giving back to her trucking community is a priority for LaBree. She has dedicated the past eight years to being an administrator on the WIT Facebook group of over 10,000 members. The Facebook group is celebrating its 10-year anniversary and is a positive platform for WIT members to connect and collaborate on best practices, advice and ideas. WIT is also revamping its website and offering members a secure site to share their stories, challenges and concerns.

LaBree also serves on the WIT Board of Directors and the WIT Image Team. Through her experience with the Image Team, she has mentored drivers and other owner- operators, appeared on The Today Show, and has been highlighted in the NY Times, industry publications, SiriusXM and industry podcasts.

“When women tell me they are thinking about trucking for a career, I tell them to DO IT, they won’t regret it,” said LaBree. “It gives me great pleasure to mentor drivers so that they can reach their professional potential in their careers.”