Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
- When Ingrid Brown started driving trucks 41 years ago, she only knew 5 other female truckers.
- Now, companies are recruiting thousands of women drivers with bonuses and scholarships amid the labor shortage.
- Carla Holmes quit her management job to drive long-haul with her husband – married 'teams' can make over $200,000.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
The Ingrid R. Brown Petro truck stop sits off the side of Oklahoma City's interstate highway, across the street from a Greyhound bus station, a Waffle House, and a beige stucco motel.
After 42 years of driving trucks through 48 states and counting, Ingrid Brown chose this remote shopping center to be named in her honor after winning a prestigious award from the trucking community.
"I had to," Brown said. "I didn't know what else I could give back to these people for what they had given me, and how they affected my life."
One year prior, Brown and 21 other truckers drove from Michigan to Oklahoma to deliver supplies and food to families impacted by deadly wildfires. There, Brown transported materials to an 85-year-old farmer whose wife was in the hospital for smoke inhalation. They had lost half their livestock as hundreds of acres burned, but Brown said they never complained once.
Meeting people like the couple in Oklahoma is why Brown has continued driving all these years, even as a grandmother of six, she told Insider.
"I have met some people in the most itty bitty tiny towns that I could pick the phone up, and I can tell you that they're my friends today," Brown said.
Now, she wants other women to feel empowered to do the same.
Brown isn't the only one with that goal in mind - the trucking industry anticipates a shortage of 100,000 drivers by 2023, and many recruiters are hoping women will fill the empty seats.
"My steering wheel doesn't know the gender that holds it, and it really doesn't care," she said. "It's just always been labeled the man's world and always been labeled a man's job."
When Brown first started driving, she knew five female truckers in the entire country. They became close-knit, planning meet-ups on the road and at truck stops whenever they could. While many female drivers experience sexism and harassment, Brown said she's never experienced discrimination on the job.
Now, over 200,000 long-haul truck drivers are women, approximately 6.7% of the industry. Trucking companies and retailers, facing a dire shortage of drivers, are now actively looking to recruit more women to the field.
While the cost of truck driving schools can range from $3,500 to $10,000, some companies and states like New York and Oregon are offering incentives or waived tuition for women drivers.
According to Brown, the best way to attract more women drivers is to avoid sugarcoating the trucker lifestyle and tell women the truth.
"You're going to miss birthdays, you're going to miss loved ones, you're going to miss things happening in life," she said. "They just need to know the truth about it. Recruiters seem to paint pretty pictures."
Carla Michelle Holmes, a 42-year-old mother from Yuma, Arizona, started driving long-haul with her husband last November.
He began transporting oversized equipment two years ago. After much debate, Holmes decided to join him in the truck during her two-week vacation from working at a local methadone clinic.
"After the two weeks were over and it was time for me to go home, I didn't really want to go home," Homes told Insider. "I wanted to stay in the truck."
Over the next three months, Holmes began training for her commercial driver's license with funding from an "Arizona at Work" scholarship while she continued working part-time.
As she befriended the few other women in the program, Holmes said she quickly realized many of the men weren't taking them seriously - despite the fact that they were outperforming them on exams.
"It was funny because the school I went to, you get three attempts to pass, and the majority of the time, the guys would fail their first attempt," she said. "And yet the females would pass on their first try."
Holmes told Insider that while many of the men trainees made "frustrating" remarks, she learned to tune them out in order to focus on studying.
"I'm not here to listen to whatever you have to say … I'm planning on passing my test," she said.
Holmes represents the ideal candidate for truck recruiters as companies across the country offer incentives for husband-wife driving teams. Pairs can drive twice as long as solo truckers - while one drives, the other rests.
The BIA group is currently offering a $10,000 bonus for team drivers, specifically advertised toward married couples. The average US Express driver team makes a combined total of $200,000, on top of a $30,000 bonus, according to the company website.
Meantime, a group of bipartisan senators this year re-introduced legislation to reduce barriers for prospective women truckers. The Promoting Women in Trucking Workforce Act would establish a board to increase outreach, mentorship and training programs.
"Two years ago if someone told me I was going to be driving a truck, I would have told them you're crazy," Brown said. "Now, I tell women all the time ... 'you can totally do this.'"