Hire Truckers Podcast

00:00 - 00:10
Aaron Craddock: Welcome to the Hire Truckers podcast where we interview experts in driver recruiting. We provide industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to help you level up your recruiting game.

00:10 - 00:49
Ginger Craddock: Welcome to the Hire Truckers podcast. I'm your host, Ginger Craddock. Today, I am so eager to share Ellen Voya's book, from dispatcher to disruptor, one woman's journey to drive gender diversity in the trucking industry. And you guys, she has done that with such grace and strong leadership and collaboration. I can't wait for you to meet Ellen Voya if you have not already met her, and we're gonna unpack some of the important pieces of her newest book.

00:49 - 00:51
Ginger Craddock: So, Ellen, welcome to the Howard Truckers podcast.

00:52 - 00:54
Ellen Voie: Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me on.

00:56 - 01:14
Ginger Craddock: So let me paint the picture. So those of you who don't know, Ellen is the founder of Women in Trucking. And in addition to that, she's written several books. This is her most recent book. And so I wanna go back to the beginning with you, Ellen.

01:14 - 01:30
Ginger Craddock: In chapter one of your book, you set the stage with the title from birth of a disruptor. So what were the expectations for you and your siblings at home when you guys were growing up in the late sixties and early seventies?

01:31 - 01:55
Ellen Voie: Well, first of all, I grew up in a very small town, a community of 800 and mostly blonde haired, blue eyed Norwegians. In fact, our high school was called Iola Scandinavia High School because it was settled by Norwegians in Central Wisconsin. So everyone looked like me. Everyone was a cousin. So when they talk about it takes a village, it really was a village.

01:55 - 02:05
Ellen Voie: And people knew who you were. They knew my dad. They knew my grandpa. They knew my mom. So the expectations were that, first of all, you uphold the family name.

02:05 - 02:21
Ellen Voie: That was something that my dad said quite often, uphold the family name. And I still had the name Voya. I kept it. It was something I was very proud of. But the other thing was, back in those days, there were a lot of traditional ideas of gender related to gender.

02:21 - 02:52
Ellen Voie: And I feel that my mom was way ahead of the time, and my dad too. And so I talk about that in the book, how my mom, in one place, she was driving the family station wagon, and she had a flat tire, and she had to wait for my dad to come and change it. And she said, that won't happen again. And next thing you know, she's enrolled in an automotive class, and she's out there rotating tires and checking oil and, you know, changing spark plugs. And so I saw a very independent woman.

02:52 - 03:12
Ellen Voie: She didn't follow the traditional female role. She was a nurse by trade, but when she started her family, she focused on raising us. There was five of us. And my dad was the same way. And another story I tell in the book is my dad was head of the fire and ambulance service.

03:12 - 03:49
Ellen Voie: And when they had their first female EMS, the guys were joking and said, she can make the coffee. And my dad said, if you ever ask her to make the coffee when it's not her turn, you will deal with me. So my parents were very interested in, you know, letting us girls I have one sister and three brothers, and letting us really just break down gender barriers. And and I also tell the story in the book about how my sister and I were washing the dishes and cleaning the bathroom while my brothers had the cool jobs like taking out the trash and mowing the lawn. And my sister and I said, hey, that's not fair.

03:49 - 03:55
Ellen Voie: And my parents said, yeah, you're right. So they started rotating all of us and my brothers had to clean the bathroom.

03:56 - 04:27
Ginger Craddock: Oh, I love that story. And that's where you and I have similar intersection point in that I have strong, excellent role model and empowerment from my mom and my dad. You know, I wouldn't be who I am without both of them sewing into me. And and before I could drive my own car, before I got my permit at 15, my dad took me outside and made sure that I knew how to change a tire. So I had to be able capable of doing it all by myself.

04:27 - 05:02
Ginger Craddock: And so he thought forward in helping me think about how to stay safe and how to care for myself. He was always there available, but he knew there may be situations where help couldn't come and he wanted to be me to be equipped and capable. I love how your mom and dad both did that not only for you but for also your siblings. I feel very gifted that we were given that as our roots in the in that time period both past and now.

05:02 - 05:03
Ellen Voie: Absolutely. Yes.

05:05 - 05:29
Ginger Craddock: So that's where you started out. And so we see that empowerment and that camaraderie growth in your family. As you transitioned into adulthood and you began to think about what you wanted to do, what was Ellen thinking about her future as a 17 year old as you walked across that stage in your high school?

05:30 - 05:50
Ellen Voie: So my goal was to be in broadcast journalism. Barbara Walters was the first female to break that barrier. And so I thought, wow. That would be a cool job. And so I immediately I did graduate at the age of 17 and immediately started going to school for broadcasting in Wausau, Wisconsin.

05:50 - 06:13
Ellen Voie: And I I attended the school for a number of months, about eight months. Of course, I was the only girl. It was all boys in the class. And I was kinda disillusioned with the equipment, I thought it was kind of shoddy, and I wasn't sure I was getting a real experience. And at the time, my brother was attending a college in Tulsa, and they had a very robust broadcast journalism courses.

06:13 - 06:38
Ellen Voie: So I transferred to Tulsa and ended up in one semester finishing those courses. I've really focused on them and ended up getting a job in Salina, Ohio as a disc jockey. And I had planned on just staying there for the summer. I thought, well, I'll just go there and go back to college. But things change, things happen, and life throws some curveballs, and and I had one semester of college under my belt until I was an adult.

06:40 - 07:26
Ginger Craddock: Well and I love how you made a pivot when you realized you needed to make a pivot. And so disc jockey, I mean, what a great what a great start and a creative start. And so, you guys, I want you to get Ellen's book to hear the rest of the story and how that unfolded, and you'll see that thread of journalism continue to weave through her entire story, and you will not wanna miss one piece of it. So let's go forward a little bit. What did your life from disc jockey to three years later as a 20 year old professional, you were promoted to traffic manager at Steel King Industries.

07:27 - 07:30
Ginger Craddock: How did you go from disc jockey to transportation?

07:31 - 07:53
Ellen Voie: Well, as I said, life throws curveballs. And my mom was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease, ended up moving back home. And I had taken shop class in high school, so I knew welding and drafting. And so I applied for a job at Steel King as a drafter. And every day they'd let me call my mom on their toll free line.

07:53 - 08:03
Ellen Voie: And one day when I called, they said, your mom's in a coma. She's in the hospital. So I basically walked out. I was 20. And I I I was like, wow.

08:03 - 08:14
Ellen Voie: They had told us it would take two to five years. We thought she had two to five years, and this was only eight months. So I was shocked. Went to the hospital. She passed away.

08:14 - 08:30
Ellen Voie: And so, you know, I moved back in with my dad and brothers. I moved back home, moved out of my apartment. And it was you know, we had the funeral. And it was a couple weeks later when I thought, well, I probably should go back to Steel King and clean out my desk. And when I went back, they said, well, the president wants to talk to you.

08:30 - 08:47
Ellen Voie: And I thought, well, he's gonna fire me, and I don't really care. I'm 20 years old. I just lost my mom. You know, I can make some decisions at this point. And he sat me down and he said, we're really sorry about your mom, but we'd like to move you into the traffic department and we'll send you to school for traffic and transportation management.

08:47 - 09:03
Ellen Voie: And I thought because I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I was still kind of in shock. So I I accepted that. And I was the assistant traffic manager until my boss left, and I hadn't even completed my diploma yet. And then suddenly I was traffic manager, I was about 20 years old.

09:03 - 09:23
Ellen Voie: And we had all raw steel coming in and material handling equipment going out. We had three of our own trucks. We had three plants. So I had three drivers who reported to me, and it was this this was before deregulation. And we had freight that wasn't easily damageable, and it was very expensive because it was so heavy.

09:23 - 09:36
Ellen Voie: So everybody wanted my freight. And it it was a different world then. I get offered pot. You know, I get offered dates with brewers, and and I'm like, get out. Get out.

09:36 - 09:56
Ellen Voie: And it was a whole different world then because everyone had to go by the same rate. So it things have come a long way for the better. And one instance in the story, had a gentleman come in to apply for a job and said, wanna talk to your boss. And I said, well, my boss is the owner of the company. And he said, well, look, I've been driving trucks since before you were born.

09:56 - 10:22
Ellen Voie: And I said, okay, then you can't work for a woman? You know? And so he I didn't hire him, but I think they really didn't I think they had a hard time realizing that a 20 year old blonde was in charge of all that, you know, the inbound and outbound freight. But I did complete my diploma in traffic and transportation management, earned that credibility. And after I started my family, I used that to do consulting for eighteen years.

10:22 - 10:25
Ellen Voie: So I used that, you know, that knowledge to continue.

10:26 - 10:49
Ginger Craddock: Well, and that was a follow-up question I had for you is what are some of the ways that you overcame those stereotypes of being too young, being a female, and not the perception maybe external of you you not knowing what you were doing? Unpack that a little bit more for me. I hear education. Unpack that a little bit more for us.

10:50 - 11:12
Ellen Voie: So I would say the diploma in traffic and transportation management was very useful because a lot of traffic managers didn't have that. They kinda worked their way up. So I did have and it was a hard course that I didn't play the female card. You know? It was, I am here as an equal, and if you can't respect my position, then we can't do business.

11:12 - 11:42
Ellen Voie: And so I think being a professional, working hard, I mean, that was the biggest thing, and establishing credibility. And that's hard to do when you're young, but once you establish credibility, you start getting the respect of the people around you. And one story I talk about in the book, I had taken shop class in high school. That's how I knew how to do drafting. And the guys in the shop, the welders, they would like every time I'd walk through with a hard hat on, they would just tease me.

11:42 - 11:53
Ellen Voie: And one time I said, alright. Come here. And I took them around and they had a wire feed welder, and I had learned with a stick feed by a stick welder. And I said, come on. I'm gonna show you.

11:53 - 12:10
Ellen Voie: I know what I'm talking about. And I did a perfect perfect bead, and I had the respect. They were like, she knows how to weld? You know? So it's establishing credibility and making sure that people know that when you're speaking, you are speaking from experience or knowledge.

12:12 - 12:41
Ginger Craddock: Absolutely. And my husband, what was he he took a shop class in high school and learned HVAC and he learned to weld. And and pulling up a perfect bead weld, that that takes a a tremendous amount of skill and mastery. And so I love that you used education as well as skill and you respected others. You required that of them reciprocally.

12:41 - 12:46
Ginger Craddock: So so all three of those points are key. Yeah. That that's incredible.

12:46 - 13:11
Aaron Craddock: Now let's take a minute to thank today's sponsor. Do you hire truck drivers in hard to fill areas, or do you need help creating efficiency in your recruiting department? You're not alone. With fifty plus years experience, Trucking Clicks specializes in data driven strategies, industry leading customer experience, and custom solutions that'll get you to your goal. Trucking Clicks is your go to place for high quality direct leads at scale.

13:11 - 13:17
Aaron Craddock: Visit truckingclicks.com or call (512) 982-0816 today.

13:17 - 14:07
Ginger Craddock: So when we talk about leadership, in your story, there was a male leader that gave you this opportunity and promoted you when you went back. First, I'm sorry for what happened with your mom. That is very painful at any age. How did or in what ways did coming back from that and feeling the emotional weight of that, but then also being presented with this opportunity to move forward in your career, are there aspects of that work that helped you navigate the pain and heal over time? Because it's a small thing to lose a parent at any stage in life.

14:07 - 14:09
Ginger Craddock: How did that fortify you?

14:10 - 14:45
Ellen Voie: Well, I would say that the distraction of taking the class, the traffic and transportation management, and it was very difficult. It was how to read tariffs and audit freight bills, you know, there there was a lot of history in there and and that sort of thing. So doing that and also working in the traffic department, which was all new to me. So focusing on learning the job and then, you know, getting the education, and then it wasn't that long after my boss left. And so then the president of the company sat me down he and the vice president called me in, sat me down, and said, well, your boss is leaving.

14:45 - 14:58
Ellen Voie: We would like to promote you to the role of traffic manager, but we're going to tell you that if you can't handle it, you will be fired because we can't demote you again. And I said, oh, I've already been doing that job.

15:01 - 15:25
Ginger Craddock: Wow. So the way I'm wired as a female is very different than many of my friends. I high value candor. And so in hearing what he said, that directness, I hear your response that you're like, well, I've already been doing that job. So there was a level of confidence.

15:25 - 15:38
Ginger Craddock: But I'd like to ask, how does candor and directness land with you? Because you were really young when that happened. And and how important is that for a career that develops over a lifetime?

15:39 - 16:03
Ellen Voie: Well, I'm glad you asked that because one of the things that people always say that, when they hire someone, they're looking for someone with the communication skills. And so I think candor falls under that. It's the communication skills. And I've always been interested in communication. And my undergrad is journalism communication, and my graduate degree is actually in interpersonal communication.

16:03 - 16:31
Ellen Voie: So I feel that I've always been that kind of a straightforward say what you're thinking, which could be offensive to some people who aren't used to that kind of of being forthright. But also, I think that when you're in a job that people don't normally see someone who looks like you in that job, you have to be straightforward. You have to state what it is that you're looking for or what you need because if you beat around the bush, they're not going to get it.

16:31 - 17:17
Ginger Craddock: Absolutely true. I spent my young formative years in the Deep South in Alabama. And so to your point, you came from up north and so candor oftentimes is more palatable or expected or not seen as disrespectful, where in the South, that culture is very different. And so I have found personally that there have been a lot of headwinds for me because I was trying to reconcile what is respectful and appropriate because when I'm direct, it doesn't land right. What is that nuance?

17:17 - 17:35
Ginger Craddock: And so we have the privilege of working with people all over the world. What insights would you share about how to demonstrate respect and candor? Because they're key for moving business forward efficiently and effectively.

17:36 - 18:00
Ellen Voie: Well, I would say that with my team at Women in Trucking, I was always direct. And I'm going go back a little. When I worked at Schneider, I was a manager of recruiting retention programs and it's located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. So, of course, the first five minutes of every meeting was about the Packers. I'm not really a football fan, so I don't really follow football.

18:00 - 18:19
Ellen Voie: Doesn't mean I don't like the Packers, but I was accused of not using small talk at the beginning of a meeting. I would come into a meeting and say, alright. Let's get started. And that worked against me to for some people because they didn't like it. Now for me, I'd rather have someone come in and say, alright.

18:19 - 18:40
Ellen Voie: Let's get this meeting started. So I learned that maybe you need to read people more and see what kind of conversation do I need to have with you. And we did that at Women in Trucking. We all took the StrengthsFinder's test so that we could learn how to communicate with other people based on what their strengths are. So I think that's really important.

18:40 - 18:49
Ellen Voie: But again, we're going back to education and knowledge, not just, you know, my background. So I I think that that was a big part of it.

18:49 - 19:36
Ginger Craddock: That's key and you you touched on the stereotypes of being blonde and female. I would go into a room because of my background and I would do the warm chitchat, the warm up, and the perception was that I didn't know my subject matter or that I was not competent. And so it's interesting how stereotypes for from any side can be construed in a way that is unexpected. They thought that the some feedback that I got was because you're warm and friendly that you're not competent or knowledgeable. And so it's it's so interesting how these stereotypes exist and present themselves in our personal life and our business lives.

19:37 - 19:37
Ellen Voie: Absolutely.

19:37 - 20:13
Ginger Craddock: One of the things that I appreciated most about your book as I watched your career unfold and as you tell the story is my perception is you delivered the directness with respect. And so there is something about that nuance of directness with respect and to your point reading the room. Is there anything else along that line that you would add for people early career, mid career, that would be helpful to them along this line?

20:14 - 20:46
Ellen Voie: So one of the presentations that I would give when I was still CEO of Women in Trucking was it was about misconceptions and how women could be better communicators. And things like don't use uptalk, you know, don't make your statement sound like a question. Things like don't say I'm sorry when you're starting to speak. Don't say, well, I'm sorry, but you know? And even even if you're late coming into a meeting, instead of saying, oh, I'm sorry.

20:46 - 21:23
Ellen Voie: I'm late. You say, oh, thanks for waiting for me. It puts you in more of a position of authority. So I think a lot of it, we have to remove some of the things that we as women often do because we're collaborative, we're team oriented, we're great managers. But sometimes we need to take that and turn it into, how do I show that I have this authority and make sure that I'm not being overly because women also get stereotyped as being not easy to work with, but there's a fine balance.

21:23 - 21:48
Ellen Voie: And the more I talk about misconceptions about working with women, women make decisions differently. Women will look at all the options, take her time, ask other people, where men will narrow the options. And this has been proven in studies. And so the work environment, if it values quick decision making, it's going to value women less in the process. And wonderful story.

21:48 - 22:16
Ellen Voie: I was on a panel one time with a CEO of a logistics company, and he talked about how he said, Ellen, most of my leadership team is women, because it's comprised of women. And he said, there's one woman who's very emotional. And I thought the next words out of his mouth were going to be, how do I get her to stop doing that? That wasn't. Instead, he said, I needed to learn how to deal with that.

22:16 - 22:41
Ellen Voie: And I thought, he took it upon himself. Now that's the kind of inclusivity. That's the kind of boss that we need. Instead of making the woman change, he changed. And that's what makes a much more gender diverse company, a much more female friendly company is accepting someone for who they are and not making them fit in your mold.

22:41 - 23:19
Ginger Craddock: That's beautiful. The what can I do to better understand how the person across the table, what they're processing and where they're coming from? And that not only is with our female counterparts, but for our male counterparts as well. People from back to the point a minute ago, from different parts of the country, different parts of the world, that's just a baseline that we can add to the story, what can I do to better understand why this is presenting the way it is in this meeting? Wow.

23:19 - 23:53
Ginger Craddock: That's incredible. Mhmm. So I want to pivot to leadership and mentors. You had some natural ability that for leadership that I hear coming out in our conversation, but you write about some mentors that have been significant to your growth and how have you used, an executive coach. Unpack that for us a little bit and how important that is for us becoming all that we need to be in the marketplace.

23:54 - 24:20
Ellen Voie: Well, glad you mentioned the executive coach, Joel McGinley, and I respect him so much. I asked him to write the forward in the book, and I was actually surprised at what he wrote. He said I was always approachable, and I hadn't thought of that. But as a leader, I always was trying to learn. So my sessions with Joel, as I mentioned earlier, we would do the strength finders, and my board would do the strength finders test.

24:20 - 24:52
Ellen Voie: My staff would do the strength finders test, and he'd say, well, Ellen, you this is what you need to understand about how their expectations of you. So so, for example, one of the things that I was very much I I was not a micromanaging type of boss. In fact, we had a results only work environment, meaning we had no vacation, no overtime, no holidays. You just work when you need to work, not even a set schedule on a day. And my staff was all very self motivated, and I had to hire people who were self motivated.

24:52 - 25:17
Ellen Voie: So I would say, I have this vision. I have a vision of a Girl Scout patch, so make it happen. And I know that with my friend Shar, who worked for me from the very beginning, she would just take it and make it her own, and I'd be like, that's great. Well, when I bring on staff and I'd say, okay, I have this vision and this is what the end result is. And they're like, okay, but how do you want me to do that?

25:17 - 25:32
Ellen Voie: I'm like, I don't know. I want you to do that. And it took people a while, and and Joel would tell me, Ellen, they're looking at you for how to get there. And I'm like, I don't even know how to get there. I'm the visionary.

25:32 - 25:45
Ellen Voie: I see something and I want it to happen, but I'm not gonna tell them the steps. And so my staff had to get used to that. And so they're all very self motivated. And sometimes they'll make mistakes. And you know what?

25:45 - 25:58
Ellen Voie: A mistake is just a way of learning. You know? It's a way of being better. So we work together as a team and, you know, and they get a lot of credit for making things their own.

26:00 - 26:36
Ginger Craddock: That's incredible. So you are an empowering leader that multiplies teams. I see that very clearly as your story unfolds in the book. So anyone who's listening that wants to understand how to create this environment and this this vision that's not a micromanager, someone who understands how to develop teams, you will want to read every bit of Ellen's story because in that, you'll see strategically how she does that. And then I want to go back.

26:36 - 26:59
Ginger Craddock: You touched on results, the expectations. So when you founded Women in Trucking, what was your initial goal and what was your expectation of yourself in launching that nonprofit? And did you launch it in an easy time or a difficult time? Unpack that for us, please.

26:59 - 27:33
Ellen Voie: Well, I was working at Schneider and my job was to attract and retain non traditional groups, and that included women. And at the time, I was getting my pilot's license, and I belonged to a women in aviation association. And one day, I was driving to my flying lesson, and I thought, why isn't there anything for women in the trucking industry? And so I I copied a lot of what they did. In fact, the our salute to women behind the wheel where we honor them with red t shirts was a direct copy of women in aviation because they take a photo of all the female pilots, whether they're commercial or private, once a year at the air show.

27:33 - 27:48
Ellen Voie: And I I I wanna do that. And and I told the CEO that I was copying her, and she's like, yeah. Go for it. I mean, imitation, you know, that's the sincerest form of flattery. So so it was really empowering women, giving women a voice.

27:48 - 28:07
Ellen Voie: And at the beginning, there was no data. Companies didn't know what percentage of their drivers or their mechanics or even women in the boardroom or on the c suite. They didn't track how many were female. And so when I start asking, you know, like, how many of your drivers are female? How many of technicians?

28:07 - 28:36
Ellen Voie: They'd have to go look it up, they're like, oh, wow. So then we started doing research, and so many organizations came and said, you know, we wanna help you. We we had one in particular, the University of Wisconsin. And first, they did a membership survey, but then they did one on truck cab design and ergonomics. And suddenly, we were realizing that, wow, there's a lot of data out there that shows that women need some more adaptations in the cab of a truck.

28:36 - 28:58
Ellen Voie: So the whole process meant I had to be providing information to our members that they didn't have. And one of my first board members, Lana Batts, said that. She said, all you have is communication to your members. They wanna learn from you. And so the biggest struggles in the beginning were to get the data.

28:58 - 29:14
Ellen Voie: And, you know, now now people are breaking things down. And I used to always raise my hand and say, do you have that broken down by gender? Whether it was an insurance company or the government or anyone, and they'd look at me like, no. And now they are. So it's very important.

29:14 - 29:34
Ellen Voie: And now we have lots of data on what are the challenges women are facing that might not be the same as for men and what are the some of the things we can do to keep women in the industry and how many women do you have on your board? How many women do have in your c suite? How many female technicians do you have? So we have that data now and that's what people are looking for.

29:36 - 30:14
Ginger Craddock: So you talk in the book about relationships and influence and connections within the industry because you began to form those in your twenties when you were working for the steel company. And so when you realize that data wasn't out there that you needed, there's a key partnership that really began to open that door and ask the question of fleets how many female drivers they have. Will you share a little bit about that key partnership when you began to collect that data yourself in women in trucking?

30:15 - 30:36
Ellen Voie: Sure. So the National Transportation Institute does wage and salaries, and benefits surveys. And so they started asking their their members what percentage of your drivers are female, and so we started compiling that. And then the the negative part of that is who are you reaching? You know, the data is only good as who's responding to the question.

30:36 - 31:05
Ellen Voie: Well, FreightWaves has a huge audience, and so they did a survey for us. And the results were pretty similar, but then our board said, we really need to move this in house, and we need to start owning this information. And so the women in trucking index was started probably about four years ago, maybe five, and it's done annually. And it's, again, who are you asking? So it's members of women in trucking, which, again, doesn't mean it's everyone out there.

31:06 - 31:31
Ellen Voie: So the data's only as good as who's responding. But ironically, government does not have that data. They have something that they call truck drivers, and sales workers. And so their Department of Labor counts truck drivers in with someone who might drive a box truck and deliver Twinkies to a grocery store. And we wanted CDL.

31:31 - 31:45
Ellen Voie: We want over the road big trucks so that we or smaller trucks, but break it down, you know, by the size of the truck and the gender and that sort of thing. So there's a lot of numbers floating around out there, and I don't know that any one of them are totally accurate.

31:46 - 32:02
Ginger Craddock: So true. And for anyone stepping into leadership, what is the significance or the importance of understanding the data, of understanding how to make financial projections based on that?

32:03 - 32:17
Ellen Voie: It's so you can see if you're growing. That's as simple as it is. It's that are we making an impact? Because numbers I wanna say numbers, don't lie, but it depends again on those numbers. But, I mean, one of the, like, how many members?

32:17 - 32:36
Ellen Voie: Women in Trucking Ads is about 8,000 members, and how geographic is how big of a geographic area? Well, there's about 10 countries, maybe 11 by now. And how big is the conference? You know, the first year, it was 300, and last year, it was 1,800 people at the conference. So those are all real solid numbers.

32:37 - 32:49
Ellen Voie: And then so membership growth and then dollars. You you watch the dollars. But also, are we making a difference in the industry to bring more women in? So we track. How many women do you have on your board?

32:49 - 33:02
Ellen Voie: How many women do have in leadership? How many women technicians? How many women are in different areas and drivers especially? So we track it. We track it all and monitor it because we want to know if we're making a difference.

33:02 - 33:35
Ginger Craddock: So tracking and knowing if we're making a difference, but also who you bring to the table. As you began to move the needle and share the data, you began to be invited to go to Washington to be a part of conversations with the lawmakers. What are some of the key pieces that you were able through Women in Trucking, through what you built and your team built, where were you able to impact national policy?

33:36 - 33:51
Ellen Voie: So I felt that people needed to hear from drivers because drivers experience the challenges. They're the front line. And so we created an image team. We have one in The US and one in Canada. And the image team would give ride alongs ride alongs.

33:51 - 34:29
Ellen Voie: We've given ride alongs to Diane Sawyer and many of our senators, our congresspeople, and media. New York Times, USA Today did a ride along with one of our drivers. I wanted them to hear it right from the drivers because, you know oh, and Federal Motor Care Safety Administrators, we gave many of them rides because they didn't really know, and here they are, you know, passing laws that affect our drivers. So I wanted the drivers to be able to tell them personally what their life was like and what things could be made better. And so I always said we educate by sending the drivers out there.

34:29 - 34:55
Ellen Voie: I always also make sure that whoever is riding with our driver knows that might not necessarily reflect the attitude of women in trucking or their carrier, it's the driver's opinion. And so I I felt that that was a good disclaimer because you never know. But I feel that was very impactful. And that also helped us get female drivers out in the public. We've had drivers featured in Oprah Magazine and Ricky Lake.

34:55 - 35:07
Ellen Voie: One of our drivers taught Ricky Lake how to drive a truck in the parking lot. We had a driver on Drew Barrymore's show. We've had drivers on Doctor. Oz and Megan Kelly. That was before she was taken off air.

35:07 - 35:46
Ellen Voie: We had a driver on there, and she talked about how she just loves her job. And the next day, the phones were just ringing off the hook. And women were saying, I hadn't thought about this as a job. So the the push was to get our drivers out and talking to other people, not just as a recruiting tool, but also as an image to a positive image of the industry. One in particular, I served on the motor carrier entry level driver committee, driver training committee with a gentleman from a safety advocacy group called CRASH, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highway.

35:46 - 36:03
Ellen Voie: And he would introduce himself, and he'd say, well, my name is Ron. My mother, my sister, and my three nephews were killed by a fatigued driver. So he did not have a good opinion of the trucking industry. And I said to him, would you like to go for riding a truck? And he's like, why would I do that?

36:04 - 36:36
Ellen Voie: And and I said, well, because you're up on Capitol Hill testifying against us, and maybe you would like a better understanding of the industry. And recently, at that time, Walmart had had that Tracy Morgan incident, and Crash had a letter to Walmart on their website about fatigued drivers. So we gave Ron a ride in a truck. It took about two hours. He asked the driver a lot of questions, and he was so impressed with her attention to safety and the company's attention to safety that he did a YouTube video about it.

36:36 - 37:08
Ellen Voie: And it's heartbreaking because he shows pictures of his mom and sister and three nephews who were killed by a driver. So those people out there are real people, and this industry is very focused on safety, but we need to make sure that everyone understands that. And so I always felt like, let's give them a ride. We gave the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board a ride. They needed to see that the industry really does care about safety and that these the drivers themselves are moms and grandmas and aunts and, you know, and dads.

37:08 - 37:13
Ellen Voie: You know? So they're real people with families who also travel on the roads. And to me, that was very important.

37:15 - 37:44
Ginger Craddock: A 100%. And the telling the whole story and helping to see the human element of who's behind the wheel in the the big cab. My my dad did an incredible job of teaching me about safety as a young woman and being careful around commercial vehicles. And so I always prided myself while my dad taught me that. I did my first ride along in a cab.

37:45 - 38:17
Ginger Craddock: I didn't know what I didn't know. Like, it it forever realigned my perspective like it did with the congressman of what it really looks like to be in the cab of a commercial vehicle. And so along that line, Ellen, I know that share with our audience about your experience behind the wheel and your experience of owning a trucking company. We're gonna back up a little bit.

38:18 - 38:33
Ellen Voie: So when I was working at Steel King, I ended up marrying one of my drivers. And so that's why I left, but we started a family and that's when I did consulting. So that was great. So I already knew I went with him many times. I rode with him, especially before we had children.

38:34 - 38:54
Ellen Voie: Even after you know, even when I was pregnant, I remember one time, I'm like, oh my gosh. This does not feel good. So for any female pregnant drivers out there, my heart goes out to you. It is not an easy thing to do. But having that background and then having the background in the the regulatory side of it was, you know, also very valuable.

38:54 - 39:15
Ellen Voie: But when I first started women in trucking, we had a truck driving school that was a member. It was Tri C, Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland or Euclid actually. And they said, you know, you don't have a CDL. And I I had a commercial I had a chauffeur's license back when that's what you needed, but I felt that I wasn't going to grandfather myself in. Was going to do it the hard way.

39:16 - 39:45
Ellen Voie: So I went to Tri C Truck Driving School in December 2008, and I wrote a book about it called Crushing Cones and what you need to know before going to truck driving school, like how to choose a school, and we even had shifting patterns in there and that sort of thing. So I I felt that it would give me more credibility with drivers to say, have a CDL as well. I'm not a professional driver. I've never been a professional driver, but at least I have a little bit of a taste of what they went through to get their CDLs.

39:45 - 40:17
Ginger Craddock: A 100%. And and from that experience and the work that you've done, what would you say to the driving public of what could we do to make our roads safer? I know that we are pumping our drivers with information, our commercial drivers of safety, safety, safety, how to be safe on the road. But I'd love to flip it and say, what do the noncommercial drivers, what can we do to improve safety around commercial vehicles?

40:18 - 40:38
Ellen Voie: Well, many years ago, I helped get more information into our state drivers manual about sharing the road with trucks. People need to understand. You hear them say things like, well, trucks have more brakes so they can stop faster. You know, it's like, no. It's the the weight of the truck and the momentum makes it worse.

40:39 - 41:09
Ellen Voie: So a lot of people need to be educated. And one of the things, one of our image team members was in this campaign called Our Roads, Our Safety with the Federal Mortgage Safety Administration. And there's billboards, there's public service announcements, and all of that is free to share. And I also think that I mean, I ran the Trucker Buddy program for six years, and it was a great way to teach children how to be safe around trucks. And they would go home and tell their parents, mom, if you can't see the driver's eyes in that mirror, he can't he or she can't see you.

41:10 - 41:26
Ellen Voie: And mom, don't pass on the right when they're making a turn, you know, and or dad. But I I think there's so many things that we could be doing. And anyone in the trucking industry, take your truck to a school. I don't care if it's elementary school. I don't care if it's a high school.

41:26 - 41:41
Ellen Voie: Go to a driver's ed class. Take the truck and then set up something around the outside. We do this with, like, a Harley Davidson group. Set up motorcycles all around the trucks and then have somebody get in the truck. They can't see a single motorcycle, and they're shocked.

41:41 - 42:03
Ellen Voie: So they need to realize that even though you're higher up in a truck, it doesn't mean that you have more visibility. And when I went to truck driving school, it made me much more aware of what truck drivers are going through with the motoring public that doesn't understand them and cutting in front of them and things like that. It's just we need to better educate the motoring public, and and we as an industry need to do that. And that's part of what our image team does.

42:05 - 42:45
Ginger Craddock: Agreed. And that's why I wanted to give you opportunity to share that because even though I've been in trucking for the last five years, I find and I've been driving for decades. I continue to learn things that I can do better to be safer on the road and help commercial drivers and just the driving public as well. So thank you for sharing that. I want to pivot this last part to Ellen has disrupted the trucking industry in the most positive way with solutions.

42:45 - 43:20
Ginger Craddock: She went from a single disruptor finding solutions in the trucking industry to an army of solutions oriented disruptors that are improving the industry. And so Ellen has been recognized with just multiple awards. So my question for you, Ellen, is share with us a couple of the awards that you have won and been recognized for in your innovation and then wrap it up with the award that means the most to you.

43:22 - 44:18
Ellen Voie: So first of all, I have been so surprised by some of the organizations that have honored me. The National Association of Small Trucking Companies, I was their, you know, person of the year, industry professional of the year, National Home Delivery, you know. And then so I I'm looking at these other groups that, you know, are peripheral to the Women in Trucking Association and giving honoring me in that way. And there's two awards that kind of stand well, the most recent one was International Association of Top Professionals, and that's not even that has nothing to do with the trucking industry, but I was recognized as a top female transportation professional in that category. But a couple that stick out, one that had nothing to do with trucking was called the Cinderella to CEO award, and it was based on the book, Cinderella to CEO, and it had nothing to do with trucking.

44:18 - 44:37
Ellen Voie: And I was shocked when, first of all, I was a finalist and then finalist in my category, and then I'm sitting there and there's hundreds of women in the room, and they went and voted. Everyone voted, and then they called my name. And I'm like, wow. This is pretty cool. I mean, there were some impressive people there.

44:37 - 45:17
Ellen Voie: There are people in the military and people who had done amazing things, and I won the Cinderella to CEO award. So that was that was cool because it wasn't trucking. But I think the most significant one that benefited women in trucking the most because it added credibility was in 2012 when the White House, president Obama, has what they call the champions of change. He he created this champions of change, and they would recognize people who were disrupting, changing their region, their community, their industry for the better. And I was nominated and recognized for being a transportation innovator champion of change by president Obama.

45:17 - 45:26
Ellen Voie: And my board was invited to go to the White House with me. We had a panel discussion. I was the only one there in the trucking industry. There was high speed rail. There was aviation.

45:26 - 45:55
Ellen Voie: There was, you know, Atlanta Metro, and and just people from all different areas in transportation. And it was just very it was exciting because suddenly, women in trucking is being recognized by the White House. And so it it I believe it added to the credibility and gave us a little boost in membership because people are like, wow. If the president thinks that they're doing something special, then maybe we should check into it. So that was my favorite.

45:56 - 46:21
Ginger Craddock: That's incredible. Ellen, thank you. Thank you for being a disruptor for the good, not only in the trucking industry, but for the greater good in other industries as well as as as we can see in in this recognition. So where can people find your book from dispatcher to disruptor? They can find

46:21 - 46:50
Ellen Voie: it on Amazon, and it's available in the Kindle version, paperback version, and hardcover. And the audio one will be out in just a week or two, so working on that one. And so I would say go to Amazon and order it. But if they want an autographed copy, they can go to my website, ellenboia.com, and I have some hardcovers here that I would autograph and then send them to them, and that includes shipping. So I would say go to Amazon and place your order.

46:51 - 47:05
Ginger Craddock: Wow. And that's exactly what I did two weeks ago, and I finished reading Ellen's book over the holiday weekend. And you guys, I showed Ellen, look at all my sticky notes. Like, this, this, this. So get the book.

47:05 - 47:38
Ginger Craddock: I just wanna share with our audience that vision that Ellen had as a a young woman to maybe be like Barbara Walters or share the news. You guys, Ellen has not just reported the news, but, you guys, she has lived it. She has led through it. She's provided solutions, and she hasn't just reported it, but she's changed the lives of so many people because of her work. So get her book.

47:38 - 48:01
Ginger Craddock: I can't wait. Please share insights from the book because I I'm pretty sure you're gonna have some sticky notes when you read the book too. It's well written. It's enjoyable to read, and you will be wowed and encouraged by her story. You'll be challenged to see what can you do to disrupt for the good.

48:01 - 48:08
Ginger Craddock: Your voice matters, and you can find a place to disrupt for good. Ellen, thank you so much.

48:09 - 48:12
Ellen Voie: Thank you, Ginger. I really enjoyed chatting with you.

48:12 - 48:24
Aaron Craddock: Thank you for joining us today. Our goal with the Hire Truckers podcast is to provide industry insights, marketing trends, and motivation to level up your recruiting game. If we added value, take a few seconds to share this with your network. Have a great week.