What are you Sponsoring?

Conflict s of Interest with regard to Women entering trucking can result in violence, & abuse. Does your

organization support this?Issue: Women Truckers ( especially those who are just entering the industry) are currently being exposed to both systemic and sporadic abuse which is not being admitted or addressed in any meaningful or constructive manner despite increased recruitment.

Objective: •To raise this issue to the attention of those in all areas of transportation & logistics community. •Insure the truth is told by helping to better track/report incidents•Expose to the public the unethical conduct until the systemic changes to rectify the above issues so they will stop.

NO ONE!, should have to worry about being harmed at their place of

employment

A Day in the Life of a Lady Trucker

In 2008, I began exposing harassment & retaliation in truck driver training through a series of posts which became a series of Investigative Reports by Dan Rather

Membership Revoked for

Speaking Out on Violence & Retaliation

• I joined the non-profit organization “Women in Trucking” in early 2008.

•I was verbally attacked, cyber stalked and later had my membership revoked for speaking out on harassment, violence and retaliation aimed at women entering the trucking industry.

•The same organization that denied such a problem existed promptly moved to benefit by presenting themselves as advocates following the Dan Rather broadcasts

•President, Ellen Voie went on to consult with a Private Investigator in an attempt to intimidate me when I persisted in exposing what was learning about this issue.

Support from Women in Trucking

Women Entering Trucking

Misleading advertisements targeted at Women create an irresponsible image of Women Truckers

Targeted Recruitment of Women to enter trucking has grown to a rate of 18% - 20% YET, Retention remains low at 5%-6%.

Little if any conduct training is provided at training carriers despite a highly intense, intimate living situations in which truck drivers are expected to learn with no supervision.

Women trainees, and sometimes Men are subjected to sexual misconduct, violent situations and in some cases rape during their training period.

Retaliation by HR Personnel, Management and other Industry entities is frequent for reporting abuse.

Abusers are often protected while victims are eliminated from industry using DAC abuse and humiliation

Advocate?Ellen Voie has established herself as an accommodating corporate apologist for offensives carriers rather than for the women who are

behind the wheel ,OR who aspire to become professional drivers.

August 2009, President Ellen Voie of “Women in Trucking” eagerly agreed to be filmed for a workplace bullying documentary called “Raw Sound Bytes from a Trucking Convention”. In the segment she states that she has only heard the carrier CRST’s side of the story in the massive sexual harassment case. This was untrue ,Tracy Livingston (Tuttle) , former student ,trainer at CRST and one of the plaintiff’s in the suit attempted to tell Ellen her story. Ellen abruptly ended the phone conversation. Ellen also stated in the documentary “…that the women ( who alleged sexual harassment at CRST) just wanted to be part of a lawsuit…” .

Voie’s advice to a woman who has been harmed during truck driver training is to contact the Human Resource department or EEOC, yet she says in the same segment the EEOC was the problem in the CRST case. Voie has been advised as early as 2008 that there are barriers and filters in trucking human resource departments that make access for victims to report abuse problematic.

CRST Van Expedited is a corporate sponsor of the Women in Trucking.

In a 32 question Q & A with Ellen Voie regarding the unfortunate and uncaring remarks made about Women truckers by Voie in the documentary, then Director Marge Bailey, stated that “Women in Trucking” “is not” an advocacy group for drivers, later she retracted this statement.

Tale of the Tape

Voie is made aware a Female CR England Student Has Been Abandoned After Sexual Misconduct.

Voie is made aware that a female trucking student has been discriminated against during training and will file a lawsuit. Voie is asked to testify for Plaintiff (female truck driving student)

Action Taken by VoieOpportunity to HELP Women

Solicits sponsorship from the carrier and never attempts to make contact with the woman who was attempting to salvage her poor training experience to become a professional driver.

Voie testifies on behalf of the carrier instead rather than for the female student . In her “expert” testimony Voie admits sexual misconduct is an issue in entry level driver training , but she goes on to say that the carrier is reasonable to separate genders during training for safety. This is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Upon failing to continue to make excuses for corporate sponsor support where sexual misconduct is frequent, Voie delivered an anti-harassment document that she stated

was FREE …. (to a certain high level corporate sponsor) which is NOT FREE. This document has never been made available to drivers in her organization whom it could

affect.

Covering up for Abusive Carriers is not Advocacy!

Since 2008, Ellen Voie was offered free ideas for solutions to the complex issues in entry level driver training. This information was provided to her by actual women truckers who believed she would help lead a charge. No public document has ever been published. Only an “Anti-Harassment” document available to top paying sponsors.

Voie assembled women truckers for a photograph in 2010 under the pretense that she was attempting to break to Guinness world record. The event did not attempt to collect proper documentation for such a record according to Guinness. The photograph has been used often for the purpose to increase donor dollars. Many of the women assembled for the picture not because they were WIT members, some were not even truck drivers. They just thought they were going to be in Guinness.

Driver Crisis Hotline

Why Would You Report Sexual Misconduct to an Organization that has a history of advocating for the corporate partners rather than the Women who are in distress?

One of the suggestions Voie was given from Women Truckers was that there was a need for a neutral 3rd party driver crisis hotline.

In 2011 - 2012, Voie submitted an application for a $161,000 federal grant for “The Prevention of Sexual Harassment and Assault for CDL Holders: The development of Online Support Services” to be funded by “Commercial Driver’s Program Improvement”, The offering agency Department of Transportation/Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Voie’s issue statement for the grant details her knowledge that sexual misconduct, rape and violence toward women who work as truck drivers is an issue.

She does not state that the most frequent reports of this conduct is reported about some of her corporate supporters that she refuses to drop.

Conflict of InterestPortraying Women Truckers as “Party Girls” jeopardizes

personal safety in an industry that provides little supervision yet requires super intense training

environments where mixed genders are expect to live & work together

Women In Trucking Association, a non-profit organization of Plover, Wisconsin was established to encourage the employment of Women into the trucking industry, this includes women truckers.

Women In Trucking Organization should not be a watchdog for tracking or addressing these issues of abuse & retaliation because it is a conflict of interest.

Raising/Admitting these issues and incidents exist in significant numbers counters the goal to paint a rosy picture on Women in trucking to keep the new recruits coming.

In 2010, the Women in Trucking association held a tattoo party at a trucking convention rather use the venue to speak out on issues affecting women entering trucking. What message does this send?

Confused? OR Cover Up?

Sponsors may not understand that ongoing conflicts of interest hurt women, especially women truckers and those attempting to

enter the industry.

Female Truck driving trainees are being targeted for recruitment with a complete disregard for their personal safety.

Retaliation from carriers, false DAC reporting through “Un-hireable ” references effectively eliminate qualified Women Truckers from the industry who have reported abuse.

As this issue is exposed and diversity becomes more of a topic, it is only natural that potential sponsors will look to associations to clarify their intentions but DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

IT IS DANGEROUS FOR DISENFRANCHISED WOMEN WHEN THE “ADVOCATE” IS REALLY JUST GROOMED FOR OFFENSIVE CORPORATE ENTITIES, Are You Part of That?

Sponsoring a “FEEL GOOD” organization may actually be harming someone.

REAL Women Truckers need REAL Leadership!

MAN UP! Women are regularly thrown off trucks, abused, beat up and even raped

during training. DOES YOUR ORGANIZATION SUPPORT THIS?

Do you understand “Where Truck Drivers Come From?” LEARN about the practices at Entry Level Driver Training Carriers who are supposed to be producing “Qualified Truck Drivers”

Please educate yourself BEFORE you sponsor a “FEEL GOOD” Organization.

DO NOT CONTRACT WITH TRUCK DRIVER TRAINING FLEETS WHO DO NOT PROVIDE CONDUCT TRAINING AND EMPLOY ETHICAL TRAINING FOR MEN & WOMEN

COURAGE TO CHANGE“REAL Women In Trucking was created to provide free self help

tools for Women entering the industry so they can protect themselves during entry-level truck driver training”

We understand the deliberate confusion created by WIT to financially benefit from what we worked hard to expose to them for the purpose of improving conditions.

It’s never too late to get educated on the truth.Violence against Women in and around the trucking industry

is an issue that needs to be addressed.Help Women be successful as truck drivers by helping to

rectify the silent abuse which are obstacles in truck driver training.

Please think carefully about where you permit your sponsorship logo to appear. FLASHY does not mean there are measurable achievements for the women behind the wheel.

RECOGNIZE the MONEY GRAB, Support an Advocate REAL improvements

Join Us on our Facebook Fan Page:“Real Women Truckers”

www.REALWomeninTrucking.org

Follow us on Twitter: @WomenTruckers

For more information contact:Desiree Wood(561) 232 - 9170P.O. Box 1051Lake Worth, Florida 33460