Via this interview in the Rumpus, I discovered Trucker Desiree. She describes herself thusly:
"California is where I was born & raised. I am of a Family of Migrant Field Workers who came to California before the Freeways. I grew up at the beaches in Venice, Oxnard, Malibu, Arcata, Trinidad and Carlsbad as a child of the Welfare System."
"After a life of struggles as a Single Mother, I am now an "Over the Road" Trucker.
For the past year, she has been sharing her story at AskTheTrucker.com. On her own site, she writes,
My initial concern was student truckers, primarily women who have had violence acted upon them during their student phase and simply quit because they are made to feel ashamed or responsible.
She also works to expose the problems she saw in trucking school -- especially as the industry increasingly looks to recruit women.The (slightly outdated) stats on women in trucking:
Today, there are nearly 170,000 women truckers, making up 5% of all U.S. trucking jobs. By the end of 2007, that number is expected to attain 200,000. What motivates these women to leave the general work place? You will find that independence and the irrepressible challenge of truck driving jobs are the two most common motivations given. Another important reason is the wage-earning aspect. Truck driving averages 20-30% higher wages than jobs' women usually enter into. Woman in trucking is on such a rise in the United States that it is the cause of such great organizations such as the National and International Women's Trucking Association.
While Desiree expresses some concerns for her safety in this industry, her interview with the Rumpus has some humorous moments, too:
Rumpus: Do you ever wish you could pee in a bottle?
Desiree: That's Funny! I actually did not know truckers did that or anyone else for that matter before I went to CDL [trucking] School. I find a Super Big Gulp cup works fine and I pour it in the grass.
Forget the P-Mate or the Go Girl, apparently all you need to do is buy a 64 oz. fountain drink.
Follow Desiree's tweets from the road.
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I was on the road with my trucker boyfriend for 2 years. I peed in a soda cup too! :D
I've also seen a lot of "trucker girlfriends" (also known as "bunk warmer" and a whole host of other nasty things), and it seems to me that nobody has any respect for them. These are the women that go on the road with their boyfriends or husbands and actually end up doing at least half the work sometimes. Trucking isn't all just driving. I had to keep track of the logs and bills and do most of the navigating. Well.. I guess I didn't really -have- to, but I definitely got a lot more respect out of everyone calling myself the "navigator" than I did the "girlfriend".
People would automatically assume you were a "lot lizard" (prostitute who hangs around truck stops) as well. Honestly, I did always feel safer knowing that I had someone with me, even when I was done with trucking (and that boyfriend) and starting hitchhiking with my friends, which was actually even worse because it was usually just two of us girls so a lot of the guys that would try to hit on us got a lot more bold. We were smart and could read people well, though, so we never got any rides from shady characters.
Trucker ladies are pretty cool though. We even met a few trucker trans-women when we were on the road! Truckers, for the most part, are super nice. And I'm going to stop rambling on now... :P
Her parents came to California in the 1940's? (Because that is when the first freeways were built.) And she is HOW old?
Minor point, but if you go for hyperbolie on one detail, who accurate are you on others?
She didn't say her parents, just her family. Could have meant her grandparents or other wider family.
Desiree asked me to post the following comment:
My Family came to California before the freeways meaning my Great
Grandparents walked with 12 Children in tow from Central Mexico by
following the railroad tracks due to the land raids occuring in the
Mexican Revolution.
My Mother tells me about walking to school in Los Angeles before the
Freeways were built, She is 70. I am 45.
Obviously there is another side of my Heritage but I wote that passage
for a California Issue & it was not intended to focus on me but rather
the topic of Idle laws.
It is from a post I made called "My Green Idea" to educate environmentalists.
Also, I enjoyed participating in "The Rumpus" Interview because what
my primary mission in Social Media has been is of a serious nature. It
felt good to be lighthearted for a change.
My purpose for weiting my Story on "Ask the Trucker" was to help other
aspiring Student Truckers, primarily Single Women with no Support
System, like me.
I had no one to go to for help from what I was experiencing.
I joined two Trucking Organizations & found they attacked me further
for seeking assistance.
One was a Women's Trucking Group who benefits from recruiting Women
and has a Non-Profit Status.
I let the drama unfold in their Public Forums & permitted myself to be
called names & bullyied to show other what they would encouter when
they entered this Industry.
Then I joined Twitter to see what other people outside Trucking
thought about these Organizations taking advantage of hopeful Student
Truckers like myself & tossing them aside when they sought assistance
from the Violent & Unsafe Situations they were placed to learn.
Interest and Outrage from the Non-Trucking Public is what I need to
help my Mission.
That's why I came to Social Media & Twitter.
Thanks,
Desiree