Ellen Voie: Imagining WIT - A Woman Who Changed History for all Women in Trucking
National Women’s History Month is a time each year to look back and appreciate the contributions that inspirational women have made to our country’s history. When specifically looking at the history of the trucking industry, I feel that a woman who has really made an impact on the industry, and its future, is Ellen Voie (pictured below), the founder, and current CEO of the Women in Trucking Association (WIT). Ellen is heading towards retirement, so I am grateful to have had the chance to ask her some questions about her experiences and thoughts on her time with WIT since the association was first started in 2007.
In an interview with Nicole Glenn from Candor Expedite, Ellen stated that a large part of the idea for starting WIT came from when she was completing her pilot’s license. “I belonged to an organization for female pilots. It struck me that there wasn’t a similar group for women in the trucking industry; so, I started one. (Candor Expedite)” After learning about her inspiration for the organization, I was curious to also hear from Ellen herself about why, back then, she felt that SHE was the right person to start it. When I asked her, she answered, “When I started working in trucking (1979) my passion has always been for the personal or people aspect of the industry. My Master’s thesis [was] “Complex Identities of Women Married to Professional Drivers.” That research and my BA in Journalism allowed me the opportunity to write for numerous publications and I began to be known as someone who understands the drivers and their families. My role at Schneider was as Manager of Retention and Recruiting Programs, which meant I represented the drivers when it came to programs, salary, and corporate initiatives. Part of my job was to figure out how to attract and retain non-traditional drivers, such as women. It really struck me that there wasn’t any organization to help these women to have a voice. The reason our members are both corporate and individual is because we felt our greatest influence would be to convince trucking companies to be more gender diverse in all areas, from the cab to the C-Suite. We wanted to be the voice of drivers to the industry and create a more female-friendly career.”
However, starting a new organization for women in a male-dominated industry, like trucking, was never going to be easy. When I asked Ellen about the challenges she encountered in the early years of WIT, she answered, “The most challenging part of starting Women In Trucking was that it was during the recession in 2007 and 2008. We had to really provide value to potential members and when we hit our first goal of 500 members in our first year, it motivated us to keep going. When they started renewing their dues, we knew we had made a positive impact on our members because they found value in being a part of the association. Today we have about 8,000 members (including men) who join because they support our mission.”
The Women In Trucking Association has only continued to grow since, including reaching 1,750 registered attendees at their recent 2022 Accelerate! Conference, which is a dramatic increase from the 800 registered attendees in 2021. “We more than doubled our attendance in one year and that was just unbelievable! When I started the organization, I wasn’t expecting the huge corporate support from some of the largest carriers, manufacturers, and suppliers in the industry. Walking into a board meeting and seeing the high-level titles in these major names in trucking is very humbling (and surprising!)” While reflecting on her years with WIT, Ellen said that she was most proud of seeing, “the changes this industry has made in the past sixteen years. When I started Women In Trucking in 2007, no one was looking at their gender diversity numbers. They claimed they just hired the ‘best person for the role.’
However, I started pointing out the inequities, such as the lack of women’s uniforms, restroom access issues, and trucks that were designed for men. Once we started making them aware that the industry didn’t provide a level playing field, they started listening. However, it was only when we started gathering data about safety, customer service, risk-taking and so much more that they realized what women bring to the industry.” As for a specific achievement that she was proud of, she said it was receiving, “recognition from the White House as a ‘Transportation Innovator Champion of Change’… I was able to take my board of directors to the event at the White House! It launched numerous invitations from the Department of Transportation and my invitation to many other events and committees.”
Ellen herself is a woman that I feel will go down in trucking history, but for Ellen, a woman from her past who truly inspired her was her mother. “[She] encouraged me to seek nontraditional opportunities, and that was back in the seventies. I wanted to take shop (industrial arts) class and no girls had ever been allowed to move away from home economics class. My mom encouraged me, and I learned welding, drafting, woodworking, and engine maintenance. That led me to my job at a steel fabricating plant as a drafter which was designing and drawing material handling equipment. It was there [that] I was asked to move into the traffic department and after earning my diploma in Traffic and Transportation Management, my career in trucking was launched. Sadly, my inspirational mom passed away that year (1979) and never saw my career momentum. She was ahead of her time in making sure her two daughters had the same aspirations and opportunities as her three sons.