How Nicole Ward & AAWTA Support African American Women in Trucking | Ep 31
Nicole Ward says she started by “failing forward” in trucking. Starting a trucking business with her mom, Nicole realized that there weren’t enough resources for African American women in the industry. That’s how the African American Women in Trucking Association (AAWTA) was born.
I talked to Nicole about what she learned from running her carrier business and how she supports and empowers other African American women and under-represented groups in our industry.
Email your questions for Nicole and me to hello@bobtail.com and visit AAWTA’s website to learn more and join: https://aawta.org/.
Episode Highlights
Nicole’s Background and Journey
- Initial Steps: Nicole began in trucking by helping an ex-partner with a small carrier business.
- Career Progression: Transitioned from dispatcher to broker, eventually starting her own carrier business during COVID.
- Establishment of AAWTA: Noted a lack of resources for African American women in trucking and founded AAWTA to fill this gap.
Industry Challenges
- Representation data: Limited and inaccurate demographic data for African American women in trucking.
- Need for Diversity: Emphasizes the business value of diverse perspectives and how it benefits the industry.
- Difficulties in Compliance and Safety: Discusses challenges for small carriers with compliance and the cost-benefit of investing in expert resources.
Key Challenges in Running a Trucking Business
- Main Areas of Focus:
- Leadership: A strategic leader is essential to adapt to market changes.
- Technology: Transportation management systems (TMS) are crucial for operational efficiency.
- Driver and Dispatcher Roles: Coordination of sales and operations.
- Compliance: Vital for business survival; recommends consulting specialists.
Related:
- Event Recap: Trucking Insurance & Compliance
- What is a TMS? And How to Choose One
- Manage your loads all in one place
Representation and Diversity in Trucking
- DEI Importance: Diversity drives innovation and can improve safety standards in trucking.
- Safety Concerns: Addressing sexual harassment and assaults to make trucking safer for everyone.
- Future Goals: AAWTA seeks to change the industry by promoting representation and advocating for better conditions.
AAWTA’s Initiatives
- Community Marketplace: Virtual platform offering resources, products, and services for AAWTA members.
- Membership Badges: Allows members to display affiliation, enhancing community pride.
- Inclusive Membership: Open to anyone in the industry, supporting both men and women from diverse backgrounds.
Nicole: Other people don’t understand the importance of certain things that should be in play logistically. To be successful as a carrier.
Nicole: And then we’re like, wait, we can do something bigger for the community.
Caroline: Welcome to This Week in Trucking, the podcast that tells you what you need to know about the trucking market for the week. My name is Caroline, and if you are enjoying this series, subscribe below to This Week in Trucking. When I went to the Mid-America Truck Show back in March of this year, I met some truly Inspiring people. And I’m really excited to have one of them on the show today.
Nicole Ward is the president and founder of the African American women in trucking association, or AAWTA. She’s a philanthropist, an entrepreneur, and a trailblazer in this industry. She does everything and has had every experience probably possible in the trucking market from. having a trucking business herself to being on [00:01:00] the women in trucking board of advisory board of the FMCSA.
So if you’re looking for someone who knows about trucking and knows about what impacts small carriers, Nicole is definitely the person that you got to talk to. So thank you so much for being here, Nicole.
Nicole: Thank you so much for that amazing introduction. I was just like, Ooh, is that me? Yeah, I love that. Oh, that’s me. Hi, Caroline. Good to see you again. It’s been a few months. So excited to be here and have an opportunity to tell you what’s going on with all that and the industry.
Caroline: Awesome. Awesome. Let’s do it. Okay. So first off, I want to start by you telling us a little bit about your history in trucking. What you, what got you into this industry?
Nicole: Man, I tell people I fell in trucking by accident, but on purpose at the same time.
There’s two backstories. And we’ll make them fast. The first one being, I was in a relationship with somebody who did quite well. It was a small carrier. And I know numbers came in and was able to help turn his business around.
Now, what I didn’t know that trucking is a little bit more [00:02:00] difficult than just driving on the road. There’s a really big back office and a backend. You have to run the business side of it. It’s just not the road. And so I became a, I was away from a dispatcher. Became a broker and then I was a carrier and I had three trucks and I tell people I got into this industry by failing forward.
It looked like it was easy. But everything that looks as easy as is, definitely doesn’t translate the same. And we had to put a lot of work into not making sure we lost everything.
And so I felt like it shouldn’t have been so difficult. Where were certain resources? And then AAWTA was born.
Caroline: Yeah. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about your carrier business. Are you still running it? When did you start it? How, what was the history behind that company? What kind of trucks did you have?
Nicole: Awesome. So we started it in the same time and everybody else for covid, right? We got into, we saw an opportunity, we thought it would be great. My mother which had an opportunity to meet Donna Shepherd, which is also a co-founder of African American Women Trucking Association. I sent her to school to [00:03:00] become a driver. I’m like, mom, we’re starting a trucking business. And she’s what? I’m like yeah. This is really good. I just finished helping the ex boyfriend with his business. Turn it around. We can do this.
Again, simple enough, right? Let’s do it. And so it was, it started from there. We got our first truck and we actually just did power only. So what that means is, we just have the tractor and then we contracted with some of the big guys to move their freight from point A to point B. And we did that until we were able to afford a second. Then we put a second driver in the truck and at that point in time, we were able to purchase equipment. So we got a reefer and that was really cool. So we’re excited to put our second driver in and our third truck. We did we did a day camp. And so the day cab was ran a little bit local. And with that one, we had a dry van.
Yeah, so that was, we did that for a while and then kept only the day cab before we fizzled out the business. To finalize the contract that we had that was local a dedicated lane. It’s what we would call it for those of you that are in the street. And so that was where we were.
AAWTA started taking off. We started actually using a lot of the [00:04:00] resources that allowed us to get back on track and not, lose everything. And those resources we found to be super useful. And then I’m like, wow, other people aren’t using these resources. Other people don’t understand what factoring is.
Other people don’t understand the importance of certain things that should be in play logistically. To be successful as a carrier. And so that’s where, we started putting our resources together, gathering each other saying, Hey, I got this person, I got that person. And then we’re like, wait, we can do something bigger for the community.
Caroline: That’s awesome. So you’re not currently running that business. It sounds like AAWTA just took over your life. That’s amazing. That you started in one place, you’ve had so many different, roles in this business And you’ve seen the business from every angle from being a broker, you’ve talked to a shippers, you’ve done local you’ve done, OTR when you think about the people that make up this chaotic, beautiful industry that we call home.
[00:05:00] There are so many of those roles and some of them are male-dominated, right? Top executives of the biggest carrier businesses and trucking businesses in the U. S. are mainly men. Drivers are majority men, mechanical labor and and other roles around that. But there are actually quite a few female-dominated.
Roles in trucking as well already that have historically even been pretty female-dominated There’s a report I believe from Women in Trucking Association. That’s had human resources in Trucking so the people who are hiring drivers are largely that’s largely women in those roles.
Bookkeeping, safety is actually pretty split evenly, 50-50 between men and women. So can you talk about the representation of African American women in different roles in the trucking industry? Where can we find good data about this and how do you think it should be used?
Nicole: I love that question because I think it’s important because that’s why we exist. [00:06:00] Data’s not there. And so when you Google, what is the demographic of African American women are women of color in the trucking transportation industry in that space. And you’re going to get three separate statistics.
All three of them are terrible. All three of them are lower than 7%. And all of them are inaccurate. And so we love the, we love these conversations because we (AAWTA) is actively working to make sure with other associations that produces data, produces information and other agencies to ensure that it’s correct. Why is that important? Because accuracy is what’s going to produce results and resources. And so we’re saying that there’s a problem. And the data is showing that there’s not, or that it’s increasing and that it’s not, then the support is not gonna be the same. So in for what we can see, we hold about two to 3% of African American women within the trucking industry and the space.
And so for us, representation doesn’t mean just behind a truck. It means you’re in the space. Whether you’re behind the wheel, you’re [00:07:00] behind the desk, you’re in a cargo van, you’re in a semi-truck, you’re in arecycling truck, if you have a CDL, that’s what representation is for us.
Nicole: We understand what the industry has done, but this doesn’t fix our problem. We need to understand true data. We need to understand exactly career paths for individuals facing barriers. We need to present and understand opportunities. So again, that goes back to statistic. If we’re talking about DEI, and how important that is, whether the corporation aligns themselves or understands the importance of DEI within the organization, data is data.
You can always look at those information as long as they’re correct.
What artists come in to try to make sure that we identify what’s correct. Let everybody know if you’re trucking transportation, we don’t care if you drive a bus. We don’t care because, those people have CDLs as well.
We don’t care if you drive a school bus. We don’t care if you drive a coach van. We don’t care if you drive a cargo van. Are you considered trucking or transportation? We’re here to make up that [00:08:00] representation. We want to make sure that we’re representing and presenting opportunities and resources for people that typically face barriers.
Going back to just closing that out. This is why the numbers are important. This is why the data is important. This is why we’re here to bring the issues to the forefront and to provide opportunities for individuals.
Caroline: Yeah, you touched on something about the numbers, you say that it’s below 7 percent in most areas of the trucking industry, but at the same time, we don’t actually know because there’s not a ton of information being collected on it. There’s not a ton of data being collected on it. And aome people would say why do you care?
Why do you care? What race or gender someone is in an industry? Why does that matter? Can you talk a little bit about the idea behind diversity and why it matters, not just because, Oh, it’s just like a nice thing to do for different people who may have barriers, but why is diversity good for business?
Nicole: I think the first part is good for [00:09:00] business is it presents opportunities for everyone, right? If we all want to be on this equal playing field, whether you’re white, black, green, orange, girl, boy, whatever you like. I don’t think that is what the intent is to focus in and provide specific resources for a demographic that typically has not been represented. And so it’s just a highlight and to key in now the best part about African American Women’s Trucking Association is it’s just not African Americans, right? We’re here to support the community. So diversity, I think when people think about DEI and think about diversity, first thing they think about is black and white. That’s actually not it. We’re here to highlight some of the things that have to do with men, women. People that are facing barriers. And so we have a lot of allies and a lot of subcommittees. We’ve just started autumn men. We are our affiliate and partners. They come in every shade, color, creed, cost of country all over, and they’re here to band together.
And everyone looks this, everybody’s heart is the same at [00:10:00] AAWTA. And so that’s the important is just understanding. A specific demographic that has an opportunity to fix some of the issues that we have. What is the, some of the issues that we have in the trucking industry?
We have a lack of truck drivers. Regardless of their sex or their gender or their race, we have a lack of drivers. And by 2030, it’s supposed to triple. So how can we fix it? We have an unrepresented demographic that has an opportunity to come in and join an industry that’s important to America’s supply chain, so it’s if we can present these opportunities, we have less, we have, we don’t have a problem. We’re creating a solution. And so that’s what this was all about a focus. So it could be. It could be anyone and I actually challenge everyone to see if they find there’s an area that can actually come in and make something better. They should try to do that. And that’s what AAWTA did.
Caroline: Yeah. I think the best argument in favor of diversity. One, there, there’s a lot of evidence, right? That diversity is good for business. Diversity is good for an industry. You’re going to reach more [00:11:00] people. You have more diverse perspectives on things. And depending on where you were born and what the situation you were born in, even what you look like, your experience of the world is different.
My experience of the world is different from yours. It’s different from my boss. It’s different from, the truck driver who just passed by my house. We all have different perspectives shaped by who we are and what culture we come from, how people treat us, in different circumstances, in different situations.
And by identifying groups that are underrepresented and that could be better represented in an industry, you’re bringing in a group that might have solutions to the problems that we face, might have a perspective that will, get the creative juices flowing
Nicole: Something better. Who knows?
Caroline: Can you talk a little bit about what you think are the most challenging parts of running a carrier business? This could be someone who’s behind the desk or maybe behind the wheel as well. What are you hearing from [00:12:00] your members?
What are some of the most challenging things about running a business right now in this industry?
Nicole: I’ll speak on a member’s perspective, but I’ll also speak on a personal perspective. I would say resources and direction. I think it’s very important for people to, when I say plugin, that can mean that’s so wide. I, that means podcasts. That means peers. That means trucking association.
That means federal government agencies to understand what’s going on. There’s so much going on. People are not sure what to tune into what to pay attention to. And so they typically don’t which ultimately can affect their business. That is one of the things I think is the most challenging, especially for the guys that have second or third drivers or been in this industry for a long time.
They understand how to operate business, but there’s so many things changing in the industry. It can hurt their business and shut them down. They’re not tuning in or the awareness isn’t being brought to their attention, or they don’t know how to incorporate it into their [00:13:00] normal 30 year, flow. And so again, that’s where that lack of resources or really understanding the importance of plugging in and how to utilize the resources that are out there and incorporate them with an ever changing industry
Caroline: One of the things you mentioned is the FMCSA and that’s really important to plug into the information they have about compliance because it can change all the time. I was just talking about this on the show last week with Gurvir that compliance really makes or breaks you in trucking.
If you can make it those first couple of months, you can get those first loads. That’s the first big hill you have to climb, after you’ve established yourself and you have somewhat of a track record and you’re able to get loads, compliance is the number one thing that will put you out of business.
Because if you get an out-of-service order or into an accident, you don’t have all of your paperwork, all your ducks in a row and maybe you slipped your mind to do a check on the FMCSA’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse. You’re in trouble, not [00:14:00] just from a financial perspective, but from a legal perspective, right?
If you don’t take care of compliance and safety it’s not always going to hit you right away. The big accidents and their big tragedies, are of course tragic, but those big acute events don’t represent the majority of what puts people out of business, which is these little things here and there that affect your safety scores, affect your compliance.
And next year, when your insurance rolls around and you have to renew your insurance, it’s, why is it up 50, a hundred percent? Now you have to scramble to get a down payment. You have to scramble to try and pay for that. That’s really what makes or breaks you. Is that how can people, what’s the best way that small carriers should be plugging in, as you say, to the information that they need about compliance and safety.
Nicole: Thank you for asking that. When I talked about resources, I want to pick up where I said as carriers, especially small carriers, we’re doing everything on our own. And so you brought compliance being up. Literally that’s almost like one [00:15:00] area.
I mean of what needs to be taken care of and the typical owner-operator or carrier is doing a lot including dispatching i’ve seen drivers with multiple trucks on the road trying to maintain compliance trying to dispatch trying to get their paperwork. Also, they could factor and make sure they’re able to pay everyone, like I’ve seen that be the downfall as well. One of the biggest feedback that I want to give to every carrier, small carriers, specifically is we tend to think we can’t afford it, but we can’t afford not to. And we need to be able to hire an expert, especially as something as simple as compliance. You might have a driver that’s driving from one state to another. And if you don’t have anybody to determine, Hey, is there a permit that I need? Now you got stopped. Now you have another issue. That’s one more headache. Compliance is so big. And I feel like we treat that as something that’s like a little bit of not importance of how we survive and maintain. So I wanna say, this is when I said the plugging in the [00:16:00] importance of understanding to utilize your resources and to just focus in on what makes you great. Are you a driver? Alright. Hey, maybe you’re a dispatcher and you’re able to drive, but you cannot dispatch, you cannot drive, you cannot maintain compliance and grow your fleet at the same time.Something’s gonna fail.
Caroline: Yeah. And I think that’s something that’s changed over the last decades. It’s really hard to get started and be successful in the long term today because you do have so much more government regulation and safety.
Part of me thinks, that makes it more difficult for small business owners. Another part of me thinks what are the safety numbers on that? Has that saved lives? Because maybe that’s worth it. And maybe we just need to. value this work more.
Caroline: So it’s not necessarily that the safety regulations are a bad thing on the whole, right? Obviously, there’s some exceptions here and there of what’s good, what’s not. But on the whole, better safety regulation is better for everybody. Now we just need to value that [00:17:00] work more so that people are actually paying what it costs to do.
Get your next day shipping, right? Or get your load from point A to point B for your business or get your raw materials from point A to point B. And so we need to be valuing that work much more rather than saying it’s compliance, it’s, government intervention. Maybe we just need to value it more. And like you said, sometimes we think, hiring that expert in compliance, that’s pretty expensive. But compare that to what is it going to cost you next year if you don’t have these things taken care of, you do get pulled over, you do get an out of service and now your violations have stacked up and you’re going to have to pay 50, 70 percent more in insurance.
That’s definitely not something that you can’t afford.
Nicole: There you go
Caroline: We think we can’t afford the expert, but sometimes we can’t afford not to have that expert. If you were to break down running a trucking operation into different [00:18:00] buckets of knowledge and resources that you need, what would be those main, four or five areas that are most important for business owners to either really master themselves? Or hire someone to do it, or, hire some consultant that can help them either learn or do it for them.
Nicole: Major kudos to the large carriers it’s a difficult run, but it has to be super structured there are key components That are valuable to help you maintain and survive. The first thing is you’re going to need your mastermind your CEO, whoever’s your founder, whoever that mastermind, your key player, your thinker that is able to understand this game and strategize. The good, the bad, and understand what a contingency plan is, right?
Because trucking is something that goes up and down.
The markets and you don’t understand the industry, you can plan to put 15 trucks in there, 10 drivers [00:19:00] and have them drive all over the place. If you don’t understand the basics, the logistics and the strategy, you’re in trouble. There has to be somebody that understands this industry’s ins and outs. The second thing is you need a TMS, a transportation management system.
I love old-schoolers. As you guys have had an opportunity to team up with some of our partners that provide TMS, your life’s different. You’re able to see your growth and it’s no longer a feeling comes down to TMS software, it takes the feeling if you did good or you did bad. As long as you’re inputting the proper information, it’s going to provide you the proper output. So you want to be a carrier, right?
So are you going to be the driver or is there going to be a driver, oh, we have drivers. Great. Now we can indicate who that is, and grow our organization it provides, a break per mile. And a lot of new TMS is going to advise you about the market. So let’s stay out of trying to get out of Florida. Now it’s only a dollar 25 to get out. We’re trapped. And the TMS systems, a [00:20:00] lot of them, really track and help structure the back end of the business. So it’s going to give you all kinds of things.
So I talked about two things already. We talked about a lead person that understands the back end of the business. I talked about a software that’s going to help you maintain structure and organization. And I also talked about a driver because that could be you or somebody else. All right. So if it’s either you, then that what’s the plan, somebody else, and we have to plan out for them.
So that person’s important. Who’s going to drive? And then the next one is the dispatching, who’s going to dispatch and how is that going to happen? So I talked about, four people. Is it you? Are we hiring a third party? Are we working directly with the process and so we need to figure out who’s going to get us loads because we need to make money the driver could also be the owner who maybe they’re just a mastermind But we have to have those functions in place, right? That mastermind needs to understand who is going to be one of the players. Is that mastermind going to do compliance or do we bring in a third party? Mastermind is to [00:21:00] determine what other key points do we need to get things going. Do we, ELDs, all the equipment, all the transaction. So hopefully that wasn’t too confusing.
Nicole: I talked about four key players.
Caroline: I think that’s spot on. Dispatching is a mix of sales and ops, right? You have to know where your drivers are. You got to know and you got to be keeping track of them. That’s where a TMS can come in handy.
True TMS is a good one. I know George from True TMS. That’s a great software that people can use. We also have an on Bobtail. Sometimes a TMS is a little overkill for people who just have one or two trucks. Some people, some one, one, two truck operations really love them, and that’s awesome, for them, if they found something that works.
Sometimes I think a TMS is overkill, and most people don’t use them because they’re too feature-heavy at Bobtail, we have a new load management feature in our factoring app, which is really cool.
I’ll link it in the description to a tutorial dispatching to me is sales and a little bit of ops, but it’s mostly sales. You have to be [00:22:00] knowledgeable about the business. The equipment, where your drivers are and all of that.
But it’s about creating relationships, sustaining those relationships over time. So I would say that role is sales and ops. Then I would say there’s a financial aspect to it. And that’s somebody that like you said, needs to be plugged into what is the overall trucking market doing, where are the hot, markets.
How can you read and make decisions about that? Do you get that second truck? When do you get it? Do you know what kind of insurance and truck payment you can afford, what are interest rates doing? That’s, a bit of business strategy.
Obviously you need the driver, but I think people really hyper-focus on, you got to have a driver and a dispatcher and that’s it. There’s more than that. I would say the other part is insurance, safety and compliance, that’s a really, big bucket that people devalue a lot of time.
So you represent AAWTA on the FMCSA’s Women in Trucking Advisory Board. What are some of the policy changes that you would like to see? See the FMCSA take on that would make this [00:23:00] an industry that’s better for your members.
Nicole: Not only am I one of the 16 African American Women of Trucking Association being one of the 16 that’s sitting on the board, but as of November 2023, former Senator Hutchinson made me the chairman of Women of Trucking Advisory Board Subcommittee. So that’s a really big deal.
I am super excited about that even though it’s almost been a year later. But to me that was a true testament of my commitment to the trucking industry as well as honest commitment to making change. As far as policies, I can’t speak on policies that we are Currently still pushing, but I can speak on what changes have come about.
One of the things that we’ve absolutely was dear to our heart with sexual assault and sexual harassment women and women’s safety. So women felt unsafe with either entering the industry because of some of the sexual assaults that either unreported nothing as, a result of nothing being done about to find out that women are scared. To do [00:24:00] trucking because of sexual assault was heartbreaking. Even more heartbreaking is the amount of women that have been sexually assaulted and nothing has been done. And this is something that was, I’m very happy and proud that the FMCSA was able to bring to the forefront and collectively we’ve been getting to to move their approach forward on things that we could do and regulations and policies that we can put in place that will assist women. And that was one of the first things that they rolled out. And we’re excited about that. And AAWTA not only just sitting on the board where we contribute to that being one of the highlights to make this industry a safer place for women. We also also contributed 21-page recommendation on how the FMCSA Department of transportation can make women feel safe as they enter this industry, which is what we want. We want to make sure that everybody feels safe, but especially women that are in this industry and things that we can roll out for when these type of unfortunate situations happen,
Nicole: forward to seeing the outcome myself and a [00:25:00] bunch of the call of our colleagues other association have placed our input and we are looking forward to seeing the output. Different regulations or maybe practices, best practices that could potentially put in place to keep women safe.
Caroline: Yeah. And I think this is a great example of where incorporating diverse voices makes change that is good for the whole industry, because there’s not a single person in trucking that doesn’t want. To eliminate sexual violence or violence of any kind, particularly drivers are particularly vulnerable to that. Whether you are a man or a woman or any kind of gender you identify with, everyone wants that, right? And sometimes we also know that those kinds of incidences, they go underreported by women. They go almost [00:26:00] unreported completely when it happens to men.
Nicole: 100%
Caroline: By taking action on that, maybe it took AAWTA and the other groups on that board to bring that to the forefront, because this is something that women feel more comfortable talking about, and are, more susceptible and vulnerable to as well, but it’s something that’s going to improve the situation for everyone. Who doesn’t want to make truck drivers safer? Like I can’t think of anyone that doesn’t want that.
Nicole: Absolutely. We definitely want this to be a safer place. Our supply chain relies on it. We need truckers. We need drivers I love what we do making sure that we are impacting our community and making a safer place for all individuals. So thank you for that.
Caroline: So diversity and inclusion programs have been under attack in the last couple of years across the media, across a lot of different industries. I think that diversity and inclusion is still in its infancy in this industry, [00:27:00] because it is seen as such a male-dominated industry, although, as we’ve talked about, there are plenty of roles in trucking that are not male-dominated.
Have you experienced any of this backlash? And what would you say to someone who’s skeptical of diversity inclusion programs? I’ve heard people saying they’re just trying to check a box. And that’s not useful to anyone. So have you experienced any of that backlash? And what do you say when you encounter people who are really skeptical of those programs?
Nicole: I hear mixed emotions. A lot. Clearly African American Women Trucking Association is proud to be the first trucking association focused primarily on DEI, that is our primary focus and increasing the representation of African American women and minorities in the trucking industry we walk and breathe and talk to EI and the conversations that we have and we get in these rooms are to do two things.
Enlighten individuals on the importance and bring facts. So sometime it’s [00:28:00] to take the emotion out, right? And I’ll be open-minded. See the importance of a different perspective. Something we talked about earlier, how can it benefit my organization? So the checking the box, it has to be bigger than that, organizations say, yes, I need to check the box, but I need to understand why this is important as well.
And I think honest disposition is just that to provide individuals that understanding, providing the understanding of why it’s important, why it’s bigger than just checking the box. We love those conversations. We were just in Dallas, Texas, talking to one of our partners, Redwood Pacific company. We have them in a room full of, direct-to-store consumer and DCs that were very interested and trying to understand and the importance of why should we bring, okay, women, anybody else? Cause right now where it’s a male-dominated industry, the first thing when you see a driver hopping out of a truck to take chips or beer into a gas station, typically that’s [00:29:00] a man, we have consumers in our supply chain manufacturers, et cetera, that are saying, we just want to understand. So then when you start to bring to their awareness of having different perspective, having the opportunity for equal playing fields, providing additional opportunities. So listen, if Joe can’t do it, maybe Jane can today and not limiting. Ourself from exposure or opportunities, even within our organizations. That is what the vision is about. It’s bigger than a feeling. We’re talking about the necessity of life.
Allow each other in spaces. Girl, boy, black, white, Greek. We have to allow each other in these spaces so we can learn from one another grow from one another so we could develop with one another.
I’m really big in strength in numbers. So even if you’re just feel like you need to check a box, as long as you’re open to hearing why it’s so important to include everybody, especially DEI, [00:30:00] I’m the girl that would tell you. the importance and how well you’ll see things turn around and change within your organization. Painful at first, but a good pain,
Caroline: I think there’s a reason that people are skeptical about programs like this, there’s been a lot of failure in this space and we have to recognize that, some of the things organizations and institutions tried didn’t work and weren’t better for some people. We have to do a better job in our economy of, making sure that people who win the game can do well, but that people who, lose the battle now and again are still taken care of. I think that’s what people are picking up on.
They’re picking up on, maybe it’s just, you know, corporations that want to check a box and make sure they’re, filling a quota. That’s not always the most, helpful approach there’s some deserved skepticism of programs like this when they’re not done well.
Can you talk about how to have a program where you’re including new people from diverse [00:31:00] backgrounds and the longevity of that, how to sustain diversity in your organization or in your workforce?
Nicole: I think that once an organization makes a decision to take that on, they have to understand there’s a sensitivity piece that comes with it. That sensitivity piece means understanding you’re bringing in and changing the environment of everyone. How do we transition and make sure everybody feels included? And they feel like they’re not going to be different or stand out or, so this is where the training portion of it goes in. I think that there has to be, the work has to be put in to make sure that everybody understands that dynamic. And that’s going to, that’s typically at HR or some, HR type position because it’s a super sensitive. Yep. Topic you have to be, really well prepared to change the environment and have the conversation. That is one of the things we’re excited about at the [00:32:00] association as we are prepared to have those conversations with you as you are bringing this type of inclusion and changing and ultimately disrupting certain environments. Alright, so what does that really mean? I’ll use some truck stops for instance. The world that truck stops knows is a man to pull up, get out and pee. We now know that women are involved, right? And so we have to be the truck stops have to be mindful that we need to now have appropriate places for women to breastfeed I’m, sorry pump if they need to do, extractions, for lactating purposes if they need to If they need to, they need to be separated from a male facility. Women have different needs. So now we can’t just jump out of the bushes, which is the expectation for a lot of these places, even when we’re
So now the world has to change. You have to accommodate, be understanding more sensitive and accommodate. We have to train people and get them ready for these conversations I use the [00:33:00] truck stop because that’s something that takes place all the time that hasn’t even been fixed. That there’s bathrooms that are not available for women at truck stops. Now we’re talking, about DEI and opening up spaces that are predominantly male dominated. And now we’re talking about double diversity, not just being a woman.
We’re talking about being a black woman or a woman of color. Now that is you’re a double minority, right? Cause you’re a woman and you’re something else. Men need to know they can’t make those same jokes that they maybe make about women, because that’s inappropriate, right?
Guys, you can’t pee with the door open. Now we have women in this space, so when I talk about training and conditioning the environment. It could go down the line. So for a lot of organizations, that seems like a lot, that seems like a lot, but how amazing is it to bring women into your environment that is able to help your environment thrive and grow and become more productive because we have different perspectives. So that is the importance of it. You’re actually able to win and benefit more [00:34:00] from making this type of change that can accommodate all people, whether whatever their sex or gender is and you’ll have a, just a better, more inclusive, which is the important part, inclusive environment.
Caroline: Yeah. Couldn’t agree more. Thank you so much. Nicole, tell us what is coming in the future for AAWTA.
Nicole: AAWTA is excited to roll out what we’ve just launched on September 1st, man, we have rolled out a ton of changes. And we’re gonna be continuing to do so all September, 2024 long. So the first thing that we have introduced to our community is our community marketplace. We are so excited about this. It’s a bit of the works for about two years. And what is the marketplace? This is a virtual platform that provides our members with resources and products and services from individuals that Ana partners with and these partnerships provide all of the support to our growing individuals. that caters a lot to [00:35:00] specifically women, but also to individuals of the industry. So now that we’ve opened the doors up to autumn men it’s an all inclusive platform at this point in time for individuals facing that face barriers and obstacles. And so now we have this amazing platform for them that they’re able to come and thrive and develop. Their businesses. We talked about some of the challenges. So we addressed that within this market space so that they’re able to move their business forward. So that was the first thing, super excited about that. We asked everyone to come check it out, become a member. Again, it is only exclusive to our members. So we’re excited about that super competitive second part would be. We’ve rolled out our auto badges and so we want people to scream out of home the rooftop with pride Whether you’re a standard member a student member or you’re a partner of ours We have now rolled out partnership badges which show your pride the year you were joined and you’re able to actually share these now on all different social platforms let you know if you’re an active member or not existent And [00:36:00] so we are so excited about our members and then lastly You For the month of September is if you are a part of our marketplace, which we offer to our affiliate members, to our partners you get a badge to show who’s with pride as well. And that helps bring and drive traffic exactly to what you want to add your business to the support of our mission. And this bringing traction to our partnership. So we’ve done things to make sure we add value to our members and our partners, businesses as well as to the industry.
Caroline: Remind me again, who can join African American Women in Trucking Association?
Nicole: Everybody, we have an opportunity and an option for everybody.
Interested in becoming a driver, all right, male or female, we have a student option for you, which provides discounts to get into trucking school. We provide resources to help you with your growth job opportunities that are exclusive to our community. If you’re a, if you’re a driver, looking for jobs or a community to help you grow [00:37:00] we have our standard membership. And lastly is our affiliate membership. Those are for individuals like yourself that have product services to offer our community that can help build and develop. We welcome you as well. So yes, this is our name, African American Women Trucking Association. Our mission is to increase the representation of African American women men and minorities in this industry. It takes each and every one of us to create change. In an ever changing industry.
Caroline: I love it. Thank you so much for joining me today, Nicole. Nicole Ward of the African American Women in Trucking Association. We will link all the information about Nicole and her organization in our description let us know what questions you have for Nicole because we will send those questions to Nicole.
She will give us answers back and we will send those answers to you. Direct answers straight from the source. My name is Caroline, and if you are enjoying this video and [00:38:00] this series, subscribe below to This Week in Trucking. Thanks again, Nicole.
Nicole: Thank you. I appreciate everyone’s time as well

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