Women In Trucking Announces April Member of the Month

Plover, WI (April 5, 2016)—Women In Trucking Association (WIT) announces Heather Hutchens, professional driver and video blogger, as its April member of the month.

Heather got into trucking after following her husband Jason into the industry. Jason had been working for a courier service while Heather was an optician for over twenty years. Wanting to be together more, they thought of trucking in some fashion. Three years ago, after doing research, the pair sold their home and entered expediting as drivers. They live in their truck, but take their home time in Waco, Texas, where they keep up their small house and living with their two small dogs. They live in an RV they purchased after selling their home. “We come home, take the RV out for as long as we are home, then put it back and leave again,” Heather said. “It is easy.”

Drivers for an owner now, they have plans to one day own their own expedite truck. Asked why they have not purchased a truck yet, Heather explained, “We want to learn all we can about the business first. We feel we are close to ownership, but buying a truck is a big decision and we don’t want to take it lightly.” The truck they drive now is a Freightliner M2 112 with a 96″ Bolt sleeper and a 22′ box. The truck is leased on with Panther. “We drive for an awesome owner and a great company,” said Heather.

Heather does vlogs (video blogs) that she posts on both YouTube (YouTube.com/TheCraftyTrucker ) and at ExpeditersOnline.com. Heather started out by videoing scenery from the truck. After looking around online, she found very little in the way of videos about the expedite niche of trucking; so she started doing a few on expediting. “Someone shared one of my trucking videos in the forums at ExpeditersOnline (EO) and someone from EO asked me if I would contribute to the website. I felt like the videos could benefit both non-truckers who just were thinking of getting into expediting, and veteran truckers who wanted to make the change to expediting,” Heather said. “We use GoPro action cams to do our videos. We also use one as a dash cam.”

With their smaller truck, they’ve gone to the Statue of Liberty and many other places large trucks cannot go due to size. Heather said, “Jason and I love going to see so many great things and places. Expediting gives us the opportunity to do that where our old jobs did not.”

Heather has not found any challenges because of her gender. “The only thing that I have found challenging is that it seems sometimes that the older truckers appear to look down on expediters as ‘not being truckers.’ Maybe it is because expediting is the new kid on the block, relatively speaking in trucking.”

Heather and Jason will be doing a workshop at the Expedite Expo called Team Drivers – Pros and Cons on Saturday, July 16, at 9:30 am at the Lexington Convention Center in downtown Lexington, KY. Registration for the Expedite Expo is free as is parking and the workshops.

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Women In Trucking Association, Inc. is a nonprofit association established to encourage the employment of women in the trucking industry, promote their accomplishments and minimize obstacles faced by women working in the trucking industry. Membership is not limited to women, as 17 percent of its members are men who support the mission. Women In Trucking is supported by its members and the generosity of Gold Level Partners: Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, Daimler Trucks North America, BMO Transportation Finance, Great Dane Trailers, J.B. Hunt Transport, Ryder System, Inc., U.S. Xpress, and Walmart. Follow WIT on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. For more information, visit http://www.womenintrucking.org or call 888-464-9482.

Get it on your calendar:

The 2016 Women In Trucking Accelerate! Conference takes place Nov. 7-9 in Dallas, Texas