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FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro applauds female drivers during salute at MATS

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro Saturday applauded, literally, the thousands of female professional drivers in the U.S. who she said “have been unrecognized far too long.” She made the comments here during a salute to women truckers at the Mid-America Trucking Show.

Ferro stood and clapped for 275 women CDL-holders who streamed through the doors at the salute, held by the three-year-old Women In Trucking organization (WIT).

The number of CDL-holders set a record in North America for the number of professional female CDL holders gathered but has yet to set the world record, 416, set in the Netherlands in 2004, said Ellen Voie, president and CEO of WIT.

During the event Ferro gave out gift certificates to 60 1-million-milers; 28 2-million milers and 14 3-million-milers in recognition of the women’s achievements and had her picture taken with each driver.

“I applaud you for the safety you bring to the highways every day on the road; I applaud your courage and I commend you … for every mile you drive and every load you deliver,” Ferro told the hundreds of drivers, their family members and representatives of trucking, both male in female, in the room.

“You inspire women and girls as role models; you’re role models for me, too,” she said amidst cheers.

Voie encouraged the women to have their numbers doubled in five years and to break the Netherlands’ record next year at MATS.

Coming at the end of Women in History Month, Ferro said the event in itself was history-making and noted it was a “groundbreaking demonstration of power” and demonstration of what women bring to the trucking industry — safety and a “different set of priorities” that “make the world a better place.”

Ferro admitted that “on the regulatory side we don’t always recognize how lonely it can get on the road,” and she said all women drivers are “driven to succeed” and are “U.S. patriots.”

She noted she was the first woman to run the Maryland’s state trucking group, “but you [women drivers] have forged the path; you make [trucking] a better place.”

Dorothy Cox of The Trucker staff may be contacted to comment at [email protected] .

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