REAL Women in Trucking Start-Up Funds
Donation protected
UPDATE:
*** We DID IT!! With Your Help, We Met Our Start Up Funds Goal April 2014 , Thanks to your generosity we are now able to renovate our website to create a membership organization that actually serves drivers and helps to unite those who have a desire to help others. Because we are still in a PENDING status for our 501 (c) 6, our fundraising capability has been limited. This is truly a grassroots organization and we still have needs to support our mission and carry our message. With the success of this start up campaign we see the value in organic fundraising and will launch another camping in the future with an outline for our vison and needs. With Gratitude from REAL Women in Trucking ***
See Who Helped Us Meet Our Goal: Donor Wall Of Recognition
How it all started:
*** We DID IT!! With Your Help, We Met Our Start Up Funds Goal April 2014 , Thanks to your generosity we are now able to renovate our website to create a membership organization that actually serves drivers and helps to unite those who have a desire to help others. Because we are still in a PENDING status for our 501 (c) 6, our fundraising capability has been limited. This is truly a grassroots organization and we still have needs to support our mission and carry our message. With the success of this start up campaign we see the value in organic fundraising and will launch another camping in the future with an outline for our vison and needs. With Gratitude from REAL Women in Trucking ***
See Who Helped Us Meet Our Goal: Donor Wall Of Recognition
How it all started:
In 2007, I entered truck driver training with the hope of having a new life. What I found was such unsafe training practices and exploitation of people desperate for work that I became compelled to speak out using social media under the twitter tag @TruckerDesiree and my blog "Trucker Desiree"
My personal truck driver training horror story had me on and off ten trucks over a period of nine months in situations such as a trainer that was abusing prescription pills, co-driver's badgering me for sex, being left in towns where I did not know anyone and had no money to get home. In the video below I explain how one such incident unfolded which left me stranded in New Mexico.
(Use this Link if the video does not play on Go Fund Me )
I learned that my experience was not unique and that for women, truck driver training can include violence and even rape. From talking to other male and female drivers I learned that what was going on at my carrier also went on at other carriers that recruit entry level driver trainees at a high volume.
The stories of human resource personnel not taking action, student truckers being misled on what the proper procedure was to file a formal complaint and retaliation towards the victim for reporting the misconduct was a story I heard over and over. These were drivers that didn't know one another and worked at different carriers but the stories were unnervingly the same.
The women who reported the sexual misconduct often left the carrier after feeling victimized by the employer while the accused was allowed to disappear back into the driver population.
In the video below Ronald Fletcher is interviewed by Filmmaker Beverly Peterson in a workplace bullying documentary. He explains that women being left like I was during their training period is not uncommon.
(Use this link if the video does not play on Go Fund Me)
In 2010, the REAL Women in Trucking group was formed to provide self-help tools to women entering trucking so that they could protect themselves during training and learn how to fight back like I did.
The project has been primarily funded by me , my friends, a few supporting advertisers and small donations to keep our website updated. I have used my personal twitter @TruckerDesiree
and @WomenTruckers to build awareness of these issues since 2008.
In 2012 I was contacted by other women truckers who wanted to take it a step further by creating a REAL driver organization that would help female drivers. A place where seasoned drivers could socialize and provide virtual mentoring to women seeking assistance that have been making contact through social media with me and our group since 2008.
Our vision developed in 2013 toward the goal of assembling drivers that truly care about helping others and promoting safety. A place where these like-minded drivers could connect. A place where they can speak out to the public and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on entry level driver training abuse. This required me to come off the road and learn how to proceed with the filing of the necessary paperwork.
This is a driver organization that actually serves women truckers and it will give them the ability to have their voices heard in an industry that has required "service in silence".
Currently our 501 (c) 6 status is pending with the IRS but we have been granted permission by the state of Florida, to begin fundraising. We need to purchase membership materials and other printed outreach information packets. We need help so we can begin to build our base of support and awareness of our organization and mission.
The mission of the REAL Women in Trucking, Inc. is to empower the women of the trucking industry through outreach programs, continuing education, advocacy, mentoring, networking, and ongoing support to promote unity between both new and seasoned female drivers.
We are actual drivers, we are not a corporate facade and we want truck driver training carriers to be held accountable for unsafe training practices that put the public at risk, students in dangerous situations and make good trainers quit training.
Please HELP us promote highway safety by donating whatever you can towards our start-up to launch this female driver led organization. $5.00, $15.00, $25.00, $50.00, $100.00 whatever you can afford, every little bit helps.
We are truck drivers that care about highway safety and personal safety and we need the support of the public to make our cause a reality due to the resistance in the trucking industry to hear our voices.
Thank You!
"Trucker Desiree
" and the
REAL Women in Trucking, Inc.
My personal truck driver training horror story had me on and off ten trucks over a period of nine months in situations such as a trainer that was abusing prescription pills, co-driver's badgering me for sex, being left in towns where I did not know anyone and had no money to get home. In the video below I explain how one such incident unfolded which left me stranded in New Mexico.
(Use this Link if the video does not play on Go Fund Me )
I learned that my experience was not unique and that for women, truck driver training can include violence and even rape. From talking to other male and female drivers I learned that what was going on at my carrier also went on at other carriers that recruit entry level driver trainees at a high volume.
The stories of human resource personnel not taking action, student truckers being misled on what the proper procedure was to file a formal complaint and retaliation towards the victim for reporting the misconduct was a story I heard over and over. These were drivers that didn't know one another and worked at different carriers but the stories were unnervingly the same.
The women who reported the sexual misconduct often left the carrier after feeling victimized by the employer while the accused was allowed to disappear back into the driver population.
In the video below Ronald Fletcher is interviewed by Filmmaker Beverly Peterson in a workplace bullying documentary. He explains that women being left like I was during their training period is not uncommon.
(Use this link if the video does not play on Go Fund Me)
In 2010, the REAL Women in Trucking group was formed to provide self-help tools to women entering trucking so that they could protect themselves during training and learn how to fight back like I did.
The project has been primarily funded by me , my friends, a few supporting advertisers and small donations to keep our website updated. I have used my personal twitter @TruckerDesiree
and @WomenTruckers to build awareness of these issues since 2008.
In 2012 I was contacted by other women truckers who wanted to take it a step further by creating a REAL driver organization that would help female drivers. A place where seasoned drivers could socialize and provide virtual mentoring to women seeking assistance that have been making contact through social media with me and our group since 2008.
Our vision developed in 2013 toward the goal of assembling drivers that truly care about helping others and promoting safety. A place where these like-minded drivers could connect. A place where they can speak out to the public and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on entry level driver training abuse. This required me to come off the road and learn how to proceed with the filing of the necessary paperwork.
This is a driver organization that actually serves women truckers and it will give them the ability to have their voices heard in an industry that has required "service in silence".
Currently our 501 (c) 6 status is pending with the IRS but we have been granted permission by the state of Florida, to begin fundraising. We need to purchase membership materials and other printed outreach information packets. We need help so we can begin to build our base of support and awareness of our organization and mission.
The mission of the REAL Women in Trucking, Inc. is to empower the women of the trucking industry through outreach programs, continuing education, advocacy, mentoring, networking, and ongoing support to promote unity between both new and seasoned female drivers.
We are actual drivers, we are not a corporate facade and we want truck driver training carriers to be held accountable for unsafe training practices that put the public at risk, students in dangerous situations and make good trainers quit training.
Please HELP us promote highway safety by donating whatever you can towards our start-up to launch this female driver led organization. $5.00, $15.00, $25.00, $50.00, $100.00 whatever you can afford, every little bit helps.
We are truck drivers that care about highway safety and personal safety and we need the support of the public to make our cause a reality due to the resistance in the trucking industry to hear our voices.
Thank You!
"Trucker Desiree
" and the
REAL Women in Trucking, Inc.
Organizer
Desiree Wood
Organizer
