Women In Trucking’s “Driver of the Year” discusses her career, her commitment to safety and how trucking has transformed her life.

 

When Peggy Arnold decided more than 30 years ago to become a less-than-truckload driver, it represented a turning point – not just for her working life, but for her family as well. 

 

For years, she had worked a series of minimum wage jobs to support her two children. By becoming a truck driver, Arnold found a role that offered good pay, health insurance and sustainable support for her family. 

 

“I wanted better for my children and truck driving was just a life-changer for my family,” she said. “It really moved me into the middle class.”  

 

As a driver for Yellow since 1990, Arnold has close to two million accident-free miles. She has become a head of safety training at the Nashville terminal and a strong advocate of truck driving as a career option for people of all backgrounds. 

 

In March, the Women In Trucking Association named Arnold its “Driver of the Year” for 2022. She has been named among Women In Trucking’s “Top Women to Watch” for 2022 and was named an America’s Road Team Captain finalist by the American Trucking Associations. Women In Trucking will honor Arnold at its Nov. 13-16 Accelerate! Conference & Expo in Dallas.

 

The past year has been a busy, memorable one for Arnold. We recently sat down with her to discuss her driving career, her commitment to safety, and why she believes truck driving is an opportunity for many people to build brighter futures for themselves and their families.

 

The following is our interview, edited for length:  

 

How long have you been a professional driver?

 

I’ve been a professional driver since the early 1980s. I got my start when I went to truck driving school in Lebanon, Tenn., and I worked for Builders Transport for several years. I really earned my keep there by staying out for about 30 days at a time and coming home for three days. 

 

It felt like, when you came home and by the time you did your laundry and caught up with normal things, it was time to just go right back out there. And I worked for a few other companies until I eventually found my home here at Yellow. I’ve been at Yellow for 32 years, about 30 years full-time and I worked two years casual. 

 

What appealed to you about coming to work for Yellow? 

 

It’s been a game-changer for me to come to LTL freight. I was not able to stay in trucking and had to leave it because of those long periods that I had to stay out on the road. It was just unacceptable to be away from my children for that amount of time. 

 

So, I got out of trucking and went into the service industry, working at small stores and waitressing for a period for time. And one day I met a fellow truck driver. And he said, “You know, there’s LTL freight you can do. And you can haul this freight and be home every few days, and not be out on such long, drawn-out trips.”

 

So, I set out on a mission to get that done. I went back to school and got my credentials, and went to work. And I worked for CF (Consolidated Freight) for a little while. This was casual work, so I worked for UPS at the same time. I finally landed at Yellow and I’ve been here ever since.

 

You’ve done safety training for several years at Yellow. How did you get started doing that? 

 

I got started with safety training mainly after my children were raised and I had more time. When you’re in trucking and you get your children raised and that sort of thing, you start to think, “You know, I could give more. I could do more. I could give more back.” 

 

So, I started to seek out things I could do. The safety training – it was there. I applied for that and I started doing training and joined the safety team in Nashville. I moved up through the ranks and now I’m head of our safety training in Nashville. 

 

Explain how the safety training process works for new drivers at Yellow. 

 

We have a whole program that we do for them starting as soon as they come out of the Driving Academies. We work with them in the back lot and teach them all the drop-and-hook and streaming, staging, all the different things that they need to know. 

 

We teach them all this stuff and once they get that done, we start to go on the road. And every day we’ll go on the road and do some dropping and hooking, some maneuvering and some tail swing practice—all of the kinds of things that you need experience in to hit the road. Once we feel like they’re able and they feel like they’re able, then we move them out to a trainer and then they have to have 160 hours on the road with a trainer, going from terminal to terminal. 

 

They do their 160 hours' training and if everybody then, once again, is equally okay with that – the driver and the trainer – then they go out into the truck by themselves. And once they do that, we still monitor them for 30 days.

 

So, we’re there for them and we walk them through the 30 days. Most of the time, they will stop reaching out to us after a while. That’s a good sign that they’re becoming comfortable in the truck and on the road.   

 

Has safety training changed since Yellow launched the Driving Academies in 2021? 

 

It has changed and here’s the reason why: prior to the academies, generally you’d get new people in who were maybe in their 40s and experienced. 

 

Now, we have the academies and we’re getting a lot of 20-somethings with zero experience. That is a huge difference. 

 

We have had to adapt to that, and we understand that dealing with a 40-something-year-old who has experience is very different from a 20-something-year-old who doesn’t, and it’s a big challenge. But it’s a challenge that we love and we strive to do it better. We just keep evolving to have the best training program out there anywhere and we’re continually trying to improve it. 

 

What are some of the benefits that Yellow’s Driving Academies provide to drivers who are working toward their commercial driver’s license? 

 

It’s just an absolute game-changer. If you’re a single mom, for example, you can get stuck in this position of, “I’ve got to work this week to make it to next week” and that sort of thing. You feel like you can’t make any progress. 

 

But they have the academies here set up in such a fashion that everything is covered. Every little expense is covered so that you can have your best opportunity to come here and be successful. They’re going to cover your hotel and your travel fees; you’ll have a rental car or some form of transportation that they’re providing you with. They provide money for food, and you’ll be paid for your time and your training is free. 

 

You’re not having to pay anything for your training and you’re being paid to train. So that’s just hugely awesome for a young person wanting to break out of that cycle where they’re stuck with this feeling of, “I can’t do anything better because it takes everything I’ve got to make it from one week to the next.” 

 

So, it’s an awesome opportunity right now, not just for women. There’s a lot of men now who are single parents. So, we’re producing well-trained drivers for our nation’s highways. That’s important to us, and to them. 

 

You’ve received several honors over the past year for your accomplishments as a driver. What was it like to be a finalist for Women In Trucking’s “Driver of the Year” and then to win it all last spring at the Mid-America Trucking Show?

 

There are just no words, really. I was so thankful and so appreciative. It was just an awesome feeling to be honored. 

 

I didn’t know I was going to win, but I took my granddaughter with me because I wanted her to meet all these awesome women in all different kinds of roles in life, and I wanted her to see that you, as a young woman, can do anything in the world that you want to do. 

 

I told her before we went, I said, “Now I might not win because it’s tough competition. But I want you to remember that even if I don’t win, I want us to be very proud because a woman has won that. There’s going to be a woman to win, and we can be proud for women everywhere, and you’re one of those young women.” 

 

So, when they announced my name that I had won, I just couldn’t be more proud, especially that my granddaughter was there to see that. it was just awesome and amazing, and I’m so grateful to Women In Trucking.