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Trucking paves way for better life for single parent Indiana driver

Like a lot of young women struggling under similar circumstances, Vickie Williamson had ex-perienced first-hand the futility of being a single parent trying to raise a child on the meager earnings of a dead-end job.

Unlike the majority — but an ever-increasing number — of her peers, however, Williamson took to trucking as a means of elevating her economic standing in life and that of her daughter Sierra.

“I call her ‘Brat’,” said a smiling Williamson, who has been a professional long-hauler for the past nine years. “I love her to pieces.”

Sierra, 12, stays with a close family friend while her mother is out making a living driving for the Cloverdale, Ohio-based Giant Eagle Express.

“I usually make it home on weekends and she and I spend a lot of time together,” said Williamson, a native of Toledo, Ohio, who now calls Lake Station, Ind., home. “We’re very close and it really doesn’t matter what we’re doing as long as we’re doing it together. She’s just a very special daugh-ter.”

The Williamsons also enjoy spending time with their two Boston Terriers, the father-son team of Nugget, 3, and Cassius, 18 months.

Before Williamson got into trucking, she was at something of a crossroads in weighing her em-ployment options. She readily realized that they were few. All she knew for certain was that she had to have a job that would make it worth her time and effort. Then one day, she remembered her godfa-ther, the late Frank Heckman.

“Ever since I could remember, he was a truck driver,” she recalled in an interview with The Trucker during a Central Arkansas layover. “I remembered that he always seemed happy at what he was doing and he lived a pretty good life. So, yes, I guess you could say he was my inspiration to do what I’m doing today.”

She earned her Commercial Driver’s License after enrolling at a truck driver’s school at a com-munity college near her home. And the rest, as someone once said, is history, or perhaps more appro-priately, herstory.

“I’m making good money now,” said Williamson. “I’ve gotten to see a lot of different things in all the different states I’ve been to so far, and I’ve met a lot of different and interesting people.”

During her interview with The Trucker, Williamson was on the return leg of her first-ever trip to Texas.

“I just made a delivery in San Antonio,” she said. “I never realized before just how big the state of Texas is; it’s huge. Up to now, I had driven only in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, but I kind of like being here in the South.

“Would I take another run to Texas? Sure,” she added, “if the money’s right.”

Asked if she would recommend trucking to other women looking to improve their lot in life, Wil-liamson paused for a moment.

“Well,” she said, “I would if they come to the job capable of handling it. Trucking isn’t for every-one. And whether you’re a man or a woman doesn’t make a whole lot of difference, as long as you can handle the hours, the traffic and all that comes with it.”

One of the biggest changes Williamson has noticed since becoming an over-the-road driver is that “if a woman gets on the CB these days, she’s more than likely going to encounter a lot of disrespect from some of the men drivers. It wasn’t like that when I first started. But one thing is for sure: if I don’t like what I’m hearing, I can always reach for the on-and-off button on my CB.”

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