ARLINGTON, Va. — The Women In Trucking Association (WIT) has named truck driver April Crysel as its December 2024 member of the month.
Crysel, who is a member of WIT’s Class of 2024 Image Team, drives for Wilmington, North Carolina-based Chestnut Enterprises.
Like many drivers, Crysel didn’t begin her career in the trucking industry. At the age of 45, after her factory job was outsourced to another country, she became a truck driver. She started out at Maverick Transportation, where she hauled specialized flatbed loads, primarily glass, to the lower 48 states and Canada.
She later became a driver trainer/driver support team for Ryder System Inc. In this role, she drove box truck, flatbed, doubles, refrigerated tanker, containers and dump beds.
Her next venture was working for an owner-operator, hauling containers out of the ports, before trying her hand as a safety manager and dispatcher at Global Transportation Management (GTM) for two years. At Global, she says, she enjoyed helping other drivers get started in their careers — but ultimately, she missed driving and the open road.
Now, 10 years later, Crysel says she’s thrilled to be working at Chestnut Enterprises, a small family-owned company with a husband-and-wife team. She says she loves the people she works for, as they are flexible in and out of the port and there is a great camaraderie.
“Everyone gets along, and everybody helps everybody,” she said. “You don’t see that as much nowadays and that’s why I don’t want to leave.”
Crysel discovered WIT when she came across the Facebook page in 2015. Shortly after, Sandy Long became her mentor, and she became part of the mentoring Facebook page.
Crysel is passionate about helping and supporting other women.
“Being able to help and connect with other women so they know they have a support system here for them is so fulfilling,” she said.
One of Crysel’s favorite parts of being involved with WIT and on the Image Team is attending the Accelerate! Conference & Expo. She says she’s made many lifelong friendships throughout the years and that she enjoys watching women come together and empower each other.
Off the road, Crysel has boy and girl twins who are grown and have children of their own giving her three wonderful “grandsugars.”
Linda Garner-Bunch has been in publishing for more than 30 years. You name it, Linda has written about it. She has served as an editor for a group of national do-it-yourself publications and has coordinated the real estate section of Arkansas’ only statewide newspaper, in addition to working on a variety of niche publications ranging from bridal magazines to high-school sports previews and everything in between. She is also an experienced photographer and copy editor who enjoys telling the stories of the “Knights of the Highway,” as she calls our nation’s truck drivers.
