The women of NFI are making their voices heard far and wide. Gone are the days of the almost exclusively male dominated transportation industry — and the women of NFI, like Jaime S. and Sara D., are using their skills and intelligence to keep the country moving.
“I love seeing women putting footprint on the industry,” said Jaime, NFI operations manager. “At NFI there’s mutual respect from everybody. There is a huge level of respect between the drivers, the office staff, just everybody — and I love that.”
Jaime and Sara, a transportation supervisor, are part of a unique night shift team that’s entirely run by women.
“I didn’t realize it would be a whole female team working this night shift, which is just fabulous,” Sara said about joining the team. “We all definitely have a ‘hive-mind’ type of a thing, and we all have the same personality type. We’re all fun and go-getters, and we are full of energy!”
Jaime also loves working with a strong team of women.
“We have two different night shifts,” Jaime explained. “We have the front half of the week and the back half of the week; I run the back half.”
Jaime says she had a great mentor.
“I was very fortunate to begin my management journey under the leadership of Jacqueline (she’s the daytime operations manager now), and I just followed her lead,” she said.
“She’s very tenacious, and she’ll put her foot down,” Jaime continued. “We can laugh and joke with the drivers all day long — but at the end of the day, it’s still a job, and it still has to be professional. She helped me see that there is a fine line, but we can all balance and respect it.”
Because of this mentorship, Jaime is now able to show others the ropes. She actually helped bring Sara onto the night shift team.
“Sara learned very quickly all of the aspects of the jobs, the ins and outs. She proved herself. And that’s one of my biggest things” Jaime said.
“If you can earn the respect of the drivers, that’s going to be the key to success at our job. The drivers are going to make or break us,” she continued. “Sara started as a coordinator, and within four months she was already on the pedestal to become a supervisor.”
One of the most important things she learned, Sara says, is that building relationships with drivers is paramount. To success.
“We have a really good dynamic with our drivers because we are really involved with our drivers as much as they’re involved with us,” Sara said. “I wouldn’t be working at the same place if it weren’t for the drivers. I’ve had drivers volunteer to come help out just because they know we’re there.”
Having an all-female night crew wasn’t a deliberate plan, according to Jaime.
“We lost one of our coordinators; then we hired Melissa to replace him, who came to us from Swift, and the dynamic just clicked,” Jaime said. “After three years of running that shift, we finally had a dynamic where we could just bounce off each other.
“Melissa said, ‘Wait, is this really an all-female shift?’” she continued. “And I stopped for a minute to think, and I told her, ‘Yeah, actually it is!’”
Not only is the night shift team all women, but Jaime says she’s also heard comments from men at NFI that the women on the night shift are some of the company’s toughest employees.
“I don’t want to say that we have to try harder — but I do feel like we have to prove ourselves,” Jaime said. “We’re not just there to push some buttons on the computer and tell them, ‘You’re getting in a truck and you’re going.’ We must prove we know where we’re coming from when we tell them to do something.”
After all, she says, respect is something that must be earned, regardless of gender.
“I think that’s why I take pride in having that respect just a little bit more,” Jaime said.
“I believe that that’s why Sara and I bonded so well when she came to our team. I could see that in her. I could see a younger version of myself in her. She takes the same pride in proving and learning as much as she can,” she continued. “When she tells somebody to do something, it’s not something she wouldn’t — or couldn’t — do herself.”
Sara loves her job at NFI and is particularly proud of her accomplishments because her path to the company was not without hardship.
“I originally came from Florida. When I moved up here, I started as homeless with no job,” Sara said. “After about a month and a half of looking for a job, I finally found NFI. Now I’m a supervisor — after starting from zero!”
Initially, Sara says, she planned for the job to be a temporary solution; her previous work experience was in retail.
“NFI really did a number on me,” she said with a laugh. “I chose to stay in transportation, and I’m glad I did. If you had told me that two years later that I’d be a supervisor, I have my own apartment with three bedrooms — and have a kid, too — I would not have believed it.”
While Jaime and Sara both love their jobs, they warn that the night shift is not for the faint of heart.
“We’re kind of like ‘jacks of all trades’ at night,” Jaime said.
For example, drivers may have questions about payroll — but the payroll department is closed during the night shift.
“We’re like, ‘All right, hold on. Let me scratch my head and figure this out. I can do this, I promise!’” she said.
In addition, the night crew must be able to work efficiently with minimal supervision.
“We can call our bosses, but we try not to. I wouldn’t want to be woken up at one o’clock in the morning with a weird question!” she said. “Sometimes have to try to figure things out on the fly.”
Both Jaime and Sara say they wouldn’t trade their jobs for anything, noting that employee support and a family-like atmosphere is not just lip service at NFI — they feel truly valued as employees and as women.
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
