ARLINGTON, Va. — The Women In Trucking Association (WIT) has announced Jo Lynn “JJ” Kelley as its February 2025 Member of the Month.
Kelley is a professional truck driver with Walmart’s Private Fleet. Her driving force for entering the trucking industry after careers in art and accounting was to earn a paycheck while traveling. She also desires to “salt and pepper a troubled world with the joys that God consistently painted her days with.”
“I absolutely loved driving that big rig all over the United States,” Kelley said. “Throughout the miles, trials and tribulations since entering this industry, my spirituality has deepened to a complete and unwavering reliance upon God and all His promises in the Bible. With God, all things are possible.”
400,000+ Safe Miles
Now in her sixth year as a professional driver, and with more than 400,000 safe miles, Kelley attributes her safety, passions, successes and joys to her unwavering faith in God.
“I may drive an 18-wheeler but in my cab, God is truly in charge of that 19th wheel,” Kelley said.
Career Beginnings
Beginning her driving career with Schneider National, Kelley drove over the road long haul where visited 47 of the 48 contiguous United States. She acquired skills for hauling dry van, tanker, flat bedding and teaming. She chose Schneider National for three main reasons. Its federal (FMCSA) safety rating, their diversity in haul types and their acceptance of students who just earned their professional truck driving license.
Persevering through Challenges
Kelley recalls one of the lower points in the beginning of her career when she struggled with wanting to give up. Praying, she realized that she needed to get out of her negative mindset and do for others which inspired her to make wallet-sized cards proclaiming to the recipient that they were truly a valued person.
Kelley left these all over the U.S. at truck stops, rest areas and other places she thought others might be feeling invisible or under appreciated. The idea grew into a small campaign of her purchasing five-dollar coffee gift cards and attaching them to the wallet cards. The cards eventually became company trivia-question cards where the recipient was instructed if they guessed the trivia answer to keep the gift card, or if not, to pass the gift card to another. When she told her employer at the time about this campaign, they liked it so much they purchased a few dozen $5 gift cards to keep it going.
From the Road to Road Guide
Kelley used her artistic skills and penned two creatively inspiring and interactive trucking books in her first three years with Schneider – Trucking with JJ: Volume 1 and Trucking with JJ: Volume 2. The books are photo-based with story shorts which include QR codes to view additional video shorts she’s made. You can download Adobe PDF versions of the two books for no cost here: Trucking with JJ Books. Kelley lived in her truck those first two and a half years on the road and took small breaks where and when her schedule allowed.
Making a Change
Wanting a break from the truck cabin and developing enough safety experience, Kelley joined Walmart’s team of private fleet drivers where she now enjoys regional driving and a well-balanced amount of time at home.
“The walls in all of our distribution centers are packed with plaques of 500,000-mile, 1 million-mile, 3 million-mile and higher driver careers,” Kelley said. “I feel humbled and honored to be among such a stable and safety-driven family of truckers.”
Walmart Transportation is a Gold Partner of WIT and has been a Platinum Level Sponsor of the Accelerate! Conference & Expo for the last four years. Kelley is one of three female drivers at her base yard team of more than 140 drivers. She thoroughly enjoys when she is blessed to participate in WIT events.
Kelley pulls the WITney Educational Trailer to events where she manages the truck driving simulator inside the trailer for visitors to test their skills and enjoy the thrill of safely driving a big rig.
Sharing the Joy
Kelly loves to share the enormous amount of opportunities in trucking that fit an individual’s needs to balance work and time with family and friends. The hiring age is simply 18+ and there are no gender, racial, educational or spiritual boundaries.
“Virtually every tangible item has been on a truck at one point and time, so the world will always need safe professional drivers,” Kelley said.
Resting in Faith
“My trucking career path has seen me in tears, anger, doubts and confusion,” Kelley said. “God always restores me to a peaceful inner joy with new insights on navigating a life of abundance that I never dreamed or perhaps, never allowed myself to dream of. I have an inner confidence in my sense of self that I had not known during my earlier life, and I am ever so grateful for all that this industry and God have taught me so far. I look forward to more learning, seeing and doing that will come.”
Kelley lives on an award-winning equestrian horse farm in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia. She considers herself retired from her artistic career which included painting, photography, designing, machine embroidery, writing and blogging. She continues her quests for new friends, new hobbies, new travels and new adventures to experience while treasuring all her memories and the promises of all the joys yet to come.
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.
