PLOVER, Wisc. — Alicia Wilson has been named the January Member of the Month by the Women In Trucking Association (WIT).
When she was growing up, Wilson fondly recalls her father taking the family on long road trips, usually an eight-hour trip to the Rockies or drives from Colorado to California. On one of those trips between Colorado and California, Wilson learned to drive, piloting the family car across Donner Pass.
She quickly discovered a love for the road and for exploration.
“There’s nothing quite like randomly finding new mom-and-pop restaurants and watching the scenery change,” she said.
These cherished experiences served as her driving force to pursue a career in the transportation industry.
In 2018, Wilson started her professional driving career in the tanker division at a large logistics company. From there, a truck breakdown in Houston, Texas, led to some unexpected friendships and a big career change.
In 2020, Wilson became a professional tanker driver for Knoxville, Tennessee-based Highway Transport, a company that provides bulk transportation of specialty chemicals. In 2022 she transferred to her current role, an equipment-cleaning technician for Highway Transport, because she needed to be closer to home to care for her family.
As an equipment cleaning technician, she is responsible for performing all aspects of tank trailer and International Standard Organization (ISO) cleaning, including inspecting trailers for residual product and conducting post-cleaning inspections. She is one of the few women to have held this position at Highway Transport. Wilson says the work-life balance she enjoys in her new position gives her the time needed to care for an aging parent while remaining active in the industry she loves.
Wilson is not afraid of going after any job and highly encourages other women to continue or pursue careers in the transportation industry. If there’s any doubt or intimidation, she advises others: “Take what the guys say with a grain of salt. With the understanding of what you yourself can do, plan your day with that in mind and ignore the words of people who don’t think you can do it. You do you!”
Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance as well as a master’s degree in library science, and she also maintains her CDL. She enjoys the freedom of driving a tanker and hopes to return to a driving position in the future.
The Trucker News Staff produces engaging content for not only TheTrucker.com, but also The Trucker Newspaper, which has been serving the trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a focus on drivers, the Trucker News Staff aims to provide relevant, objective content pertaining to the trucking segment of the transportation industry. The Trucker News Staff is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
