{"id":812,"date":"2020-04-07T14:38:47","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T14:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/?p=812"},"modified":"2020-04-07T18:57:27","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T18:57:27","slug":"armours-deridder-named-wit-inaugural-female-driver-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/other-news\/2020\/04\/07\/armours-deridder-named-wit-inaugural-female-driver-of-the-year\/812\/","title":{"rendered":"Armour\u2019s DeRidder Named WIT Inaugural Female Driver of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Canadian driver recognized for her commitment to trucking, community, safety; award sponsored by Walmart
<\/em>
By Al Muskewitz
<\/strong> 
In a time of national emergency and worldwide uncertainty, Susie DeRidder was looking for some really good news to come into her life.
 
It arrived the middle of last week in a call from Ellen Voie, the president and CEO of the Women in Trucking, confirming her selection as the association’s inaugural Female Driver of the Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Armour Transportation driver<\/strong>
Susie DeRidder of Fredericton, N.B.,<\/strong>
has been named WIT’s inaugural<\/strong>
Female Driver of the Year. <\/strong>
The award is sponsored by Walmart.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, my, you should see the look on my face,\u201d DeRidder said when told the news. \u201cI am overwhelmed. I feel like I\u2019ve won the Golden Globes in trucking. This is unbelievable. I really, really am so honored to represent Women In Trucking and everything Ellen does for us.\u00a0
\u00a0
\u201cIt really raised new height to my day with all the stresses we\u2019ve been dealing with and trying to get the deliveries and everything done and dealing with all this virus right now \u2026 We\u2019ve had so many down days and everybody trying to stay safe and all the social distancing and that\u2019s been really hard trying to deal with all that and then to get that news it just uplifted my day to the top of my world.\u201d

Voie announced the winner in a video on social media. She had hoped to make the announcement during the WIT’s annual Salute to Women Behind the Wheel at the Mid-American Trucking Show, but those plans were scuttled when the Louisville show was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. It still plans to salute women in the industry at the Great American Truck Show in Dallas this summer.
\u00a0
DeRidder was selected from a field of more than 100 nominees from across North America. The award is open to any female driver or contractor nominated by the motor carrier to which they\u2019ve been leased or employed for the past three years, driven at least one million consecutive accident-free miles and been a positive role model for all drivers.
\u00a0
DeRidder has been driving for more than 40 years, the last seven hauling groceries and commodities throughout the Canadian Maritimes for Armour Transportation, with approximately 4 million accident-free miles. She got the news about winning the award on her way to making a delivery in Nova Scotia.
\u00a0
A former board member for the Women in Trucking Federation of Canada, she actively promotes the industry in media, speaking engagements and panels and conducts ride-alongs for lawmakers. She also takes apart in the Convoy for Hope Atlantic, last year raising a record $3,300 in donations for cancer research and awareness and leading the 35-truck Convoy \u2013 the first for a female driver \u2013 checking off a box on her bucket list after missing out on the honor the year by a mere $22 when the event’s 50-50 winner donated his winnings to another driver\u2019s fundraising effort at the last minute.
\u00a0
Armour president and CEO Wesley Armour called DeRidder \u201ca great ambassador\u201d for the company and the industry as a whole.

When she\u2019s not on the road, DeRidder is talking up opportunities for women in the industry. She\u2019s a huge proponent of the WIT\u2019s Where\u2019s Clare initiative that promotes careers as a professional driver to young girls.
\u00a0
\u201cTrucking every day, I always like to say I\u2019m carrying on my dad\u2019s legacy,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d go on the truck with him, that\u2019s how I got started. I used to look around and on the highways I would always see men behind the wheel; you\u2019d never see a woman behind the wheel.
\u00a0
\u201cI used to ask the question why isn\u2019t there more women driving trucks and kind of carried that with me for the rest of my life. When I linked up with Ellen that really gave me a big opportunity to promote more women into the industry. It was always my legacy to do this.\u201d
\u00a0
Women in Trucking is a non-profit association with nearly 5,500 members in 10 countries whose mission is to empower, encourage and support women in the trucking industry. Interestingly, more than 15 percent of its members are men.
\u00a0
The other finalists for the award were Carmen Anderson, a company driver with America\u2019s Service Line, and Sarah Fiske of FedEx Freight.
\u00a0
Anderson, the first woman to be named Wisconsin Motor Carriers Association Solo Driver of the Year (2019) and winner of the 2015 South Dakota Truck Driving Championship, is trained to recognize and prevent human trafficking and has 2.5 million safe-driving miles.\u00a0
\u00a0
Fiske has logged nearly 1.2 million accident-free miles in her 14 years with FedEx Freight. She participates in numerous industry initiatives, including Trucker Buddy, Trees for Troops and the Drive for Freedom truck rodeos benefitting the Wounded Warrior Project. For the past seven years she has been playing Mrs. Claus to her husband’s Santa spreading Christmas cheer to a variety of organizations in her community.
\u00a0
\u201cAll three of the women have done some amazing stuff, all were very well-deserving,\u201d said Lori Furnell, Walmart\u2019s director of supply chain talent acquisition and a member of the judging panel. \u201cTo hear (DeRidder’s) excitement to know she\u2019s being appreciated for her career was something.

“It is a tough environment and historically not a job a lot of females are willing to do, but these women show you can have the family relationship, a community relationship and a professional career. I just don\u2019t think (women) know that\u2019s available to them and what it means to them financially.\u201d
\u00a0
The award is sponsored by Walmart, and is extension of the company\u2019s commitment to supporting the advancement and recognition of women in the trucking industry. There are several women on the Walmart Road Team of professional drivers.
\u00a0
\u201cWe wanted women in the industry to know we\u2019re here for them,\u201d Furnell said. \u201cWe support them, we\u2019re proud of them, we want to see the growth of women in the transportation industry and anything we can do to help that we want to be a part of.\u201d
\u00a0
Walmart is looking to bring on 150,000 associates throughout its system nationwide. It is looking to grow its fleet of experienced professional drivers by more than 500, especially in the Northeast and Northwest, and women are encouraged to apply.
\u00a0\u00a0
Al Muskewitz is Editor of Wright Media. He can be reached at <\/em>musky@wrightmediacorp.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here for available truck driving jobs with Walmart.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canadian driver recognized for her commitment to trucking, community, safety; award sponsored by WalmartBy Al Muskewitz In a time of national emergency and worldwide uncertainty, Susie DeRidder was looking for some really good news to come…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[242,179],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":824,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions\/824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiremaster.com\/trucking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}