A lot of people ask me why I became a truck mechanic, a lot of people think I am crazy, a lot of people think it is wrong because it is a “mans” job, some people are can’t express how proud they are that I am doing a “mans” job and doing it pretty good. Once you get past the mechanic part there is the question of why would you pick trucks? Cars are smaller, parts are lighter you’re a girl you can’t lift heavy things. I don’t know if I can pin point what made me want to be a mechanic and there are days when things go so horribly wrong that I question it myself but the good days by far outnumber the bad and I love the carrier I have chosen. 

Growing up I was fascinated by trucks. My dad worked for a garbage company driving a front end truck, my favorite memories growing up were getting to go for ride alongs with my dad.  When I graduated high school like most 17/18 year olds I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I was expected to go to university but my lack of interest in high school impacted my grades so that wasn’t going to happen. I got a job running the scale at the company my dad worked at, and I absolutely hated it. It was not challenging enough, boring, mind numbing. After going through the motions for 4 years I decided to go to school to become a mechanic.

At 22 I attended Fanshaw College’s motive power program I was 1 of 2 females out of 120 students most of whom were gear heads and were ages ahead of me in knowledge when the course started. After 48 weeks of schooling and a 16 week co-op I finished the top of my class, was the only one out of 60 that ended up graduating to make the presidents list (4.0 or higher gpa). Everything was good, until it was time to look for work. I had so many interviews, I would think they were going good but then at the end the interviewer would say you seem like you are eager to learn but being a female I don’t think you will fit in with the shop or I can’t hire you because I am afraid you will get hurt this is a mans world or you won’t be strong enough to do the work here. I kind of expected it to be hard to find a job because I am female but I did not expect them to be so honest about it…discrimination anyone? 

I finally got a job at a garbage company where I worked with one other person, this is when I learned that school didn’t prepare me for the working world at all. Almost nothing I learned in school applied and there was so much that was left out. My co-worker grew frustrated with me very quickly because I did not have the hands on experience required and he wasn’t interested in teaching someone. He told me on numerous occasions that women can’t be mechanics because they aren’t wired the way guys are.  Two years later I got a job at Challenger Motor Freight. Challenger overall has been a great company to work for. Never once have I been put down for being a woman by management or the other mechanics, everyone is super supportive. Probably 90% of the drivers treat me like one of the guys, they won’t suggest I can do things, won’t ask for someone else, they will clean their language up a bit though or apologize if they do swear.  There have been a couple of drivers that don’t think I can do the job but normally I end up proving them wrong. 

I think mentors are very important. I do not feel the schools do a great job in preparing people for their carrier. I see it all the time when new apprentices or co-op students come to work at our shop, they are so out of their league and when faced with a simple problem they don’t even know where to begin. I also see it with drivers, when a new driver comes in our yard a lot of times in your head you are wondering how they could have gotten their license, the schools are not preparing people enough. I recently took a course to get my z  biggest waste of money ever. Being a mechanic I am pretty familiar about how the brake system works, apparently I knew more than the instructor of the course. He had explained a couple of valves (what they did, how they worked) that I had issue with because that was not at all what they did. He then started explaining how a brake chamber worked I couldn’t take it any more I had to correct him. He told me it didn’t matter, he has been teaching this for 15 years and has a 95% pass rate so he can’t be that wrong. Sure enough somehow everyone in the class passed even though probably 60% of the information we were given was false, he couldn’t answer anyone’s questions, he knew what he was supposed to read off his powerpoint and that was it. Now there are probably schools out there that do a better job but it’s not like I picked the cheapest school, it’s a well known school, but can one expect people to be good drivers when they don’t get the basics they need. I think a lot of people (like I did) finish school knowing they have a lot to learn still but end up getting overwhelmed because they have a lot more to learn than they originally thought. 

I just recently got my mechanics license, in April of 2016, well I guess it was almost a year ago now. I kept putting off going to write the exam because a lot of people I knew that had gone to write had failed multiple times. Finally I worked up the courage to go write and managed to pass the first time.

My biggest piece of advice to anyone male or female is to not worry about what other people think and there is no such thing as a stupid question. I find a lot of new drivers or mechanics that aren’t comfortable doing something or don’t know how to do something and they are afraid to ask for help because they think it is dumb or are worried what the other person will think. I know there are people out there that will make you feel stupid for asking a question but as hard as it is do not let them get to you or ask someone else. I for one would rather answer 100 “stupid questions” then have to deal with the aftermath when something goes wrong because someone didn’t know what they were doing. 

Author:

Sam Vandermeulen 

Diesel Technician 

Challenger Motor Freight 

https://www.challenger.com