Christie Tilton of Eaton had big plans to become a high school band director after graduating from Northridge High School in 2007.
“I played trombone and drums and had planned to go to school for music,” Tilton said. “But instead, I ended up working for a parking company at the Dayton Airport and eventually went into management.”
Less than satisfied, Tilton described herself as “wandering aimlessly through life.” That was until her grandmother bought a motor home and asked her granddaughter to drive her and her friends across the country. Tilton loved it.
“I had a friend who went to truck driving school, so I applied for the company he worked for,” Tilton said. “I set out to do it just as a backup plan because I knew if I had a CDL (Commercial Drivers License), I would always have a job.”
Tilton applied for a job at Prime, Inc. and was hired. The company had their own onsite driving school and prospective drivers didn’t have to pay as long as they agreed to work for the company for a year.
“I liked it so much, I stayed for three years,” Tilton said.
Single at the time with no children, Tilton said the constant driving didn’t bother her. But eventually it did begin to wear. She decided to look for a job that involved driving locally only. She was hired by at Dart Transit, a company that contracted with Proctor and Gamble.
She was there for three years until Proctor and Gamble started their own private fleet company. All the drivers from Dart were absorbed into that company.
Today, Tilton and her partner, Whitney Hartman, are raising a six-year-old and Tilton’s two teen siblings, ages 17 and 13. And with that, driving across the country and being gone so much of the time no longer makes sense.
“We would stay out on the road for two or three months at a time,” Tilton said. “This burns you out pretty quick.”
And while driving long distances, Tilton said she was lucky because she started her first trucking job with her high school friend, Jennifer Rowley, who ended up being her driving partner. The pair drove across the country twice a week and enjoyed seeing different places together. They alternated driving and while one rested and slept, the other drove.
“Most people don’t make it a year,” Tilton said. “It’s just hard when you have a family, though there are some who drive for their whole careers — 30 or 40 years.”
In the spring of this year, Tilton’s operations manager told her he was going to nominate her for a national driving award. The National Private Truck Council chose twenty-seven drivers from all across the country to receive the National Driver All-Stars award. And Tilton ended up being among them.
“My manager told me I won the award, and I was going to Florida to receive it,” Tilton said. “I’ve been driving now for ten years and was with a lot of longer tenured veteran drivers.”
The NPTC award is given to private fleet truck drivers who have demonstrated high performance standards against their peer drivers throughout the country. The award criteria include customer service, safety, adherence to company standards, regulatory compliance and community service.
Tilton wasn’t the only woman to receive the award, but there were only two out of the 27.
“This career field is still mostly male,” Tilton said. “I know that in the past ten years, more and more women are driving. It’s rare to find women who have been driving that long.”
And after returning from Florida, Tilton was promoted to a position in operations and is no longer driving.
“I took the promotion so I could be home again,” Tilton said. “I miss driving some days, but not when it gets cold!”
In her new position, Tilton manages drivers, interviews, hires, and plans and updates routes. She is enjoying the challenge and is grateful that she still works within the industry she fell in love with years ago.
“With kids at home, I like where I am now,” Tilton said. “But in the future, I would like to go back to driving. Once the kids are grown and out of the house, I may look at going on the road again. I was so honored to receive the award, especially as a woman. It’s a job I love that not many women ever get to do.”
PERSONAL JOURNEY
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