Trucker TikTok star encourages other women to hit the road

CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — With the nation dealing with a labor shortage and a supply chain crisis, truckers are in high demand, and one trucker is working to inspire more women to get behind the wheels of big rigs.

Clarissa Rankin isn’t only a trucker, she’s a TikTok star with more than 1.5 million followers, posting about her adventures on the road.

Rankin said she received her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, but she wasn’t making much after graduating, and she couldn’t find a job; however, her husband inspired her to pursue trucking.

Now she’s on a mission to get more women into the industry. Currently, fewer than 1 in 10 truck drivers are female, according to the Women in Trucking Association.

“It’s OK to want to do a job following behind your daddy or your pawpaw or your uncle, get into it and make a great living and enjoy the experience behind the road and meet different people and go travel the world through state to state and just experience the road of a trucker, it’s nothing wrong with it, it’s fun it’s exciting but step into a different zone,” Rankin explained.

Rankin said people could earn more than $40,000 a year starting salary.

“That’s a standard year; it’s pretty good income to get you started in the industry and do your one year of experience. So, it’s a pretty good living,” Rankin said.

Rankin said people don’t realize that once someone completes a year of experience, they have more options to advance their career in the field.

“Once you get your year of experience in, you can get your own truck, make your own schedule, and it could actually be a job that you can grow and add on different women into your company and start your own truck company from one truck to five trucks to 10,” she said.

Rankin said aside from being a truck driver, people could work dispatch, manage marketing, etc., in the trucking field, but that information isn’t always shared; that’s why she uses her platform to educate people about the industry.

“I make sure I educate people about the industry that they don’t get to see,” Rankin said.