After a lifetime spent in the transport industry, with numerous awards under her belt, Roslyn Anderson has finally taken the plunge and secured her truck licence.
Roslyn has worked in numerous roles over the years, including currently serving as Women in Trucking Australia’s (WiTA) treasurer and a current board director.
She was also named the ATA National Trucking Industry Woman of the Year in 2020; and the Road Freight NSW Woman of the Year in 2018.
As the daughter of a truck driver, Roslyn has quite literally been around trucks her whole life. But despite her many years in the industry, she says the fact she didn’t have a truck licence herself had been bugging her for a long time.
So Roslyn decided to do something about it and sat her HR licence test a few weeks ago without telling anyone – until she passed.
“I have had the idea of getting a truck licence as a New Year’s resolution for the last three years in a row. It all just seemed a bit hard to do,” she confessed.
“I was the only person on the board of WiTA who did not have a truck licence! I didn’t discuss my plans with anybody because I thought I would fail. I thought I’d only tell them when I passed.
“I’m glad I finally got my licence. I honestly thought it would be so difficult, so it was more than a relief to pass. It was an absolute joy to be able to achieve something that to me is such a great thing.”
Roslyn says her driving instructor helped allay her fears, instead filling her with greater confidence.
“The instructor told me that I already know how to drive, I know all the road rules so all I had to understand was the size of the truck and the difference there is with sharing a narrow road, turning a corner, and parking the truck. He was absolutely right. I spent a few hours driving around and then went straight on to the driving test,” she explained.
“I thought everything would be so difficult but it wasn’t really. I would encourage any woman to give it a go. After the test I got back in my car and at the first intersection I thought, I can’t see as much as I can in the truck!”
Now that Roslyn has her HR licence under her belt, Big Rigs asked if she plans to eventually go for her HC.
“The other girls on the board will now drive me crazy because they drive really big trucks. Give me a few more years of procrastination and I will probably upgrade to HC.”
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