Trucker immediately takes operations promotion after accepting All-Star Driver award 

The recipient of a Driver All-star award was immediately promoted to a position in operations upon her return home to the company. 

Truck driver Christie Tilton of Eaton, Ohio was presented with a Driver All-Star award from the National Private Truck Council in Florida in September after being nominated by her operations manager back in the spring of this year. The NPTC award is granted to private fleet truck drivers who have achieved and maintained high performance standards such as customer service, safety, regulatory compliance, and community service. 

“My manager told me I won the award, and I was going to Florida to receive it,” Tilton said to Dayton Daily News. “I’ve been driving now for ten years and was with a lot of longer tenured veteran drivers.”

Tilton was one of 27 drivers granted the award this year, and one of only two women. 

“This career field is still mostly male,” Tilton said. “I know that in the past ten years, more and more women are driving. [But] It’s rare to find women who have been driving that long.”

“Most people don’t make it a year,” Tilton continued. “It’s just hard when you have a family, though there are some who drive for their whole careers — 30 or 40 years.”

Immediately after returning home from Florida to accept her All-Star Driver award, Tilton was offered a promotion in the operations sector of her company, and accepted. This means that, despite her stellar driving performance, Tilton no longer drives the semi trucks, but instead plans their routes and interviews new drivers looking to join the company. 

“I took the promotion so I could be home again,” Tilton said. “I miss driving some days, but not when it gets cold!”

“With kids at home, I like where I am now,” she continued. “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.”