Really Weird Situation Here

Hi all,

I'm a new female driver who just got hired for flatbed. It has been all around weird since recruitment up to present, though, and I'm kind of worried about it. The recruiter thought I was a man on the phone because I have a deep voice from ten years of steroids/living as a transman, which I only stopped and changed my documents back to female last year. I didn't correct her because I can't really expect people not to think that with my voice, though I noticed she stopped calling me sir once I sent a picture of my license.

I would have thought from there the higher-ups would have seen the gender on all the documents and if they were confused about what exactly I was even so, they could just ask me. But it seems like outside of the recruiter and one other person in HR, everyone has automatically assumed I am a man, probably from the facial hair I've been too poor to have completely removed yet and the voice. I shave, but obviously, a five o clock shadow is a five o clock shadow.

I would correct them, but I noticed this particular company was in legal trouble (still might be) on an accusation of gender discrimination over supposedly not hiring female flatbed drivers because they have a same sex trainer policy. Having no female flatbed trainers (at least at the start of the lawsuit in 2022), that means they wouldn't be able to take women on in flatbed. I have no clue how true the accusation is or whether they have since changed their policy - no information on the internet about that part of their training process.

I had assumed because they are taking on me, they must have changed all that - but since everyone, even the trainer I'm about to meet, decided I'm a man, that makes me very nervous that I've only gotten a job by some sort of misunderstanding/other people not reading the paperwork, and if I point out I'm a woman, I'm going to be thrown right out if that policy is still a thing. I don't know if it is safe for me to assume that if I made it past the recruiter, that policy is gone and it is alright for me to point out I'm a woman; or whether even so, it would be best for me to bring it up so that I get placed with a female trainer (which they might not even have). What might be the best way to handle something like this? I get I'm probably the only person in the world with this problem, but any insight is appreciated!

Hi. You are not the only one. Prime has a large population of trans/detrans.

It would be discrimination to not hire you as a man, woman, or trans. It is also illlegal to come out and ask you if you are trans... Ask for a training supervisor and explain the situation. Each department has their own job and doesn't necessarily worry about what happens in the next dept.

Here is one for you.. I know a woman named Sylvester and in the 1960s she entered the US Air Force. They put her with the men. Way way before trans became trendy.

Good luck with all you do. Trucking is the great equalizer. You can be a green monkey smoking a pickle but if you can do the job safely... that is all that matters.