Heather Jones was a young mum of two when she left her comfortable job as a secretary to become a long-haul truck driver.
At 51, she is one of Australia’s leading female figures in the trucking industry – it’s a business Ms Jones has been part of for 27 years, and one she said has been a ‘blast’.
The Perth-based mother-of-two revealed she hit the road, with her two young daughters in tow, when she was just 24.
Heather Jones (pictured) hit the road as a young woman of 24 with her two daughters then aged five and four in tow
Life driving long-haul trucks not only gave the mum a great income, but it also provided a mobile home – decked out with bunks, a fridge and built-in closets (pictured: the girls as kids)
At the time she recalled she was working as a secretary for a mining company when the call went out for truck drivers to transport materials around the mine.
‘The job offered double the money, and half the stress,’ Ms Jones told FEMAIL.
Her progression to driving long-haul big rig trucks came when her husband left her and her two girls, Kersti and Chelsea, in the early ’90s.
Ms Jones needed a lifeline, and a friend, and a fellow truckie came to the rescue.
‘A mate of mine was managing a trucking company in Karratha in Western Australia,’ she said.
‘And he offered me a job. Without that break I have no idea where we would be now.’
But the offer to drive big rigs came with one strict proviso: her girls, then five and four, weren’t allowed to get out of the truck.
Life behind on the road: Ms Jones said driving long haul big rigs not only gave her a great income it also provided a mobile home for her family
Life driving long-haul trucks around Western Australia not only gave the new single mum a great income, but it also provided a mobile home – one that came decked out with bunks, a fridge and built-in closets – for the family.
While breaking into the heavily male-dominated industry was ‘extremely challenging’, she said she found camaraderie among others who lived on the road.
‘People know you on the highway and look out for you,’ she said of the men and women who she referred to as her ‘trucking family.’
Breaking into the heavily male-dominated industry was tough, but she found camaraderie among other men and women who lived on the road
Ms Jones explained that at the time, the family were spending ‘around 90 per cent on the road driving’ so a decision was made to home-school her two girls.
‘No matter where we went we always had book work and school work, and I tried to make it fun and entertaining and enjoyable,’ she said.
The family ended up spending a total of seven years on the road and decided to call Perth home when her girls hit their early teens and told her they wanted to attend school.
Ms Jones truck driving career started in the late ’90s when the mining firm she was working for put out the call for drivers to transport material around the mines
While she was working driving trucks, in 2004, the dynamic Ms Jones struck out on her own and set up her own heavy haulage business, Success Transport.
Though she mortgaged her house to finance the operation, getting a loan from the bank, was impossible, she recalled.
‘I spent hours every day trying to get a bank loan, only to face disappointment. I finally succeeded by going through a finance broker,’ she explained.
In 2004, Ms Jones struck out on her own and set up Success Transport, a trucking business she, along with her daughters still runs today
Heading up her own trucking business was tough, Ms Jones said.
Not only was she forced to be more competitive and work harder, she also had to contend with lasting prejudice.
‘Unfortunately, you have to give 200 per cent, and then you’re asked: “Who did you sleep with to get where you are?”.
‘You really need to prove you can do what you’re paid to do.’
The business is one her daughters, Kersti now 29, and Chelsea, 28, have grown up in, and they now work alongside their mum taking care of finances and administration.
Trucking is in the family: Daughters Chelsea (pictured left) and Kersti (pictured right) now work alongside Ms Jones (pictured centre)
Ms Jones knows how difficult it can be for anyone – especially women – to get a foot in the door of the trucking industry.
Figures show that only two per cent of those driving on the roads are women, a number that Ms Jones suspects have only risen marginally since she begun.
It’s something the feisty fifty-one-year old wants to change, and since 2014 has been helping women and young men get behind the wheel of big rigs through her side project, Pilbara Heavy Haulage Girls.
Kersti (pictured left) and Chelsea (pictured right) spent seven years on the road with the mum as young girls
The training and mentoring service has helped more than 30 people move into the industry, and of that figure 80 per cent have been women.
Those who take up the driver education and training scheme are given 160 hours worth of truck driving experience, and graduates are helped into full-time work from there.
The mentoring service isn’t designed just to help young people get a break either, said Ms Jones.
While the youngest woman to come through the academy was 23, a fifty-nine-year old woman who has bought up her children is about to graduate.
Pilbara Heavy Haulage Girls is a mentoring and training service designed to help people get industry ready. It offers them a foot in the door, said Ms Jones
‘I always tell people this is hard, sweaty work. You actually get dirty,’ Ms Jones said.
And despite the fact that life on the road comes with its share of trials such changing an 81-kilogram tyre on your own, and in 50-degree heat, it’s a life the effusive Ms Jones, who still drives, wouldn’t trade for anything.
‘My life has been a bit of a blast, she said.
‘And if other women are umming and aahing, I hope they might think about it, and decide to give it a go,’ she concluded.