Sisters of the road: interview with Anne-Marie Michel
London fashion photographer Anne-Marie Michel was simply following her curiosity when she turned her lens on U.S. women truck drivers. Then the project took on a life of its own, becoming the basis for a book and a cross-country tour.
Victoria Kickham started her career as a newspaper reporter in the Boston area before moving into B2B journalism. She has covered manufacturing, distribution and supply chain issues for a variety of publications in the industrial and electronics sectors, and now writes about everything from forklift batteries to omnichannel business trends for DC Velocity.
She is used to doing her work on the catwalks of London and in places where celebrities hang out. But when life on the road called, art photographer Anne-Marie Michel responded—a decision that took her career in an unexpected direction.
It all began as a “passion project.” Michel’s interest in the day-to-day lives of female truck drivers led her to seek out women drivers and ask about their stories. But over the course of the project, her perspective changed. The more she learned about their lives, their struggles, and their achievements, the more convinced she became that their stories needed to be heard.
That vision has become a reality. In 2022, she published her first book, Sisters of the Road, which features photographs of 40 female drivers and tells their stories in their own words. Earlier this year, Michel took the photo collection on the road—literally—embarking on a cross-country tour that showcased her work as a way to celebrate the many women drivers she met and photographed.
Michel was recently a guest on DC Velocity’s“Logistics Matters” podcast, where she spoke with Senior Editor Victoria Kickham about the book and her experiences creating it.
Q: Sisters of the Road is an ambitious project. Can you describe the book and tell us why you embarked on the project?
A: It is a photo book that contains portraits of 40 American women truck drivers. Their stories are presented alongside the photos, which include images of the landscapes they travel through.
I actually started this project as a personal passion project. I was just following my curiosity, and these were pictures I took just for me. And then it kind of snowballed into something much larger, drawing in this much bigger community of women who now share the project with me. It’s very much collaborative.
Q: How did the project evolve into this larger movement?
A: I had never met a woman truck driver—or any truck drivers at all—before I started this project. And when I actually met these women and heard their stories, I knew their stories needed to be heard. So they very much took ownership of this project with me. I took the pictures, but it’s very much them.
And so, it’s a process of getting their voices heard. We’ve used this art photography platform, where you have many eyes and ears there, and it just turned into this community.
Q: How did you find and then connect with the women you included in your photo book?
A: Women only make up 7% of the truck driver workforce, so, though I didn’t realize at the time, they’re actually really hard to find. I live in London, but for this project I flew to Orlando, where I started off by sitting in a truck stop for three days. Of course, lots of men truck drivers came in, but no women.
On the third day, I was standing outside my car questioning my life choices when I saw a woman getting into her truck to leave the truck stop. I leapt up and ran over there, waving my arms and trying to get her to stop and talk to me. And of course, she drove right by me—the crazy woman in the parking lot waving her arms around.
So then, I had to change tack quickly. I just talked to everyone I knew to see if anyone had even heard of any female truck drivers. Eventually, I found my first woman trucker through my sister’s high school friend’s neighbor, who had a company and who knew a woman trucker in Ohio. I drove there, and that was my first one.
From there, I began to gain their trust as they came to understand what I was doing and that I had true intentions. And then, through word of mouth and social media, [word of the project] gradually seeped out and that’s how I found them.
Q: To honor Women’s History Month this past March, you took the project on the road with a cross-country tour that celebrates the many women drivers you met and photographed. Can you tell us about the scope of the tour and the reaction you received?
A: Yes, it was an incredible month. As you said, it was for Women’s History Month. These women are a really important part of American history—women’s history. We started off in San Francisco at the Red Oak Victory, which is a big World War II-era ship that was built primarily by women. This is where Rosie the Riveter would have worked, so we took inspiration from that—we wore yellow bandanas and had a big launch for Women’s History Month. From there, we went to the Houston FotoFest, which is a big international arts and photography festival. It was quite a long drive to get there, but it was so great to make the journey with Debbie Desiderato, who drove the truck the whole time.
Next, we went to Little Rock, Arkansas, and had a celebration for Idella Hansen, who’s an amazing truck driver and is kind of the icon of the series—and also a famous name in trucking as she has been driving for 55 years. And then for the trip’s grand finale, we visited the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky, which is an important event in the industry and one that drew a lot of women truckers.
Q: What did you do at these different stops?
A: We had a gallery of the photos built into a tractor-trailer that was pulled by Debbie Desiderato, the woman I mentioned earlier. Uber Freight was our main sponsor, and they put the power under the gallery. They were a great partner, perfectly in line [with us] because we both want to elevate and celebrate these women in the trucking industry.
Inside the trailer, there was a gallery with eight large portraits of the women truckers, along with video and music. It was a very immersive experience. And the book was there to be viewed as well.
When we took the tractor-trailer to the Houston FotoFest, the curators and gallerists were just amazed by the quality of the gallery that was built into the trailer. It very much had a “gallery” feel to it.
Q: I’ve never been in a gallery in a truck before. What were some other reactions you received?
A: Me neither—and it was a first for most people. It’s been fascinating because we have split the journey between the arts world and the trucking world. It’s very much a merging of these two worlds, which you don’t normally [see]. So, from the arts-and-gallery perspective, it was obviously just seeing the images and the art form. It’s already been around the world, as it’s also been displayed across Europe and Australia.
It was also interesting to have that arts perspective, where we had some of the women in the photos present with us, so they could have this cross conversation there.
Then bringing it to the Mid-America Trucking Show has been really great as well because it’s obviously a trucking audience and this is their own world—so it was a really important stop. Some of the truckers came through, and obviously they know the world these women move in, they know how hard the life is, and they were just in awe of the women and what they do. Take Brooke [Held-Sudimak], for example. Brooke hauls steel coils on a flatbed truck. And lots of the male truckers that came in were just like, “Wow. She’s an amazing woman.” So that’s really nice to hear from the trucking industry as well.
Q: What’s next for you? Do you have any plans for further projects in trucking or logistics?
A: Oh, I don’t know. This was my first foray into trucking and logistics. Nothing’s set in stone yet, but I have my eye on other bits and pieces, maybe even trains. I like freight trains in America. That might be something next—who knows?
Q: What have you personally taken away from this experience?
A: It’s been amazing. I come from such a different world. I was a fashion and celebrity photographer in London. I had never actually met a woman trucker before. But now, I have learned what inspirational people they are, what hard jobs they have, how resilient they are—they’re just really incredible. I feel like these are the people we should all be aspiring to [be like]. So check them out. Pay more attention there. They’re getting more space in the industry, and their percentages are going up. Keep your eye on them.
Fruit company McDougall & Sons is running a tighter ship these days, thanks to an automated material handling solution from systems integrator RH Brown, now a Bastian Solutions company.
McDougall is a fourth-generation, family-run business based in Wenatchee, Washington, that grows, processes, and distributes cherries, apples, and pears. Company leaders were facing a host of challenges during cherry season, so they turned to the integrator for a solution. As for what problems they were looking to solve with the project, the McDougall leaders had several specific goals in mind: They wanted to increase cherry processing rates, better manage capacity during peak times, balance production between two cherry lines, and improve the accuracy and speed of data collection and reporting on the processed cherries.
RH Brown/Bastian responded with a combination of hardware and software that is delivering on all fronts: The new system handles cartons twice as fast as McDougall’s previous system, with less need for manual labor and with greater accuracy. On top of that, the system’s warehouse control software (WCS) provides precise, efficient management of production lines as well as real-time insights, data analytics, and product traceability.
MAKING THE SWITCH
Cherry producers are faced with a short time window for processing the fruit: Once cherries are ripe, they have to be harvested and processed quickly. McDougall & Sons responds to this tight schedule by running two 10-hour shifts, seven days a week, for about 60 days nonstop during the season. Adding complexity, the fruit industry is shifting away from bulk cartons to smaller consumer packaging, such as small bags and clamshell containers. This has placed a heavier burden on the manual labor required for processing.
Committed to making its machinery and technology run efficiently, McDougall’s leaders decided they needed to replace the company’s simple motorized chain system with an automated material handling system that would speed and streamline its cherry processing operations. With that in mind, RH Brown/Bastian developed a solution that incorporates three key capabilities:
Advanced automation that streamlines carton movement, reducing manual labor. The system includes a combination of conveyors, switches, controls, in-line scales, and barcode imagers.
A WCS that allows the company to manage production lines precisely and efficiently, with real-time insights into processing operations.
Data and analytics capabilities that provide insight into the production process and allow quick decision-making.
BEARING FRUIT
The results of the project speak for themselves: The new system is moving cartons at twice the speed of the previous system, with 99.9% accuracy, according to both RH Brown/Bastian and McDougall & Sons.
But the transformational benefits didn’t end there. The companies also cite a 130% increase in throughput, along with the ability to process an average of 100 cases per minute on each production line.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and the economy were hot topics on the opening day of SMC3 Jump Start 25, a less-than-truckload (LTL)-focused supply chain event taking place in Atlanta this week. The three-day event kicked off Monday morning to record attendance, with more than 700 people registered, according to conference planners.
The event opened with a keynote presentation from AI futurist Zack Kass, former head of go to market for OpenAI. He talked about the evolution of AI as well as real-world applications of the technology, furthering his mission to demystify AI and make it accessible and understandable to people everywhere. Kass is a speaker and consultant who works with businesses and governments around the world.
The opening day also featured a slate of economic presentations, including a global economic outlook from Dr. Jeff Rosensweig, director of the John Robson Program for Business, Public Policy, and Government at Emory University, and a “State of LTL” report from economist Keith Prather, managing director of Armada Corporate Intelligence. Both speakers pointed to a strong economy as 2025 gets underway, emphasizing overall economic optimism and strong momentum in LTL markets.
Other highlights included interviews with industry leaders Chris Jamroz and Rick DiMaio. Jamroz is executive chairman of the board and CEO of Roadrunner Transportation Systems, and DiMaio is executive vice president of supply chain for Ace Hardware.
Jump Start 25 runs through Wednesday, January 29, at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly Hotel & Convention Center.
The new cranes are part of the latest upgrades to the Port of Savannah’s Ocean Terminal, which is currently in a renovation phase, although freight operations have continued throughout the work. Another one of those upgrades is a $29 million exit ramp running from the terminal directly to local highways, allowing trucks direct highway transit to Atlanta without any traffic lights until entering Atlanta. The ramp project is 60% complete and is designed with the local community in mind to keep container trucks off local neighborhood roads.
"The completion of this project in 2028 will enable Ocean Terminal to accommodate the largest vessels serving the U.S. East Coast," Ed McCarthy, Chief Operating Officer of Georgia Ports, said in a release. "Our goal is to ensure customers have the future berth capacity for their larger vessels’ first port of calls with the fastest U.S. inland connectivity to compete in world markets."
"We want our ocean carrier customers to see us as the port they can bring their ships and make up valuable time in their sailing schedule using our big ship berths. Our crane productivity and 24-hour rail transit to inland markets is industry-leading," Susan Gardner, Vice President of Operations at Georgia Ports, said.
It appears to have found that buyer in Aptean, a deep-pocketed firm that is backed by the private equity firms TA Associates, Insight Partners, Charlesbank Capital Partners, and Clearlake Capital Group.
Through the purchase, Aptean will gain Logility’s customer catalog of over 500 clients in 80 countries, spanning the consumer durable goods, apparel/accessories, food and beverage, industrial manufacturing, fast moving consumer goods, wholesale distribution, and chemicals verticals.
Aptean will also now own the firm’s technology, which Logility says includes demand planning, inventory and supply optimization, manufacturing operations, network design, and vendor and sourcing management.
“Logility possesses years of experience helping global organizations design, build, and manage their supply chains” Aptean CEO TVN Reddy said in a release. “The Logility platform delivers a mission-critical suite of AI-powered supply chain planning solutions designed to address even the most complex requirements. We look forward to welcoming Logility’s loyal customers and experienced team to Aptean.”
Netstock included the upgrades in AI Pack, a series of capabilities within the firm’s Predictor Inventory Advisor platform, saying they will unlock supply chain agility and enable SMBs to optimize inventory management with advanced intelligence.
The new tools come as SMBs are navigating an ever-increasing storm of supply chain challenges, even as many of those small companies are still relying on manual processes that limit their visibility and adaptability, the company said.
Despite those challenges, AI adoption among SMBs remains slow. Netstock’s recent Benchmark Report revealed that concerns about data integrity and inconsistent answers are key barriers to AI adoption in logistics, with only 23% of the SMBs surveyed having invested in AI.
Netstock says its new AI Pack is designed to help SMBs overcome these hurdles.
“Many SMBs are still relying on outdated tools like spreadsheets and phone calls to manage their inventory. Dashboards have helped by visualizing the right data, but for lean teams, the sheer volume of information can quickly lead to overload. Even with all the data in front of them, it’s tough to know what to do next,” Barry Kukkuk, CTO at Netstock, said in a release.
“Our latest AI capabilities change that by removing the guesswork and delivering clear, actionable recommendations. This makes decision-making easier, allowing businesses to focus on building stronger supplier relationships and driving strategic growth, rather than getting bogged down in the details of inventory management,” Kukkuk said.