With multiple family members in the trucking industry at some point in time, Haleigh Fickett has been climbing in and out of trucks from a young age.
Fickett’s brother, also a truck driver, competed in the Maine Motor Transport Association Maine State Truck Driving Championship in 2018 ahead of Covid-19 and has been urging her to compete ever since.
And during her first time ever to compete back in May, she placed first among 11 drivers in the tanker truck division.
To win, the 24-year-old had to pass a written test based on the annual Facts for Drivers book that includes information on safety regulations and laws, among other things; a pre-trip inspection portion where she had to identify simulated defects, which “can be the trickiest part,” she said; and a driving portion on an obstacle course where she had to judge distances appropriately around cones and painted lines and perform a backing maneuver, among other tasks.
She will now move ahead to compete alongside eight other division winners from Maine at the National Truck Driving Championships in Indianapolis Aug. 16-19. She is the first woman from Maine to qualify to compete nationally.
“Haleigh is an impressive young professional truck driver, winning her class in only her first year competing,” said Brian Parke, president and CEO of the Maine Motor Transport Association. “Not only that, but she has been a great trucking ambassador on social media, especially with our workforce development campaign, to show women that they can succeed in what is typically known as a male-dominated industry. She’s helping to change that.”
Fickett earned her Class A CDL at 17, not knowing the direction her life would take or if she even wanted to be a truck driver, but she had a basic knowledge of the industry and understood that having a CDL meant she would always have a job, she said.
