The Chick Truck

I have finalized 5 locations for my first trip off the island this year. As follow in order - Creston, Cranbrook, Sparwood, Nelson and Castlegar.  Five weeks on the road, I am coming ladies. I am thrilled that one of the locations will be at a college (Selkirk College in Nelson).  While I am always so impressed and proud of the women I meet working in such a variety of fields, meeting the young women getting their training at the colleges just warms my heart.  This week I had the pleasure of meeting three such young women at our local North Island College. One of these awesome girls welded me a plaque which I have already place in the truck and will be with me as I travel about the province. Thank you Brooklyn! 

If there is anyone out there who might question my authenticity about being a woman working in trades or industry, I would like to share the events of my final day of operation 2015. The place I had chosen to set up shop by Home Depot had worked great in the summer, but in December it turned into a mud bog.  Then, on December 23th, we had quite the snow storm downtown Campbell River that turned my mud bog into, well ... a big mess.  On Christmas Eve, the day I was to pull the rig home for the year, I locked in the diffs on the Kenworth and tried backing up onto the field to get to the trailer.  The tires were spinning in the snow and mud before I was anywhere near the trailer. Nope, not going to work.  So back up onto the road I go and out come the chains. I chained up and this time did not stop backing up until the pin was locked in with a bang!  My beautiful Kenworth pulled the trailer/shop out of that mess and I am sorry to any traffic I may have annoyed by the Quinnie, but I had to get those chains off once I was on the bare and black highway. You see, I wear many hats and I am not kidding.  During that afternoon I was completely alone, as I am everywhere I go. There is no magic helper that arrives to help me.  For those of you who climb up into my shop and see a woman in the retail business, well that is just one piece of my entrepreneur life.  I am a woman running a store, a trucking company and a truck by myself.  I also do all my own posts and I would like to say a special thank you to Cara Mann of Chan Nowasad Boates Accounting for helping me sort out my first year.  Sometimes I couldn't decide if it was more important to grease the truck or catch up with the finances!  But I love what I am doing and I know it what I am destined to do. I feel it in my bones and every time a woman comes in enthusiastically and comments what a great idea and marvels about my shop/trailer looking at the wear for women, my excitement blossoms more.

As I now start to organize for the upcoming year and dream about all the communities I will go to and all the amazing women I will get to see again or meet for the first time, I can't help but reflect on my first year.

This picture was taken from the Kenworth in the Fraser Canyon in September and is one of my favourites of my travels so far.  BC is so beautiful and it is great to see so many women working in this province.  We are so lucky to have the opportunities we do and although everyone seems to be so down about the economic future, I see every day how many British Columbians are out there working!  In my personal opinion, I think a lot of the negativity about the work force is driven by a media frenzy that seems to thrive on pessimism and negativity.  I guess that is what sells, but I wish the news could portray what I see - hard working communities, creative individuals making jobs and utilizing the resource based opportunities that are out there in this great province.  

I am coming ladies, and I promise I will try really hard to have what you need and if I don't, well I will raise hell until the world out there starts making the gear we need!  Cheers, Audrey

It is fitting I end my travels up north in Dawson Creek.  It has that same small-town BC feel here as it does in my home town Campbell River.  The people are respectful and hard-working, and although it has not been the busiest of all my stops, I know I will find a way in my future to make it back here.  I have learned many things in the past 7 weeks.  For one thing, 7 weeks is a long long time to be on the road away from my husband, friends and family.  It doesn't change my direction as I love what I am doing, but perhaps I may shorten the trips a little!  I have learned that women all over this province are doing amazing things despite the fact that they are most often working in a man's world.  I do not mean that as disrespecful, only the truth.  It brings on unique challenges for these brave women.  I have worked for the past decade on many male-dominated work sites and know hands-on it can be tough.  But persevere ladies, it is a great feeling of accomplishment and pride, not to mention often better pay, to pull it off and make it work. I would not be able to run my own trucking business now without all those experiences.  I also learned that my rig is not quite "minus 10" proof and will need to do some more insulating. Pretty chilly in here at night sometimes.  But most of all, throughout the past year, I have learned I am doing what I am meant to be doing, and that this business I have created has value as your comments, encouragement and enthusiasm for what I am doing show me.  Thank you so much, I look so forward to seeing you all again and hearing what pathways life has taken you. Audrey 

Hey ladies, I have added Fox Creek to my calendar, which means I will be in Dawson Creek a week later.  Fox Creek October 27 to November 1.  Dawson Creek November 3 to Nomber 7.

My year has been so crazy.  The idea of this business came to me while delivering shotcrete in the concete truck I used to drive to our local mine.  My ongoing wrist injury had me searching for a new pathway in life. Wow, and now to be receving an award, I am overwhelmed.  Here is a link for all the businesses that won and I am so honoured to have even been nominated!

Being a one-woman show, I am very very busy.  It is a moment by moment decision about prioritizing what is the most important task at hand.  I always give the girls (the women out there working in industry or trades who come in to see me or who contact me) priority and my undivided attention. Our connections and understanding for each others challenges, as well as triumphs, motivate me always. 

I would like the world out there to know that I do all my own work.  Whether that means posting on my webpage, Twitter or Facebook or getting underneath my truck and trailer and greasing.  One minute I am gearing down my 14,000 KG on a steep grade in the Pine Pass, and the next minute I am trying to find a supplier who carries a particular type of women's glove that a female welder is looking for to do her job. I organize my trips, inventory and business accounts on my own, and I have been lucky enough to have some great suppliers believe in me and what I am doing to be willing to take on a little fish in a huge sea of big box stores that seem to dominate the economy now.  I think of myself as being like that peddler you used to always see in the cowboy movies who travelled around with his horse-drawn carriage selling his wares (except I have a Kenworth and Cummins engine to pull my load!)

Exhaustion sets in occasionally, I miss my husband, and challenges arrise like having to scare away the bad guys and call 911 because those bad guys are trying to steal my generator at 4 in the morning!  But then I have moments like now.  I am set up at the Casino in Fort St. John with time for a cup of tea and I giggle to myself at the last 3 women who came in.  Three electricians who work together.  They were so enthusiastic and excited; about their work and about being in the Chick Truck.  Their enthusiasm pushes me foward!  Wish I could get a picture of the three of them in their Stanfields they all bought with my logo on them. If you ever read this girls, please send me a pic! 

It has been a couple busy weeks getting ready.  The chains are fitted and ready to go for my Kenworth, the air conditioner has been replaced with heaters, and the lightweight women's gear has been replaced with lots of fuzzy, warm, insulated gear!  Ladies of the Peace region, I am soooo excited to be heading your way Monday morning.  I have added new stops you can check out on the calendar I am going to venture into Alberta as well as try to take care of you northern BC ladies working so hard up there!   This picture was taking a decade ago when my very first job commercially driving was running a snow plow for highways.

BRING ON THE COLD, THAT DOESN'T STOP US, WE ARE WOMEN IN TRADES.

It has been 5 weeks since I pulled out of the driveway on York Road, Campbell River.  Five communities: Kitimat, Prince Rupert, Prince George, Terrace and finally now Smithers.  As I start the process of securing everything down in the truck, I can't help reflect back on this amazing tour of north-western BC.

I am so proud to have met so many amazing women doing such a variety of work.  My two favourites are two girls still in high school but completely already dedicated to being in trades.  A girl from Kitimat who is doing carpentry for her final year of high school and who is spending her summer working the labour intense job of finishing concrete.  Now that's my kind of girl.  For those of you who don't know me, I spent almost 8 years in concrete trucks and I alway felt compassion for the hard workers dealing with the concrete I poured out of my truck.  The second, a girl from Terrace, all lined up for the mechanics program in January.  She has spent the last few years monkey-wrenching motor bikes.  Awesome!!!!

So many women doing so many things.  Geologists, engineers, surveyors, archeologists, framers, pipe fitters, port workers, city workers, long shorewomen, welders, loggers, heavy equipment operators, plumbers, chip truck drivers, welders, electricians, every type of carpentry work, farmers, manufacturers and several women just running their own businesses being creative doing a bit of everthing (handywomen!). I loved hearing your stories and for those of you struggling, NEVER GIVE UP WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.  See you next year!

The photos are the last 24 hours here at the exhibition.

Well ladies, I am heading for some exhibitions.  Oh yeah!  Logger sports, saloons, rodeos, country music concerts; OMG I love my job!!!  Please check out the calendar for details.  I will be at the BC Northern Exhibition in Prince George next week, then trucking all the way back to Terrace due to an overwhelming response from you ladies working in industry and trades over there, and then my final stop on this northern BC tour will be the Bulkey Valley Exhibition in Smithers.

Thank you Lisa Perry for an awesome segment on CTV Island News.  Check it out here. 

I have arrived and finished the two hour set-up at Shar-Kare in Courtenay!  Check out the calendar for more detail.  Took a little time yesterday to enjoy our beautiful west coast ... SHE PLAYS ON CANADA DAY! Audrey