Erin Sanders leaves her suburban home at about 9:20 p.m., every night. She starts work at 10, and is on the road driving shortly thereafter.
Her destination? Toledo, Ohio.
And she does it nightly, five nights a week.
It's 550 miles every night; 2,750 miles per week.
On a good night, her drive time is nine to nine-and-a-half hours. In bad weather, it can be 11 hours.
Sanders is a modern-day pony express for freight, driving a 53-foot long trailer, pulled by a semi-tractor, known as a tractor trailer. Her load weighs up to 40,000 pounds.
"The bulk of my history [driving] has been doing pickup and delivery; it's only been over the past two years that I have been doing this over-the-road stuff," said Sanders, who listens to a lot of books on CD during her travels. She also talks to fellow drivers via Bluetooth headset.
"The biggest struggles I have are, boredom and white-line fever."
Sanders is admittedly a coffee junkie—with cream and Splenda. She travels with snacks, such as cottage cheese, yogurt, cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, pickles and more.
"I'm fairly certain that most of the people who I deal with, in terms of the other drivers I come in contact with, know that I'm transgender; I'm out [about that fact], but I don't make a big deal it," she said.
Sanders has been out at work for about four years.
"It's interesting. I drive through Indiana every night and make the same stops every night—yet despite all that's going on in that state, I have always been treated really wonderfully," she said. "Most people just take me as any other woman. I've never had an issue in public, which I'm very lucky about."
Sanders said she once had to drive another driver in her truck, "and in the conversation, it came out that I was gay, a lesbian, though he didn't pick up on [the fact] that I am transgender," she said. Over time, they continued their friendship, talking as each was driving through the night in opposite directions.
He eventually learned Sanders was transgender, "but he didn't care," Sanders said.
They are still friends.
Sanders admittedly was "quite fearful" that she would lose her job when she came out, but was supported by Pride At Work-Chicago, which works toward support between the organized labor movement and the LGBTQ community.
"The environment that I work in is still rooted in the early 20th Century, an old-school environment, with a lot of machoism," she said. "At the same time, when people get to know you, and learn, they start realizing that we're not any different."
THE STATS
- Age: 58
- Town: Skokie, Ill.
- Job: Linehaul truck driver
- Gender identity: Trans woman
- Hobbies: Bicycling, motorcycling, archery
- Fav pig-out food: Cantonese food
- Education: Forest View High School, then Northern Illinois University
- Favorite TV show: It's the Rachel Maddow Show, "though I have to listen to it on Sirius."
- Little-known fact: "I lived in Israel for a year and a half."
