Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/696174
28 www.bigrigowner.com J U LY 2 0 1 6 LEGENDS OF THE ROAD Jaimie Mechigian puts on her head- set, pulls out a notebook and starts tapping at her Qualcomm. She has a load of sheetrock en route to Jackson, Mississippi, and it's time to go to work. It's 7 a.m. on a Tuesday. The Alabama sun is starting to peak out from broken clouds above the rest area Mechigian is parked at, a promising sign on a day that was supposed to be marred by poor weather conditions. A small trinket of a turtle, adorned with an equally small hat, sits mounted on her dash. It's a relic of a truck stop she once visited, and it vibrates as Mechigian finishes up with her pre-trip and Qualcomm and puts a firm hand on the clutch. It's time to drive. Mechigian is a company driver for McElory Truck Lines, headquartered in Cuba, Alabama. They're a 100 per- cent flatbed company, and Mechigian is the only woman in their fleet. "Women in flatbed are rare," Mechi- gian says with a small smile. Mechigian came to McElroy Truck Lines after her husband, who also drives for the company, endorsed it. He'd been driving for the company for almost two years. Mechigian admits prior to riding along with her husband, she wasn't really sure if there were women in flatbed at all. "I think a lot of people think only men do it," Mechigian said. She attended truck driving school in Georgia, the state she and her husband call home. After a 3-week program, she applied to McElroy Truck Lines. The company had her go through 7 more weeks of company training, and then she was off. Mechigian chose to attend driver school independently so she could reserve the freedom to choose which company she wanted to work for, as opposed to applying for a company that offered their own driver school program in exchange for a designated time commitment. "By me doing that, it let me pick who I Flatbedder Jaimie Mechigian is in it for the long haul By Deanne Winslett Truck driver Jaimie Mechigian pulls the tarp off her sheetrock load (Photo/ Deanne Winslett)