Her job is to train truck drivers, her passion is to create opportunities for others

Visit the Eastridge Mall most days and in the expansive parking lot will be an 18-wheeler, but this tractor-trailer delivers drivers for the trucking industry, not shoes, clothes of jewelry.

Transenergy CDL Academy, a truck driving school in Gastonia, has set up shop in the Eastridge Mall.

Narria Philpott began the school in April and has operated it at the mall since June. She uses a small store on the second floor of the mall near Curt's for classroom training and the parking lot to train drivers.

"I like creating opportunities for people," she said. "That's my passion in life."

And, she agrees, she is a bit of an anomaly in the trucking industry.

"There aren't that many women at all in the trucking industry. Period," Philpott said. "And even fewer Black women."

Philpott, now married to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police office, started her career in the trucking industry as a driver in 2019 and a single mother.

"I did the flat tires on the road, the traffic, the weigh stations, the showers on the road, the eating on the road. I did it all," she said.

After a few years, she saw an opportunity in teaching others to drive. She sees her truck driver training career as a way to help others.

She tells single mothers or young families that some companies allow spouses or children to travel with them in the cab of the truck. She helps non-English speaking people who want a better career. A former felon who has trouble finding a job because of their record can often find a career in truck driving, she said.

Truck drivers can earn $40,000 to $60,000 a year to start, a wage higher than many other jobs, Philpott said.

And while piloting an 80,000-pound, fully loaded tractor-trailer down I-85 through a big city may sound scary, it can be conquered, she said.

"I tell everyone during training, instructors, too, 'You have to have patience,'" she said.

Learning to drive a tractor-trailer involves 160 hours of training, so her course takes four to five weeks to complete. Truck drivers must complete 50 hours of classroom training, and some of that classroom training must be finished before a student gets behind the wheel.

Drivers go through different maneuvers in the parking lot of Eastridge Mall before they hit the nearby highways, she said.

The cost for the school is $3,500, but she said she offers students smaller class sizes and more time with instructors.

"I think the smaller class sizes do give instructors time to pay you closer instruction," said student Kintrell Porter, 21, of Charlotte. "If you're in a class of 10 students, I think they're just trying to pass you through."

Porter takes his test for his Class A commercial driver's license on Aug. 31. He considers himself ready to hit the road and see the country.

"I've never seen anything outside the southeast. Just North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida," said the Charlotte resident. "I want to see the whole country."

You can reach Kevin Ellis at 704-201-7016 or email him at kellis@gastongazette.com.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Black woman a change of pace in truck driving industry