Warren, Mich.-based Central Transport is facing a second hiring discrimination lawsuit, with each lawsuit involving a different protected class. The latest complaint alleges a nationwide pattern of failing to hire women truck drivers.
It is no secret that women are underrepresented in truck driving. Women make up only 4% of truck drivers, a number that has not budged in nearly two decades.
The 2024-25 Women in Trucking Index revealed that the percentage of women truck drivers hit a five-year low. The American Transportation Research Institute identified several challenges for female drivers, including image and perception, training school completion, truck parking shortages, restroom access, and gender harassment and discrimination. Meanwhile, research suggests that women tend to be safer drivers.
In 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a listening session focusing on the needs of women truck drivers. The EEOC has gone after several trucking companies discriminating against women truck drivers. USF Holland settled a sex discrimination case filed by the EEOC for half a million dollars. A South Carolina company settled an EEOC lawsuit accusing it of denying employment to a female driver due to her sex.
The EEOC is after another trucking company.
Central Transport is facing an EEOC lawsuit alleging it failed to hire qualified female truck driver applicants nationwide. The complaint highlights sex discrimination going back at least a decade.
According to the lawsuit, Central Transport’s minimum qualifications include having a CDL, six months of verifiable driving experience within a 12-month period and a willingness to obtain a hazmat endorsement. Despite female applicants typically exceeding those qualifications, many never reached the interview stage.
In one case, a woman truck driver applied for a job with her male cousin at Central Transport’s Detroit terminal. Upon realizing they forgot to include some information on their application, they returned to the terminal about 10 minutes after submitting the application. The Central Transport employee quickly retrieved the male cousin’s application, but had a hard time finding the female driver’s paperwork. That is when they saw the employee remove the female driver’s application from the trash. Adding insult to injury, the male cousin was eventually hired while the female driver never got an interview.
In another case, a woman truck driver with 15 years of driving experience applied for a job at the Phoenix terminal. After she completed the application, she sat down to wait for an interview, which she never got. When asked why, a Central Transport employee said he did not know and acknowledged the driver’s application looked fine.
A male friend and Central Transport driver had told the woman truck driver that the company was still hiring. When he applied for the job, he was interviewed on the spot and hired within a week. According to the EEOC’s complaint, he did not meet the minimum experience qualifications.
In the three-month period around the date the female truck driver submitted her application, Central Transport hired 20 male drivers at the Phoenix terminal. Not a single female was hired.
The lawsuit mentions several other similar scenarios that happened at Central Transport terminals across the nation.
“Central Transport’s decisions with regard to hiring qualified female truck driver applicants, when compared to male applicants, resulted in significantly fewer female applicants being hired than would be statistically expected on a nationwide basis for the years 2016 through January 2022,” the EEOC states in the lawsuit.
Central Transport’s convict discrimination lawsuit
This is not Central Transport’s first rodeo dealing with a hiring discrimination lawsuit.
The trucking company is currently facing a lawsuit filed by a truck driver who applied for a job at its Hatfield, Pa., facility. The man was denied a job after Central Transport uncovered an armed robbery conviction from 15 years prior.
Pennsylvania’s Criminal History Records Information Act helps former prison inmates get a second chance by restricting how employers access and use criminal records. Former convictions may be considered only if they relate to job suitability.
In this case, the driver accused Central Transport of unlawfully obtaining his criminal records. He lost his case after a federal district court judge ruled the trucking company obtained the records legally. However, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision, allowing the driver to proceed with his claims.
“Job hunting is never easy; having a criminal conviction makes it much harder,” Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas states in the opinion. “So, Pennsylvania law limits when and how employers may use an applicant’s criminal history.” LL
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