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30 • SEPTEMBER 2023 FEATURES
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West Coast region, where she still makes her
home, she’s equally comfortable with a longhaul
assignment. She’s touched all but two
of the lower 48 states and has trucked to two
Canadian provinces. She says she has no clue
how many miles she’s racked up in her career.
“I still go anywhere and everywhere I’m
needed, and that includes Canada,” she said.
“I like to be a flexible driver for my company.”
Part of what fuels Castro’s company-first
mentality is the diversity she sees among
LGT’s driver pool. While women have been
slow to enter the trucking industry overall,
she says LGT has made a concentrated effort
to boost the number of women behind the
wheel.
“Within my own company, we actually
do have quite a few women drivers, which is
awesome to me,” she said. “Even in the hazmat
world — where there really aren’t a lot (of
women) overall — we’re attracting women
who are looking to expand their careers.
“It would be nice to see more actually, but
I know it’s not always the most appealing job
to women,” she added. “Like I said, in a lot of
families, (trucking) is looked down upon, and
women are told they can’t do that, or they
can’t work around a lot of men.”
Castro not only tries to dispel such
stereotypes by her everyday work routine,
but she’s also taking working to topple longstanding
career barriers. As LGT’s first female
driver-trainer, she has the perfect opportunity
to debunk long-held attitudes and bring
change to an industry that’s traditionally been
slow to embrace it.
“I think what sets me apart as a trainer
is I have a lot of patience,” she said. “You’re
working with so many different types of people
and backgrounds. I try tailor my training to
the individual and how they are. I don’t just go
in with the same script for everybody, because
everybody works at a different pace. Some
people need things broken down in certain
ways.
“That’s stuff I didn’t get when I first started
out,” she continued. “I was always thrown into
the fire, which helped me improve who I am —
but you don’t need to train that way. This isn’t
a competition. We don’t need to throw people
this way and that way. We train for safety and
for excellence first.”
Castro’s impact on fellow drivers and
others in the trucking industry earned her
Member of the Month honors from Women
In Trucking for July 2023. However, she says,
awards and accolades don’t alter who she is
or the training provided to the people she’s
tasked with preparing for the road.
Her message is clear, simple and hard-won.
“Nothing is easy,” she said. “You have to go
with how you feel and where your heart and
your head are at. Just continue to go down the
path you think is right for you. Learn to find
encouragement from within yourself, because
a lot of times, you will not get it from other
people.”
Keep working toward your goals even
when those naysayers are the people you
love the most and who are closest to you, she
advises.
“It took a while for my family to own up
and be like, ‘You’re not just someone holding
a steering wheel all day,’” Castro said. “At
the same time, with me being over the road,
they don’t get to see what I’m doing, because
they’re not out there. All they know is I leave
home and then I come back.
“But they’ve definitely warmed up to it,
and see that it is a good career path,” she said.
“They have seen how much I’ve developed in
a short amount of time in my own career.” 8
Los Troqueros
Courtesy: Liana Castro
In addition to hauling hazmat materials for LGT Transport, Liana Castro is the carrier’s first female driver-trainer.