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Birr’s Emma Defies The Trucker Cliché

Thursday, 29 December 2011

Emma Bailey from Birr beside one of the trucks she drives.

IT is a rare sight in Ireland to see a woman commanding a large articulated truck, however Emma Bailey from Birr drives them professionally and is qualified to teach truck drivers - all at the tender age of 24!
Emma, who was spotted by the Tribune last week as she confidently negotiated Birr's narrow streets in her truck and 40-ft trailer, clearly revels in the role and exudes a sense of self-contentment only evident in those happily engaged in their true calling.
Remarkably, the statuesque young woman, who one might be forgiven for thinking would be more comfortable on a catwalk or among the pages of glossy fashion magazine by virtue of her beauty, is actually happiest when behind the wheel of her juggernaut, or mucking in with her father and brothers in the family run haulage business.
Daughter of Ernie and Denise Bailey from Cree, Fortal, Emma successfully earned her full articulated lorry driving licence in April and now proudly drives a truck for her father's company Ernie Bailey Transport.
Ernie, an accomplished veteran driver who is well known on the roads around Ireland, actually bought his first truck the year Emma was born and since then Emma has grown up immersed in the trucking life and the culture surrounding it.
'I've grown up around trucks and have grown to love them I guess,' a smiling Emma told the Tribune. 'When I was young I used to travel a lot with Daddy in his truck and used to go to Guinness' with him and stay out in the lorry. I always just had an interest in the trucks and I love working with them.'
However, today Emma commands a truck herself and often provokes bewildered looks from other motorists, who frequently double-take her in the cab of the lorry: 'People often take a second look and you can almost hear them say to themselves "was that a woman driving a lorry." I get a bit of a slagging off the lads but I don't mind it at all. I've grown up around trucks and lads all my life, so I'm well used to it,' Emma says laughing.
'Driving an artic was a little intimidating at first, as it takes a lot of getting into,' Emma said. 'There are a lot of gears and every lorry is different. We have between seven and ten trucks in our fleet and they are all very different to drive. Some lorries have 12 gears, others have 16. Some trailers are longer than others and you can be using different equipment like tipper-trailers and curtainsiders, which all do different type of work.'
The nature of Emma's work also requires her to display great dexterity behind the wheel, as well as perfect understanding of the dimensions of her vast vehicle, to enable her to manoeuvre her truck in tight spaces - far removed from the uneducated and idealised visualisation many people have of a truck driver and endless long straight open roads.
'We mostly draw trailers for Liffey's, Hall's and Hastings, which is all animal feed, so you are going into farmers yards and mills and it's not simple work by any means,' Emma says with obvious experience. 'When you do a test in any lorry the truck is not loaded for the exam. Getting into a fully-loaded lorry to drive is a totally different experience. Probably realistically people should be made do their test in a loaded lorry.' She also gives some insight into the stresses of the job: 'It's tough for people out on the road at the moment. Diesel is a killer and there is a lot of unfair competition. It's not an easy industry to be in and the overheads can be very high and a lot of stress. But it's a great job and all truckers stick at it because we love it.'
Emma is also unafraid to get her hands dirty and can regularly be found helping her father work on the trucks and admits to harbouring an interest in the mechanical workings of the gargantuan diesel engines that propel her on the road as she proudly toils for the family business.
Emma, who completed her degree in Business and Marketing in University of Limerick and has also spent some time working in the realm of advertising, is also a qualified instructor in the driver CPC course and hopes to set up a company instructing drivers in the CPC course as part of her father's business: 'It was only last year after doing all the CPC courses that I decided to go for the full artic and now I'd love to set up a CPC company as part of Ernie Bailey Transport, depending on how busy things are.
'Drivers have to do a refresher every year and I've already taught a few classes, but things are very quiet at the moment and hopefully in the next few years things will pick up,' an optimistic Emma said.
Meanwhile, Emma continues to work with her father and brothers Trevor and Ivan, two full-time drivers Sean and Brian and younger brother Thomas, who at age 18 already aspires to someday follow in his big sister's tyre-prints and drive for the family business.
Emma can regularly be seen on the roads around the midlands, piloting her huge truck and paving the way for more young female drivers to follow her lead and find a place among the trucking fraternity.

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