Kendra L. Hems has been around the trucking industry since she was eight. Her family owned a trucking company, and she initially started working at the family business for extra money during college, though she never intended to make trucking a lifelong career.
“But as I got into it, I really began to love it,” explained Hems. “Once I graduated college, I started dispatching at my family’s company with the intent of going back to graduate school and never did.”
Hems worked for her family’s company for another two years after graduating college before landing a job at the Trucking Association of New York (TANY) in 1999. She has been the association’s president since 2008.
As president, Hems is primarily focused on government affairs and industry relations. She lobbies for the organization and advocates on behalf of New York’s trucking industry. TANY also works closely with regulatory agencies like the state Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Most of the association’s 560 members are smaller carriers. Often, when TANY holds larger events, many don’t have the time or resources to attend, Hems noted. “A big piece of what we’re doing is transitioning a lot of our events to a virtual platform,” she said. “The continual education and training options for our members is a big initiative that we will continue to focus on.”
The association also advocates for workforce development in New York’s trucking industry. The goal is to recruit new drivers, technicians, operations managers, dispatchers, etc., into the industry.
TANY started a program with a charter school in Western New York that introduces students in junior high school to transportation. Last year, what started out as a logistics club ended up becoming a state-accredited course at the school, noted Hems. The goal is to introduce that model to other schools to promote trucking as a viable career choice.
Over the years, some of TANY’s biggest accomplishments have included its work in New York City, building relationships with the city’s DOT, the mayor’s office, and the City Council. Hems was recently named to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Surface Transportation Council as part of the COVID-19 reopening plan.
“I am really proud of what we have been doing here,” Hems said. “New York City is a really tough environment, and the trucking industry is not always held in the highest regard.
“So much of what I do I do because I love,” she added. “I love the job, and I love the industry. I think that comes through in the relationships we build and the work we do.”
Early on in her career one challenge Hems had to overcome was when she first started working as a dispatcher at her family’s company.
“I was a family member, I was a young female, and I don’t think the drivers at the time had a lot of confidence in my ability,” she explained. “I really had to prove myself to the drivers that I was there because I could do the job, not just because I was a family member. I did learn a lot of lessons in that.”
One of the most important lessons Hems learned is that caring about people goes a long way, particularly for drivers, who are often away from their families. Hems made it a point to consider their concerns and needs, and she worked with drivers to ensure they could return home for important family events.
“We often refer to this industry as a family, and it’s so true. I think partly because so many trucking companies started as family-owned businesses, so there is a real culture of family within the industry,” Hems said.
“Every day is a new day,” she added. “I’ve been at the association 21 years this year, and there is always a new challenge that comes up. Being able to address those challenges and do something to help your members or the industry gives you that extra motivation to keep going every day.”
