Gina Vecchioni got her start in the trucking industry 32 years ago after graduating from Michigan State University. She started out as a rental customer service representative at Ryder in 1988, and over the course of 25 years at Ryder, she worked as a manager trainee, a one-way rental manager, a branch manager, and a rental account manager before rounding out her tenure there in lease sales.
For the last six years, Vecchioni has worked in national sales at Paccar Leasing (PacLease). Earlier this year, she was the first woman to receive Paccar Leasing’s Top National Account Sales Executive award.
“It was a great honor,” Vecchioni said, explaining that the recipient must have the most trucks signed, leased, and funded through PacLease for that calendar year. She noted that 2019 was a huge year for truck orders.
“I was lucky enough to have established a bit of an account base,” Vecchioni added. “Over the last five years, I was able to develop relationships with some really great customers; this put me in a good position when we had this big uptick in 2019.”
As a national account sales executive, Vecchioni is responsible for cultivating new and managing existing customers that have large truck fleets across multiple locations. The position also entails developing strong partnerships with Paccar dealers and franchises.
In addition to her work at PacLease, Vecchioni is on the National Private Truck Council’s (NPTC) membership committee and was named NPTC’s allied member of the year in 2018, mainly for her volunteer efforts in the industry. She also helps grade NPTC’s Certified Transportation Professional exams every year. Furthermore, she is on the PacLease Diversity Council and just became a member of the Women In Trucking Association.
Through the course of her career, one of the biggest challenges Vecchioni had faced was making it through all the economic downturns and recessions. She survived three of them and is now working amid the latest pandemic-induced recession.
“The economic recessions are tough because companies always have to downsize. Customers want to turn in trucks, and that’s challenging,” she explained. “I was able to survive because I was fortunate to work for companies that were fairly flexible and worked well with their customers during the tough times.”
Vecchioni also found balancing her work and family life challenging, particularly when her children were younger.
“Transportation is a demanding job that requires a lot of long hours, and so is having a family,” Vecchioni said. “There were many years I felt like I should be doing better in both areas. You never feel like you’re doing enough—at home or at work. If our industry wants to attract the best and brightest, we need to do more to improve work-life balance.”
With the challenges, though, typically come even greater achievements and successes. For Vecchioni, one of her biggest motivators is feeling like she helped her clients grow their business.
“The best memories I have are of the people I have helped,” she said. “I love being at a customer event and seeing a customer get in one of our trucks and drive it for the first time. They’re so excited to be able to give this beautiful, premium truck to their drivers.”
Over the years, Vecchioni has found that the best part about working in transportation is the people. “People in transportation tend to circulate around the industry. The longer you’re in it, the more friendships you have and that makes your job and your life more meaningful,” she noted.
Vecchioni also has some perspective on the future. “Although there are some different backgrounds and personalities in transportation, we need to work hard to increase the diversity of our workforce in general,” she explained. “With a diverse workforce, our industry will be better equipped to approach the rapidly changing world with perspective. And with that, there will be no challenge we cannot overcome.”
