Entering a classically male-dominated industry like transportation can be intimidating for women, but Tawni Marrs had been in a similar position before. Earning both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in STEM-related fields—also classically underrepresented by women—Marrs didn’t let any challenges of being the only female in the room keep her from developing a career as a transportation data scientist for Trimble.
Marrs, a lead data scientist, heads up a team of developers, data scientists, and engineers at transportation technology provider Trimble. Marrs and her team take data, whether from statistics, machine learning, or models, and transform it into insights to make predictions or forecasts in the industry. This also requires the input of fleet owners and drivers on the road to help the team understand the product requirements and pain points of their customers.
See also: Women in Transportation 2024
Marrs explained her job this way: “Whenever you think about your reports and your dashboards that are created, that can fall under data science. ... From there, the next step up is looking at prescriptive. That gets into thinking about what's ahead; not just knowing what's historically happened, but looking into what is ahead, and then prescribing something to be done about it. This could be looking at forecasting models. If you wanted to try and forecast the freight on a lane, that would be something that would be encompassed by data science.”
Marrs' journey to trucking
Much like many in this industry, Marrs didn’t expect to be in transportation. She fell into it “by accident.” As an undergraduate studying biochemistry, Marrs developed a love for analyzing lab results. This love for analytics led to her attraction with data science.
A few years later, Marrs obtained her master’s degree in data analytics and took a job at a consulting firm that serviced the transportation industry. The firm Marrs worked for developed eFleet Suite, which Trimble acquired.
“I was willing and eager to give transportation a shot,” Marrs said, “and since then, it's been consuming my world, consuming my mind—in a good way!”
While Marrs has built a successful career in the transportation industry—and in a STEM role, at that—she said sometimes she still feels intimidated.
“Trying to get up in front of an audience at a conference and speak to something—I have confidence in the fact that I know what I'm speaking to, but even just looking out in the audience and seeing all those people that aren't women, it's male dominated and everything. It can be intimidating,” Marrs told FleetOwner.
In those instances, Marrs chooses to focus on her fellow women.
“I tend to lock on to any women that are in the audience, and I've used them as focal points,” Marrs said. “That's a little technique I've adopted.”
While it hasn’t held her back, Marrs acknowledged the lack of women role models in the industry and challenges that creates for newcomers. Her response has simply been to take inspiration from many different people in the industry.
“I'll take different aspects of people—men or women that I like—and I’ll take a mental note of ‘Oh, I liked how she handled that,’ or ‘I like how he approaches this problem and walks through it,’ or things like that,” Marrs said. “So, it's not like any one single role model for aspiration, it's more of a mishmash of characteristics.”
Diversity leads to innovation
Apart from discouraging other women, a lack of women in trucking—or a lack of diversity, in general—can lead to a lack of innovation.
Transportation is a global industry, Marrs explained, and technology and data available to the industry varies between countries. Simple ways of operation also vary between countries. This is where diversity can be an advantage.
“We tend to have a focus on North America here in North America … [but] if you have some European colleagues or some Indian colleagues, etcetera, it keeps your mind open to the solutions you’re creating," she said.
“There's been numerous studies that can link diversity and inclusion with innovation,” Marrs explained. “Bringing those different backgrounds, those different perspectives, really drives that innovative front.”
See also: Diversity in trucking won’t work without inclusion
The transportation industry is at a “pivotal shift,” she noted, with a “technological and cultural shift toward a data-driven community.” This opens multiple opportunities for women to enter the space and shine by doing so. The industry is a rapidly evolving ecosystem and should be a valid consideration for women who are “dreamers, problem-solvers, and critical thinkers,” Marrs said.
Transportation—and tech—will continue to be a male-dominated field until “people start to be the ones that make the change,” Marrs said. “Be the one to help make it inclusive.”
