Based in Oregon, he moved into trucking after working in warehouse operations, retail logistics support and shipment assistance for a local transportation company, a role that gave him an early and practical understanding of how freight is shipped.
That background shaped the way he approached driving when he got his Commercial Driver’s License. Rather than treating the job as a series of individual trips, Carlson has built a career around systems: route planning, communication with shipping, and consistent on-time delivery of regional and long-haul freight across the western United States. They have carried construction materials, refrigerated goods, consumer products, agricultural shipments and industrial equipment, work that has been done over mountains, coastal highways and busy urban transportation corridors in the weather conditions that the Pacific Northwest can produce.
In the industry, Carlson is known less for one achievement and more for consistency: thorough pre-trip inspections, reliable communication, and a reputation among dispatchers who are easy to work with under pressure. She also takes on an informal mentoring role with new drivers, especially women entering the field, sharing what she has learned about building credibility through reliability over volume.
Carlson sees professional driving as a business relationship as much as a physical skill, built on trust between drivers, dispatchers and customers. He plans to stay in transportation for years to come, with an interest in eventually moving into formal driver training or safety education. In this interview, he talks about how he approaches trucking operations, what has changed in the industry, and what he looks for in a driver he mentors.
Interview with Suzanne Carlson
You work in a warehouse and deliver roles before you start driving. How do you shape your approach once you get behind the wheel?
It gave me a different starting point than most drivers have. I have seen things from the other side: how the delay in one truck ripples through the entire schedule, how dispatchers juggle competing demands, and how much the warehouse depends on the driver showing up when they say they will. So when I started driving, I wasn’t just thinking about my own journey. I think about what time means to everyone below me.
How do you feel about the relationship between drivers and dispatchers?
This is a working partnership, and it only works if both parties can trust the other’s information. A dispatcher needs to know that if I say I will be somewhere at a certain time, that is accurate, not optimistic. In return, I have to believe that the details of the load and time given to me are realistic. I have found that drivers who communicate clearly and early, even when the news is bad, tend to be treated as a priority when things go wrong.
What is a typical cargo route for you in terms of planning?
I plan with more than a map in mind. Weather, time, known bottlenecks and the type of cargo all change the way the route is approached. A load of refrigerated goods has a different tolerance of construction materials, and that affects how much buffer I build into the schedule. Planning well means the load arrives on time without the last hour of the journey becoming a scramble.
You’ve driven in a variety of conditions in the Pacific Northwest. How do you make your decision?
Conditions here can change during the length of one route. You can leave a coastal town in the fog and be dealing with mountain snow a few hours later. What it has taught me is to think of a plan as a starting point, not a fixed commitment. The drivers I respect the most are the ones who adjust early instead of waiting until the situation forces their hand.
How has the industry changed since you started?
The tools available to drivers today give better visibility into weather, traffic and vehicle diagnostics than when I started. It’s useful, but it doesn’t replace punishment. Technology can tell you what’s happening on the road ahead. It still requires the driver to decide what to do with the information.
You have informally mentored new drivers, including women entering the field. Are you focused on them?
Usually the habits that don’t appear in the license: how to communicate with shipping when something goes wrong, how to read the load sheet correctly, how to manage fatigue on long distances instead of refusing. Technical driving skills are only part of the job. The last driver is what counts as a career in its own right, not just a few shifts.
Where do you see yourself next year?
I want to stay involved in transportation, and I’m interested in moving more into training and safety education down the line. I think there is a lot of value in taking what is usually passed on informally, driver to driver, and available in a more structured way. Now, I’m still focused on my daily work to drive well and run the route like a business.