Teacher gives up classroom for ‘different perspective’ of trucking

Tiffany Rice drivers for Boyd Bros. Transportation, based in Birmingham, Alabama. (Image Courtesy of Boyd Bros. Transportation)Tiffany Rice drivers for Boyd Bros. Transportation, based in Birmingham, Alabama. (Image Courtesy of Boyd Bros. Transportation)

Tiffany Rice is really big on family. It’s why she followed her children all the way from nursery school to high school throughout her career as a teacher. Rice’s children are all adults now, though, and she wanted a career change that would let her travel and see the country.

“They were all going to college at the time and I wanted to change my career so I stopped teaching and went into trucking,” Rice said, who lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Rice hauls flatbed for Boyd Bros. Transportation, headquartered in Clayton, Alabama. She started her trucking career in dry vans but switched to flatbed because she thought it would be more challenging.

“Not too many females are doing flatbed, and from my experience with dry van, you gain a lot of weight,” Rice said. “I thought that with flatbed I’d be able to manage my weight as well as having different opportunities and experiences.” 

Rice’s trucking career has let her experience different cultures and meet people she wouldn’t have otherwise been able to, she says.

“It gives you a different perspective about life and how things go,” Rice said. “You get to see different cultural backgrounds.”

Rice’s teaching career has helped her be successful as a truck driver. Trucking is a lot of learning, she says, and that learning never really stops.

“There’s a lot of planning in trucking. You have to pre-trip and plan your delivery and your pickup and calculate your e-logs,” she said. “There’s a lot of organization skills in it that I have from teaching that plays a part in it as well.”

Communication skills are important so you know you’re doing your job well, Rice says.

“You’ve got to be able to communicate with people well,” she said.