Robin Hutcheson Robin Hutcheson

FMCSA Administrator Hutcheson to keynote Women In Trucking Accelerate! Conference

The Women In Trucking Association (WIT) announces that Robin Hutcheson, the newly confirmed administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), will be the opening keynote on Nov. 14 at its upcoming Accelerate! Conference & Expo. The conference, which will take place Nov. 13-16 at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, TX, is the largest event to encourage employment, address obstacles, and celebrate the successes of women in the trucking industry. WIT expects more than 1,300 attendees this year.

Ellen Voie headshot

Ellen Voie

“We are thrilled to have Administrator Hutcheson share her perspectives on safety in the trucking industry, supply chain challenges, and the truck driver shortage,” said Ellen Voie, WIT president and CEO. “WIT has worked closely with the FMCSA in recent years, and recently hosted Hutcheson on a truck ride-along to help her better understand driver issues. The former deputy administrator, Meera Joshi, was WIT’s keynote speaker in 2021.”

This will be WIT’s eighth annual Accelerate! Conference & Expo and the third year the association has held a virtual version of the event, which will take place Dec. 6-7. The in-person and virtual conference will feature more than 60 educational sessions on critical transportation and logistics issues through the lens of gender diversity. Topics will be relevant to professionals involved in leadership, human resources/talent management, operations and safety, sales and marketing, and driver recruiting and engagement. Additionally, more than 100 speakers and facilitators will be featured from leading companies such as Amazon, Walmart, Yellow, Navistar, Kenworth Trucks, Peterbilt, Great Dane, Bridgestone, XPO Logistics, J.B. Hunt Transport, Penske Transportation Solutions, DAT Freight & Analytics, Truckstop.com, UPS, Coyote Logistics, Waymo and Plus.

The event also will feature an expo with more than 150 companies representing more than 1,000 products and services valuable to the transportation industry.

“We bring the Accelerate! Conference & Expo to the marketplace because of the importance of workforce diversity,” said Voie. “Diversity in experience, skills and perspective is proven to be critical to the success of any company in transportation, and gender diversity is a critical path to this goal. This event is one way for our industry to share new ideas and best practices that encourage the employment of women in the transportation industry.”