Carrying 500kg of Hay and Driving 700km a Day... The 3 AM Life of a Mother of Four Trucker

There are women who compete with their skills in rough and difficult work sites. The EBS Documentary episode 'Extreme Jobs - Competing with Skill! Female Truckers, Tilers, and Wrapping Experts' (broadcast on December 9, 2023) visited a female trucker driving large trucks, a tiler at interior sites, and a car wrapping specialist.

A 4th-year trucker driving a 5-ton truck loaded with 500kg of hay

A large warehouse in Buyeo County, South Chungcheong Province. In this place where hay used as feed is stored, the person skillfully operating a forklift is Choi Yu-gyeong, a trucker in her 4th year. As a mother of four, Choi is a freight trucker who delivers hay and rice straw to livestock pens using large trucks. Since one bale of hay weighs about 500kg, it is difficult to move with a forklift, but Choi loads the hay to be delivered with precise alignment. Next is the task of securing the load with freight fastening straps. It is not easy because the straps must be thrown over the high hay. If the hay falls during driving, it could cause an accident, so it must be tied tightly.

Choi, who has been driving a 5-ton truck for four years since obtaining her heavy truck license, passed on her second attempt after failing the license exam once. Since there are not many female truck drivers, many people look at her with curious eyes, so she said she sometimes intentionally gets out from the passenger seat instead of the driver's seat when going to places like rest areas.

The secret to navigating narrow farm roads with a manual truck

Trucks are harder to drive than passenger cars, and Choi's truck has a manual transmission (stick). During driving, she also uses the exhaust engine brake attached to the side of the steering wheel. She explains that it is used when going downhill or when needing to reduce speed suddenly because the vehicle pushes forward significantly when loaded. Upon reaching the vicinity of the farm, a road appeared that was visibly quite narrow for a large truck to enter, but Choi drove calmly and smoothly exited shortly after. Choi revealed her secret is driving with the feeling that her front wheels are right under her hips. The road to the farm is mostly bumpy and narrow, so it is common for wheels to fall into ditches if one makes even a small mistake or loses focus. A variable also occurred where two trucks were parked on the path, requiring her to reverse and go around.

Upon arriving at the farm, even before the owner comes out, Choi climbs onto a skid loader and moves the load into the farm herself. Providing unloading services directly is Choi's business strategy. Since she handles the loading and unloading of hay herself, she can operate almost all equipment, including forklifts, skid loaders, and tractors. There are about 40 companies that regularly perform hay delivery in the Chungcheong Province area, and if she delivers to four or five places, her daily driving distance exceeds 700km.

Starting at 3 AM, daily fuel cost of 400,000 won

Choi started this work as the volume of hay transport, which her husband had been doing for 10 years, increased. Seeing her husband struggling due to a lack of manpower, she fearlessly jumped in, leading to her current situation. Initially, her husband was against it. Choi helps with loading imported hay in the spring and summer, and carries rice straw in the winter. Rice straw, which is collected and dried after the harvest, is only distributed from November to February, and the loading work is tricky as one bale weighs over 400kg.

Since she drives long distances, she visits gas stations almost every day. The average daily fuel cost is about 400,000 won. On the day after loading rice straw, she headed to work at 3 AM to arrive at 7 AM to perform the unloading. Before departing, Choi taps the tires with a long stick to check if they have lost air, as checking tire pressure is a mandatory task every morning before operation. Since multiple trucks unload at one farm simultaneously, if she arrives late, she has to wait until the other trucks finish unloading, which can cause her daily schedule to end one or two hours later. Choi said this is also a battle against time.

The distance from the farm delivering rice straw to the warehouse is a five-and-a-half-hour round trip. While drinking water to stay awake, Choi cannot drink as much as she wants. Because she often has to hold her bladder, she even suffered from cystitis, something she had never experienced in her life. She says the hardest thing to endure while driving a truck is drowsiness.

An IT developer turned tiler, and a 3rd-year wrapping expert

The broadcast also introduced other female technicians. Kim Jin-seon, a female tiler who stands out at interior construction sites where most workers are men, quit her job as an IT developer three years ago and chose to become a tiler. Although there was great concern from those around her, she has now become an indispensable presence on site. Her specialty, the resin technique that connects the corners between tiles, is considered among the best in the tiling industry, and she was introduced as a perfectionist who does not allow even a 1mm error. Hwang Hyeon-jeong, in her 3rd year of car wrapping experience, is emerging as a rising star in the wrapping industry. Her main skill of cutting scrap film pieces so that not a single scratch is left on the car body is enough to make even long-time veterans shake their heads, and she says the secret is the result of practicing day and night, even losing sleep.