Just Doing Her Thing

November 14, 2016

For Sheila Simms, who has been driving for 26 years, trucking is more than a job.

“It’s about performance, taking pride in what you do, and family,” she says. “When you drive a truck, you’re not just an individual in a commercial vehicle driving down the road. You’re a part of a family of drivers. Not only do you have to watch out for yourself, but you also have to watch out for them, too. If you see someone who needs help, you stop and help them.”

Sheila describes herself as “baffled” over winning the Woman Driver of Excellence Award for Bennett Motor Express (BME). “I do what I do because I love it,” she says. “It feels like I am just doing my thing and then someone hands me an award. Don’t get me wrong. I’m very proud of it!”

Known for her professionalism, and her impeccable driving and safety record, Sheila is described by BME Fleet Manager Harold Griffith as having a can-do attitude. “There is never a job too big or too small for Sheila,” he says. “When she says she is going to do something, she gets it done. She is a credit to all truck drivers.”

Sheila started out driving a dry van before switching to flatbed, which she describes as her “greatest challenge”.  She maintains a clean vehicle, has no CSA points, and is never late for a pick-up or delivery. With aspirations to grow her business, Sheila has two trucks. One of them is paid off and ready to lease. Sheila is also earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration and maintaining a 4.0 grade point average.

In addition to trucking, Sheila would like to investigate other business ventures as well. While she loves the adventure of starting a business and the challenge of determining the best ways to make a profit, she wants to use her earnings to help other people.

“I want to put my degree to use so that I’m not the only one that profits,” she says. “I had the kind of life where I had little help, and I know what that’s like.  If I see someone else struggling the way I did, I would truly like to be in the financial position to give them a hand up.”

As she is on the road so much, Sheila doesn’t have a lot of time to volunteer in her community, but she financially supports her local historical society. Last year, she won the bid to purchase a historical artifact and then donated it to a historical society. She also promotes historical society events by posting on Facebook.

Passionate about history, Sheila loves reading old newspapers that date back to the 19th century. “It’s fascinating to read the things they posted,” she says. “What you’ll find in history is that what’s happened before is happening again. If you don’t understand where you were, you’ll never have a grip or understand where you’re going.”

Throughout her career as a truck driver, Sheila also managed to raise her son, Nick, as a single mother. He is now 20 years old and has a black belt in karate.

Related Articles

September 11, 2023

Drivers & Women of Excellence 2023 Award Winners

Today, we honor our 2023 Drivers & Women of Excellence award recipients. We value our drivers/employees and take pride in celebrating them during our annual Drivers Appreciation event. 2023 has been an extraordinary year and these women have performed with the highest levels of professionalism and represent the best in the industry. Please take a few moments to watch as Marcia Taylor, CEO of Bennett Family of Companies presents the winners with their awards in a virtual format.
Read More
September 13, 2022

Drivers & Women Of Excellence 2022 Award Winners

oday, we honor our 2022 Drivers & Women of Excellence award recipients. We value our drivers/employees and take pride in celebrating them during our annual Drivers Appreciation event. 2022 has been an extraordinary year and these women have performed with the highest levels of professionalism and represent the best in the industry. Please take a few moments to watch as Marcia Taylor, CEO of Bennett Family of Companies presents the winners with their awards in a virtual format.
Read More
September 8, 2021

Women Drivers of Excellence 2021 Award Winners

Today, we honor our 2021 Women Drivers of Excellence award recipients. We value our drivers and take pride in celebrating them during our annual Drivers Appreciation event. 2021 has been an extraordinary year and these drivers have performed with the highest levels of professionalism and represent the best in the industry. This year, due to COVID-19, we celebrate differently than we have in past years. Please take a few moments to watch as Marcia Taylor, CEO and President of Bennett Family of Companies presents the winners with their awards in a virtual format.
Read More
September 15, 2020

Women Drivers of Excellence 2020 Award Winners

Today, we honor our 2020 Women Drivers of Excellence award recipients. We value our drivers and take pride in celebrating them during our annual Drivers Appreciation event. 2020 has been an extraordinary year and these drivers have performed with the highest levels of professionalism and represent the best in the industry. This year, due to COVID-19, we celebrate differently than we have in past years. Please take a few moments to watch as Marcia Taylor, CEO and President of Bennett Family of Companies presents the winners with their awards in a virtual format.
Read More
September 16, 2019

Vallerie Hayden – 2019 Recipient

Vallerie Hayden got into driving because of her husband, Harold. He drove for five years and she enjoyed going with him. After raising their children, she started driving with Harold as a team driver. They have been driving together for the last 13 years and have been married for 43 years.
Read More
September 16, 2019

Darla McDowell – 2019 Recipient

Darla McDowell has been driving for five years. She started her career as a bus driver but wanted to do something different. When she started driving for Bennett, she was at the lowest, hardest time of her life. She says Bennett was the best thing that ever happened to her and this job has given her confidence, strong will, independence and a determination of steel. She had to do a lot of falling forward and picking herself up but now she feels that she is at the top of her profession.
Read More
September 16, 2019

Lisa Little – 2019 Recipient

Lisa Little has been driving for 10 years and is an excellent driver. She is always ready to go above and beyond to help other drivers. Her peers say she is a joy to work with and is always smiling, happy and will welcome anyone with open arms and a warm hug.
Read More
September 16, 2019

Heidi Crosby – 2019 Recipient

According to Transport Topics, truck drivers are becoming social media influencers.  There are several drivers among the Bennett Family of Companies that are on various social media platforms as social media influencers in the transportation industry.  In addition, Bennett is a sponsor of Tony Justice, all-American country music artist and truck driver, who also has a considerable social media presence.  Learn more about why our drivers and Tony use social media to expand their career.
Read More
September 16, 2019

Theresa Davis – 2019 Recipient

Terry Davis has been driving for 42 years and as a team driver with her husband, Clarence, for 24 years. She drove by herself for 10 years before meeting her husband. Terry prefers to drive during the day while her husband drives during the evening. On her shift, she takes care of everything. Terry will get the truck loaded, unloaded, axle out the weight, make repairs on the truck or trailer all while taking care of the paperwork and giving excellent customer service to Bennett customers.
Read More
September 16, 2019

Violet Helferich – 2019 Recipient

Violet Helferich has been with Ace Doran/Bennett since the inception of the Wind Division in early 2016. In her family, driving a truck is a tradition. Her father owned a farm and raised her to be independent. Violet started driving a feed truck at the age of 14 and by the age of 16, she was hauling cattle. She always knew that she wanted to drive and got her Commercial Driver’s License at the age of 18.
Read More
September 16, 2019

Kara Leppert – 2019 Recipient

Kara Leppert grew up in Ohio and started driving in her early 20’s. After getting married, she and her husband ran as a team. The husband and wife team for the last 10 years have driven separately for an Owner-Operator.
Read More
September 17, 2018

Felecia Goring – 2018 Recipient

Felecia started as a dispatcher, but she always wanted to travel, so she became a company driver for Melton, then went to work at Tri-State working hauling Hazmat.
Read More
September 17, 2018

Sharrion Hayes – 2018 Recipient

Sharrion Hayes met her husband while she was working as a dispatcher. They became a team and Sharrion has been driving professionally for almost 30 years with a near perfect driving record.
Read More
September 17, 2018

Patrica Gorman – 2018 Recipient

Pat served during Desert Shield/Storm. She dedicated 12 years to the Military as a radioman, specializing in communications technology.
Read More
September 17, 2018

Shauna Justesen – 2018 Recipient

Shauna Justesen drives for Bennett DriveAway RV Division. Shauna and her late husband owned and operated a bar in Idaho most of her adult life, where she met a long RV driver with Bennett Ken Daley.
Read More
15 articles

Join Our Community

Bennett Newsletter Subscription

Sign up to stay current with Bennett and Transportation Industry news. We send out a digital newsletter monthly. Unsubscribe any time.