10-4 Magazine March 2023

Special Feature: By Layton Henderson There’s something special about a woman who dominates in a man’s world. It takes a certain strength, intelligence, grace, fearlessness, and the nerve to never take no for an answer, and Stephanie Dee Henderson certainly fits that description. Many call her Steph and know her as the girl hay hauler in the big pink truck often pulling triples around Idaho, but I get the distinct honor to call her mom. In school, I learned that during World War II, women ran America while the men were away fighting. Women built equipment, worked as nurses, fixed airplanes, and most of all, drove trucks. Back in 1898, the first truck was built, and since then, the industry has been dominated by men. Growing up, many women in my life taught me hard work through the trucking industry. My grandmother, Kelley Bohannon, was the very first woman hay hauler in the state of Idaho, and she passed that passion on to her daughter, my mom, Stephanie. Born in Twin Falls, ID in January of 1982, Stephanie competed in steer shows for 4-H in her younger years, along with helping around the family farm, outside of school. She enjoyed playing basketball and volleyball in school, participating in 4-H camp, and spending time with her friends at the fair. FFA was her forte, and she excelled to be a district officer. After school and on the weekends, Stephanie worked for her Uncle Kyle, raking and swathing hay. While still in diapers, Stephanie started riding in trucks with her mom, and began driving a farm truck at the age of 13. As Stephanie got older and had her first daughter, Tristan, she showed her a love for riding horses in 4-H and rodeo, soon to pass that on to her second child. When Tristan was little, Stephanie went to cosmetology school and started doing hair in a salon. In October of 2008, Stephanie married a truck driver, Scott Henderson, who has driven trucks almost all his life. After the birth of Stephanie’s second daughter, she took a break from driving and was a stay-at-home mom for several years. As her kids got older, she went back to work. Although she was a hair stylist for many years and then a bank teller at D.L. Evans, along with being a 4-H leader on the side, Stephanie always knew the trucking industry was her real home away from home. In 2014, Stephanie began working at Standlee Premium Western Forage, driving a Freightliner Cascadia, pulling chassis down to the rail yard in Salt Lake City, Utah. Eventually, she got moved into a green and white Kenworth, and continued to haul containers. In 2016, her Kenworth and the main chassis she pulled got painted a custom “Pepto Pink” for breast cancer awareness. Very shortly after the truck was painted, she was moved to the hay side at Standlee. To haul hay, she needed a set of flatbed hay trailers, so she worked to receive a set of doubles that were painted to match her truck. A couple years later, Stephanie got promoted to a set of triples that were, of course, also painted pink. Though having a pretty set up is nice, Stephanie’s truck is a working rig, along with the hard work that she puts in. Her job is much more than driving the truck down the road. Stephanie has to drive to the stack yard that she is dispatched to and hauls anything from 3-tie bales of hay, 3 by 4 bales, 4 by 4s, or straw, depending on what the plant needs. Once she’s there, she loads her own trailers with a telehandler or a squeeze, then throws her own straps and tightens them down. Hauling loads throughout the entire Southern Idaho region and down into Utah and Montana, she often hauls multiple loads a day. In addition to working hard at her job, Stephanie works even harder to look good while doing it. Driving a 72 10-4 Magazine / March 2023 TELL ME I CAN’T!