Stockport-born Jennifer Winters moved to Canada last year to follow her dream of being a long haul truck driverJennifer Winters and her truck(Image: Jennifer Winters)

Jennifer Winters is behind the wheel of a 72ft long, 400 horse-powered truck.

In the last two days she’s been on the road for 18 hours. She’s 1,600 miles from home in the city of Shakopee, Minnesota, on her way to a truck stop where she’ll spend the night sleeping in her cab.

But for the 32-year-old it’s all in a day’s work. Around 18 months ago Jennifer left her home in Milnrow, Rochdale, and emigrated to Canada to follow her dream of becoming a truck driver.

Now she spends her days on the freeways and highways driving a huge, heavy-duty truck, called a Freightline Cascadia, which if you picked it up and plonked it down on the M62 would dwarf the HGVs seen here in the UK. It’s been a whirlwind journey – and it’s all thanks to the advice of an Uber driver called Gary.

Jennifer Winters behind the wheel of her truck(Image: Jennifer Winters)

Jennifer, who grew up in Edgeley, Stockport, had long dreamed of living overseas. She studied film-making at Manchester Metropolitan University, before becoming a trade plater – a driver who moves vehicles between car dealerships, auction houses and customers.

But, aged 30 and following the breakdown of what she described as a ‘bad relationship’, she decided to take the plunge.

“When I left him I thought ‘What would really make me happy?,” she said.

Jennifer has driven thousands of miles and visited 16 states in just 12 months(Image: Jennifer Winters)

Having spent several summers working at Camp America, Jennifer knew she wanted to return to the States. But with American visas very difficult to obtain, she turned her attentions north to Canada.

Getting a temporary working visa would be fairly straight-forward, but securing permanent residency required a skilled occupation. And that was when she met Gary the Uber driver.

“I’m a bit of an over-sharer, so I was telling him about everything and he said ‘You drive for a living don’t you? Why don’t you be a HGV driver?’ To my shame, my first thought was ‘but I’m a woman’. I honestly didn’t think it was an option for me.”

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But Gary had planted a seed in Jennifer’s mind. She enrolled at HGV school and spent the next six months ‘working seven days a week’ topping up her salary with weekend shifts at Domino’s Pizza in Todmorden to save up for the big move.

The hard work paid off. She passed her UK truck drivers’ test at the fourth attempt – just five days before she flew out to Toronto. She landed in her new home with just a suitcase and £4,000 in her pocket and set about building a new life for herself.

She got a job in a Tim Horton’s Coffee Shop, and trained for a Canadian truck licence – this time passing on the first go. Then she began bombarding the haulage companies of Ontario with her CV. Jennifer says breaking into the Canadian trucking industry without experience can be very difficult.

Jennifer says it’s still unusual to be a woman in the male-dominated trucking industry(Image: Jennifer Winters)

But luckily she found a company called Newmarket Equipment, in the town of Newmarket around 35 miles north of downtown Toronto, who were willing to take a chance of a rooky, British, female driver. Now she’s been on the road for 12 months where, putting her film-making skills to good use, she documents her travels on her YouTube channel ‘Trucking With Jen’.

So far she’s visited 16 US states, regularly clocking up hundreds of miles a day behind the wheel. But being a young woman in a male-dominated industry has its challenges.

“Times are changing,” she said. “But I have experienced a little bit of discrimination.

“I have not had any out-and-out sexism but there have been hints of stuff. People underestimate me. When I’m at a truck stop, because I’m wearing a high-viz, I get people assuming I work for the gas station despite there being loads of trucks everywhere.

Jennifer recently visited Nashville

“But I get it. It is unusual. But I I am starting to see more and more female drivers and I love that.”

While Jennifer says she’s loving her new life and is planning to apply for permanent Canadian residency soon, she admits it’s not all been plain sailing.

“Trucking is very hard work,” she said. “It’s an anti-social job, you’re on your own a lot.

“I thought I’d get to head across America and see the sights, but the reality is one highway looks pretty much like any other and I spend a lot of time in truck stops and in yards on the edge of towns and cities.

Jennifer says breaking into the trucking industry without experience can be difficult(Image: Jennifer Winters)

“But I’ve been to 16 states in one year which is pretty cool – I collect a magnet from every state I go to. And I make time to see places. I had a job in Nashville recently so I set off two days early, so I could see the city, which was incredible – and I slept in the truck so I saved money on hotels!”

Now she’s hoping to help other women who want to follow in her footsteps. and written an e-book on how to emigrate and get into the Canadian trucking industry.

“It’s hard to emigrate,” she said. “It’s not always as glamorous as it might seem. I try to be honest with people.

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“There are days where I feel like packing up and coming home, but it’s an incredible experience and I feel incredibly lucky.”

And for anyone thinking of following their own dreams, Jennifer has this advice.

“Just go for it,” she said. “It’s better to try and fail than never having given it a go.

“Because if you don’t, one day you’ll regret it.”