Ms. Diva Trucker Before the Truck
By Madisson Haynes
Thousands of people know YouTube sensation Ms. Diva Trucker, CDL recruiter and freight broker, who made her debut online when she started vlogging her truck-driving journeys and who recently won the Jury Prize for the 2021 PBS Short Film Festival. But few know Georgia resident Tamara Brock, a proud mother of two boys who got her start in the trucking industry with the hopes of getting off of food stamps.
Brock was born in Newark, New Jersey but lived in Biloxi, Mississippi most of her life. Brock had spent years working hard to make a living. At one point she even joined the Army thinking it could help her get on her feet. Brock went to CNA school, did that for a few years and decided it was on to the next.
"I joined the Army because they said that I didn't have to pay taxes in Korea and I could go shopping, right? And I actually joined 'cause I was ready to go," she said. "Got there with my makeup. I had brought my bags. You know I was just all ready to go on this vacation. I got off the bus and then folks started yelling at me ... I was 34 years old and they said, 'What in the world are you doing in the Army?' I went out there and they told me to run a mile. I fell out."
"It was a hot mess and I was like you know, I'll try to keep up with the 18 year olds, the people that just got it," she said. "You know, they was calling me auntie and mom."
Her stint in the Army didn't last, and at this point she said she knew what she wanted. Brock went to Tulane University to study computers while working as a sales representative for AT&T.
Following Tulane, Brock started her own successful tax firm, but eventually her business crumbled before her. Brock, a mother of two boys, one with a disability, had hit rock bottom. One night, after losing everything, on food stamps and unable to provide for her family, Brock was sitting on her couch and saw a commercial that said she could be making over $100,000. All she had to know how to do was drive a truck.
"Are you tired? Are you sick? Do you feel like this? Well this Academy will help you out," she recalls the commercial saying. "All you gotta do is call us at 1-800 ... and I'm like 'OK, let me go.'"
"When I told my family that I was going to truck driving school they laughed so hard, they was like, 'You're not gonna make it,'" she said. "I had so much doubt up from other people and I was like, I didn't have a choice. You know? It was like where I'm from, there's not a lot of jobs that pay, you know, really good money ... I didn't have anything to do. I had a bus ticket and some money for groceries and that was it. And I went out there."
Brock packed up what she had and headed to get her CDL. But it wasn't before long that she ended up in the hospital from dehydration and was sent home.
"I did not let that stop me," she said. "I would take the lunch from in training — they gave us lunch ... I would take that and pack it up so I can have something to eat for dinner. And then they just did not give up on me."
It took Brock two months to get her CDL. She failed the test the first time, and after an error with her schooling caused her student financial assistance to be cut off, she realized she had no other choice than to do it right then and there. And she did.
"When I got that CDL in my hand. Oh my God, I just cried," she said. "I got my license. I got on the truck with a trainer. I stayed two months on the truck with them, came back home. Guess what? I'm in the hospital again ... Kept going, got in my truck."
She spent a year figuring out the industry herself. Over the next six years she mastered the ropes and trained new female drivers. During this time, Brock's marriage ended, she grew more comfortable with the truck, she found her independence and stumbled upon this thing called YouTube.
"I just trying to communicate with my family because, you know, there's so many people in my family that I figure if I can record it and send everybody a video then they could see it," she said. "I was so busy driving down the highway and trying to figure this out. I didn't have time to be on the phone and say, 'Yes I went to California this year,' you know? So I did it all at one time. Didn't realize the thing about YouTube and I'm like, people would meet me out on street and was like, 'Hey Ms Diva' — people I didn't even know. And was like, 'Yeah, I watch your channel.' ... It just became this big thing."
The most popular video of hers on YouTube is her driving a 13-speed truck in a skirt with no shoes.
"That video hit over 1,000,000 views and I was like, 'I can't believe people are just watching,'" she said. "I just started sharing my journey ... It was just in the plan. You know, sometimes God have a plan for you and you just have to go with it."
After those six years as a lease driver, she paid off her truck, became a female trainer who advocates for women in truck driving, started her own independent recruiting business, started her own freight brokerage firm — Women Owned Carrier and Broker Association — was awarded the 2020 Real Women in Trucking Trailblazer award, was a 2019 Real Women in Trucking Queen of the Roads Nominee and was featured on Good Morning America for her dedication in helping truckers receive PPE equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
And to top it off, Brock was invited to the Department of Transportation, along with Real Women in Trucking, to meet with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association fighting for changes in order to help women who deal with sexual assault and harassment. She's raised money for the Make-a-Wish foundation and is now helping truckers get their own motor carrier/freight broker license.
Brock has spent years building her business from the ground up, but that doesn't stop her from putting others first in every situation. When it came to her son heading down the wrong path, Brock knew she couldn't let that happen.
"I was just trying to take care of my two boys," Brock said. "I remember getting that call. He said, "Mom, I think I may have to go into a homeless shelter,'" cause I had left him with relatives and he didn't feel comfortable saying there."
Brock's paycheck was $400 a week. She was sending $300 home to her family and leaving $100 for herself just to have food for the week. Brock said it was all worth it.
"He's in his own truck," she said. "He got his CDL ... He's 23 years old and he just delivered his second load two days ago. He went through the same process that I did."
Brock is thankful she was able to lead her son by example.
"This really changed my life and it's changed my life in a way that you know I'm able to be a provider," she said. "I'm not the one that you know, borrowing money or whatever the case may be. I'm able to assist, and it may not be a lot, you know, but I do whatever it is that I can to just make sure everybody is OK. And with my son it was just leading by example."
Brock has not only helped her family, but others in the trucking industry, too.
"The most exciting part is the knowledge that I'm making a difference," she said. "The biggest thing like I feel like made a difference was just the amount of women [I reached]. When you went on YouTube six years ago., it was like only two other African American women that was filming that journey. Now if you type it in, it's like everybody. Good, bad ... They bring so much to the table, you know? And the biggest thing I would say is just when you are out there training and you see people's face light up."
While her entrance into the trucking industry wasn't planned, Brock said it made her a stronger, happier individual.
"I found myself, I found my voice," Brock said. "I found my independence. I found out that I did not have to depend on somebody else for my wellbeing, I was able to make my own income and I was able to survive. I had to literally learn how to back up that truck by myself, unload. I had to find my way from point A to point B. Nobody was in the truck with me."
"So I set out on the road for two years just to save," she said. "My goal was to pay my truck off and that's what I did."
It was around that time that the COVID pandemic hit and Brock received a call from her mom. Brock was told that her sister had COVID and had passed away, so she and her brother stayed together to help plan the funeral. Then Brock's brother unknowingly caught COVID and went home.
"He flew back to California. Three days later he died," she said.
Brock then tested positive for coronavirus.
"I was like, 'I'm ready to give up,' she said. 'I just was ready to go ... But I had to keep pushing for a reason. I kept pushing. I got eight nieces and nephews under the age of 18 that now I got to look after, you know?"
In total Brock has lost her sister, two brothers, one niece and a nephew to COVID. After the deaths of her brother and sister, Brock bought 16 acres of land on the Georgia border to help take care of her nieces and nephews. She has a pond, a creek, chickens, and is teaching freight brokering in order to stay in the industry.
"God, I, I don't know — I can't explain it," she said. "It's like I wake up and I just do it. I don't know where the money's coming from ... I don't have all this planned out as well. [God] just tells me to go ahead and do it, and is like, 'Whatever it is that you decide to do I'm gonna make a way for you to do it. Don't worry about it.' And so far I'm not."
Despite the odds thrown at her, Brock has kept going, personally and professionally.
"Now I have a partner, so now we do the business together, and it's just grown from there," she said.
Brock now hopes to help others who were in a similar position to hers, looking to get back on their feet.
"Maybe people that have been incarcerated to give them a new career 'cause it's hard for you to find a job when you get out of prison," she said. "And I just wanna be able to [help]. Even homeless women like I was. You know, I didn't have anything and I want to be able to show them that you could do it. You could do this. That's my dream 'cause I feel like they're left out, you know? And I just feel like if they knew how to do it, they would."
Brock is still fully involved in the trucking industry and is now on the board of Real Women in Trucking. She hopes to continue to encourage and teach women of color and other minorities in the industry. She's not really sure where she gets her strength or motivation, but knows that she has to keep going.
"I know that my family members are here with me," she said. "And I gotta focus on the kids. It's about them now. So that's what I put my focus on ... That's what I do."
If you want to learn more about Ms. Diva Trucker, you can find her on Facebook, YouTube and on her website.