Carrier sued over alleged discrimination against female driver trainees

At the center of the case is KLLM’s handling of male trainers who did not want to train female student drivers.

According to the EEOC, KLLM allowed male trainers to opt out of training women rather than providing separate sleeping accommodations during over-the-road training. The agency alleges that policy resulted in female student drivers having to wait longer than men to begin training.

The lawsuit also takes aim at how trainees were paid while waiting for instructors.

The EEOC alleges KLLM did not pay female student drivers who requested female trainers while they waited for one to become available. Meanwhile, the company allegedly continued paying other student drivers waiting to start training — including male students who requested male trainers.

Federal regulators also allege KLLM imposed an additional requirement exclusively on women who agreed to train with male instructors.

Female student drivers willing to receive instruction from a male trainer were required to notify their spouse or partner before they could begin training, according to the complaint. The EEOC said no comparable requirement was imposed on male trainees.

“Rather than provide the female student driver’s single-sex sleeping quarters that protected their privacy and ensured equal employment opportunity,” acting EEOC General Counsel Catherine Eschbach said in a news release, the company adopted policies that “treated women trainees worse than male trainees.”

EEOC says policies violated federal civil rights law

The agency alleges the practices constitute unlawful sex discrimination under Title VII, which prohibits employers from discriminating based on sex in employment.

The EEOC filed U.S. EEOC v. KLLM Transport Services LLC and KLLM Driving Academy Inc., Case No. 3:26-cv-02590-E, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.

The lawsuit followed an unsuccessful attempt by the EEOC and KLLM to resolve the allegations through the agency’s administrative conciliation process.

“Under federal law, all workers in the United States have a right to be given a fair opportunity to succeed based on their knowledge, skills and effort, not their sex,” EEOC Dallas District Office Director Travis Nicholson said. “That fundamental principle applies to all aspects of their jobs, including training and other terms and conditions of employment.”

The lawsuit comes as the trucking industry continues to seek ways to recruit and retain more women in a workforce that historically has been overwhelmingly male.

Acting EEOC Dallas Regional Attorney Ronald L. Phillips specifically pointed to that issue in announcing the litigation, saying sex discrimination remains a barrier to women seeking jobs in historically male-dominated industries such as trucking.

Phillips said those industries can offer long-term career opportunities and that the agency intends to ensure women have equal access to those jobs.

The EEOC announcement does not state the amount of monetary damages being sought or provide the number of current or former KLLM trainees allegedly affected by the policies.

FreightWaves reached out to KLLM Transport Services for comment on the lawsuit.

Why it matters: The EEOC lawsuit puts renewed scrutiny on how trucking companies structure over-the-road driver training, particularly policies involving sleeper accommodations, trainer preferences and compensation that can affect women’s ability to enter and advance in the industry.