(by Manuel Scordo) The idea of driving a truck on Italian motorways never left her mind, not even after her marriage, her four children and her job as a social and health worker.
An obsession that had accompanied her since she was a girl, since she got into a heavy vehicle thanks to one of her boyfriends.
That dream for PalmiraMura, 53 years old, originally from Guspini, in southern Sardinia, and resident in Piacenza, became reality two years ago.
But not only.
Palmira recently received the SaboRosa, the award for the best truck driver of the year, awarded since 2010 by the Roberto Nuti Group, a company that has been active in the industrial vehicle spare parts sector since 1962.
The Sabo Rosa, in fact, is a shock absorber painted pink which is donated to the best truck driver of the year a few days before March 8th.
"Being a truck driver has always been my dream - Palmira tells ANSA, having just arrived in Rome to take part in a television show -, but I didn't pursue it because I became a mother very young. I have three girls and a boy and I'm already a grandmother".
A particular grandmother, as she herself describes: "I often go outside the box, we are a young family.
My children are happy with the work I do".
Initially Palmira, who left Sardinia at 15 months old but returns to the island every year to visit relatives who live in Simaxis, in the Oristano area, she worked in an RSA where she took care of the elderly.
"Then Covid arrived, it was a very difficult moment emotionally - she confesses -, I saw people getting sick, dying. It really tested me and led me to make the decision to make my dream come true. I obtained my driving licenses putting all my energy into it and on August 5, 2021 I finally got on a truck. A lot of effort at the beginning, but I found a small company that believed in me."
Palmira works for the Riccardo di Piacenza company connected to the Gaap consortium and deals with transport along the north-south line from Emilia to Campania.
"Despite the fact that the sector is very male, I consider myself lucky - she says with conviction - I work with colleagues who have welcomed me very well, I am the only woman in the fleet. They have been and are always available towards me, they have taught me things that they don't teach you in driving school and which they are fundamental in this work."
She emotionally welcomed the award as best trucker of the year: "I still have a lot to learn - she mocks - there are many women in trucks like me. Now I have achieved this dream and I want to enjoy it to the end. My father wasn't happy at first of this choice of mine, but things have changed: now that I have also received this award and have been invited on television, I don't sleep."
Dreams in the drawer?
"Continue driving the truck without getting carried away by the adrenaline: it's a nice job, but always dangerous and tiring."
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