Diesel mechanics was not the first profession choice for Alyssa Briggs when she set her sights on the Lorain County Joint Vocational School (LCJVS).

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” admits the 24-year-old New London resident. “I wasn’t much of a school person. I hated sitting in classes all day long.”

So, she selected three programs at LCJVS — CNC machining, welding and diesel mechanics, in that order.

“I remember getting the letter in the mail that said, ‘Congratulations, you’ve been accepted into the commercial truck program.’ And I thought, ‘No, that’s not where I was supposed to be,’ but I decided to just go for it.”

With the same can-do attitude, Briggs decided to pursue the title of MasterTech national champion in the trailer category for her employer, LTL freight transportation company XPO. After one failed attempt in 2022, she tried again in 2024.

The field narrowed from more than 150 technicians who took the qualifying exam to 20 before Briggs traveled to Orlando to compete for the national title. When they announced her name as the winner, Briggs maintained her composure long enough to shake hands with the higher-ups and feign a smile.

“I was excited, but it still didn’t hit me that I was the first woman to ever win,” she explains. “It wasn’t until a little bit later when everyone was congratulating me individually.”

 

Hitting the Gas

Looking back, Briggs recalls her trepidation in being the only girl in class at LCJVS quickly being put to rest when the other students immediately accepted her.

“I didn’t know the first thing about a car, let alone a truck, and no one really judged me,” she says. “The first day of school, we were using jacks and jack stands to lift the vehicle up safely and I didn’t even know how they worked. And the guys were like, ‘Here, let me show you.’ And there was no judgment whatsoever, which was great.”

After a short stint at another trucking company, Briggs found her footing as a trailer mechanic at XPO’s Parma service center.

“I love that the work changes daily,” says Briggs, who has been with XPO for four years. “Some days, we’re doing preventative maintenance and basic inspections and some days we’re doing bigger jobs, like replacing the whole floor in a trailer. So, it’s a little bit of everything and you’re never bored.”

When her boss announced the competition, Briggs didn’t give it much thought because she didn’t believe she was qualified to go up against co-workers who had been working on trailers for 20 or 30 years.

XPO’s annual competition features a 27-station timed competition that challenges truck and trailer mechanics and forklift technicians to diagnose problems and talk their way through their troubleshooting rationale. In the end, 20 finalists are sent to compete for the national title.

“In Orlando, my initial thoughts were that I was competing against the best of the best. And in the back of my head, I was still thinking that I didn’t fit in,” she admits. “I was the only woman competing.”

Although Briggs had doubts, no one else wavered in the fact that she deserved to be crowned champion.

“We are extremely proud of Alyssa for making history as our first female champion and are grateful to her and all of our technicians for keeping our fleet in top condition,” says Chris Carter, vice president of maintenance at XPO.

With the recognition, Briggs wants to encourage other women to break into the essentially male-dominated field.

“There’s not many women in this field, and I hope me accomplishing this shows women who might be thinking about it to just go for it,” she says.

Indeed, diesel mechanics may not have been her first choice. But Briggs agrees it was her best choice.