Identified early on as a future leader in trucking, Jo Tomaszewski is making the most of what she calls receiving a “second chance”.
Prime Mover: What was your pathway prior to working at Freighter Group?
Jo Tomaszewski: I finished school after Year 10 with my parents’ support as long as I got a job or went to TAFE. I went to TAFE for a year and achieved Certs III and IV in Business Administration and I then started with receptionist work which led to administration roles. I was at Karras Transport for around four years where I showed interest in accounts and eventually was offered the role of assistant accountant, yet still with no formal qualifications. In my late 20s, after a few more years working as an assistant accountant, I decided to go back and study for my Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in accounting. This was part-time study while I was working full time. After getting my Degree I worked as an accountant for around one year, then a role came up at Maxitrans [now Freighter Group] for a system analyst role. I was then in the IT department for a few years plus doing some systems accounting, before I was offered the Operations Manager role.
PM: Did you always have an interest in road transport and equipment?
JT: Not really. Although I had worked at Karra’s it’s not an industry that growing up I thought I wanted to be in. If anything, I probably wanted to be more involved with cars because of my drag racing in my V8 Torana, which is actually where I met my husband.
PM: How did the Operations Manager position happen?
JT: The person who hired me said it was because of my knowledge around cars and the like, and he could see that I was able to quickly pick up the trailer side due to many similarities with cars — they have wheels, they have axles, which are similar to a diff, and they have brakes. I was a bit switched on with that sort of stuff and I had a different view towards trailers as opposed to someone else coming in who didn’t have any mechanical aptitude.
PM: You’ve been Operations Manager for six years. Has the role changed much and have you influenced that?
JT: In a sense I have. When it was created, the role was a brand-new position within the company and the other branches didn’t have Operations Managers. Sydney is Freighter Group’s biggest service department and while I’m Operations Manager for the overall site, service is my main area of focus. I guess what I brought was my different perspective because it can be hard to find a service manager who has the combination of technical knowledge as well as the HR and system experience and being able to look after the finances and other reports, as well as the safety aspects.
PM: Where are the trailers manufactured?
JT: All of our manufacturing is performed at Ballarat in Victoria. We have a sales team here in Sydney, so trailers are sold and ordered from here, they get made in Ballarat, delivered to Sydney and in our service department we then do a pre-delivery check, plus any additional work the customers want done, then we deliver them from here.
PM: You’ve overcome a serious health diagnosis from your early 30s, so where do you draw your passion and positivity from?
JT: You just do what you’ve gotta do to get through it, and for me now I just want to live life to the fullest as I’ve been given a second chance. I’ve always been very driven in life, but now I’m doing it for my daughter, too. Years down the track I want her to know that she can do anything she puts her mind to. Realistically, I think this industry has come such as long way and it doesn’t have to be a ‘thing’ about women and men anymore. It’s just people.
PM: You were a recipient of a Transport for Women Australia ‘Driving the Difference’ scholarship in 2024 and named as a 2025 Daimler Trucks Future Leader by the Australian Trucking Association. What have these awards meant to you?
JT: I was so grateful to have won the ‘Driving the Difference’ scholarship, and the money has gone toward a portion of my master’s degree (MBA) which definitely helps. I had come back from maternity leave in July 2024, and the 2024 Road Freight NSW event was my first conference in my 25 year career and was essentially my introduction to the greater industry. I was excited to be listening to speeches by amazing people and I was in awe of industry and how people are striving to improve it, by coming together as one, celebrating wins from the year just gone, planning for the future, and having a laugh and a chat. I finally met people who I had previously only connected with online. Then in late 2024, Simon O’Hara from RFNSW told me they would put in the application for the Future Leaders’ Forum and I wanted it so bad because it sounded so cool and I had found such a passion for the industry in the six months prior. I didn’t really know what to expect at the Future Leaders Forum. I had been told there would be some advice around advocating for the future, and there would be some sessions around how to be a good leader. Our industry is complex and involves a lot of things like compliance and chain of responsibility. What I got out of the Forum was so much more. We were provided skills, knowledge and tools to become future advocates for this industry and be a group of like-minded professionals who work around projects on issues currently facing the industry. To Daimler Trucks and the ATA, I just want to say a genuine thank you for the opportunity, I am truly honoured to be considered a future leader of our industry.
PM: Is the industry giving you enough of a challenge to keep you invested?
JT: Definitely. I couldn’t see myself in any other industry. I like the challenge of it. People expecting ‘Joe’ not ‘Jo’. It’s stuff like that which makes me want to learn all I can about trailers and trucks and transport. There’s also that constant desire to prove people wrong. I made a promise to myself and my baby daughter when I returned from maternity leave last year, that I would give it my all to further myself and my career in this industry. I have always had drive and determination, but this is different now, this is for her future, too.
