Revolutionizing the commercial vehicle industry: How Nastali breaks barriers and empowers the next generation of technicians

Key takeaways:

Nastali’s transition from auditor to comptroller showcases the value of embracing new challenges and gaining technical knowledge to modernize operations.
Despite facing skepticism, Nastali advocates for an inclusive work environment, encouraging women to pursue careers in the field.
Through initiatives like "Earn While You Learn," Nastali emphasizes high work ethics and safety standards, fostering professional growth among her team.

Women in Transportation 2025

For nearly a decade, FleetOwner has looked at ways to shine a light on how women are shaping the transportation industry in the 21st century. During Women's History Month, we'll be profiling six women building impressive careers in various trucking and maintenance fields, along with a Women In Transportation: By the Numbers.

As those stories roll out in March, we'll update this page with links.

Sitting in a quiet office as the only woman on a board of directors is intimidating enough, let alone when the board president says, “We could use a pretty girl at the table.” But Toni Nastali, who first joined Spring-Align Inc. in 1981 and has owned the company since 2004, has never been one to be easily intimidated.

She didn’t flinch when this happened to her in 1999 when she was a new board member of the Service Specialists Association, which is now part of the Commercial Vehicle Solutions Network.

“I just kept my mouth shut,” Nastali recalled. “I said, ‘I'll show them what I can do.’”

And so she did, eventually becoming the first female president of SSA in 2004, where she was instrumental in the organization joining CVSN and receiving the inaugural Women in Leadership award at the 2025 Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week. Add this to her work recruiting more technicians to the industry and training them for successful careers, and it’s clear that Nastali has helped hold the industry to a higher standard, from the shop floor to the boardroom.

Nastali received the inaugural Women in Leadership award at the 2025 Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week.

Breaking in

Nastali began her journey into the commercial vehicle space after spending about eight years as an auditor for a public accounting firm. When she divorced, she needed a job that allowed her to be home more with her children, who were then 6 and 5 years old. So, she searched through the help wanted ads in the paper and found a position at Spring Align as comptroller.

“My first project was revamping their whole computer system,” Nastali explained. “It was inadequate; [it had] no point of sale. They were still writing things by hand, so I just automated everything.”

While she was well-equipped for the financial end of her project, Nastali still had a lot to learn about the technical side of the industry, which she tackled by immersion. She visited the shop to watch the technicians work, where she learned about rebushing and using the U-bolt machine. She also attended industry gatherings, particularly those for the SSA, which allowed her to learn from the other shop owners.

But even when she first started, Nastali encountered some of the pushback she later experienced in the SSA boardroom.

“There was a certain amount of the men thinking, ‘OK, who's this young girl coming [in]? Is she an armpiece?’” Nastali recalled. “I was 30 years old at the time.”

While the industry at that time was not the most welcoming, her work environment with Spring Align was. After working with the company for five years, Nastali received a 2% share in Spring Align as a Christmas bonus in 1986, an ownership she shared with two others.

“They felt it would help be more of a buffer between the two men that owned 49% each. [I was] the deciding factor,” she said. “I enjoyed it, I really did. They were very receptive to my ideas.”

Thirteen years later, Nastali’s rapport with the other shareholders led to one of them, John Gyan, selling his 49% to her in the same year she joined SSA's board.

“That was a good sense of accomplishment, though, for them to recognize and let me on the board and then for me to prove my worth,” she explained.

Pushing the industry forward

Throughout her four-decade career, Nastali has continued to support small shops and technicians. For the former, she was one of the three-person committee that promoted the transition to CVSN.

“I'm very happy with that,” she commented. “I think that that is very progressive for the service industry to be involved in that, and I think it's going to lend a lot of opportunities to the small-service shop owners.”

For Spring Align specifically, Nastali has also implemented an Earn While You Learn program to help boost technician recruitment. The program sees Spring Align hiring people as parts drivers first, and they then rise through the ranks. The program succeeded enough that 24 of Nastali’s team members are younger than 30.

She ensures they perform to her expectations by tracking each technician’s time and reviewing a monthly report on their activity. Nastali also walks through the shop to monitor her employees as they advance their skills. Beyond their overall competencies, she works to instill in her technicians high standards of safety and dedication.

“I'm a stickler for being on time and in uniform at the start time,” Nastali stated. “I'm very strict on that. For me, the most important thing is their work ethic and their willingness to learn.”

However, as long as they maintain these standards, Nastali always wants to ensure that her shop is open to all, including women.

“Follow your dreams. If you're interested in it, there's a spot for everyone,” she urged. “Go for it.”