Women in trucking

Trucking has always been a male dominated career, more than 94% of the industry is male according to a recent study, but that leaves about 6% of the industry to be female. Most women come into the job because of a male family member or partner, but not because they’ve heard about it on their own. The idea of female truck drivers is so low that the number of women in the trucking business increased only a little in the last 17 years.

But why don’t women want to join this industry? Is it the driving? The hours? Or maybe it’s the pressure of still being overall unwelcome among the men?

The fact is that most women aren’t aware that being a truck driver is even available to them let alone an actually an equalizing job. Salary is based on miles and or hours so all drivers are paid the same. With the 401(k) and steady salary, it can be a great job for anyone. However, women are often faced with skepticism from some men in the same field. Overall the trucking world is still pretty closed off from women as it is a predominantly male industry. So what can be done?

In 2014, the President of the Women In Trucking organization, Ellen Voie, and her team traveled across North America to bring awareness about trucking opportunities to as many women as possible. She has even release a truck driver doll to plant the idea of trucking in young girls. Perhaps the organization will do something similar in the future to help the new generation of drivers.

The industry has been providing more and more jobs over the past year, but some carriers are still experiencing a driver shortage. As a result, they are driving up wages to appeal to the public; now is definitely the time for women and anyone to join!

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