Women HGV drivers? Bring them on, we say!
During World War 2, “by mid-1943, almost 90 per cent of single women and 80 per cent of married women were working in factories, on the land or in the armed forces,” according to Government records.
Extraordinary times, certainly, but women smashed the stereotype back then and they can do it again, especially in a time of national crisis such as we are experiencing with around 100,000 HGV drivers needed to fill the current shortfall.
Do women really want to drive trucks?
The then Freight Transport Association (now Logistics UK) ran a poll of women on Twitter to find out. “Would you be willing to drive a 44 tonne truck?”
A resounding 79% said ‘Yes’. While that’s more indicative than statistically sound, it does reveal a willingness to consider driving as a career.
How much of an HGV driver’s job requires physical strength that women cannot do?
“It’s a man’s job,” many will say. But is it really? Lack of physical strength is the first objection to women drivers that would most likely pop into the mind of the man on the street. That men are stronger than women is not in doubt but just how critical is strength to driving big rigs?
It’s not the driving itself, given that modern truck design makes controlling the vehicle straightforward once the vital skills have been mastered.
Tasks such as tying down a load or managing side curtains do need a bit of muscle but women HGV drivers are doing that on a daily basis already. Breakdowns may require some basic mechanical knowledge but call-out services can be on the spot with a couple of hours.
Long unsociable hours present the greatest challenge
Being assigned a 04:30 start to a 12-hour day is no fun for any driver, male or female. Family life invariably suffers from days spent on the road and this may be the biggest turn-off for younger women.
Savvy employers who value their best drivers may take this into account when scheduling driving workloads. There are always people for whom unsociable hours are not a major deterrent, as well as others who would find them too much to cope with.
How about the facilities on the road (or lack of them)?
There are negatives about HGV driving that apply equally to male and female drivers. High up on the list is the frequently appalling or non-existent truck stop facilities, especially the all-night type. That was not so 20 years ago but facilities have either disappeared or shrunk over the years.
When a driver pulls into a truck stop at 04:30 in the morning, all too often there are no sanitation or refreshment facilities open to them. Women drivers cope – women have always coped as well as men and frequently cope better. That is not to downplay the poor trucker facilities here in the UK, but only to point out that bad facilities are not a total showstopper for women.
Is discrimination a factor?
Not to any great extent apparently. Sexism exists in all walks of life and driving is no different. However, women drivers report that their male counterparts mainly welcome them and treat them with friendly respect. Of course there is the occasional sarcastic remark, but the banter and generally supportive atmosphere more than makes up for that.
Find out more on this BBC website report, “Life on the road as a female lorry driver.”
Finally – people notice women HGV drivers. It’s a positive
Seeing a woman driving a 50 foot truck still turns heads because only about 2% of UK HGV drivers are women. We would hope that this number will grow and there is no reason why it should not, as long as women are encouraged into the job.
A fleet of women-driven HGVs would certainly be a startling difference in this male-dominated sector. In fact, it would be a marketing coup that could attract significant publicity.
Avail – your driver solution
At Avail, we’re working on resolving the driver shortage problem. We’re not a traditional agency, but a temporary driver solution that matches temporary HGV drivers with Operators for a set low fee of £7.50 per driver per day all through the Avail platform. Our online platform uses specially designed software that can be used anywhere at any time, the platform has just over 10,000 drivers active on the platform and are IR35 compliant.
If you would like to see the platform in action, then book in for a demo with our New Business team, or if you aren’t ready for that. Email our New Business Manager, David Roberts with a question david.roberts@availtechnologies.co.uk.
