The trucking industry will need to work hard to attract more female drivers. According to a new study from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), the negative image of the industry is the number one challenge trucking faces when it comes to onboarding more women drivers.
The number of women truck drivers dropped to its lowest level since before the pandemic in 2019.
According to a survey conducted by Trucking Moves America Forward in 2022, the public has a positive view of trucking. ATRI’s research indicates that the barrier is not the public’s view of trucking, but trucking’s view of women.
ATRI’s 2022 update to its Predicting truck crash involvement showed that female drivers were safer in every statistically significant area than their male counterparts. Yet, more than 31% responses to ATRI’s most recent question were about attitudes of other drivers, motor carrier, shippers, and the general public towards women drivers.
ATRI’s research involved input from thousands truck drivers, motor carrier and truck driver training school through surveys, interviews, and a focus group of women drivers to identify the underlying challenges and strategies to navigate and overcome these barriers to success. The research revealed that women are attracted to driving careers because of the income potential. This highlights the fact that there is more pay parity between men and women in the trucking sector than in other fields.
ATRI’s analysis revealed that carriers who implement women-specific recruitment and retention initiatives have higher percentages of women drivers (8.1%) than those that do not (5.0%). The report also outlines how fleets can implement such initiatives.
A lack of respect was ranked as two of ATRI’s six worst traits. The No. 1 spot was taken by a motor carrier’s company culture. The second most important factor was the lack of clear and consistent communication with drivers and the absence of appreciation and recognition initiatives.
Overall, women ranked the lack of respect (by a large margin) higher than personal safety (12.6%), bathroom access (12.2%), or their physical ability to do their job (11.6%).