Sharing the Road - Part 1

How can the trucking industry get more women to join the community?

The trucking industry is facing an unprecedented labor crisis, but the solution is clear – for those willing to wake up and listen.  

The American Trucking Association estimated a shortage of 50,000 drivers at the end of 2017, a number that could balloon to 174,000 by 2026. Meanwhile, driver turnover at large truckload fleets jumped to 90 percent last year, the highest rate since 2015. To entice more workers, carriers are offering signing bonuses virtually unheard of a few years ago, driving up costs for their businesses as well as for shippers. 

So what’s missing from the industry’s talent pool? Women. Today, just 6 percent of all truck drivers are female, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means there’s a vast amount of untapped talent who can not only fill vacant driver’s seats, but spark much-needed change across an outdated industry. Before counting on women to solve its labor woes, however, the industry first needs to understand what’s holding them back from pursuing trucking in the first place.

Decoding the driver experience

With that question in mind, Women In Trucking recently partnered with Sawgrass Logistics, a woman-owned firm, to survey more than 200 industry respondents about women’s experiences as truck drivers. More than 90 percent of respondents were female and came from across the industry, including truck drivers, transportation and logistics firms, private fleet owners, recruiting and staffing companies, and professional products and services.

By surveying these professionals, our goal was to identify industry-wide best practices to ramp up women’s presence in driving jobs. According to the survey, there’s a lot of work to do. While automation and ergonomic equipment have helped make women physically capable of driving trucks, respondents painted a picture of an industry behind the curve on technology, inclusion and safety. 

Among the few women already working as truck drivers, job satisfaction is drastically lower than among male drivers. The survey revealed an average Net Promoter Score (NPS), a measure of how likely someone is to recommend the job to a friend, of just 11 for women. Men averaged an NPS of 75 in comparison, nearly seven times higher. Considering that 83 percent of drivers were referred to trucking through word of mouth, the industry must focus on improving the driving experience for women drivers if it wants to recruit and retain more of them. 

To do that, carriers need to take a hard look at the entire driver lifecycle, from recruiting to on-the-job support. Key takeaways from the survey include:

·      Women don’t feel safe on the job. Safety is the No. 1 concern for women, yet employers cited everything but safety as a priority for women drivers. From poorly lit truck stops to bad weather, many women worry about what might happen on the road, reporting an average of 4.4 on a scale of 1 to 10 when asked how safe they felt.

·      The industry isn’t actively engaging women. Only 12 percent of respondents said their companies have specific marketing plans in place to recruit women. Once they’re on the job, opportunities to connect with women trainers or mentors are scarce.

·      A lack of digital innovation. The vast majority of drivers said they weren’t able to complete any of their CDL training or new employee orientation online. That creates barriers to entry for women with dependents at home, with 27 percent of respondents saying they had to arrange for others to care for their children, parents or spouses during training.

The time is now

To put more women in the driver’s seat, change must happen now across the entire driver experience and the trucking industry. Carriers that shift their models can achieve a more loyal and stable labor force, lower recruiting and retention costs, and stronger customer relationships as shippers see more women on the front lines. And carriers who don’t will continue to struggle to find qualified drivers, leaving them vulnerable to more forward-thinking competitors and technological disruption. The good news is that many firms appear up to the challenge: Nearly half of carrier respondents pledged to increase their numbers of women drivers by 2020.

Watch for additional posts over the coming months with concrete steps to engage women drivers, based on our survey findings. By encouraging women to take a chance on trucking, we can build a more sustainable future for the whole industry.  

Sponsored by Women In Trucking and Sawgrass Logistics

Created by SmithBrown Marketing