Commercial driving is historically a male dominated industry, but the times are changing. Driving jobs for women are on the rise.
There are many reasons why you should be interested in hiring female truck drivers, including:
- Women drivers are generally safer drivers than male drivers. According to U.S. Department of Transportation statistics, male commercial drivers get into more collisions than women. Fewer collisions means fewer expenses.
- According to the American Trucking Association, there will be a shortage of nearly 175,000 commercial drivers over the next 5 years. This is due to the fact that high numbers of baby boomer commercial drivers are entering retirement, and there’s a lack of qualified drivers to fill the empty seats left by these retirees.
- According to a study by McKinsey, companies with more gender diversity are more likely to have above average financial returns.
Recruiting female drivers isn’t always easy. It’s hard to balance work and personal life/responsibilities when you spend three weeks per month on the road, and this makes commercial driving an unappealing job in general. And that’s not all – there are many other reasons that could make hiring women difficult as well, which we will detail below.
In this article, we will also show you how to design your hiring program to attract high-quality female truck drivers and make your fleet the best that it can be.
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How to Attract More Women Commercial Drivers
Provide Equipment that Suits Both Genders
The equipment specs for commercial drivers were originally designed to fit the size of the average man. To improve working conditions for female drivers, industry tools and resources need to be tailored to better suit both genders.
Provide Ample Opportunities to Spend Time with Family
For decades, women have ignored commercial driving because of the weeks or months they would need to spend away from their home and family.
If flexible working schedules could be provided to allow women commercial drivers to spend more time at home between drives, more women would apply for these jobs.
That’s why you need trusted route planning software. This technology improves the efficiency of your routes so your drivers won’t need to spend as much time on the road to get their jobs done. It will also help you balance your workload more evenly.
Make Training Safe for Female Drivers
Commercial driving is a risky profession, especially for women. Training processes must be well-documented and conducted carefully. Female truck drivers often face issues with male trainers, such as discrimination and harassment. These incidents must be eliminated in order to make your training program safe and effective. You need a zero tolerance policy for this kind of behavior. And ideally, female hires will be trained by female trainers.
Focus on Women Drivers’ Health Safety
Like men, female drivers usually don’t stop to stretch enough when they’re on the road. This can lead to illnesses and injuries like migraines, back pain, hypertension, and sinus problems. It can be hard to remember these things when you’re under pressure to make good time and avoid delays.
Routes should be designed in such a way so that female truck drivers have frequent opportunities for personal stops. Women have some health concerns that men don’t have to deal with, such as menstrual cycles, premenstrual syndrome, and menopause, which can give a female truck driver symptoms like headaches, stomach aches, and kidney pain. Routes that make it easy to pull over at truck stops or other rest areas will allow your female drivers to take care of themselves and still stay on schedule.
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Have a Clear Mission Statement
A mission statement needs to be created to provide transparency on the goals and desired culture of your organization. To attract and retain women workers of all ages, your mission statement should reinforce the idea that women drivers provide value within your organization and that the work they do is important.
Implement Success Programs for Women
You should incorporate programs that will help women succeed in your company. Doing so will engage and incentivize the women who currently work for your company while attracting more women to your open positions.
A great example of this is the Highway Diamonds program of Prime, Inc. Highway Diamonds engages in community events and educates the public on the upside of truck driving as a career. According to Truck News, Prime doubled the number of women drivers in their fleet by implementing this program. This is a method that you should consider using for your company as well.
Showcase Your People
Finally, you should leverage social media to attract new women commercial drivers.
When drivers are looking for a new job, they’ll often use social media in their search. According to Load Delivered, 75% of truckers say they check Facebook daily and 62% of millennials turn to social media to find jobs. Both genders use social sites to evaluate potential new employers and gauge their alignment with the company’s culture. Using social media and other online channels to tell the story of women drivers in your company is a compelling way to reach your diversity targets.
Share the unique stories, personalities, and hobbies of the women who work for you. Representing a more diverse team of drivers will attract more diverse recruits.
Attracting new women drivers is important, but your company needs to make sure that you retain your existing women drivers as well. To prevent employees from leaving, you must quickly and completely address any of the following concerns whenever they are voiced by your female drivers:
- Dissatisfaction with compensation for deadhead miles
- Dissatisfaction with hours worked
- Dissatisfaction with the maintenance department
- Dissatisfaction with dispatcher
- Dissatisfaction with pay
- Not getting enough miles
- Work is not steady enough
So, how do you plan to recruit women commercial drivers? Do you have any questions about this article? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below.
Finally, answering these three questions correctly will confirm that you understand how to attract women drivers to your organization.
- How can you minimize the obstacles faced by women drivers?
- How can you make sure the health concerns of your female truckers do not affect your organization’s productivity?
- How can truck routing software help you design flexible work schedules for your women commercial drivers?
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