More women drivers could solve shortages
When most people think about lorry drivers they think; large bearded man living off of Yorkie bars and truck-stop burgers. But that’s no longer the case, these days there is less of a ‘taboo’ with women driving lorries and the number of women in the industry is growing rapidly.
Regardless of your strength and size, driving a lorry now requires more brains than brawn. With the aid of technology driving a truck now requires very little physical exertion compared to years ago. These days there are automatic gearboxes, power steering and electronic coupling mechanisms. All this means that the only element men and women compete on is their ability to actually drive the vehicle.
In 2013 women made up for 0.5% of all HGV drivers, now they are estimated to make up for 2%. Whilst this is still a small percentage of the workforce, that’s still a 4x increase! More women than ever are looking at HGV driving as a viable career option. The haulage industry is becoming increasingly open to female drivers, shunning the traditional male dominated industry stereotypes. There are still some businesses that are slow to recognise the changing demographic, but most have implemented policies aimed at welcoming women into the workforce.
With a serious national shortage in HGV drivers, recruiting female drivers could be the answer. It is estimated that the average age of the current HGV drivers is 57, 10% of which are due to retire within the next 10 years. All this means that the current shortage, reported to be 45,000 is only set to get worse. Many recruiters are finding that it is becoming increasingly tough to recruit new male drivers to the industry, but if there is a pool of ‘untapped’ women which would like to be lorry drivers then it could help ease the situation.
Considering starting a career as a HGV driver? At HGV Training Network we not only offer HGV training but also a range of additional training courses including; HIAB training, ADR training and CPC training.
Source http:adrnetwork
