What It’s Like Being a Woman Truck Driver

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What Its Like Being a Woman Truck Driver There
is no getting around the fact although strides
have been made in terms of equality across many
industries in recent decades, truck driving is
still seen primarily as a mans game. Estimates
place the proportion of women in the industry at
around 6. Put another way, that means for every
16 trucks being driven on our roads, only one of
them at most will have a female truck driver in
the drivers seat. If youre a woman considering
a career as a trucker, heres what you need to
know.
TRUCK DRIVING AS A WOMAN THE REALITIES The
biggest hurdle that women truckers face is
tradition more specifically, the gender roles
are often associated with the binary of men and
women. Its still generally assumed that women
will be the primary caretakers of their children
and homes, which isnt especially conducive to
spending days or even weeks on the road.
However, for women who are attracted to the idea
of an adventurous lifestyle on the highways, the
job certainly has its advantages. Among these
advantages is a high level of independence, a
good starting salary, and oftentimes an
excellent employee benefits package that includes
full medical and vision insurance. Plus, one big
bonus is that, unlike a lot of other industries,
there is no gender pay gap to speak of in the
trucking sector. On average, what men get paid
for driving big rigs, women are also paid equal
amounts. IS TRUCK DRIVING A TRUE MERITOCRACY? One
advantage that truck driving has for its
applicants is that, as long as you can qualify
for your commercial drivers license (CDL),
youre trusted to handle the job, regardless of
your age or gender. While hiring in other
industries has grown increasingly more and more
biased towards younger demographics, once youve
shown you can reliably handle a truck, youre
considered a safe hire. Womens truck driver
safety, as with mens, doesnt seem to waver with
age. Its not uncommon for drivers to start
their trucking career for the first time in their
40s and 50s, making it an ideal job for newly
independent women with older kids whove left the
nest.
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Theres a lot to be said for the kind of job that
pays well and makes the most of the lack of
complication in ones home life. If youre
someone who enjoys a lot of alone time, and if
you could easily see yourself spending long
periods of time driving across the country, then
youll be happy to know that trucking is a
career with a lot to recommend it. WHAT KIND OF
HOURS CAN WOMEN IN TRUCKS EXPECT? There is an
increasing amount of work available, and with the
age groups in trucking tending towards older
drivers, there will need to be an increased focus
on recruiting younger drivers. The good news is
that you wont need to waste much time waiting
for work. If you get your CDL and choose your
vehicle from among the wide range of trucks that
are ideal for women who want to make a living in
the industry, theres plenty of work available.
Depending on the law where you are, a standard
rule is that you cant work more than 70 hours
across an eight-day period. However, youll
generally have no difficulty finding enough work
to keep you busy. Those long hours can mean that
youre away from home a lot, so if youre likely
to find that off-putting, then you may have some
choices to make. However, shorter runs and less
intense schedules are available and will allow
you to spend more time at home if thats
something that you desire. And with plenty of
hours available, it can be a lucrative gig.
Salaries are already competitive, and haulers are
more than aware that drivers will be
increasingly able to name their price as the
older drivers start to retire within the next
decade. A solid hourly rate multiplied by a lot
of hours means that trucks for women will have
no shortage of takers among those keen to boost
their bank balance. IS THERE A FUTURE IN TRUCKING
FOR WOMEN? Given that driving a truck could be a
significant lifestyle change for many of the
newly interested parties, it makes sense that
they wont want to make a big commitment for a
job that could become obsolete in years to come.
With new innovations in the world of logistics
and delivery, could it be the case that all
truck drivers will be looking for new employment
sooner than they think? Were talking primarily
about driverless vehicles, of course, and there
is some good news on that front for prospective
truck drivers. To begin with, the technology
behind driverless vehicles is not as far advanced
as its proponents would like us to imagine. Were
still a long way off from it being considered
safe to put fleets of driverless trucks out on
the road. Beyond that, there are still many
elements of the job that we expect to require a
human touch for the foreseeable future. So if you
choose to work for a company like Warrior
Logistics, you dont need to worry that
automation is going to make your job obsolete.
If anything, technology, and online shopping
continue to mean theres more work than ever
available to current and prospective truck
drivers. WILL WOMEN TRUCK DRIVER NUMBERS INCREASE
IN THE FUTURE? Although the statistics might
initially be disconcerting for women who are
considering a career in the trucking industry,
its important to understand that this is a
legacy of tradition that doesnt need to have
any impact on your own intention of becoming a
truck driver. Your gender really doesnt matter
as long as you are trained and qualified to
safely drive a truck and its cargo from Point A
to Point B within the time required.
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We can only assume that the number of women
behind the wheels of delivery trucks will
increase in the next few years and decades. As
an industry that will remain both relevant and
necessary, new job openings are sure to become
available in the near future. With well-paid jobs
ready for anyone who can demonstrate the ability
to carry them out, there is no reason not to give
serious consideration to an exciting new career
out on the open roads. If you would like to learn
more about the benefits of truck driving and the
Warrior Logistics experience, get in touch today.