Truck Transportation is the largest subsector (30% of the Transportation & Warehousing industry) and has one of the lowest female participation rates at 14%.

In the  Truck Transportation industry itself, women tend to hold administration, service and support roles in the industry and less likely to have management, operational or driving roles. The largest occupation, Transport Truck Drivers, shows female employment rate at 3%. There are several reasons for this, and these reasons also exist in other previously male dominated industries.

Some of the reasons have been:

• underestimating/discounting the impact of the general public perception of women entering non-traditional roles such as truck driving
• roles being designated as male roles are not actively chosen by women
• a great lack of information made available to women who are interested in the role provided by women already in the role (getting the information straight from those who really know)
• previous lack of access to basic education related to the necessary skills (although the Canadian government has been moving forward with programs to get women into no-traditional roles)
• people making a difficult work culture and environment to women in no-traditional roles such as truck driving.

Women With Drive is Trucking HR Canada’s National Project to Promote Women in Freight Transportation. This is a three-year action plan to help tackle the shortage of women in the trucking industry. Other commitments involve creating mentorship programs, identifying best practices, and developing workplace tools and procedures for inclusive workplaces.

For the first project, HR Trucking Canada is receiving $296,720 for a three-year project that will engage women and representatives from all levels of the trucking industry to create a sustainable mentorship model for women. Together, they will identify barriers and opportunities for women entering into and advancing within the industry, as they develop and pilot a mentorship model with employers in targeted communities in British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario.

For the second project, Trucking HR Canada is receiving $125,000 for a project to improve the workplace participation of groups that are under-represented in the transportation sector.

The issue of women’s underrepresentation in the trucking continues to be an area of opportunity for both government and industry stakeholders to support various programs and initiatives focused on developing women in transportation careers.  This will provide some of the necessary alleviation to the driver shortage.

Even with the addition of more women driving trucks the question will still need to be asked – are women the answer to the truck driver shortage?