While women are still experiencing a pay gap in most professions, it turns out that trucking isn’t one of those. According to the Women in Trucking Association (WIT) there is no gender pay gap for truckers.
This might encourage more women to enter the field. Currently trucking is overwhelmingly a male profession with women making up only about 7% of the driver population and about 14% of management.
But there are some differences in job performance.
Fleet management provider Omnitracs analyzed 2016 data and reports the following ways that female drivers outperform their male counterparts:
- Lower accident ratio
- Longer tenure (notable in an industry that suffers a 96% turnover rate)
- Travels more overall miles per year (52,682 vs 50,344)
“In a historically male-dominated profession, females excel as truck drivers,” said Lauren Domnick, director of analytics & modeling at Omnitracs. “Recognizing this, particularly on International Women’s Day, is vital to ensuring that more women continue to enter the trucking profession and feel acknowledged for their quality of work.”
WIT is also concerned about the representation of women at the board level. There are fifteen carriers listed as publicly traded companies according to Bloomberg LP. Of the fifteen carriers, seven, or nearly half, have no women serving on their boards of directors, the group reports. Ten of the fifteen show no women in the executive suite.
Looking at specific companies:
--ArcBest Corp. led by CEO Judy McReynolds takes the lead in promoting women with a 27.3% representation on the their board of directors and 25% of women at the corporate level.
--Con-way has a close second place in including women in the boardroom with 23.1% women in this leadership role.
--Celadon holds the third highest level of women as directors with 20%. And females hold 14.3% of the executive positions.
--J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. has 18.2% women serving on their board of directors. And this company has created a program called “Growing and Retaining Outstanding Women” in hopes of increasing the presence of women in C-level positions. These efforts are reflected in their 20% representation of women holding executive positions at the carrier.
--Swift Transportation has the third highest level of female executives at 16.7%.
“Carriers without women serving as directors or executives should make greater efforts to create a more diverse leadership team. If you’re looking for more female drivers for your fleet, you will need to create an environment where women are visibly leading these initiatives,” said WIT’s President/CEO, Ellen Voie.
