Orlando, Florida— To start celebrating the International Women’s Day which takes place on March 8th, let’s talk about their direct contribution to the trucking industry. Although considered safer truck drivers and they could help lessen the truck driver shortage, data suggests female drivers are less likely to quit their jobs.

For long enough, trucking has been considered a male domain, requiring long hours, and lots of travel. It’s an exciting job because it takes you to places you may have never seen before – and is well remunerated. Trucking is one of the few businesses that truly offers equal pay for equal work. If you’re willing to drive the miles and do the job, gender doesn’t matter. However, historically, it’s been associated as  an almost exclusively task for men. Every now and then, you would see a woman trucker cruising down the highway, but they were few and far between. It won’t be that way for long.

The past few years have shed light in terms of women’s contribution to the trucker shortage crisis in America, and every day more and more women, are finally “joining the club.”

But why is it a good idea to let them join this job market? All the reasons in the world—First, data suggests that it is wise to add female drivers to fleets, given the fact that they get into fewer preventable accidents than men, and drive more cautiously most of the time. According to Business Insider, every 100 female drivers get into 3.41 preventable accidents, compared to a rate of 3.44 accidents among every 100 male drivers. Also, data from a fleet management solutions company, named Omnitracs, also found that women are less likely than men to get warnings while driving like "excessive overspeed," "forward collision warning," "hard breaking," and other signals that can lead to an accident.

Women also are less likely to quit driving, which is particularly critical as turnover rates among truck drivers reach 95%. This is an important fact to take into account when you own and operate a truck transportation business.

If all these reasons did not seem enough for you, women drivers tend to rack up more miles than men. That's likely because they often drive in teams and can switch with their partner when one of them reaches the government-limit of driving. 

There are professional organizations such as Women in Trucking Association, who’s goal is to bring gender diversity to transportation. The Women In Trucking Association is a non-profit organization with the mission to encourage the employment of women in the trucking industry, promote their accomplishments, and minimize obstacles faced by women working in the industry.

The pros outweigh the cons, and not all women experience the worst of the downside, and although some female drivers have faced the downside of being unusual, many others say they experienced no problems during training and found jobs working for fleets that respect them as drivers without taking gender into account.

If you are considering to start a business in the transportation industry, or become a driver, Garzor Insurance offers flexible commercial auto insurance that grows with your business. From one vehicle to many, we have a policy that will meet your budget and insurance needs. Contact us for an orientation (321) 206-8035!

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