Queen of the road

A more stereotypical road haulage professional?

Faced with a sharp fall in new lorry drivers the haulage industry is trying to reform its image and reach out to an untapped market of new recruits - women.

It's not, Katie Stirling concedes, a job for the sort of women who are bothered about their hair, make-up and nails.

But for the 21-year-old from Glasgow, the challenges of handling a 44-ton articulated lorry with split gearbox will always take precedence over what sort of mascara to put on in the morning.

In the battle for equality in the workplace women have stormed male bastions from the boardroom down. But Katie remains one of only a small handful of females to have taken up lorry driving for a living.

Now a shortage of qualified lorry drivers has prompted haulage companies to try to recruit more women into the traditionally men-only world of transport cafes, tattooed biceps and Yorkie bars.

Just 2% of Britain's 400,000 truckers are women. The poor image of lorry driving has led to a recruitment crisis in the industry with a predicted shortfall of 46,000 large goods vehicle (LGV) drivers.

The reason I like it so much is I'm a girl doing a male-dominated job - I've always been a bit of a tomboy Katie Stirling

Such a serious shortage of drivers would have a knock-on cost for the UK economy, say analysts.

Skills for Logistics, an independent body which works alongside companies in the haulage business, is leading the effort to attract more women like Katie to get behind the wheel.

Chief executive Ian Hetherington says the bad image of trucking means it has failed to attract young drivers, both male and female.

"The image of the industry has been less than attractive," says Mr Hetherington. "It's perceived as a 'no-hope' job that doesn't go anywhere and involves large and polluting vehicles that clog up the road."

By failing to reach out to potential women and ethnic minority recruits, the haulage business has effectively ruled out more than half the potential workforce, says Mr Hetherington. In fact, lorry driving is ideally suited to the flexible hours culture demanded particularly by women who want to mix family and work commitments.

"It doesn't have to be long-distance work. Much of it involves relatively short journey times, for example from supermarket depots to the stores themselves."

Family friendly

As part of the new push for more women in LGV cabs, haulage firms have created a series of vacancies allocated specifically for women, says Mr Hetherington.

The job can offer flexible hours

Training to drive a Class One LGV takes about four weeks' training and there are grants available to make courses more affordable. Younger women can expect to be taken on as apprentices.

Katie Stirling passed her LGV test in August and since then has been working full-time, driving lorries for her father's haulage firm.

She gets a bit of stick, especially from older drivers. But the challenge of overturning stereotypes is part of the fun, she says.

"The reason I like it so much is I'm a girl doing a male-dominated job. I've always been a bit of a tomboy; one for going out and getting dirty.

"You never really hear what the guys have got to say because they never say it in front of you. But at the same time, I don't really care. And anyway, there've been times when I've had to help out guys who are struggling as drivers."

Power-assisted steering and other controls have made the work less physical than it used to be and much of the unloading is now automated. But the split gearbox can be a hard work, says Katie, who tends to transport animal feed and wheat to clients in Scotland.

And what do her girlfriends make of Katie's unorthodox career?

"They could see it coming to be honest, as I was driving a van before. I'm not really one for little sports cars."

---

Add your comments on this story, using the form below.

I thought it was the incredibly high cost of fuel in this country that was driving people (and small haulage firms) out of HGV driving rather than the male/female divide.
Grace, London

As the daughter of a trucker and obsessed with the machines, I have to say well done to Katie. There are just not enough female truckers. My dad has worked with female truckers and says that they have done a brill job and have friendly dispositions, even if they're only 5ft tall and could just see over the steering wheel. There are more and more female bus/coach drivers nowadays, why not truckers too?
Caseydee Blay, Aberdeen

Don't be fooled by the power steering, as your arms still have to do more work than driving a car. It's still a physical job, especially when someone cuts in on you and you have to work your way back up the split gearbox. To add to the joy, there are A roads with bends too sharp for even a 7.5 ton truck to get round on the left hand side, let alone 44 tons. Of course, the only ones who'll notice a woman driving are other truck drivers.
John Airey, Peterborough, UK

Pigeon Street's long-distance Clara obviously wasn't enough to convince my generation then.
Angela , London, UK

I really can't see that using Katie as an advert is doing the industry any favours - she openly admits to being a "tomboy" who used to drive vans. What they need is a woman who is into fashion and looking nice, maybe is married with a couple of kids, who likes the idea of being an important cog in the transport industry machine. This job may have its physical demanding side, but so does packing shelves in Tesco. Until it is shown to appeal to the majority of women, it will always lag behind its recruitment targets.
David Ph, London, UK

Terms & Conditions