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Women in the Road Transport and Logistics Industry

23rd March 2022

Within the road transport and logistics industry women are heavily underrepresented. They make up only 20% of transport sector staff in general[1] and 1% – 3% of HGV drivers. This is thought to be one of the biggest gender imbalances in UK business. It would seem that women are an untapped talent source and possibly addressing this imbalance could actually go some way to solving the driver shortage as well.

In order to even out the gender gap in the industry it’s important to identify why women are not attracted in the first place.

Reasons women aren’t attracted to the job

It can be difficult identifying precisely why a particular demographic are not attracted to an industry, but studies have shown there are a few common denominators.

How to attract more women

If the industry wants to reduce the driver shortage in general, they could make some changes which not only could attract more women to the industry but could make the environment more appealing to younger drivers – both male and female. It doesn’t mean painting the fleet bubblegum pink and having cute uniforms – although a company in Australia has done that – it just means making the working conditions more appealing. 

No solution is going to solve the talent shortage overnight but changes today can make for a better work environment tomorrow. And in 2022, there is no physical reason why women shouldn’t make up 49% of the road haulage and logistics workforce as they do on average across the rest of UK industries.[2]

For help with your driver requirements speak to the team at Transport Exchange Group today.


[1] https://www.womenintransport.com/

[2] https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06838/SN06838.pdf

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