Promoting Road Freight Industry to Women: Motivations and Challenges of Female Truck Drivers in the UK

Distribution and freight transportation play a significant role in the development of a region, but the sector is usually a male-dominated one. Considering the shortage of drivers in some countries such as the UK and lack of studies investigating the challenges female drivers face, it is crucial to identify motivations and challenges. Identifying challenges would help promoting the industry to more female drivers. Thus, the chapter aims to discover the main motivations and challenges as well as discover if females feel they are treated equally to males within this industry. Accordingly, a qualitative study is designed, and a total of 16 interviews have been conducted with female truck drivers in the UK. The results indicate that the main motivation for female truck drivers is the freedom that the job allows. The study also found a number of challenges faced by female truck drivers in their day-to-day working life. The biggest challenge for female truck drivers is clearly shown to be a lack of facilities.