[vimeo-autoplay video-id=”392466924″]
When Ellen Voie, then Manager of Recruiting and Retention Programs at Schneider National, was given the task of attracting non-traditional groups of people, she jumped at the opportunity to introduce more women to trucking. Voie’s efforts quickly drew traction industry-wide and in 2007 she founded the Women in Trucking Association.
Voie sat down with FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller on this episode of the FreightWavesTV show “Fuller Speed Ahead” to discuss the industry’s growing number of female drivers and the best practices for attracting women to trucking, a male-dominated occupation.
“Women look at the trucking industry and don’t picture themselves in it,” Voie said. “They don’t picture themselves as a safety director or owning a trucking company or dealership. One of our biggest challenges is to overcome this image.”
The Women in Trucking Association is a non-profit organization that encourages the employment of women in trucking, celebrates their accomplishments and minimizes the obstacles women face in industry. In just 13 years, Voie said Women in Trucking Association has amassed 5,500 members across 10 different countries.
As CEO and president of the association, Voie urges transportation executives to be aware of possible unconscious male-oriented bias around the workplace. She noted cultural values such as quick-decision-making, hierarchies and power structures may unintentionally prevent women from attaining positions of power in the industry. Voie presents women as being more risk-averse, and said having someone with a different mindset at the table can introduce new perspectives in tackling challenges.
How can companies attract more women to trucking? Voie suggests social media as a great tool for recruiting and that showing ads that feature female drivers describing what they love about their job can be very effective. Voie even noted that simply asking your female staff what will attract other women to the job can be tremendously helpful. Though small in nature, doing things like offering company shirts designed for women can go a long way in making women feel more welcome in the workplace.
“We’ve struck a nerve in this industry and I want to be the disruptor,” Voie said. “I want us to come out and say this is how we can make a more female-friendly work environment for everyone. I think the industry is willing to listen.”
Noble1 suggests SMART truck drivers should UNITE & collectively cut out the middlemen from picking truck driver pockets ! UNITE , CONQUER , & PROSPER ! IMHO
Don’t feel bad ladies , you’re not the only one’s being targeted . The young and naïve are as well .
More truck driver shortage propaganda !
Quote:
Saskatchewan truckers hoping to bust stereotypes, labour shortage with campaign
Fast forward to 1 minute 23 seconds . Youth 18 to 23 targeted !
Remember , if a lie is repeated often enough , eventually it is believed to be true .
Quote :
“Want to Make a Lie Seem True? Say It Again. And Again. And Again”
IMHO !
Noble1 suggests SMART truck drivers should UNITE & collectively cut out the middlemen from picking truck driver pockets ! UNITE , CONQUER , & PROSPER ! IMHO
Check out this driver on YouTube ! He’s funny , but he’s right .
American Trucking Association propaganda uncovered by government study
Then check Todd Spencer on Youtube : OOIDA President Todd Spencer busts ‘driver shortage’ myth
Think about that “Rosie The Riveter ” ! The major motor carrier trucking propaganda machine has taken a hold of YOU ! It desperately needs another pocket to fleece ……
IMHO ………..
Noble1 suggests SMART truck drivers should UNITE & collectively cut out the middlemen from picking truck driver pockets ! UNITE , CONQUER , & PROSPER ! IMHO
Listen to the video @ 0:22 ! Right from the beginning listen carefully to what she’s say Schneider asked her to do !
And I quote :
“Figure out how to attract and retain non traditional groups . Keep in mind her job is HR !
In laymen terms , put lipstick on the pig to attract new candidates , in particular women . Unfortunately the “spin” is working . It’s attracting women .
We’ve seen this sort of spin when Bernays was hired to increase cigarette sales for tobacco companies . He manipulated women to believe in equality and to walk down the street while carrying their “torches(smoking cigarettes in a public protest) of freedom” .
Quote :
“Torches of Freedom” was a phrase used to encourage women’s smoking by exploiting women’s aspirations for a better life during the early twentieth century first-wave feminism in the United States. Cigarettes were described as symbols of emancipation and equality with men. The term was first used by psychoanalyst A. A. Brill when describing the natural desire for women to smoke and was used by Edward Bernays to encourage women to smoke in public despite social taboos. Bernays hired women to march while smoking their “torches of freedom” in the Easter Sunday Parade of 1929, which was a significant moment for fighting social barriers for women smokers. ”
Cigarette companies began selectively advertising to women in the late 1920s.[dubious – discuss] In 1928 George Washington Hill, the president of the American Tobacco Company, realized the potential market that could be found in women and said, “It will be like opening a gold mine right in our front yard.” Yet some women who were already smoking were seen as smoking incorrectly.
In 1919 a hotel manager said that women “don’t really know what to do with the smoke. Neither do they know how to hold their cigarettes properly. Actually they make a mess of the whole performance.”[1] Tobacco companies had to make sure that women would not be ridiculed for using cigarettes in public and Philip Morris even sponsored a lecture series that taught women the art of smoking.
To expand the number of women smokers Hill decided to hire Edward Bernays, who today is known as the father of public relations, to help him recruit women smokers. Bernays decided to attempt to eliminate the social taboo against women smoking in public.
He gained advice from psychoanalyst A. A. Brill, who stated that it was normal for women to smoke because of oral fixation and said, “Today the emancipation of women has suppressed many of their feminine desires. More women now do the same work as men do. Many women bear no children; those who do bear have fewer children. Feminine traits are masked. Cigarettes, which are equated with men, become torches of freedom.”
In 1929 Bernays decided to pay women to smoke their “torches of freedom” as they walked in the Easter Sunday Parade in New York. This was a shock because until that time, women were only permitted to smoke in certain places such as in the privacy of their own homes. He was very careful when picking women to march because “while they should be good looking, they should not look too model-y” and he hired his own photographers to make sure that good pictures were taken and then published around the world.
Feminist Ruth Hale also called for women to join in the march saying, “Women! Light another torch of freedom! Fight another sex taboo!” Once the footage was released, the campaign was being talked about everywhere, the women’s walk was seen as a protest for equality and sparked discussion throughout the nation and is still known today.
The targeting of women in tobacco advertising led to higher rates of smoking among women. In 1923 women only purchased 5% of cigarettes sold, in 1929 that percentage increased to 12%, in 1935 to 18.1%, peaking in 1965 at 33.3%, and remaining at this level until 1977″
End quote :
Therefore my dear ladies , you’re being manipulated and used to enter an extremely abusive industry to cater to the industry’s needs while further keeping wages lower than they should be at the expense of your intelligence . You’ve been fooled to enter a careless unethical cutthroat industry ! Now how about lighting up that cigarette(driving that truck) ? LOL ! (wink)
In my humble opinion …………
Noble1 suggests SMART truck drivers should UNITE & collectively cut out the middlemen from picking truck driver pockets ! UNITE , CONQUER , & PROSPER ! IMHO
Allow me to quote one “Lady’s” comment on freightwaves and see how she feels about being a truck driver in the trucking industry .
Quote :
Stacy Sprouse
says:
Thursday, February 20, 2020 at 2:36 am
Get the government hands out of trucking .
Throw the ELDs in the trash . Get rid of the cameras facing the driver .make the trucks run the damm speed limits . And make trucking trucking again . And real drivers will want to.drive and teach there kids and kin foke to drive like it used to be .
I dont drive no more because of the ELD if I’m going to have to punch a time clock im going to punch it at a place wete im going home at night . If I got to drive a damm truck that cant run the speed limit I ain’t driving it . And if I wanted to be watched all day . I would walk around wal mart . Trucking is not the trucking I grew up to .
And it’s no wonder no one wants to do the shit no more . I hope like hell it only gets worse. So the dumb asses . People can see how stupid they are that’s coming up with all this shot and all those thst think it’s so cool to have bunch of idiots ”
End quote .
Apparently she’s so unhappy with the industry that she QUIT !
Noble1 suggests SMART truck drivers should UNITE & collectively cut out the middlemen from picking truck driver pockets ! UNITE , CONQUER , & PROSPER ! IMHO
Quote:
“Study says women are worse drivers, get in more car crashes despite driving less than men
Who’s worse at driving? Men or women?
A new study suggests that women, in fact, may be more dangerous behind the wheel than men.
Researchers at the University of Michigan analyzed 6.5 million car crashes in the U.S. between 1998 and 2007. Female drivers were found to be involved in 68.1 percent of all crashes, according to The Daily Mail.”
Hey , I’m just quoting the stats !
Here is another :
Quote :
Are Men or Women Better Drivers? Pt.3 What the Numbers Say
The Verdict
So now we’ve reached the finale of our series, “Are Men or Women Better Drivers?”, we can safely draw some answers to the question.
We gave men the advantage when it comes to physical abilities, due to their sharper spatial awareness. Of course, women also have an upper hand biologically since they’re wired to act safer behind the wheel.
Looking at society’s influence, boys and men are more inclined towards things like auto mechanics and racing – women are usually looked at as outliers.
But now that we’ve seen the numbers, it’s clear that insurance companies look at women drivers more favourably due to their safer habits.
So here’s our take: men have the capacity to drive more skillfully than women (ie. better spatial awareness, more time spent driving), while women win when it comes to safety. Therefore, we can say the proverbial “playing field” levels out.
Regardless of whether a driver is a man or woman, however, practice and good habits will make anyone better behind the wheel, perhaps even great. We have many examples of women who make a living fixing cars or racing them, who outperform male drivers. And there are men who don’t show the aggression associated with more testosterone.
Ultimately, it all boils down to the individual, not their gender.”
And another :
Quote :
Fatality Facts 2018
Gender
I AGREE , requote : “Ultimately, it all boils down to the individual, not their gender.”
That being said , insurance companies do appear to favor women . Therefore from a business perspective it would be favourable to one’s bottom line to push for women to enter the trucking industry as drivers . This is exactly what we’re seeing carriers enacting due to attempting to diminish their costs .
IMHO !
Judi Girard
I own a trucking company in Southern California and want to help women into trucks for local work. Sign me up.
Ellen Voie
Awesome. We’re at http://www.womenintrucking.org.
Raul
I’m a driving instructor at a school in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. Are there any companies in the Chicago area that will 1: hire student graduate drivers 2: will offer at least weekly home time 3: will be considerate of concerns a woman might have about being in a truck with a stranger, male trainer as she goes through company training?