Finding The Attraction

The number of female truckers in the UK remains stuck at about 1% – and if this is to change significantly, the issues affecting all truck drivers need to be addressed

- Dan Parton

For Emma Walker, 22 October 2017 will live long in her memory as a potentially life-changing day. That was the day she won the HerGV competition and, with it, a prize package worth up to £3000, including HGV training from Pertemps Driver Training. Walker, from Stockton-on-Tees, was also offered a work placement at a local company in Billingham for when her training has been completed.

The competition was part of the wider HerGV campaign, run by Midland Expressway Ltd, the operators of the M6toll, to encourage more women to become truck drivers.

As well as the competition, the ambassadors behind the campaign – motoring journalist Rebecca Jackson and HGV driver Kara Rouse – aimed to demonstrate that a career in transport and driving is a flexible and rewarding choice, according to James Hodson, director of motorway operations and facilities at Midland Expressway Ltd.

Celebrating women

That only about 1% of registered truck drivers in the UK are female is a well-known statistic, and campaigns such as HerGV and She’s RHA, which is run by the Road Haulage Association and is about celebrating women in haulage by providing a platform where women can reconnect and empower themselves, have been established in recent years to try and address this.

Hodson says the HerGV campaign has been successful. “We were delighted by the number of women who put themselves forward for the competition,” he says.

“We hope that our HerGV campaign will have empowered women to take the reins and begin to change the HGV industry.”

The HerGV campaign will continue to be promoted throughout 2018.