The Women In Trucking Association (WIT) partnered with the National Transportation Institute (NTI) to create an index tracking female representation in the industry.
WIT’s priority is to attract more women to trucking in order to increase the percentage of female professionals, so to more accurately chart these numbers, it partnered with NTI, which specializes in research.
Narrowing the focus, NTI included two additional questions to their research responses last year to differentiate between women drivers and women in leadership positions. A January 2017 report found women were merely 7% of female over-the-road drivers and totaled 23% of management. This varies from the Department of Labor’s single estimate of women who are “driver/sales workers and truck drivers,” a notably dissimilar category from NIT’s “over the road drivers.”
In recent NTI findings, female driver representation grew from 7.13% in January to 7.89% at the end of December, and women in management grew from 23% to 23.75% in the same time. Also showing improvement is carriers — in the last two years, these companies displayed 19% better tracking, and more companies became involved, which in theory means comparisons and discussions are more common. Of those companies that reported data, more than a quarter of the carriers confirmed a 28.7% increase in female drivers.
According to NTI chief operating officer Leah Shaver, companies involved are guaranteed confidentiality; data and names are not released without permission, granting anonymity to participants. To join those who have already contributed and share your company profile, visit https://www.driverwages.com/wit-index/.
Along with its NIT partnership, WIT also works with Memphis University to monitor the percentage of women in management and board positions of publicly traded carriers. The data shows 12 of the 16 associations have directors who are women, and six out of 15 companies have females filling management positions.
