Women lead trucking industry charge to attract more female big-riggers

VAUDREUIL-DORION, Que. — On a cloudy Monday in late August, Vivianne Carbonneau fires the ignition on her semi truck bearing the load of both an 80,000pound trailer and a new job title hitched to her name: driving mentor.

“If you learn from a woman, you always have that little voice inside that says, ‘See, I can do it,”’ she said. “Any situation can be overcome.”

Carbonneau, 58, has been hauling freight for only two years, but has taken on an inhouse teaching role to help new drivers — especially women, but men too — at XTL Transport, the first woman to do so at the Montreal-area trucking company in its 33-year history.

“It is a guys’ culture,” she said of the industry. “Sometimes you go somewhere, and it’s palpable. You can feel it — you can feel that you’re not exactly welcome.

Women make up just three per cent of freight truck drivers across the country, according to Trucking HR Canada. The trucking industry, which comprises some 300,000 drivers, will be short of them by 34,000 by 2024, according to a 2016 study by the Trucking Alliance of Canada.

Confronted with a worker shortage and outdated attitudes, women are leading a push to foster more female big-riggers and overcome the perception of unglamorous lifestyles and an industrywide reputation for machismo. Angela Splinter, chief executive of Trucking HR Canada, says aging drivers have ramped up the need for women and young people. If unmet, that demand will hinder shipping companies and dent the economy, she said.

“It’s very pressing. I would say we’re reaching a crisis point.”

Linda Young, head of human resources for Winnipegbased Bison Transport, chairs the trucking HR association’s Women With Drive initiative. Launched in 2016, it aims to raise the number of women entering the 18wheeler workforce through awareness campaigns and resources for employers.