SMARTMOVES [ INSIGHT ]
by Brian Everett Group Publisher/Editorial Director, Redefining the Road, Women In Trucking Association brian@womenintrucking.org | 952-442-8850 x201
Are More Women In Critical Logistics Roles? Are more women playing important roles in transportation and logistics? The simple answer is: yes.
1. Companies are rethinking talent acquisition and promotion strategies in their overall business strategy. If the transportation and logistics industry is going to attract women, companies need to look not only beyond their four walls but also outside of the industry itself. When it comes to talent acquisition, smart companies focus on the qualities of the individual and what they can bring to the table. 2. Move from “talk to action.” Companies in the transportation industry without a proactive diversity-building strategy will fall victim to common pitfalls and will fall at. When it comes to gender diversity, organizations need to prioritize, collaborate, and think long term. 3. Women need to feel more empowered. Women tend to apply only for jobs that they feel they are perfectly matched for, while men apply for jobs even when they meet no more than 60% of the requirements. Similarly, men tend to be promoted more often than women simply because they speak up and more aggressively ask for a promotion. Companies also can actively seek out talent and promotions from talented women inside their organizations. n
The Women In Trucking Association (WIT) regularly conducts the WIT Index , which is the industry barometer to benchmark and measure the percentage of women who make up the following roles in the transportation industry: • Corporate management (C-suite) • Boards of directors • Functional roles in areas such as operations, technicians, HR/talent management, safety, sales and marketing • Professional truck drivers Approximately 350 respondents identi ed as authorized to report their organizations’ gender diversity statistics in the most recent WIT Index (2024-25) survey. A majority (51.5%) represent for- hire motor carriers or companies with private eets. Of those respondents representing organizations with eet assets: • 38% are for-hire motor carriers of various types. • 13.5% are manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and other company types with private eets. • 13.5% are intermediary companies such as 3PLs, truck brokers, and freight forwarders.
The 2024-25 WIT Index highlights the following critical data points that demonstrate that women are playing a much more dominant role in this sector: • A signi cant percentage of women are involved in leadership roles. For example, an average of 28% of executives in the C-suite are women and an average of 34.5% are company leaders with supervisory responsibilities. • An average of 29.5% of board members are women. Approximately 40% of participating companies report that between 20% and 49% of their boards of directors are females. • An average of 9.5% of all professional truck drivers who hold CDLs are women. • Approximately 38.5% of dispatchers are women. • An average of 38.5% of safety professionals are women. MORE GENDER DIVERSITY Many companies in the transportation industry are taking strategic, proactive steps to recruit and retain more quali ed women into their overall workforce strategy. Here are three ways through which companies are accomplishing this.
74 Inbound Logistics • January 2025
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