Just 6 in 100 Australian truckies are women. Here’s what would get more behind the wheel

Pull up at any truck stop on the Hume or Bruce Highway and do a quick headcount. Chances are, for every 100 truck drivers refuelling, about six are women.

And if you’re just looking at drivers of heavy vehicles – the road trains, the B-doubles, the multi-combination rigs – that figure drops to four in 100.

There has been a slight increase over the past decade, thanks to targeted industry initiatives. Yet it remains a fraction of women’s almost equal participation (48.5%) in Australia’s wider workforce.

That’s despite the National Road Transport Association estimating the sector is already short 28,000 drivers, a gap projected to reach 78,000 by 2029.

What’s stopping women from getting behind the wheel?

Our new Women in Trucking report, being released at Parliament House in Canberra today, found women aren’t staying away by choice. Instead, they’re being kept out by an industry that says it wants them, but hasn’t built the conditions for them to stay.

‘Have a thick skin’

Over the past year, we conducted a national survey of 489 truck drivers, as well as interviews with 20 drivers and industry figures, and a site visit to Geraldton, Western Australia.

Our survey, answered by 473 men (96.5%) and 16 women, revealed a contradiction. Eighty-six percent of respondents agreed there is opportunity for women to enter trucking. Yet only 72% agreed women drivers are welcome, and just 66% agreed the industry would benefit from more of them.

That gap between “there’s opportunity” and “they’re welcome” says a lot. One driver we interviewed put it bluntly when asked what she would tell a young woman considering the job: “Have a thick skin.”

What women bring to driving

The women and men we spoke to converged on a consistent set of strengths women bring to the cab:

• meticulous attention to vehicle maintenance
• safe, more measured driving
• strong communication with dispatch and clients, and
• a moderating effect on workplace culture.

As one male interviewee told us, having women on site tends to mean “a little bit more family friendly” language and conduct.

Women end up as truck drivers in various ways. Some come in with family associations, or early farm experiences. Others are making lateral career moves from diesel mechanic, traffic control or transport administrative roles.

And others simply want a well-paid career, which doesn’t require a university degree and the debt that comes with it.

One of our more striking findings was that trucking can be an escape route from domestic violence. An income, a truck to live in, and geographic distance from an abuser can give some women a rare, fast exit from danger at home.

Some of the women we interviewed now train and mentor other domestic violence survivors into the industry.

Barriers are structural, not personal

The costs of the industry’s “blokey” culture are serious.

Seventy per cent of male survey respondents said they believed it was likely that a female driver will experience sexual harassment on the job. Yet only 20% of those who had experienced or witnessed harassment had reported it.

Reporting mechanisms are weak. The industry is fragmented, heavily subcontracted structure makes accountability for mistreatment more difficult.

Physical infrastructure compounds the problem. Rest stops and service centres were built for a male workforce. Drivers say toilets and showers don’t exist for women, or only exist within men’s amenity blocks.

There are also broader concerns about rest stops, such as poor lighting and personal safety when travelling overnight.

The job itself is still designed around a worker with no other obligations outside work. Long, unpredictable hours, some drivers told us, forced them to choose between caring responsibilities and keeping their job.

Pregnancy, in particular, is treated as a disruption that, at times, was a career-ending event, rather than something the industry plans for.

What needs to change

Women in trucking have responded to all this with considerable resilience and ingenuity: seeking out mentors, building informal networks and proving themselves over and over.

However, women’s individual resilience is not a substitute for structural fixes. Our report’s recommendations span three levels.

At a national level: the federal government and bodies like Safe Work Australia partner with industry bodies such as Transport Women Australia and Women in Trucking Australia to set workforce targets for women’s participation in heavy vehicle transport. They also need to strengthen regulatory oversight of hazards, including sexual harassment, across the industry’s fragmented supply chains.

State and territory governments and their licensing authorities should enhance access to licensing and jobs across the sector, including formalising pathways that connect women fleeing domestic violence.

At an industry level: employers, supported by industry peak bodies, need to drive culture change through bystander intervention training and enforced reporting mechanisms.

Governments and road authorities responsible for the national road network should introduce minimum standards for rest area facilities that don’t assume all drivers are men. And industry peak bodies, in partnership with existing women-in-transport networks, develop a mentorship register, connecting women who are new to the industry with experienced drivers.

At an individual level: women need clearer, more accessible information about their workplace rights, mental health support suited to life on the road, and workplaces where bullying, harassment and sexual harassment are not tolerated.

Recruiting women into trucking is a worthy goal. But recruitment without retention is a revolving door.

Until the conditions match the rhetoric, the sector will keep recruiting women and watching them leave – a costly, avoidable failure when Australia urgently needs more drivers.