recruiting
Trucking continues to face a gender divide
TORONTO, Ont. -- Shelley Uvanile-Hesch is a rarity. Of the 181,330 tractor-trailer drivers working in Canada’s trucking industry in 2016, barely 3% were women, according to Newcom Media’s Changing Face of Trucking research. In contrast, women made up about half (47%) the entire workforce overall.
Military Might: Highway Star sees the promise in second careers
TORONTO, Ont. -- Doug McGowan submitted no fewer than 101 resumes, but not one fleet had called him back. It just didn’t make any sense. During his time in the military he drove everything from armored vehicles to military pattern trucks, and learned how to work tire chains in punishing environments north of the Arctic Circle. Shouldn’t that count for something? The sign promising jobs for “propane seasonal drivers, Class 5 with air” screamed out like an insult. He submitted his resume and clean abstract to that very business two weeks earlier, and hadn’t heard a thing. But McGowan went back again. And again. And again. Four times in all. The job that emerged became his first stop in a second career.
Get real — and retain your drivers
KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Basic marketing sense says you should sell your positives, but when it comes to selling your fleet to potential drivers, overselling may be causing higher turnover. Industry experts talking driver retention and feedback at the 2018 Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) convention say broken promises lead to higher driver turnover, with a large number of drivers walking out the door before they’ve been employed a full six months.
Splinter reflects on cancer, HR challenges
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Angela Splinter, the chief executive officer of Trucking HR Canada, didn’t begin by talking about cancer. When she took to the podium of the organization’s annual Women with Drive leadership summit, she focused specifically on human resources challenges. The labor shortage in trucking is real, she said, referring to an intensifying capacity crunch. “There is a limited supply of quality talent available.” But where 48% of Canada’s workforce includes women, they represent around 3% of drivers and technicians.
How truck fleets are tapping into shifting demographics
Trucking has a diversity problem that it needs to change, and fast. Only 3% of drivers and technicians are women, despite women being close to half of the nation’s workforce. Only 12% of Canada’s truck drivers are younger than 30 years old, while 46% of the country’s Indigenous population is under 24.
