Did you know that 60,000 of America’s 1,300,000 OTR truck drivers are females? Twenty years ago there were only 30,000 female drivers. What has happened since 1986 that the number of women drivers has doubled? Did women suddenly get smarter? Stronger? Better coordinated? More motivated? We don’t think it’s any of those things. We think trucking executives have finally started to realize that women can do this job and do it well.

So if 60,000 women can do this job, why can’t 600,000? Why should women only make up 5% of the nation’s OTR drivers?

We think there are many reasons:

1. most women don’t know they can earn $60,000 per year as an OTR driver,
2. most women don’t know that carriers are willing to hire women for these jobs,
3. trucking executives don’t understand the profile of a woman OTR driver so they don’t know how to recruit them,
4. trucking recruiters use one “pitch” for all potential job candidates and that pitch is written for men,
5. trucking companies don’t organize their boards, dispatchers, and driving teams in a way that encourages women to drive,
6. trucking companies don’t realize the quick payback of investing in automatic transmissions in trucks that would double the number of women who could drive,
7. trucking executives don’t realize how much lower driver turnover rates are for women than men.

Females in Trucking (FIT!) was founded as a win-win proposition for women and trucking companies. Our mission is to discover the profile of a female OTR driver, to identify millions of women who match that profile, and to connect those potential drivers to trucking executives who are facing a driver shortage that is going to get much worse in the next 20 years.

Be sure to click the Who Is Fit? tab at the top of the page to learn who's driving this non-profit.

If you’d like to get involved as a member, a sponsor, a booster, an employer of women drivers, or just be an interested observer, please fill out the short form below. We’ll add you to our database and make sure you get news updates on our progress. Over the next several months we intend to announce our Board of Directors, our management team, and our business initiatives. Our goal is to double the number of female truck drivers in the U.S. by the end of 2008. Please join Females in Trucking! by filling out this form.