Is the answer to the on-going driver shortage staring fleets in the face?

Quite possibly, according to a new article by Business Insider.

Women make up 50% of any population group in the world today. And yet, they remain seriously under-represented in trucking, making up only 6% of the North American driver pool.

And yet, according to data provided by trucking telematics provider Omnitracs, women are not only safer drivers than they male counterparts, they are also a much safer bet from a long-term employment perspective, being far more stable than men and less likely to change jobs during the course of their careers.

North American truck fleets today rarely specifically target female drivers during recruiting efforts, the article notes. But that may be a mistake, since the data cited in the article, which you can read here, suggests that female truck drivers get into fewer preventable accidents than men and generally drive more cautiously. They also are less likely to quit driving, which is particularly critical as turnover rates among truck drivers reach 95%.

Of course, the available labor pool for potential drivers is overwhelmingly male. But the article does raise some interesting questions. Is a sustained effort by fleets to recruit women and put them behind the wheel a pathway out of the ongoing driver shortage?