Women In Trucking Association Updates WIT Index
PLOVER, Wis. (PRWEB) April 26, 2018 -- The Women In Trucking Association’s (WIT) goal is to increase the percentage of women employed in the trucking industry. To do that, we developed the WIT Index by partnering with the National Transportation Institute (NTI) to monitor the percentage of female drivers and leaders within the industry.
The NTI is a top research organization that surveys hundreds of trucking firms for data regarding driver wages, benefits, retirement plans and more. Each quarter they aggregate the data and provide it to carriers for benchmarking and forecasting.
Last year the NTI added two questions to their list of research responses to assist WIT in tracking the percentage of their driving feel that is female as well as the percentage of their leadership team that is comprised of women. In January of 2017, we reported that women comprise over seven percent of female over-the-road drivers and 23 percent of management.
These numbers contrast with the department of labor which tracks women employed as “driver/sales workers and truck drivers.” The NTI figures track over the road drivers specifically.
The NTI recently calculated this year’s figures and the reports hold some hidden surprises. First, the percentage of female drivers increased from 7.13 percent last year to 7.89 percent at the end of 2017. The number of women in management has increased as well, from 23 percent last year to 23.75 percent at the end of 2017.
The surprise is in the number of carriers who are now reporting these numbers. In the past two years, there has been a 19 percent improvement in those companies tracking the percentage of female drivers and managers. This means that more companies are actually monitoring these figures and can benchmark with other carriers in the industry. As Management guru Peter Drucker claimed, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”
For those companies who participated in the research, over 25 percent of the carriers surveyed reported nearly a thirty (28.7) percent average increase in their female driver population.
“Confidentiality is guaranteed and is also why we’ve been a trusted resource in the transportation industry since 1995,” said Leah Shaver, Chief Operating Officer at NTI. “We do not share WIT Index participant data or name with anyone, without their permission.” Shaver added. To include your company profile please visit https://www.driverwages.com/wit-index/. Contributing carriers will not be specified within the index and will receive a copy with aggregated results by region and fleet size.
Women In Trucking has also partnered with the Memphis University to track the percentage of women who serve in management and on the boards of publicly traded carriers. Of the sixteen organizations, twelve, or 75 percent, have female directors, a slight increase from 2016 where ten out of fifteen* or 67 percent included women on their boards.
This index of publicly traded carriers also tracks the percentage of women holding executive positions. Only six of the fifteen companies showed women in management roles, which was unchanged from 2016.
This year’s index names ArcBest, led by CEO Judy McReynolds, as the leader in both groups with 28 percent female executives and 33 percent of the board of director seats held by women.
*Schneider, Inc. (SNA) became publicly held in 2016.
About Women In Trucking Association, Inc.
Women In Trucking Association, Inc. is a nonprofit association established to encourage the employment of women in the trucking industry, promote their accomplishments and minimize obstacles faced by women working in the trucking industry. Membership is not limited to women, as 17 percent of its members are men who support the mission. Women In Trucking is supported by its members and the generosity of Gold Level Partners: Michelin North America, Arrow Truck Sales, Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, Daimler Trucks North America, BMO Transportation Finance, Expediter Services, Great Dane, J.B. Hunt Transport, and Walmart. Follow WIT on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. For more information, visit http://www.womenintrucking.org/ or call 888-464-9482.
About The National Transportation Institute
The National Transportation Institute was founded in 1995 with a goal of providing accurate and authoritative mission-critical benchmarks to truckload carriers on company driver and owner-operator compensation history and changes. The National Transportation Institute’s publications are used by insurers, consultants, carriers, shippers and nearly every equity analyst who follow transportation sector stocks. NTI’s largest subscriber base remains in the transportation sectors for-hire and truckload fleets where they are widely used as a tool for fleet executives to understand the direction and velocity of the Class A CDL market wages and emerging pay strategies. To learn more, visit https://www.driverwages.com or call 800-678-1614.
Brynn Everett, Women In Trucking Association, Inc., http://www.womenintrucking.org, +1 952-442-8850 x220, [email protected]
Share this article