She is on social media and communication applications
On International Women’s Day please meet the TRUCK QUEEN – a superhero created in honour of all women around the world who work as professional truck drivers. She is a rising star on social media and communication applications in a collection of 24 free stickers and gif images that bring positive messages to the world, as well as cover some important topics as driving safety and women’s health.
TRUCK QUEEN was inspired by some of the most popular female truckers who have influenced the world and spread the idea that women could be great professionals too. Among them are Angelica Larsson and Brittney Richardson, who have hundreds and thousands of followers on social media.
The project was carried out by a Bulgarian team of artists, on the request of the leading Bulgarian transport and logistics company TRANSPRESS as part of their active policy to attract women to the truck drivers’ profession, which is still largely considered to be reserved as men’s territory.
Fot. Transpress Intelligent Logistics
A 2021 study done for the European Parliament confirms that employment in the transport sector remains relatively unattractive for women. Women only represent on average around 16 % (2020) of total employees in the different transport sectors and modes in EU (land, water and air). While most of the women, in absolute terms, work in land transport (over 770 000), they only account for a 14.6 % share of the entire workforce in that subsector.
According to EUROSTAT data with a share of 12% Bulgaria is even behind the average for all EU countries. At the same time there is an increasing labour shortage in the EU transport sector.
For instance, 2021 data from the International Road Transport Union (IRU) suggest that global driver shortages reached 17% for bus and coach drivers and 10% for truck drivers. Another 2021 research paper affirms that the EU lacks 400 000 truck drivers and is now reaching a critical point, whereby this could have an effect on the evolution of transport prices.
Fot. Transpress Intelligent Logistics
“When it comes to engaging women as truck drivers figures are even more discouraging with an estimate share of about 2% of all professionals in EU. We consider this both a huge challenge and opportunity. Therefore, we built up our strategy so to attract more female truckers to our team and the same time spread the idea of gender equity in the sector within the professional community in Bulgaria.”, explains Veselin Stoyanov, founder of TRASNPRESS.
As part of this strategy TRANSPRESS developed a special training program for junior female truckers as the mentors are experienced female professionals from the company. Thus, they can share useful information and relevant experience with the participants. Moreover, there is a special motivational speakers initiative that is carried out in partnership with Bulgarian universities where Transport and Logistics Bachelor courses are available.
As a result, TRANSPRESS sets the good example in Bulgaria with a 5% share of female truckers within the team compared to the 2% benchmark in EU. The total share of women employees within the company is 16% compared to 14% in land transport in EU. At the same time more than 30% of the management positions in the company are held by ladies.
Fot. Transpress Intelligent Logistics
The TRUCK QUEEN project is part of TRANSPRESS vision of raising awareness and paying respect to the professional skills and courage of all female truckers in Bulgaria and around the word.
TRUCK QUEEN pack of 24 stickers in English for Viber is available here.
Stickers can also be used as GIF images in communication, comments and stories on Instagram and Facebook, as well on Messenger using a couple of search word together (e.g., “truck” + “queen” + “stickers”).
About TRANSPRESS
TRANSPRESS is one of the leading transport and logistics companies and a leader in the transportation of pallet shipments in Bulgaria. It has been on the market for 30 years, and today it has a team of nearly 1000 professionals, a fleet of over 450 vehicles, 13 logistics centres in the country. Thanks to its partnership with the international logistic leader DACHSER, it operates in a network of 430 locations across Europe. TRANSPRESS provides transportation of over one million shipments per year and a full range of transport and logistics services. In 2021 and 2022 the company was named the Best employer in the Transport and Logistics sector.