In recent years, the trucking industry has experienced a significant diversity & inclusion challenge, with a marked decline in the number of women entering the profession. According to a 2024 survey conducted by The National Transportation Institute (NTI), the percentage of women student drivers and trainees has shrunk to 10.7%, a sharp drop from the more promising 15% seen just two years ago. This setback reflects a broader issue affecting efforts to increase diversity & inclusion within the transportation sector.
Leah Shaver, the President and CEO of NTI, voiced her disappointment with the findings, stating that the industry’s progress in attracting more women and younger individuals to the trucking profession has stalled. The data indicates that the workforce’s composition has regressed to levels seen in 2019, where only 10.1% of student drivers and trainees were women.
A Step Back in Gender Representation
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2020 and 2022, women represented around 8% of the trucking workforce. However, that figure has since dropped to below 7% in 2023, indicating a return to pre-2020 numbers. The Women In Trucking Index similarly found that the number of women truck drivers had declined to 9.5%, down from approximately 12.1% in the previous year. This reduction in representation comes as fleets have slowed recruitment efforts due to a prolonged freight downturn, according to Shaver.
These findings highlight the importance of diversity & inclusion initiatives in the transportation sector. The lack of sustained progress points to the need for a renewed focus on addressing barriers faced by underrepresented groups, particularly women. For years, the trucking industry has faced a persistent shortage of drivers, making it even more critical to encourage a broader and more diverse pool of candidates.
Identifying Barriers to Entry
The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) has identified removing barriers to entry for women truck drivers as a top priority. In a report released in June 2024, ATRI highlighted some of the challenges that women face in the industry, including safety concerns, harassment & discrimination, and a lack of adequate training and mentorship. These factors can discourage women from pursuing careers in trucking, contributing to the industry’s diversity & inclusion challenges.
Additionally, EEOC compliance and investigations have become critical tools for addressing issues related to harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Ensuring that trucking companies adhere to federal guidelines not only fosters a more inclusive environment but also helps mitigate the legal risks associated with non-compliance. Lauth Investigations International, a trusted leader in corporate investigations, offers expert services to help organizations navigate these complex challenges.
The Role of Corporate Investigations
Trucking companies face a variety of harassment and discrimination issues, both in the hiring process and on the job. Bias or unfair treatment can lead to costly EEOC investigations and lawsuits if not addressed proactively. To maintain EEOC compliance and avoid legal pitfalls, companies must create an inclusive culture that promotes diversity and supports all employees, regardless of gender.
Lauth Investigations International specializes in corporate investigations that help companies identify and resolve issues related to diversity & inclusion, as well as harassment & discrimination. With years of experience in conducting thorough and discreet investigations, Lauth Investigations International assists businesses in ensuring a safe and respectful workplace for all employees. Their services include addressing complaints, conducting workplace assessments, and helping companies develop policies to prevent future incidents of discrimination.
For companies in the trucking industry, addressing these issues is critical to improving diversity & inclusion and attracting a wider range of candidates. Lauth Investigations International offers the expertise needed to conduct comprehensive corporate investigations that can uncover any underlying problems and recommend solutions to help businesses move forward.
The Path Forward for the Trucking Industry
The decline in the number of women entering the trucking workforce underscores the need for renewed efforts to promote diversity and inclusion. Trucking companies must address the barriers that discourage women from pursuing these careers, including safety concerns, harassment and discrimination, and a lack of support systems.
Ensuring EEOC compliance is also essential, as failure to do so can lead to costly EEOC investigations. By partnering with experts like Lauth Investigations International, companies can take proactive steps to foster an inclusive workplace that supports all employees. Addressing these issues is not only a matter of compliance but also a strategic move to attract and retain a diverse workforce in an industry that continues to face driver shortages.
With Lauth Investigations International, businesses have a trusted partner to help them navigate the complexities of corporate investigations related to diversity and inclusion and ensure their workplaces are free from harassment and discrimination.
Visit Lauth Investigations. for more information on how Lauth Investigations International can help your company improve its diversity and inclusion efforts and maintain EEOC compliance.
Executives are finding that corporate diversity is not only the right thing to do but the prudent thing to do.
As the Black Lives Matter movement continues throughout the globe, corporate diversity is once again on the minds of leadership in the United States. Leadership has begun developing strategies to improve diversity in their structure. Regardless of the motivations behind resisting this change, leadership might not understand that corporate diversity is a measure that not only elevates BIPOC professionals, but will improve the quality of life within the corporation.
When leadership is singular in representation, it cannot
possibly consider all the needs of everyone in the organization. Leadership
that is composed entirely of White executives will have a functional blindness
or bias towards the needs of non-White employees. Not only will they leave
their non-White employees feeling undervalued, but corporations can be selling
themselves short on opportunity to improve business from within, and ultimately
from without.
New ideas
One of the most obvious benefits to having corporate
diversity—both at the executive level and below—is that diversity breeds
innovation and creativity. When a corporation continually relies on the same
thinktank of people who all come from similar backgrounds and have similar
experiences, you will eventually begin to see a patter in the same 15 ideas or
solutions generated by that thinktank. Workforces with diverse backgrounds see
a more diverse array of ideas, innovations, and solutions to challenges faced
in the workplace and in the market.
Better ideas
The more corporate diversity you have, the more likely your
team will generate ideas and solutions that will better serve your customer
base. Different skills and different histories of experience will lead to a
more unique brainstorm—from the conference room to the loading dock. According
to a study conducted by the Harvard Business Review, businesses with corporate
diversity are able to find solutions to problems faster than teams of employees
from similar backgrounds. The speed attributed to corporate diversity is due in
part to the fact that these corporations foster an environment that promotes a
free exchange of ideas, where everyone has a place at the table and their voice
is heard. That is the sort of corporate culture all businesses should be
striving for.
Better culture
Diversity is more than a two-pronged approach, but it is important that you have diversity from the top down, and that every person feel as though they can safely bring ideas, concerns, or solutions to the table. By encouraging this diversity, you make sure every person on your team feels as though their voice is being heard. When employees feel heard and valued, the corporate culture of the entire business significantly improves. We know the effects of corporate culture move in a cycle. Employees are either positively or negatively impacted by engagement and validation from leadership, which in turn effects their own engagement, which directly impacts their level of output. As corporate culture improves, output increases. The elevation of those diverse voices has the capacity to save your corporation money in billable hours, workplace lawsuits, and engagement.
Corporate culture audit
At Lauth Investigations International, we pride ourselves on
using our intelligence services to connect business leadership with the
solutions they need to improve their company from within. If you suspect your
business is suffering due to a lack of diversity, call Lauth Investigations
International today for a free quote on our corporate culture audit.
Elizabeth Holmes was once the shooting star of Silicon Valley. With a lifelong hatred of needles, she set out to turn the world of healthcare on its ear by developing a more efficient and inexpensive way to draw and test blood in order to screen for serious diseases. In a world where access to affordable healthcare is a hot-button issue, Holmes was slated to become a revolutionary of her own making, with Forbes magazine dubbing her the “youngest self-made woman billionaire.” Now, Holmes is a pariah in Silicon Valley and heads are left spinning in the wake of the Securities and Exchanges Commission having issued a 24-page document revealing just how her duplicity left investors in Theranos’ research out $9 billion dollars.
To litigators and legal commentators, Holmes’ fall from grace is a familiar narrative. Intention to defraud aside, they say the roads in Silicon Valley are paved with ambitious young entrepreneurs who are more than willing to stretch the truth in order to sell their business. They have the determination to succeed and the naivety their deception will be forgiven once their investors are flush with wealth from returns. Since this has happened before and will likely happen again, how was Holmes able to mislead investors under the radar of Theranos’ board of directors? A breakdown of the board’s composition might hold the answer.
Prior to the release of the SEC complaint, the members of the Theranos board of directors had impressive backgrounds that might leave little doubt in their abilities to supervise the good of the company. There were former politicians such as U.S. senators and former cabinet members, who dealt with high-stakes situations every day in their capacities. There were former executives with previous experience in making decisions and placing trust in competent individuals. But despite their differences in resume, they all had one glaring similarity: They were all white men, over the age of 65. Research has shown while their backgrounds might have been impressive, their homogenous nature may have played a huge role in preventing them from identifying Holmes’ fraud before it was too late.
According to Prof. Andras Tilcsik, who holds the Canada Research Chair in strategy, organizations, and society at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, diverse boards are what prevent problems in large companies, “Companies with more gender diversity on their boards, for example, are less likely to reissue financial statements because of error or fraud. Diverse groups also tend to consider more factors when making a decision. Racially mixed juries deliberate longer, share more information, discuss a wider range of relevant factors and even make fewer mistakes when recalling facts about a case. Ironically, lab experiments show that while homogeneous groups do less well on complex tasks, they report feeling more confident about their decisions.” What the research is telling us is this: The more a person looks like us, the more we are willing to trust them. The attention to detail that might have been shown by a more outwardly diverse board was not shown by the Theranos board of directors in the case of Elizabeth Holmes. The similarities shared between members of the Theranos board likely created a false sense of security and allowed Holmes’ deceptions to go unnoticed.
Diversity in expertise prevents boards from becoming too comfortable with business practices and makes them open to new ideas. Given the research on homogenized groups, it is reasonable to think this group of white men with an average age of 76 may never have questioned the veracity of Holmes’ research and her promises to deliver the next big thing in medical technology. This has happened before and is likely to happen again, because while the source of the fraud is often dealt with and forgotten, there is no examination of how board composition can enable fraud.
Carie McMichael is the Communications and Media Specialist for Lauth Investigations International, writing about investigative topics such as missing persons and corporate investigations. To learn more about what we do, please visit our website.
