july2022 - 6

HI TCHED UP FROM THE EDITOR
Why are shops still
a 'no woman's land'?
Vehicle maintenance isn't for everybody,
but the lack of female technicians makes no sense.
By John Hitch
Editor in Chief
@Hitched2Trucks
We leaned hard this issue into training technicians,
with a deep dive into finding and keeping
them (Pg. 20), as well as an in-depth guide
to the Technology & Maintenance Council's Fall
Meeting (Pg. 38). In this space I want to discuss
an issue that has confounded me for some
time: Why are there so few female commercial
vehicle technicians? The accepted percentage
is 3%-4%, though women make up more than
half the population.
This while the industry faces a shortage of
qualified labor.
" I don't know how our industry gets fixed
when 96% of the employees are one sex, " said
Tyler Robertson, CEO and founder of Diesel
Laptops, referring to the discrepancy between
male and female technicians. " You've got to get
females involved to help [fill these jobs] as well. "
How to do that efficiently still seems to
" There are some jobs
that are physically
demanding that you
need to be able to
perform, but that
doesn't mean women
or anyone else can or
cannot do those jobs. "
Robert Braswell, executive director
of American Trucking Associations'
Technology & Maintenance Council
evade fleet and shop recruiters, despite soaring
entry-level wages for diesel technicians of
$62,000 or more. Otherwise, the percentage of
female technicians would be far less meager.
Manufacturing, an industry I previously
covered, made a big deal about the gender
disparity, and that stands at 30% women to
70% men, according to the U.S. Department
of Commerce. Having ten
times less than that isn't
just a problem-it's an
embarrassment.
The stats don't tell the
whole story, though. There
are some big differences
between the jobs. CV maintenance
can require more
physical exertion than
manufacturing tasks such
as fabricating or assembling.
Shops routinely do
brake jobs, and those assemblies
can be quite heavy-
even Meritor's lightweight
EX+ LS Air Disc Brake
weighs 71 lbs. And Class 8
truck tires weigh 110 lbs.
Save for some behemoth
tech affectionately named
Ox who can lug those around without breaking
a sweat, any tech, male or female, can and
should leverage shop material handling equipment
like brake drum dollies for heavy lifts,
or get help. With labor in short supply, it's not
worth the risk for a pulled muscle or hernia.
6 Fleet Maintenance | July 2022
Photo: 1227432460 | RyanJLane | Getty Images
" There are some jobs that are physically
demanding that you need to be able to
perform, but that doesn't mean women or
anyone else can or cannot do those jobs, "
noted Robert Braswell, executive director of
American Trucking Associations' Technology
& Maintenance Council.
And Braswell dismissed the notion that
women in general are more likely to hinder
shop productivity, but the stickler for metrics
noted that with all technicians, " you need to
set your standards and your expectations to
what you think they need to be, and then apply
them consistently across the board. "
Basically, treat everyone equally when it
comes to judging performance. And the word
from the industry is that women can absolutely
perform the job.
" In my experience, some of the best techs
that I've seen were females, " said Adam
Duplin, diesel technology coordinator at New
Village Institute-Blairsville, a training center
that opened this year in Pennsylvania. " They
have a different methodical approach and are
very detail-oriented, and they just do a really
good job. "
Duplin noted that at the high-school level, it's
still difficult to overcome the pervasive stigma
" that this isn't a girl's job. "
" From a physical standpoint, there's nothing
making this a man's-only job, " he added.
The industry is starting to come around to
that belief.
Diesel and automotive trade school WyoTech
in Laramie, Wyoming, has found success
recruiting women. CEO Jim Mathis said 5% to
8% of the student population is female. " We're
looking for more because they are awesome, " he
said. " And they're smarter and more detail-oriented-and
easier on equipment and tools and
everything else. We want more, and the opportunities
for them are limitless. "
WyoTech has a goal of educating 10,000
students per year and will never reach that
goal without women, who represent 51% of
the population. One way they are doing that
is evaluating what curricula and programs
would be more inclusive, Mathis said.
A new club at the school, called Women
of WyoTech (WOW), has started providing a
place for female students to talk about their
collective challenges and support one another.
Penske and United Rentals already have shown
great interest in WOW's 15 members and are
attempting to recruit them into their shops
through visits to the school and invitations to
their dealerships.
There's still plenty of work to do. Ellen Voie,
CEO of the Women In Trucking Association,
a group dedicated to showing women have a
place in the transportation industry, shared
these results from a recent report:
Ü94% of respondents say they have no women
in technician roles.
Ü2% say they have 10%-20%.
Ü2% report they have 30%-40%.
Ü2% reported plus-90% (though Voie said
these were small companies with few techs).
This is not an issue that will be solved overnight,
but it's also one that we've all known
about for decades. The difference is that now
the industry is at an inflection point where
the job is less about tearing down engines
and more about finding problems via computers
to increase an engine's life. And many in
the industry, who have a vested interest in its
success, say an influx of female techs will help
ease the labor crunch.
I don't know how it will all turn out, but I
do know vehicles will always need maintenance,
and the earlier you get girls involved,
the better their career prospects. Now excuse
me, as I am going to teach my daughters about
torque by defeating their Fisher Price Power
Wheels car's speed limiter device (a screw).
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july2022

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