by Highway Transport | Sponsored Content, on Oct 6, 2021 9:07:55 AM
Left: Shelly Lytle, Professional Chemical Tanker Driver Right: Laurie Doran, Lake Charles Service Center Manager
With a fleet of 400+ tanker trucks and a network of 15 service centers in major chemical manufacturing hubs across the United States, Highway Transport is positioned – and determined – to help welcome and develop women in the transportation industry.
For more than 70 years, the Knoxville, Tennessee-based company has been an industry leader in the safe transport of specialty chemicals. It’s a family-owned company serving clients with tailored transportation solutions across a variety of industries in the U.S. and Canada.
Known for using technology to improve efficiency and safety, the company boasts an on-time service percentage above 98%.
Highway Transport strives to create an environment that welcomes a diverse workforce. We aim to be an industry leader in developing women, especially considering research from the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) that indicates women account for 50% of the working population, but only 15% of the transportation industry workforce.
Focus: Increase female drivers
Of the 15% of women in the transportation industry, only 10% are drivers, according to the American Trucking Associations. Highway Transport wants to see that number continue to grow – both within the organization and across the industry.
More than a quarter of the company’s drivers based at the Freeport, Texas, Service Center are women, and efforts are ongoing to increase the number of female drivers at other locations. By becoming a Women In Trucking Association corporate member in the spring of 2020, Highway Transport took a big step to align with the organization’s mission to encourage women in trucking, promote their accomplishments and minimize obstacles faced by women in the industry.
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing people to reconsider careers, so Highway Transport is working to raise awareness among women about this rewarding career path. Offering benefits such as excellent training, flexible routes, pay raises and a culture where employees feel safe, respected and valued attracts female drivers.
“We consider our drivers to be company leaders on the road,” said Christy Williams, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Highway Transport. “We operate with the guiding principle of ‘family,’ and we understand that drivers have different motivations and needs when they join a company. If we really want to attract and retain women, we must continue seeking and implementing ways, such as flexible schedules, to make it happen. We’re committed to working toward the goal of increasing female positions across the board.”
Focus: Develop female employees
Women currently lead the recruitment, marketing and HR departments at Highway Transport – who better to lead the teams to recruit more women? Across the company’s network, two service centers are managed by women: Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Chattanooga, Tennessee. Female leadership at the executive level includes Williams at the helm of sales and marketing, an industry veteran of more than two decades.
The voices of these women combine to lead the charge for creating career paths for females at Highway Transport that offer opportunities for advancing in education, pay, position, benefits and more in the management and operations offices, service centers and truck cabs across the network.
Highway Transport is hiring!
Highway Transport is actively hiring for all positions at all 15 service centers in the markets of Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee; LaPorte, Freeport and Dallas, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Florence, Kentucky; Chicago, Illinois; Wyandotte, Michigan; Geismar and Lake Charles, Louisiana; and Charlotte, North Carolina; and Bridgeport, New Jersey.
In addition to increasing driver pay in May 2021, Highway Transport offers career-focused positions and trains all new drivers in its award-winning safety protocols. The company offers flexible routes to accommodate drivers who want to travel across the country, be gone a few days, a week, or be home every night. Along with an encouraging culture that supports female drivers, the company makes a commitment to fulfill its word to both clients and employees. Interested applicants should apply today at Drive4Highway.com.
“We have a long way to go to boost the number of females in the transportation industry,” Williams noted. “But I have great hope that with the focused work of companies such as Highway Transport and others, the industry can benefit from great female representation. We want to be the place where career-minded individuals look to leave their mark on an immense industry with almost endless opportunity.”
