Jacksonville, Fla., April 7, 2023 (MindShare Strategies) – The Women In Trucking Association (WIT) recently turned to MindShare Strategies to design, deploy, and publish the 2023 WIT Index, which is the industry barometer to benchmark and measure each year the percentage of women who make up critical roles in transportation.
The roles that are measured in this unique research include corporate management (C-Suite), boards of directors, management and supervisory roles, as well as functional roles such as operations, technicians, HR/talent management, safety, and professional drivers, according to Brian Everett, senior partner of MindShare Strategies.
From January through April 2023, on behalf of WIT, MindShare Strategies conducted a survey of organizations of all sizes in transportation to gather percentages of women in their workforce. The respondents were asked to report data that included demographics, status of the company’s diversity and inclusion policy, and percentages of females in various roles within the company.
There were 350 organizations that reported their gender diversity statistics in the 2023 WIT Index survey. A majority of them (51.8%) have for-hire fleets or private fleets as part of the organization’s operations. Of those respondents representing organizations with fleet assets, 41% were reporting on behalf of motor carriers of various types (full truckload, less-than-truckload, refrigerated, flatbed, expedited and liquid) and 10.8% were reporting on behalf of manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and other company types with private fleets. Another 14.2% of respondents were reporting on behalf of intermediary companies, including third-party logistics companies, truck brokers, and intermodal marketing companies (IMCs).
The 2023 WIT Index survey found a substantial number of women in leadership roles. Approximately 31.6% of women are in C-Suite/executive positions, 36.9% are in supervisory leadership roles, and 28.4% serve on boards of directors. In addition, the WIT Index found that among the participants 12.1% of all professional drivers are women.
A significant number of respondents represent major companies involved in transportation with more than 10,000 employees (14.2% of respondents) or large companies with 1,000 to 4,999 employees (13.4% of respondents). However, small and medium-sized companies also are well-represented in the 2023 WIT Index. In fact, 23.1% have less than 50 employees and another 33.8% have 50 to 499 employees.
