Late last year, our female lorry driver, Liza Mae Foster featured in Road Safe NI magazine from Road Safe NI – a charity that is doing great work to help save lives, as part of their ‘Women behind the Wheel’ feature.
There are currently 315,000 registered truck drivers in the UK of which only 2,200 of them are female. Most of the female truck drivers are aged between 21 and 25 years old. A major reason for this is that women are much less likely to apply for a driving job than their male counterparts.
We spoke to Liza Mae Foster, who is a Class 1 driver for RiverRidge, who takes driving a truck in her stride.
Have you always wanted to drive an LGV?
No, from a very young age I wanted to be a paramedic, however my friend’s dad owned a haulage company, and it was through this that I became interested in driving a truck. Watching his drivers, I thought to myself “I could do that”, so in 2019 I took the plunge and trained first to gain my Category C licence and then I went on to achieve my C+E licence.
Do you enjoy it?
I really enjoy it. The freedom is the thing I enjoy most when I am out alone on the roads. I also meet lots of very interesting people, both other drivers and members of the public.
What would you say to other females who are thinking of this as a career or part of a career?
I would strongly encourage them. It is a great career and a first step on the ladder to moving into other roles such as transport planning, transport manager or even owing your own transport company.
What reaction have you had from male colleagues as a female LGV driver?
From day one, the reaction from male colleagues has been mainly very positive and encouraging. One or two had some concerns initially with one suggesting that I would not last two weeks, however this made me more determined to succeed. Here I am three years later, firmly established as part of the team having won over those couple of sceptics.
What reaction have you had from the public as a female LGV driver?
I get a lot of strange looks. Even today when there are quite a few female truck drivers, it seems to surprise many other road users. One day, I was stopped at traffic lights when someone in the car beside me looked with disbelief and then wound down their window and shouted to me, “I can’t believe you can drive that lorry”!
Did you find the training difficult?
The training for the Cat C rigid lorry licence was quite easy but the training for the Articulated Cat C+E was certainly more difficult. It took a lot of time practicing getting my reversing quite right.
We would like to thank Road Safe NI for kindly allowing us permission to share the above article. Find out more about Road Safe NI and their incredible work here: https://www.roadsafeni.com.
