The change required of industry won’t be achieved online or over social media according to Heather Jones who is providing real leadership in vocational training, mentorship and old fashioned support for women to seize their opportunities.
Prime Mover: What has been your motivation to create employment pathways for women who are often disadvantaged and vulnerable?
Heather Jones: In 2005 I acquired my own truck with the sole reason to open a doorway for more women to get into the industry. It was then very hard for women to break in unless they were related to somebody in transport or knew someone in their family who could actually get them into trucks.
PM: Up to that point, had you had much driving experience yourself?
HJ: When my marriage failed, a beautiful company took me on from 1994 to 2005. I’d already had ten years driving experience before that.
PM: What sort of response do you get to the training program?
HJ: We offered positions for ten drivers two weeks before Christmas in 2023 and we had 1.1 million views on Facebook within 48 hours and we had 700 applications within two weeks, and that was for just ten positions.
PM: How is the training funded?
HJ: It’s funded by Fortescue Mines at the moment and they approached us to see if we could train some people who needed a hand up and who wouldn’t normally get access to become roadtrain operators due to financial or personal situations. This is so when Fortescue’s trucks go to being autonomous those trained people will be out there available for general industry.
PM: Will autonomous vehicles lead to driver redundancies?
HJ: They will still need what they call techs. For example, ten trucks will still need up to eight techs to follow them around and take over the driving in certain circumstances so it’s not taking our jobs away.
PM: In conventional trucking do you find that females have a better mechanical sympathy than the average male?
HJ: Definitely, because studies show women genetically are not risk takers whereas men are. Along with that risk taking comes guys trying to go faster, get the highest load, to be the first one there, whereas women are just happy to do the job safely.
PM: You provide training to domestic violence victims and suicide survivors. Is this something that can have a wider application?
HJ: It would be a phenomenal program to roll out for domestic violence survivors. The empowerment they achieve from just being in the trucks strengthens their ability to achieve really amazing results in other areas. They’re now comfortably working in an environment where maybe they didn’t feel safe before, they’ve got great money coming in and it reverses the thoughts they may have that all men are abusive. We’ve got wonderful mentors and people who support us and that gives a win-win.
PM: Does the training commitment still fit in with you making a success of the transport aspect of your business?
HJ: Absolutely, because while they’re training often, we’ve got two people to do the job so we can get it done faster, safer and more effectively. We have the same issues as any other transport company with squeezed profit margins and escalating costs, but training the way we do means we have very few accidents, incidents or claims. NTI (National Transport Insurance) have been with us since day one in 2005 supporting us in what we are doing training drivers who are new to the industry.
PM: Your two daughters ‘grew up in the cab’ with you. Are they still involved in trucking?
HJ: Chelsea looks after our office and because we do a lot of other media work including filming, she runs that side as well. Kersti does all of our compliance work and she has her MC licence.
PM: So, as young women you’re happy for them to have careers in road transport?
HJ: Absolutely. If we want to change the face of the industry, we can’t just sit back and do it on Facebook and take photos and ‘dob’ in every person that’s making a mistake. New drivers don’t always have the advantages we had — my dad was a crane operator and drove trucks, so we had a solid foundation in the industry. My girls grew up in the truck.
PM: What concerns you?
HJ: I am concerned about the driver behaviour on the roads, but if we could massively infiltrate our industry with women and properly train more drivers we could change the industry overnight. People have to learn to put their money where their mouth is and stop complaining about things and actively take a part in training new drivers. The old fallacy was ‘if I train them, they’ll run and jump to someone else for a cent an hour more’. Imagine the fiasco if Woollies or Coles were saying that? ‘I’m not training our checkout chicks because they might go to the opposition’. We just need to really get with the times. If you don’t train them and they do leave, then they’re coming towards your drivers.
PM: Is there enough support for those wanting to train drivers?
HJ: I would like to see more money put into actual funding the companies to train people, but we also shouldn’t be expecting the government to fund our businesses. We need to have a balance and have a proper training framework that everyone has to do which would make our roads safer as well. I would like to see a little bit of money invested in the beginning rather than all that money spent at the end mopping up the mistakes and the damage and the injuries and deaths.
PM: Respecting their identity, are you able to relate some feedback from women who have turned to trucking to escape domestic violence situations?
HJ: Here’s a quote from a much longer story from one of our DV survivors: ‘I would like to give a big shout out and thank you to Heather for engaging in the program and for being the most amazing mentor and trainer as well as a special human being. All the trainers are absolutely amazing and supportive, not to mention so knowledgeable. Because of the program I have finally found peace and a sense of belonging after 24 years of trauma. I wish for others to find the same and I know for sure I wouldn’t have found me again without this program. So from the bottom of my heart thank you so very much for the privilege to be involved. I am more than happy for you to share this with those you think may benefit from some positive feedback as I want people to know how it changed my life for the better and has set me free from so much pain. I have found my destiny and happy place. I am free at last.’
