One in ten. That is roughly how many CDL truck drivers are women at small and mid-sized US fleets, according to the latest Women In Trucking Index, and the figure has barely moved since the last one.

The research also says the women already in the driver’s seat are the safer drivers. For anyone running a fleet, the gap between who drives safest and who gets hired is the most useful fact in this article.

How many truck drivers in the US are women?

Between 7% and 10.5% of professional CDL drivers are women, depending on the size of the company. The 2026-27 WIT Index, published by the Women In Trucking Association on August 27, 2026, surveyed about 210 transportation organizations between November 2025 and April 2026.

  • Companies with fewer than 500 employees: about 10% of CDL drivers are women.
  • Companies with 500 to 4,999 employees: about 10.5%.
  • Companies with more than 5,000 employees: about 7%.

WIT describes the driver figures as relatively flat against its previous index. They count drivers of medium- and heavy-duty trucks, not delivery vans.

Women are better represented away from the wheel. The same index puts women in 31% of C-suite roles, 44% of safety roles and 45.5% of dispatcher roles. Diesel technicians are the outlier, at 2.5%.

Other counts come out lower. Research from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), published in June 2024, found that only about 3% of Class 7 and 8 drivers were women. Surveys count different vehicles and different employers, so read any single figure as a range, not a headcount.

Women are the safer drivers in the data

In the same ATRI study, female truck drivers were safer than male drivers in every safety category where the difference was statistically significant.

The drivers the industry finds hardest to recruit and keep are the least likely to end up in a crash report.

What makes the job harder for women

ATRI surveyed drivers and ran focus groups, and identified six challenges for women in trucking:

  • A negative image of the industry and the job.
  • Finishing driver training, held back by cost and a lack of child care.
  • Company culture, including inconsistent communication.
  • Life on the road, including too little home time.
  • Too few safe places to park, and too few restrooms.
  • Gender harassment and discrimination, including during training.

Training has one more gap that ATRI’s list does not name: women trainers. For the first one to three months of over-the-road training, most new women drivers are paired with a male trainer and share the bunk beds of a small sleeper berth.

Two findings stand out. Harassment or discrimination is a daily occurrence for 1 in 6 female drivers. And of 12 problems drivers deal with day to day, women reported 11 more often than men did (FreightWaves, June 21, 2024).

Washington has looked at the same problem. Congress set up the Women of Trucking Advisory Board in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and FMCSA sent the board’s recommendations to Congress on January 15, 2025.

What fleets can do

Most of these cost little. The first four are ATRI’s recommendations; the last two are about training:

  • Show pay parity, in the job ad and in the offer.
  • Put women drivers in your recruiting and on social media.
  • Sponsor CDL training, which removes the cost barrier at the start.
  • Keep an open-door policy that drivers actually use.
  • Pay experienced women drivers to become over-the-road trainers.
  • When a woman has to train with a man, offer her a hotel room instead of a shared sleeper berth.

Planning matters as much as policy. A route that ends the shift somewhere lit and staffed answers the parking problem before the driver has to. With a trainee in the cab, that means building in more slack time than a dispatcher would usually plan.

Where cameras fit, and where they don’t

A camera system will not fix harassment at a truck stop, and it should not be sold as if it could.

What it does is protect the driver on the road. Most claims against a truck start beside or behind it: the car that cuts across the trailer, the backing dispute at a tight dock. With one forward camera, it is the driver’s word against theirs. Cameras on every side of a tractor-trailer, up to 8 on a Class 8, put an angle on each of those moments, and in-cab alerts warn the driver at the turn or the back-up. Cameras on the outside of the truck, with clear notice that it is recording, may also help a driver avoid harassment and discourage strangers from approaching her in a dimly lit parking area.

When a claim or a personal security issue comes up, the footage is the only thing on her side.

That only holds if the camera was working. MANTIS Health checks every camera daily, so the fleet knows a camera has failed before the day the footage is needed. Camera health reporting shows failures; it does not guarantee a recording exists.

Members of the MANTIS team belong to Women In Trucking, and the team will be meeting fleet leaders at Accelerate! 2026 in Dallas. To see how the coverage works on your own trucks, book a 20-minute demo with our US team.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of truck drivers in the US are women?

Between 7% and 10.5% of professional CDL drivers, depending on company size, according to the 2026-27 WIT Index. Companies with fewer than 500 employees report about 10%, companies with 500 to 4,999 employees about 10.5%, and companies with more than 5,000 employees about 7%.

Are women safer truck drivers than men?

Research from the American Transportation Research Institute, published in June 2024, found female truck drivers safer than male drivers in every safety category where the difference was statistically significant.

What are the biggest challenges for women truck drivers?

ATRI lists six: the image of the industry, finishing driver training, company culture, life on the road, limited safe parking and restrooms, and gender harassment. Harassment or discrimination is a daily occurrence for 1 in 6 female drivers. Women trainers are scarce too: most new women drivers spend their first one to three months of over-the-road training paired with a male trainer in a small sleeper berth.

How can fleets recruit and keep more women drivers?

ATRI recommends showing pay parity, featuring women drivers in recruiting, sponsoring CDL training and keeping an open-door policy. Fleets can also pay experienced women drivers to become over-the-road trainers, offer a hotel room when a woman has to train with a man, and plan routes with enough slack to end at safe, lit parking.

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