Erb Attends the Women with Drive Summit

News

Mar 8 2018

· 2 min
Erb Attends the Women with Drive Summit

On Thursday, March 1st, Erb Transport was lucky enough to attend the Women with Drive summit held in the bustling city of Toronto. The Women with Drive summit featured multiple successful women in the trucking and logistics industry, willing to share their advice and insights. The conference not only discussed the role of women in the trucking industry, but also the role of diversity and inclusivity in the workplace.

 

The summit consisted of three panels featuring the most experienced, insightful participants. Participants on the “Power Panel” were even recently featured in Profit Magazine’s Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs of 2016. The Power Panel was comprised of three women at the forefront of the trucking industry discussing their struggles, strengths, and the lessons they’ve learned from leading such successful companies. Not-so-surprisingly, many of these women expressed their lack of interest in this industry before entering. Today, all three panelists firmly stated that they plan to spend the rest of their professional careers in this industry. The panelists were shocked by their interest in this industry, and encourage all women to see what it has to offer.

 

Did you know…

 

  • 47% of Canada’s workforce is women, yet only 3% of trucking employees are female.
  • Only 25% of managers in the private sector are women.
  • Only ¼ of executive managers in Canada are women.

 

Clearly, women are less represented in this industry. The Women with Drive summit, however, didn’t just focus on women; the summit and its panelists also fixated on the role of men in this industry. This issue is not competitive; it can only be solved with the effort of all employees, men included! Having women and men in every industry is a necessity. This is everybody’s issue.

 

“Diversity is a fact; inclusivity is a choice”

-David Lau, Catalyst Canada

 

The summit additionally discussed inclusivity in the workplace. Having all genders and ethnicities are crucial to creating a diverse, expansive, thought provoking workplace environment. Diversity encourages new ideas and insights in all capacities. Respecting all employees regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or other stereotypes, is crucial to overall success.

 

This conference was an insightful, inclusive, and progressive experience. It is time to make progress!