UD announced a special initiative In celebration of International Women’s Day last week with one of its key dealers, CMV Dandenong delivering six new Croner PD 25 280 curtain siders to Visy Logistics and the graduates of its Female Drivers Trainee Program.
Visy Logistics and UD proclaim they are both celebrating diversity by investing in female drivers, acknowledging their positive contribution to the industry.
A group of six women received their first ever truck on 3rd March as a part of their employment with Visy Logistics, which is the logistics subsidiary within the Visy packaging and resource group of companies.
UD says Visy Logistics chose the Croner PD 25 280 for the program due to its ability to maximise productivity and minimise downtime.
The company says this means more time on the road and less time in the workshop, “so drivers can deliver regularly and reliably to customers.
“Reliability and fuel efficiency were huge selling points of the Croner,” Visy Logistic’s Glen Fulton said.
“Improving the world for the better is at the heart of everything UD Trucks and Visy does, which makes for a perfect partnership,” said the UD statement.
“Both businesses are committed to making a difference for themselves, their customers and their communities, including a commitment to diversity,” it continued.
Vice president of UD sales, Lauren Downs said that promoting and celebrating diversity is something that UD Trucks holds close to its core and something that she is particularly passionate about.
“We were thrilled to hear about the fantastic Female Drivers Training Program by Visy Logistics and are extremely humbled and proud they selected UD Trucks to be part of the initiative. We would like to pass on a very warm welcome to the industry to the graduates, and hope they enjoy the new UDs as much as we do,” said Lauren Downs.
UD Truck’s dealer CMV Dandenong hosted the handover with the sales manager Ian Rimmer saying that women are an integral part of the trucking industry.
“We were thrilled to handover the vehicles to the Visy Logistic graduates,” said Ian Rimmer.
UD said that an education seminar also took place at the dealership hosted by key account handover and delivery manager, Patrick Ryan
“We always go the extra mile at UD Trucks to make sure drivers are fully informed before they hit the road. It was fantastic seeing the women’s beaming and confident faces once they received their vehicles,” said Patrick Ryan.
The company says that all six women are new to the trucking industry and recently participated in a fully-paid, four-week intensive driver training course to obtain their heavy duty rigid licence, as part of the Visy Logistics Female Driver Trainee Program.
Visy Logistics invested in the training to give the drivers everything they need to succeed according to Glen Fulton.
“We are extremely impressed with the women’s driving skill set and this is exactly what the business needs, reliable and passionate individuals who will thrive in their roles,” said Glen.
“Driver shortages are an issue across the industry, and we want to attract the best potential candidates to Visy Logistics. And then, once we have the best drivers, we want to keep them here. It’s part of our long-term recruitment and retention strategy,” he added.
Visy says that as a small part of that strategy, it has designed its Female Driver Trainee Program to specifically attract a potential candidate pool who may not have considered a career like this previously.
The UD statement says women are a largely untapped source of talent within the transport, logistics and supply chain industry, and there’s really no reason this should be the case.
Over the course of the truck handover day, the drivers discussed their career history and UD says that the women had come from a wide range of backgrounds from landscaping to nursing.
“More women are entering this male dominated industry because we have so much to offer. We come from different backgrounds and have different mindsets that make us very employable,” said Kate, won of the drivers who is part of the program.
Lauren Downs said UD Trucks supports women in the industry and thanked Visy’s new women drivers for choosing to join the industry saying they had paved way for future generations of truck drivers and careers in the transport industry as well as wishing them long and successful careers.
The Croner saves you the most precious resource of all, time. This is due to the high torque UD engine and in-built fuel efficiency. Driver comfort has been at the forefront of the cabin design with Allison automatic transmission enabling unparalleled operability. During the training Kate was “blown away with how comfortable the Croner is to drive, the amount of power and how easy it is to manoeuvre.”
