Because every year 30,000 truck drivers retire, threatening in Germany for the supply of collapse. Desperately looking for trucking companies to staff, but the market is empty. Now women are to close the gap.
Maybe you have to be as calm as Kathi Radtke, to work as a truck driver. The 36-Year-old meanders in the early morning with your ant, the electric forklift, through the narrow streets of the freight forwarding warehouse in Eschweiler near Aachen. Anywhere as high as a man wrapped packages are piled on wooden pallets, colleagues are buzzing around like busy bees, and the order Eight on your piece of paper, a delivery from Amazon, is nowhere to be found.
Kathi Radtke will load your goods onto the truck, preferably so that the weight is distributed on the charging surface evenly
Time is of the essence in an hour, your first package will be delivered, but Radtke is the silence itself. Minutes later, the Central green light, without the package to go. Radtke secures the rods Were metal, so as not to tip over, and swings into the cab of your twelve-tonner. “This is my time now, my Hobby, this is mine,” says the mother of four and starts in a good mood, the engine of your truck.
Job and family require perfect organization
Kathi Radtke is a long time on the legs: she has woken up their children at the age of four, seven, nine, and 16 years of age, you made Breakfast, break bread lubricated and you to the Kindergarten and in the school. Many others would not complain about such a high load, Radtke knows something. “It’s not as a woman not to be persuaded that to do it with family. You have to tell it to pull and not listen to what other,” she says a little proudly.
Distinctive of the truck by Kathi Radtke: Twelve tons can load the Truck
Today, the truck has loaded the driver, perforated sheets, crates of Wine gums for the supermarket, and 1200 pounds of special adhesive. Radtke is living her dream. “Some of the children used to play with Lego Duplo, I was always with trucks,” she recalls. To sit at the controls of a feeling of freedom is always a little, even if it is currently only in the neighboring places.
Tranquility, organization, talent, and kindness are for Radtke is essential: “I represent my company with my appearance.” And the most Important: “You have to love this work. Otherwise, it is in the occupation is wrong.” The Problem is the industry is less and less people are going to love this Job, the shortage of skilled workers takes on dramatic forms.
Desperate drivers searched for
Only a few can judge better than Heidi cyclists. As you Hintzen 1999, at the delivery began, there were in the family business, a small office and just eight riders. 20 years later, there are 90 that will deliver minute-by-minute Were in the Eifel, Aachen and Cologne. But to find a truck driver is getting harder and harder: “The competition is tough, and it is difficult to find reliable employees. And then, it is also difficult to keep good drivers,” complains the Executive assistant.
Heidi cyclists of the forwarding Hintzen in Eschweiler
A third of truck drivers in Germany is 55 years of age and older. According to a study by the world Bank could be missing in ten years in this country, and 150,000 drivers, also drivers from Eastern Europe are no longer able to close this gap. In addition, The industry has an acute recruitment problem.
Previously, the Bundeswehr, truck drivers are trained, and this could not directly enter the forwarding company, today it is the. “So you need to make either a three-year course, or the driving license for private pay. The costs between 4000 and 5000 euros who can apply?”, asks cyclists. And then there’s the uncertain future, the keyword is Autonomous Driving. In a few years could also car in Germany a lot of load without a driver on the road.
Truck drivers have a bad reputation
Today, however, still applies: Without truck drivers like Kathi Radtke would not work in Germany. You are a small, but important wheel in a giant logistics machine, in which the Online trading is growing by the hour with the desire to be pack soon after the click of the mouse to unpack.
Traffic jam on the A2 motorway at the kamener Kreuz: Germany needs its truck drivers, scolds but at the same time on you
Nevertheless, the drivers have a bad Image: “The professional truck driver is not generally recognised,” says Heidi cyclists, “as it is, they are a nuisance, disturb on the highway and produce traffic jams. Furthermore, the environment is broken.” Your shipping company did so out of necessity, to find hardly any male drivers, a virtue. The logistics company is a professional rider and turned with Kathi Radtke, a mother of four.
More women behind the wheel
“I had applied with 20 trucking companies. Twelve have not even replied, the other eight I had interviews with. And the forwarder is the only one that wanted to hire me was Hintzen,” recalls Radtke. The working hours are tailored with 35 hours in the week, exactly to you, Kathi Radtke is one of the Paradise birds in the industry: Just 1.7 percent, the proportion of women is among the truck drivers.
Kathi Radtke delivers your last. After that, you have to go directly to a child from the Kindergarten to pick up
The poor compatibility of family and profession discourages many women. “You also need to assert themselves in a male-dominated field, and this is often not funny. Since you need to have as a woman a lot of self-confidence,” explains Heidi cyclists.
Acceptance for women is growing, but thick skin is needed
To Kathi Radtke, you need’t Worry about that. “As a truck driver, I have to deal with it, if that is a stupid saying comes,” she says with a Smile. A customer will not be out told her just that women belong behind the wheel of a truck, a work colleague criticized your work times.
“I have to say, your account looks was also different, then it was quiet.” For half a year, it now sits behind the wheel of their Trucks, “in the meantime, I’m going to be accepted and respected,” says Radtke. Can Germany absorb so really with the shortage of truck drivers by more women be hired? Yes, Kathi Radtke safe, but the trucking companies would have to rethink: “you have to be family-friendly and, for example, mothers only, from 9 am to send.”