What is Females In the Fleet?
Females In The Fleet National Professional Female Driver Association is a membership-based association in the UK that provides support and services to professional female drivers in the taxi and private hire industry. It was set up in 2021 to encourage more female drivers into the industry and promote safe working practices for all.
How Does it Work?
FITF actively recruits female drivers into the industry by marketing a career in driving to them. They then help them to get started as a driver by providing training, assistance with licensing and car setup, followed by placement with a suitable operator local to them. Support continues after this with ongoing mentoring for the female drivers, along with member services and initiatives that promote safety, gender equality and inclusion.
Operators who pledge to support the Females In the Fleet Charter become part of a national network eligible to offer work to FITF recruits.
Why Support It?
According to statistics published by the Department for Transport in 2021, just 7% of the taxi and private hire workforce is made up of female drivers. However, women take more taxi and private hire vehicle trips than men, and requests for female drivers are high.
Get more drivers for your fleet
Driver recruitment is a big challenge for all taxi and private hire fleets coming out of the Covid period, and it’s not going away. Finding new pools of drivers to attract to work for you is critical. Encouraging more female drivers into the industry can help to increase your driver supply, so you can service more bookings.
Better coverage for driver availability
Opening up your driver pool to new types of drivers can help you to fill slots in your day that are unattractive or undersupplied by your existing driver base. For example, women returning to work after having children.
Make your passengers feeI safe
Female passengers prefer female drivers. This could be for personal safety or religious reasons. Expanding the number of female drivers you have working for your fleet will therefore be good for your brand and welcomed by your customers. It may even attract new customers and win you more bookings.
Find out more and Sign up to the Charter here.