A LIFE LESS ORDINARY
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Yodel’s Linda Ferguson won the Commer cial Driver title at this year’s MAN Everywoman in Transport & Logistics awards, and is now in her 23rd year behind the wheel.
Having learnt to drive at 13 in a field cour tesy of her father, she started as an appren tice instrument mechanic at Sellafield Nuclear Power Plant in Cumbria aged 16. She found herself, age 23, in Hampshire looking for work and joined the road transport sector as a driv er for Securicor Express Parcels (subse quently sold to DHL and now part of Yodel).
“The banter doesn’t bother me, as I’ve worked in a pub and am a former kickboxer.
But it’s a physical job. I guess I lift around 3,000kg a day and now have shoulders like Schwarzenegger. On my first day I got home and was physically sick from exhaustion.” Now based at Yodel’s Carlisle depot, she says it is the sense of belonging that she enjoys most about the role – being on first name terms with the customers on her daily route.
“The biggest challenge is getting female drivers through their first week,” she says. Ferguson has found herself mentoring female drivers who arrive at the hub, originally because she was the only other female there and these days because she’s one of the longest-serving employees. “I think something as simple as one-to-one support would make a big difference to the amount of female drivers we keep,” she says.