Tgather around, gentlemen truckers, truckers with big arms, mastards in tank tops: three women, out of seventeen candidates, are qualified for the final of the Truckers’ Trophy, which is to take place Thursday, September 21, in Monchy-Saint-Eloi (Oise). Led by social protection and professional training organizations in the transport sector, this event awards, each year, an unofficial title of “best heavy goods vehicle driver” in France.
Never before have so many female drivers been registered for the national test, even though the profession is struggling to become more feminized (only 3% of employees driving heavy goods vehicles are women, according to the Prospective Observatory of professions and qualifications in transport and logistics). The victory of one of them would be a strong symbol. “Even if, on a personal level, I have never been the object of mockery in my profession. On the contrary, my male colleagues have always helped me a lot”assures Laetitia Guilhermet, 37 years old, employee of the Jacky Perrenot group, within the Chambéry branch.
At the end of May, in Jonage (Rhône), this mother of three children won the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional selection hands down. Three tests were on the program: a multiple-choice questionnaire on safety and hygiene; performing a maneuver on a simulator; a city trip while spending as little fuel as possible. The same three exercises await applicants at Monchy-Saint-Eloi.
Laetitia Guilhermet did not prepare specifically for the competition. The distance of 2,500 to 3,000 kilometers that she covers each week, between France and Italy, at the wheel of a 44 ton loaded with pallets of mineral water, is the best training. “I feel at home in a truck. For nothing in the world, I wouldn’t change my job”confides the one whom her colleagues nickname Lora, in reference to a small transport company created in Ariège by the father of her first two children, Loratrans.
“Trucks represented freedom”
His passion for large tonnage dates back to early childhood. “I must have been 5 or 6 years old, she says. It came to me as others become nuns because the Lord has called them. Trucks made me dream. They were imposing, majestic, they represented freedom. » No one in her family had ever driven a truck before her. Her father, a railway worker, will require her to take her baccalaureate. It will ultimately be a professional studies certificate “driving and services in road transport”.
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