Spaces of gendered work in UK lorry driving

Keywords: Gender, bodily difference, Lorry driving, Work, Mobilities, Labour geographies
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 11

Abstract

Focusing on the case of UK lorry (truck, HGV) driving, this paper questions how the gender-coding
of work, and places-of-work, operates when the work itself is mobile. As a quintessential male-dominated sector, freight work, and particularly mobile freight work has long operated by logics which
reinforce particular forms of masculinity, which play out through bodily capabilities (i.e., strength)
practices (i.e., driving skilfulness), and temperament (i.e., seeking solitude). At a time when global,
national and local logistical systems are under strain, this work uncovers the gendered dynamics which
have worked to reproduce a particular kind of workforce. In the UK, as elsewhere around the world,
there is a shortage of lorry drivers, as the number of younger drivers entering the workforce is
outnumbered by those leaving the sector for other work, or retiring. This context is further exacerbated in the UK by Brexit and along with it, the departure of European drivers. In this paper, we present stories of freight workers in the UK, at particular places of work: on the road, at the depot, in the layby. Places where gendered work happens (paid, social reproductive), where interactions with others take place (in person or online), and where bodily capacities are tested. Drawing from interviews and mobile
ethnographies with freight drivers in England, composite stories protect participant anonymity, while also maintaining the complexity and ‘storied’ nature of gendered working lives. Through this, we seek to
illustrate the complex intersections between places, people, materialities and forms of (mobile) work.