Haulage less misogynistic than world of children’s writing

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

According to Gillian Philip who has retrained as a lorry driver.

Express article

I am actually not surprised given the hideous bullying some children’s authors seem to indulge in on Twitter.

It’s also far better paid

I bet.

Good luck Gillian! Really interesting.

Great article - and huge respect for Gillian.. I think she was treated very shabbily by her publishers, and I love her determination to keep telling her story. If you're reading this Gillian - best of luck.

Fabulous woman! There's material for a whole series of children's books there too.

Reminds me of 'Long Distance Clara' from Pigeon Street (my, that's going back a bit).

Good on her. If I didn't have little kids I'd be tempted. It's something I'm planning to keep half an eye on for when they've grown up and gone off to Uni etc. Might be automated by then, but I feel like people have been predicting that for decades and it's not here yet.

Bet no-one in haulage is scared to say TWAM, too.

Not surprised it's less misogynistic!

And I hope she writes about her experiences as a WOMAN driving a lorry for little girls to read. There are certainly gender/sex assumptions about who drives lorries. There's never been a more important time to break those stereotypes for girls than now.

Being female + wearing work boots + driving an HGV + having short hair + wearing black jeans and t-shirt = female lorry driver. Not a non-binary/agender special, stunning and unique non-female!

@BoreOfWhabylon

Fabulous woman! There's material for a whole series of children's books there too.

Hopefully she's found a more enlightened publisher than the one who ditched her because she put #IstandwithJKR on her Twitter account.

I saw a piece on the BBC front page about this being great for women. Long piece with pics interviews etc.

I have zero idea about working in that job.

I did think that with the current shortage of drivers it was an obvious advert.

Actually hold on. I did used to go out with a long distance lorry driver. He said at loads of the park up and sleep places prostitutes would do the rounds knocking on their doors.

Sorry not sure what my point is!

She isn’t actually working as a haulier yet - she failed her exam.

I wouldn’t say the hours and nature of haulage driving is compatible with having any kind of life. On top of that, clean toilets/rest facilities can be hard to come by, and free lorry parks can be pretty unsavoury whilst paid rest parks eat into thin profits.

Its relatively few attractions as a career are being dressed up for the papers currently as they desperately need to train people.

I wanted to write children's books about construction - mix of males and females doing management / driving vehicles/ making plans/ driving crane. The soft jobs were always girls, boys did the manly stuff, I wanted to swop that.

Then being called in for emergency situation - lifting fallen tree etc. REscuing stranded ?cat ?cow

I'm too lazy and clueless but wish someone would do that.
I've noticed women driving the local quarry lorries - that's a first.

I remember long-distance Clara and also moire recently Edie McCredie driving her van. Both fabulous women!

There was a [piece on R4 recently about women getting into being lorry drivers but that they needed better facilities. Yes it wouldn't work well with family life but it depends – if you have a live-in grandma or similar it could be fine, and many women/mums work as cabin crew.

I worked with a woman HGV driver in the early 90s.She was the first to work for a local authority afaik. Also drove a lorry load of food and medicine to Croatia during the Yugoslav civil war. Some woman for one woman.

"Women getting into lorry driving"
Top tip.
Buy shares in "Shewee's" now.
Why do you think most British lay-bys stink of piss.

Blimy, Im seriously considering it. Could I bring my dog in the cabin, I wonder?

British laybys dont stink of piss tho, your thinking of mens loos.

I can confirm that we stopped in a British layby a couple of weeks ago and it smelled really badly of piss. I can't say I've particularly noticed it before though.

It's a grim job, and badly paid too.

It’s probably not badly paid compared to what most writers earn.

Gillian’s great. Glad to see she’s taking on a new career. Hope she gets treated with more respect and loyalty than she received from her employer and publisher.