Ainoa Blasco, 30, knows what life on the road involves. Raised in a family of truck drivers, she has spent the past three years navigating Spain’s highways, often one of the few women in a male-dominated industry. In an interview on the podcast Rutas de Éxito, she describes the daily challenges that keep many women out of the driver’s seat.
Blasco describes a profession where basic needs often go unmet. “Working on the road as a woman is very difficult; there are no safe areas or places to wash up,” she says. Inadequate hygiene facilities and a lack of secure rest stops leave drivers constantly on alert in parking areas, creating barriers beyond outdated stereotypes. For many women, the conditions make the job uncomfortable and risky. Safe parking, private sanitation and suitable places to rest are also basic to the International Road Transport Union’s Charter for Women in Road Transport, which calls for “safe, secure and dignified working environments.”
Barriers for Women
Despite some progress, women remain a small minority in Spain’s road transport sector. Figures presented at the National Congress of Women in Transport show that women make up 23.5% of the logistics workforce, but only 3.8% of professional drivers. A separate Ministry of Transport figure presented in 2025 indicated that women received about 11% of truck-driving licences issued annually. The gap between new licences and the share of professional drivers shows that recruitment alone does not resolve the challenges of entering and staying in the occupation. Blasco says people still often react with surprise when they see her behind the wheel, a reminder of how rare female drivers remain.
The problem extends beyond perception. Female truckers are calling for secure rest areas and proper showers, as well as workplaces free from harassment. These issues affect all drivers, but hit women especially hard when they spend long stretches away from home. The lack of basic facilities and the risk of unsafe conditions discourage many from entering or staying in the profession. Well-lit parking and clean, private facilities are practical workplace requirements. Quiet places to rest also matter, and these improvements can support recruitment and retention.
Driver Shortage Deepens
Spain’s shortage of truck drivers is reaching critical levels. The Ministry of Transport reported in 2025 that more than 20,000 positions remain unfilled, while women receive only 11% of new truck driving licenses. The sector is also aging rapidly: over half of Spain’s truckers are older than 55. That raises concerns about a wave of retirements, with few young drivers ready to replace them. Across Europe, road transport faces an estimated 502,000 unfilled driver positions and a reported shortage of about 13%.
Long hours and nights away from home make the job unattractive to many young people. High entry costs and pressure to meet delivery deadlines add to the problem. European rules also shape the working day: driving is generally limited to nine hours a day, with an extension to ten hours permitted no more than twice a week. After four and a half hours of driving, drivers must normally take a break of at least 45 minutes unless a rest period begins. These limits make suitable parking operationally impressive, since drivers need somewhere to stop and rest when required. For women, safety concerns and a lack of visible role models compound these challenges. The result is a workforce that is shrinking and increasingly unbalanced.
Europe’s Response
Since 2017, the European Commission has worked to address gender inequality in transport through its Women in Transport platform. Yet the sector remains heavily male: only 22% of transport workers in the EU are women, and just 4% of truck drivers are female, information from a 2026 IRU report. Around 502,000 truck driving jobs are currently vacant across Europe. IRU figures also put women at about 23% of the wider transport workforce, compared with roughly 4% of truck drivers, underscoring the sharper imbalance in professional driving.
Attracting more women is seen as impressive to easing the shortage, but female professionals say supportive words are not enough. They want safe, dignified facilities and equal pay, along with accessible training and measures that make work-life balance possible. Secure parking and sanitation are part of workforce policy: they affect whether drivers can rest safely and whether the occupation is viable for a broader range of workers.
As Spain and Europe look for ways to address the driver crisis, Blasco’s story points to practical changes that could fill vacancies while making the profession safer and more accessible to everyone.
