She’s RHA is widening its target audience with a new focus on inclusion and diversity rather than trying to attract just women to the transport industry.

While the campaign’s founder Lesley O’Brien (pictured) told MT working to bring women in to the sector will “always be my passion” and will remain a crucial part of She's RHA's work, she said the skills gap road transport faces requires a wider pool of people to plug it.

“If we stay just focused on women, we may not be closing that gap. But by widening it, we’re tapping into a wider skills pool,” she said.

“If you look around where my office is in Bradford, it’s really multi cultural. To fix my skills shortage, then I have to tap into all those different cultures and people with different backgrounds or abilities.”

She’s RHA has partnered with diversity and inclusion specialists Creating Inclusive Culture (CIC) in line with its new, wider strategy.

CIC and She’s RHA will work together at events, and O’Brien said that its new partner would strengthen the trade association campaign with its stronger knowledge of workplace diversity.

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She told MT: “Though the RHA recognises the benefits of a diverse workforce our specialism is transport, not diversity and inclusion.

“The road to diversity and inclusion starts at the top and we need to incorporate this into our recruitment and staff retention strategies to address our industries skills shortage.

The partnership will also broaden She’s RHA’s geographical reach, said O’Brien.

"It is always a challenge to reach out and include members throughout the UK and by linking up with CIC we can offer greater geographical coverage and events  for members to attend," she said.

According to O'Brien, who is a partner at Bradford-based Freightlink Europe, there are no current plans to change the She's RHA name.

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