KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 — Five years ago, a plucky 27-year old lady decided to try her hand at driving a truck, and decided that it would be her career despite the industry being dominated by men.
Today, Junaidah Ibrahim works alongside her husband who also drives a truck for the same company, Benua Haulage Sdn Bhd, part of Sin Hock soon Group.
Junaidah puts in around eight to nine hours a day driving her Volvo truck to ensure that goods are delivered to customers on time. However, this doting mother of three children stresses that being extra careful while driving on the road is her utmost priority in the job as she has a family to go back to at the end of the day.
Registering as a participant in the Volvo Trucks Malaysia’s annual Fuelwatch Challenge which returned to Malaysia for the eighth consecutive year, Junaidah took part in the preliminary round in Prai and has secured a place in the finals. She believes that her focus on the task at hand and her driving skills helped her to outperform many of the male truck drivers.
Junaidah has created history for being the very first female truck driver to qualify for the finals in the Volvo Trucks Malaysia’s Fuelwatch Challenge, and this year, the finals shall be held in Shah Alam on August 25 and 26.
Junaidah is also popular among her customers who are pleased not only with her professionalism but are also impressed to see a female truck driver appearing at their doorsteps.
Commenting on her job, Junaidah said, “I am the only female truck driver in my company and I couldn’t be more proud of my job despite the fact that truck driving is known to be a male-dominated profession. The support that I get from my husband, who is also my colleague, and the confidence my employer and customers have in me are indeed very encouraging. I’m glad to have found my niche and have proved that gender stereotyping can definitely be broken.”
Apart from being a female truck driver, which is an already extremely rare case in Malaysia, unlike in some Western countries where there is a higher ratio of female drivers, Junaidah also towers above her male peers in terms of license qualification. She has both rigid and container truck driving licenses, which is not the norm even amongst the general population of male truck drivers.
Junaidah will be competing with seven other male finalists in the final round of Volvo Fuelwatch Challenge 2017 in Shah Alam on August 26, including attending a special training session by a Volvo Trucks’ Driver Trainer to further enhance their skills.
The other seven male finalists are Ruslan Ab Ghani from Perwakilan Cekap Sdn Bhd (Port Klang), Jamal B. Embong from Prifaria Sdn Bhd (Kuantan), Ahmad Sulaiman from Konsortium PD Sdn Bhd (Port Klang), Mohd Sufian bin Sahari from Multimodal Freight Sdn Bhd (Port Klang), Kaspul Anwar bin Abdul Karim from Prifaria Sdn Bhd (Prai), Tan Eng Hin from Lima Bintang Logistics Sdn Bhd (Prai) and Firdausbin Salim from Swift Logistics Sdn Bhd (Johor Bahru).
The champion will have the opportunity to represent Malaysia and participate in the Drivers Fuel Challenge – World Final in Sweden from 18-22 September , that judges and more importantly, teaches skill, concentration, knowledge, and discipline.
“I’m absolutely pleased to be the first female truck driver in Malaysia to take part in the final round of Volvo Fuelwatch Challenge. The Challenge is a great platform for us, regardless of gender, to prove that we can perform at the highest level if we apply the right skills. And of course, it will be such a great achievement for all women out there if I can win the trophy, fingers crossed!”, said Junaidah.
The competition, which first started in Europe as a concept for achieving maximum efficiency, is moduled based on local market demands and industry landscape; for Malaysia it will mainly concentrate on three key areas; Driver Development, Fuel Maintenance and Dynafleet or Telematics.
Since its commencement in Malaysia in 2010, the Volvo Fuelwatch Challenge has so far mentored more than 6,000 truck drivers from all over the country on how to enhance their driving competency and behaviour to be more fuel efficient and safer drivers on the roads. The number of truck drivers who participated in this year’s competition saw an increase of 19 per cent compared to last year.
