Meet Carro. She’s shaking up stereotypes in Sweden

Female truck drivers are a rare sight in many countries. The job is still very much in the male domain. That’s changing in some places – one of which is Sweden, where more and more women are getting behind the wheel of some pretty big rigs.

Caroline Saastamoinen is one of several women among the 30 DHL drivers based out of the DHL Freight terminal in Sundsvall, about 370 kilometers north of Stockholm. Caroline, who goes by Carro, has been a truck driver for 10 years. For her, climbing into the cab of a 24-meter-long truck is just part of everyday life. Being a woman doesn’t make a difference.

“I can do anything I want to, regardless of my gender,” she says. “That’s why I don’t want to be treated differently than men.”

Carro occasionally encounters some old-fashioned stereotyping, of course. “I sometimes get compliments from customers who say I handle my truck really well,” she says. “But why? Would they say that to a man?”

One aspect of her job that surprises many people is the work-life balance. Carro makes deliveries to customers in and around Sundsvall, so she doesn’t have to drive long distances each day. This keeps her close to home and her family. “It’s great,” she says, “because I can take my two-year-old son to daycare and be home again in the afternoon.” She even climbed behind the wheel when her baby belly had gotten quite big, working right up to when she went on maternity leave.

That’s one of the reasons Carro encourages other women to forget stereotypes and do what they want to do. “When I had an intern riding along, I let her do the work alongside me to give her a good idea of what my job is like. She became a driver later on. I was really happy when I found out!”

It’s a freezing cold morning – minus 7°C to be exact – when we meet Carro at the DHL Freight terminal in Sundsvall. There’s snow on the ground, the sun is shining, and Carro is all smiles as she looks over the 24-meter-long vehicle she’ll be driving today – a yellow and red DHL biogas truck blanketed in ice and glistening in the sun.

Before she sets off, Carro checks the vehicle thoroughly. She pulls out a hammer to check the tire pressure. What? Then she walks around the truck, tapping on each tire with it. “If the pressure is low, then the sound will be muffled,” she explains. Next, she checks the oil and windshield wiper fluid, followed by the trailer coupling, brakes, and door handles – everything’s just as it should be. Carro performs this safety check every day, but it’s even more important in the Scandinavian winter. With negative temperatures often stretching into the double digits and roads thick with ice and snow, the trucks need to be in tip-top shape.

With the check complete, Carro climbs the four steep steps into her cab. Sitting so high, she has good visibility – and she can see everything around her truck and trailer via the array of mirrors positioned on both sides of the vehicle. Before starting the engine, she slips her driver’s card into a device that records her driving and break times. Then she blows into a special breathalyzer to test for alcohol.

That done, she puts the key in the ignition and rolls the truck slowly and majestically out of the terminal and into the street toward her first stop. She proceeds with care. The roads are icy in some places, and she needs to pay attention.

It doesn’t take long before we pull in for Carro’s first stop of the day at TomPall, a pallet manufacturer. The company’s forklift driver loads high stacks of brand-new wooden pallets through her truck’s open side doors. Despite the cold, Carro stays outside to observe. “I always stay close by, at a safe distance, while the customer loads the freight,” she says. “They might need my help, and I have to make sure that everything’s in order.”

Once the folding doors are closed, Caro hops back in the cab and steers her lengthy vehicle back into Sweden’s snowy landscape to the next customer on her schedule. It’s an equipment leasing company called Skanska Rental AB with quite a unique shipment: a mobile, trailer-mounted heater. This time, Carro has to do more than open the doors and observe. After the heater is loaded, she has to strap it in to ensure it doesn’t move. This is the first time she’s transported a heater like this, so before she leaves, she speaks with the customer about the best way to safely offload the heater.

Carro enjoys interactions like these but says it’s the job as a whole she loves. “I really like meeting so many different people, seeing new things, being outdoors so much, and the freedom of the road,” she says. “It’s nice when the customers know you and miss you on days when you’re not working. For them, drivers like me are DHL.”

All DHL Freight drivers are employed by DHL Åkeri, a DHL Freight unit in Sweden. With a team of 210 drivers and a fleet of 100 trucks based out of 10 locations across the country, they handle all non-terminal-based operations (NTBO) in Sweden. That means DHL Åkeri takes care of shipments closer to the point of origin or destination rather than hauling freight between hubs in our terminal network.

DHL Freight is part of DHL Group’s Global Forwarding, Freight division, which specializes in air, ocean, and overland freight forwarding services. DHL Freight provides road and rail freight services in Europe, with extensive coverage across 40 countries and more than 45 million tons moved annually.

After picking up all the shipments on her schedule, Carro heads back to the terminal, where her cargo will be unloaded and processed for the next step in the journey. All the drivers work together. “We always offload everything and then decide together what shipment needs to go on which truck for onward transportation.”

They make a great team, Carro says with a smile. She loves the team spirit – and gender isn’t even an issue. “I really have a fantastic bunch of colleagues,” she says. “When things don’t go quite as planned, they make the day easier to bear. They’re not just colleagues, they’re friends.”

At DHL, we’re working to increase diversity in our operations with strong employer branding campaigns – and the growing number of female drivers in Sweden is partly because of this effort. As more women learn that they can enjoy the freedom of the road and work family-friendly hours, you’re bound to see more women like Carro behind the wheel of large yellow and red DHL trucks.