A former Miss England finalist, current England rugby star and an ex-finance worker have shattered traditional gender stereotypes by pursuing their dream jobs of driving 44-tonne lorries across Great Britain.
Farmer’s daughter and model Milly Everatt, rugby player Chantelle Crowl and Domino Homer, who worked a traditional office job since passing her GCSEs, are among the less than one per cent of women lorry drivers in the UK.
The trio have each earned their HGV licences and excelled in their dream career after having previously found success in other industries.
The drivers are now hoping that they can inspire other women to join their ranks and pursue careers on the road.
Milly Everatt, 23, (pictured) from Eastoft, Lincolnshire, swapped her high-heels for high-vis after having been the first runner-up for Miss England 2022
Domino Homer (pictured) began pursuing her Class 1 certification after seeing an advertisement on Facebook promoting a company that was offering to take on a driver and put them through the first exam
Milly Everatt
Milly Everatt, 23, from Eastoft, Lincolnshire, swapped her high-heels for high-vis after having been the first runner-up for Miss England 2022.
Miss Everatt had been competing in professional beauty pageants since 2017 and was titled Miss Lincolnshire in 2018. That same year she was crowned Miss Charity after raising the most money for good causes.
But last year, the beauty queen and former model ditched the catwalk and trained for both her Class 1 and Class 2 HGV licence so she could fulfil her dream of becoming a lorry driver.
Now, after having undertook a series of in-depth tests, she is living her live on the open road and driving 44-tonne high tech vehicles across the UK.
‘It’s been so much fun getting behind the wheel of a big truck as part of my new day job!’ Miss Everatt has said. ‘I love having the freedom that comes with driving, as it takes me all around the country, and the wages are great too.’
The former pageant competitor was inspired to pursue her dream of becoming a trucker after the Covid pandemic, Brexit and other factors led to a shortage of lorry drivers across the country.
Miss Everatt grew up on a farm and around heavy machinery. She would drive tractor’s around the property and believed the step up to driving a large truck was the next logical progression in her career.
Miss Everatt (pictured) had been competing in professional beauty pageants since 2017 and was titled Miss Lincolnshire in 2018. That same year she was crowned Miss Charity after raising the most money for good causes
But last year, beauty queen and former model Miss Everatt (pictured) ditched the catwalk and trained for both her Class 1 and Class 2 HGV licence so she could fulfil her dream of becoming a lorry driver
Miss Everatt (pictured in a truck) was inspired by the fact that less than one per cent of British HGV drivers are female. She says the evolving industry is ‘really exciting’ and is encouraging other women to join their ranks.
She was also inspired by the fact that less than one per cent of British HGV drivers are female. She says the evolving industry is ‘really exciting’ and is encouraging other women to join their ranks.
‘For any women who are thinking of getting into logistics, my best advice is just to do it,’ she said. ‘With so many roles and training opportunities available, it’s a really exciting industry to get involved with.’
Last year, while she was training for her licence, Miss Everatt advocated for normalising the path for women in the heavy machinery industry.
‘I think we’re in modern times and there’s nothing to stop girls getting involved in that kind of thing,’ she said at the time. ‘It’s not the norm but it should be. It’s also something people don’t think about often, it’s not thought about enough in feminism.
‘I know some farmers daughters who don’t do anything to help their parents farm. Agriculture has been forgotten about by feminism.
‘Anything that breaks the stereotype has to be a good thing. I want to prove its not just 40-year-old men that do this job and if it inspires other women to do the same, that would be amazing.’
She also previously revealed that obtaining an HGV licence had been a longtime dream of hers and would aid her work on the farm.
She said: ‘It was always on my list of things to do. I should’ve done it at 18. But I was doing my A-Levels and then the pandemic happened so I put it off.
‘It’s something that I want to have under my belt. I have horses so it could help for that and I can use it to take grain in – it’s something I’ll use everyday while I’m on the farm.’
Miss Everatt (pictured with a horse) grew up on a farm and around heavy machinery. She would drive tractor’s around the property and believed the step up to driving a large truck was the next logical progression in her career
Last year, while she was training for her licence , Miss Everatt (pictured in her crown and Miss Lincoln sash) advocated for normalising the path for women in the heavy machinery industry
Chantelle Crowl
Chantelle Crowl, 30, is known for her successes as an England and Super League rugby star – but when she’s away from the pitch, she travels the country in a HGV.
Ms Crowl, born in Toronto, Canada, and has been playing rugby since she was eight years old.
However, in her free time the St Helens and England forward delivers beer kegs and other vital items to pubs and clubs around Britain.
Due to the flexibility of lorry driving, she is able to work her trucking job around her training schedule. She loves the flexibility of the industry and how she significant control over how much and how long she works.
Commenting on the lack of women in the industry, she added: ‘My advice would be to just go for it, if it’s what you want to do. This is a free world and an equal opportunity for anyone to be part of no matter what or where.’
Chantelle Crowl, 30, (pictured in her lorry) is known for her successes as an England and Super League rugby star – but when she’s away from the pitch, she travels the country in a HGV. Due to the flexibility of lorry driving, she is able to work her trucking job around her training schedule
Ms Crowl said she also reaps the benefits of being a trucker when she’s on the pitch.
She claims her lorry job keeps her ‘fit and strong for rugby’, because she chooses to take on some of the heavier lifting tasks that might otherwise be carried out by two or three people, or even a machine.
The athlete added that she often feels ‘extra fit if I’ve had a hard day at work’.
Domino Homer
A former finance worker walked away from her career to pursue her dream of living life on the road and now works for a family-run trucking firm, Buffaload Logistics.
Domino Homer, XX, worked in a traditional office environment ever since finishing her GCSEs, including working for a mortgage broker and as an office assistant.
Mrs Homer had moved out of her family home at a young age and ‘didn’t really have a lot of funds’, she told MailOnline, which made it hard for her to determine which career path to take.
But in 2021 – after working for years in roles she was not passionate about – she funded her own Class 2 licence after leaving the financial industry. She secured her Class 1 licence the following year to become a fully qualified HGV driver.
‘I didn’t really even at school really know what I wanted to do. I thought maybe hairdressing,’ she recalled.
‘Then I thought, you know, I’ve always seen big trucks on the road – and even driving in general, I’ve always enjoyed being on the road, whether it’d be a passenger or driving.’
She began pursuing her Class 1 certification after seeing an advertisement on Facebook promoting a company that was offering to take on a driver and put them through the first exam.
‘I contacted them and they were really interested in me,’ she said, adding that the ‘lovely’ family-run company had ‘accepted me’.
However, it wasn’t necessarily an easy road for Mrs Homer. She actually failed her Class 1 test the first time she took it.
‘I was I think it was a stress of the day. It was really windy and there was a storm,’ she told MailOnline, also citing the pressures of the pandemic as possible contributing factors.
‘It’s Covid of course, everyone’s wearing masks, we don’t have the windows open. And they weren’t sure if they were going to let anyone actually go out because we were driving a wag and drag which was loaded with water and curtainside. We were quite blown around a bit.’
She did pass the second time she took the test and passed her Class 2 on the first try. Mrs Homer also has her full motorbike licence and car licence.
Former finance worker Domino Homer (pictured) walked away from her career to pursue her dream of living life on the road and now works for a family-run trucking firm, Buffaload Logistics
Mrs Homer, in 2021, funded her own Class 2 licence after leaving the financial industry. She secured her Class 1 licence the following year to become a fully qualified HGV driver. She is pictured outside her lorry
She now works night shifts, drives set deliveries and collections throughout her shift, and loves ‘watching the world go by through a big widescreen and listening to my favourite podcasts’.
Mrs Homer loves driving, which was a longtime dream come true, but admits that it does have its challenges.
Besides the physical challenges she faces, she revealed that sometimes ‘it can feel like you don’t have much of a life’.
‘The hours can be extremely long, sometimes you don’t come home, you know you’re, you’re stuck out. It can be quite lonely,’ she said.
But one of the benefits of driving a truck is meeting new people and the sense of freedom and independence, she explained.
‘I like to have my own space. When I worked in an office, if they had a radio, it used to really wind me up. They’d always have the same radio station on every day. And you hear the same songs every day, more than once that day,’ said Mrs Homer.
‘Whereas you’re doing you’re in your truck, you know, you can listen to your music that you like or, or a podcast, for example. You know, it’s your little space, like your office on wheels. You’re surrounded by big windows and sometimes it’s just a good peace and quiet.’
Mrs Homer is now encouraging other women to pursue careers in logistics and is advocating for a shift in perception about what working in the industry actually looks like.
‘Follow your heart; the only way you’ll know if your dream job is right for you is to give it a go,’ she said. ‘Life is too short to have regrets so go for it and don’t let anything stop you.
‘If it turns out that you were wrong, you can always change your career in the future and that’s exactly what I did.’