Tag Archives: motoring services

Why Women Drivers Matter

mary_barra_changeOn International Women’s Day one’s thoughts can happily turn to our own gender, hopefully without someone feeling the need to tell me there’s no International Men’s Day.

Well there mightn’t be but so what? If I want to write about women, celebrate feminism, praise the achievements of my gender, the new Women’s Equality Party and/or remind everyone why women matter then so be it.

Men have been patting themselves on their backs for years and that’s fine by me. But today it’s our turn and sadly the gender news in the motor industry isn’t as self congratulatory as it might look to those that don’t know how to scratch the surface here.

But let’s take this step by step…

1) The economic importance of women drivers

As you know, my blog is about women and motoring (by and large) so you can expect me to confine my comments to this area. So it’s worth reminding ourselves that the number of women drivers on UK roads will soon overtake that of men on our roads. So that’s close to 50% of all car tax, insurance and fuel payments/taxation straight away. We were at 47% of license holders last year for your information…

Then let’s add in the fact that women buy about half of all ‘new’ cars in their own right, influencing as many as 80% of all cars bought*. By influence, that’s when ‘he’ chooses the car but says to the salesman ‘that’s what I want but my wife/partner needs to approve this before I pay’. In the US they say this female influence accounts for as many as 90% of car sales. And some car dealers put this at 100%, based on evident experience (and a wicked sense of down-trodden humour I suspect).

* estimated as two million brand new cars and some five million used cars.

2) The female motoring multiplier effect

The point of this massive consumer motoring influence is that this also represents jobs in manufacturing plants, jobs in UK car dealerships, in garages and automotive suppliers – as well as the spin off effect of the jobs created to serve the expenditure from these jobs and so on. So what women buy (or not?) influences jobs and the businesses that do best and so on.

At FOXY Lady Drivers Club we feel the female shopping effect particularly strongly when it comes to buying garage services today. Like the many cars women are increasingly buying online (rather than going to unfriendly garages/car dealerships) an increasing number of busy females are shopping for MOT’s, car servicing and both mechanical & bodywork repairs online, often at night, for the family fleet. Even if those women then delegate the test drive and/or garage visit to a male (that’s another story for another blog…).

3) Is our fantastic motor industry as good as it could be?

Let’s look at the key statistics taken from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) excellent Facts Guide (2015).

+ The UK automotive industry turnover was a cool £69.5 billion in 2015
+ There are more than 32 million cars on our roads
+ More than 1.5 million cars were built in the UK in 2014
+ 2.47 million new cars were first registered in 2014
+ Nearly 800,000 individuals are employed in the UK automotive industry
+ 7 out of 10 F1 teams are based in the UK
+ 80% of the world’s largest automotive suppliers are based in the UK

Impressive figures for sure but let’s remember – this is the industry that we women are paying our fair share towards and much as I’d love to carry on crowing about it, I can’t because it doesn’t represent our female needs. But it should.

In a nutshell this industry needs to be a lot more female friendly than it is. Too many women prefer visiting dentists than garages. Recent research** suggests 90% of a Mumsnet and Reevoo female sample would not go car shopping without a man and women are three times more likely to report an ‘awful’ than ‘excellent’ experience in a dealership.

How can this be good enough for such important customers I have to ask?

**See Different Spin research.

Don’t you think we women deserve better than this guys, when you see why we should matter so much more to you?

4) The missing female industry talent

Whilst it’s International Women’s Day and a chance to celebrate our female influence in the automotive industry I’m sad to end this blog on a negative note, although this can become a future positive given genuine intent.

In a recent film project involving ITN, the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) suggests that a woeful 2% of jobs in this industry are occupied by women. I was horrified and have questioned this. Can it possibly be so low?

Accurate or not, diversity needs to be a top level strategic Board agenda objective and reported on annually by both the SMMT and the RMI (Retail Motor Industry Federation) about their respective memberships. We should surely benchmark best gender practice wherever we find it, to encourage the many laggards here to get their act together, once and for all, to represent female customers (and future employees) in the Boardroom. Only then will the ambitious female talent pipeline have somewhere appealing to head for in this industry rather than the many more female friendly career destinations we compete with.

5) Quotas are needed in the motor industry

I suggest we measure this gender outcome in future International Women’s Days to come. Quite frankly I’m not interested in Lord Davies’ token 25% gender targets now. We’re too far behind to follow his footsteps gently. We need an urgent and determined stride towards the only gender metric that really matters – 50:50. And we’re SO far away from this goal in the UK automotive industry that I can’t see us getting there without QUOTAS.

If I’m wrong, and I’d love to be, pray tell me how come waiting for the female creme de la creme to rise to the top of the automotive industry naturally hasn’t happened to date? And why it would do in future without benchmark quotas to meet? It certainly isn’t because we aren’t good enough.

If you are against quotas (as I was originally) please work out how long it’ll take to be fair to female employees and customers if we don’t impose female quotas? But don’t tell me you would only want to be chosen ‘for being the best’ because you aren’t even in the final selection process as is…

How can 2% of jobs allocated to women in any industry be fair enough or suggest that any women who were chosen in a future quota aren’t good enough (or even the best) to too many male Board members who clearly don’t want any sitting at their top table?

As I see it, the time is right for gender quotas in the automotive industry and not just in the UK one either. I don’t see the industry has a choice unless women continue to let it get away with this any longer.

By all means tell me what you think via Twitter @FOXYSteph or info@foxyladydrivers.com.

And if any automotive businesses would like my help to get on the female radar ahead of others, be sure to get in touch with me via my personal website.

FOXY

NB: Our country earns a similar amount of motoring-related tax as it spends on defence, and twice as much as we spend on education it seems. I also wish more women voted hence my support for the Women’s Equality Party.

The importance of female networking clubs

emsworth_MNC There’s something about networking in a room full of noisy business women that is good for the female soul.

We laugh a lot, seem to understand each other and have much in common which makes it easy to slip into business when the time is right.

Yesterday I was at the launch of the Mumpreneurs Networking Club (MNC) in Portsmouth where more than 30 ladies turned up to find out more about this group.

NB: The photo is of the Emsworth Group by the way.

Whether it is for them ultimately depends on their commitment to the cause. If you attend regularly women will get to trust you and of course, given a choice, we all buy from people (and brands) we like. Networking is a great opportunity to be that business in female minds. I am a member of MNC and can recommend it to others providing they can take the time out to do the job properly…

The Mumpreneurs Networking Club is a growing business across the South East of England (mainly) but with a new satellite Group in Edinburgh so expect this one to spread its wings to other Scottish cities soon. Meetings are a combination of fun, information and targeted networking of course. An excellent way to fine-tune your ‘elevator pitch’ and get over the nerves of introducing your business, memorably, in close to one minute. When you’re nervous, one minute seems an age yet when you have news to tell it never seems enough.

The Portsmouth meeting was held at the Queens Hotel in Southsea with a magnificent location and impressive Edwardian features. The key speaker was a very focused female, Donna Jones, who is the first female Leader of Portsmouth City Council who clearly has an ambitious strategy for her time in office.

We all agree that ‘Women in Business’ is a critical area for expansion, wherever they are. Mums are everywhere and mustn’t be ignored within that picture. Sometimes it doesn’t make financial sense to go out to work simply to pay for childcare yet many businesses are built on kitchen tables and go on to spectacular achievements, all during school hours and holidays whilst the family is growing.

I was in Portsmouth to make sure than MNC members know that their 2015 subscription includes a gift subscription to FOXY Lady Drivers Club. Founders Nicky Chisholm and Sara Guiel appreciate that we can help busy women save money on motoring bills providing this is done wisely. This is where FOXY is unique alongside other motoring clubs. Yes we have moneysaving offers, preferential insurance rates, approved garages and new car buying deals but we always put safety alongside the need for good value.

This matters because the motor industry isn’t licensed so if you buy cheap regardless of quality checks you may find out why it was so cheap afterwards. Few motorists realise that garages aren’t registered and mechanics don’t have to be licensed – hence why so many garages and car showrooms have been known to rip women off.

NB: We only work with motoring-related businesses that meet our demanding standards and we then share feedback about them to be sure they are getting things right. Or else…

FOXY
info@foxyladydrivers.com

PS: If any other organisation would like to discuss a group scheme for female members or employees, like WMS Group in Thame perhaps, please contact me direct to discuss your requirements.