With her perfectly-styled raven hair, big eyelashes and model make-up, Shannan Paterson isn't exactly the traditional image of the UK’s trucking industry.
But the 27-year-old is hoping she can be the face of a new generation to get behind the wheel and help ease the country’s HGV driver shortage.
Shannan runs her family’s firm that helps wannabe lorry drivers get their licence, and she is on a one woman mission to overhaul the male dominated industry.
She’s welcomed cameras into her haulage firm, HGV Training Midlands, based in Willenhall, West Midlands, for a new BBC3 documentary Queen of Trucks.
The fly-on-the-wall show lifts the lid on what it takes to start a new career behind the wheel of some of the biggest trucks on UK roads.
With just 1% of British lorry drivers being female, Shannan says she’s hoping to inspire a new generation of women to hit the highways.
“We’re trying to break that mould of it being just for men,” she explains.
“Our office is just women so we're fighting back a little bit!
“There’s a stigma about women doing this job and there really shouldn’t be. The more women we can get through the better the industry will be for it.
“Obviously we see men all the time, every day, so it is nice as a woman to see another female come in, you have that extra little bit of, ‘Go on girl, I hope she does it!’
“I just hope people watching the show will realise anyone can get behind the wheel, not just men.”
Shannan, who is expecting her first child with partner Luke, took over the family firm from her father, a Gulf War veteran, when her mother tragically died five years ago.
As well as helping to raise her sister, seven-year-old Bonnie, she manages the company and has hired a team of women to help her in the office.
Shannan says that when it comes to tackling the intensive two week course required to gain an HGV license, women often out smart the guys.
And the sassy new drivers she’s had through her doors are not afraid to keep it glamorous behind the wheel.
She explains: “Over the years of seeing women do their training, they tend to do a lot better than men!
“Women are better listeners, they ask the right questions and they often fly through the course.
“We just need more of them to want to do it! I can understand why some are put off, it’s a grubby job, or at least it can be.
“But I’ve trained one woman who I often see out on the road and she’s got full hair and make-up whenever she’s behind the wheel, it’s great to see!
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“We also had a trans woman come through and she’s been fully accepted by everyone, it just goes to show that while it might be male dominated, it is actually a really accepting industry.”
Shannan, who grew up wanting to be a “fairy princess”, is no stranger to sexual discrimination, with many men who turn up to her yard thinking she’s a helper rather than the boss.
But as she continues to build her trucking empire, the mum-to-be says she hopes her BBC3 show will encourage others to consider a trucking career.
“It was difficult when I was younger, especially as a woman, your intelligence gets insulted a little bit,” she says.
“People are like, ‘Oh, you don't know anything about lorries’, but I do, in fact I know more than most of the guys who come through our door.
“Lorry driving could be a really good career, let’s face it, it was the HGV drivers that kept this country moving during the pandemic.
“I think that shows that no matter what’s going on, there’s always work, we’ll always need drivers out on the road.
“So it would be a great career for anyone thinking about joining.”
- Queen of Trucks airs on BBC3, Monday at 8pm.
