The UK transport and logistics industry’s most exceptional women have been recognised at the 2025 Everywoman in Transport & Logistics Awards. Not only that, but the top accolade has gone to a freight train driver. Heather Waugh, who drives for Freightliner, brought the house down when her name was announced at the gala event in London on Thursday, 26 June.
Delegates gathered in the luxurious surroundings of London’s Park Plaza hotel and conference complex on the South Bank of the Thames. Scots-born Heather Waugh crowned a high-flying year of achievement by taking away the honours at the prestigious ceremony. In front of over 500 guests, a sell-out record in the 18th year of the awards, Heather took the opportunity of the spotlight to celebrate the women who are reshaping the sector through leadership, innovation and vision.
A quarter of the workforce
Readers of RailFreight.com will need no introduction to Heather Waugh. She has featured here before, and not just for her driving and mentoring skills. The citation rolled out a long list of charitable and community work, and made clear the inspirational nature of her extracurricular work.
The Everywoman awards are aimed squarely at inspiring the next generation of female talent to pursue careers in the transport and logistics sectors. “Despite progress being made to close the gender gap, women account for only a quarter (26%) of the [UK] transport industry’s 1.5 million employees, and 20% of the two million people working in logistics and warehousing,” said the organisers.
Campaigning on welfare
“Attaining this award is beyond my wildest dreams,” said Heather, in her typically modest manner. She went on to say that Freightliner represented her second family and was just as entitled to the recognition she received at the Awards, despite putting in over 1000 hours of her own time to railway-related charitable work. She had a simple message for all women in the rail freight sector and in transport and logistics at large. “Keep doing what you do,” she said, as encouragement to champion the place of women in the sector.
Perhaps most pertinent, Heather has campaigned to improve welfare conditions for women working in the freight industry by getting female toilets installed. She has also raised the very real concerns over facilities in the driver’s cab, a cross-gender issue, that has been a problem since the first days of the railways, and still not fully resolved in the year that Britain celebrates 200 years of train travel.
Leading the evolution
After witnessing how drivers can struggle with their mental health, she campaigned to get them better support. Heather remains an advocate for mental health awareness. She is a volunteer with Samaritans, a British support and counselling organisation, and has supported her advocacy with video content. Heather is on the steering group for Rail Wellbeing Live and has been appointed a trustee of Women in Rail.
In all, eighteen awards were made at the London event. “This year’s cohort of inspiring finalists and winners demonstrates the huge variety of ways in which women are driving innovation and growth,” said Maxine Benson, co-founder at Everywoman. “These women are not just participating in the industry’s evolution; they’re leading it. Their inspiring stories demonstrate the wealth of opportunities available to the next generation of female talent.”