Women are often the butt of jokes when it comes to driving.

Men tend to believe they are the superior sex behind the steering wheel, but Sonia Atkin could teach most of them a thing or two!

Sonia is among Britain’s growing band of female truck driving instructors, after joining her father’s firm, Atkin’s LGV training, in Drighlington seven years ago.

The 36-year-old mum-of-two from Birkenshaw regularly turns heads when she drives the company’s articulated lorry, but unlike her fellow truckers who are transporting goods up and down the country, Sonia’s role is teaching men, and women, how to do it.

Sonia’s ambition began when she passed her driving test at 17. Her first set of wheels was an ice-cream van!

Growing up with an artic and an ice-cream van parked outside the family home, it was a natural progression for Sonia to enter the family business. Her three brothers work in fields ranging from construction to teaching driving instructors.

“I have grown up with brothers, so that is why I am more into a man’s world,” says Sonia. Before she was eligible to drive, she helped her father, John, in the family ice-cream business, which he ran before developing the one-to-one truck driving tuition business.

Sonia holds Class 2 and Class 1 licences, enabling her to drive lorries up to 38 tonnes.

When she started out delivering electrical equipment for a Leeds company, it was unusual to see a woman behind the wheel of a heavy goods vehicle.

She soon realised the difficulty women faced trying to get a foot-hold in a male-dominated profession when she pursued an ambition to drive tipper trucks for the construction industry.

“I went for a job and as soon as they found out I was a woman I was more or less turned away,” says Sonia.

Motherhood led to a brief break from trucking, but Sonia got back into it when she joined the family firm.

“My dad kept asking me to come and train for him because he had a lot of women wanting to learn to drive wagons. One day I thought I would do it,” says Sonia.

She has become accustomed to other drivers doing a double-take when they see her behind the wheel.

“When I’ve been training on the artic I do get a few looks when I’m driving the wagon back,” she says.

Sonia is also mindful of the fact that some men may not take too kindly to being taught by a woman. She always checks with them first. “When I first started I was very nervous because I thought they would not want me to teach them to drive,” she says.

Today female truckers are more common-place on the UK’s roads, although they remain the minority.

Sonia estimates that Atkin’s trained ten women truckers in 2011. “We get a few women through, but it’s mostly a man’s world,” she says.

While John still oversees the business, Sonia is now more involved in running it. When the opportunity arises to get behind the wheel, though, she grasps it. She loves driving, and her daughters – aged nine and 13 – are also showing interest, occasionally helping their grandfather to wash the wagons.

“I love driving – I would drive every day if I could. It’s like being the king of the road when you are high up,” says Sonia.

She would like to see more women coming into the industry. “If they love driving they can give it a go,” she says.

Proud father John says: “I’ve always said it’s a good job for women. There are a few about, but if I said we train one a month compared to 30 men, I may be exaggerating.

“Women make good drivers and they probably have fewer accidents than men.”

Wendy Priestley, who appeared in Channel Four programme Mother Truckers, broadcast earlier this year, says there are more female truck drivers on the road since she started in the 1980s.

“There are five million truck-drivers on the road and two per cent of those are women,” says Wendy, who co-founded Lady Truck Drivers UK 18 months ago.

“We are all over Britain and some of the women in our club are driving around Spain and to the Middle East and back.”

Sitting alongside her uncle in the cab of his truck when she was a little girl gave Wendy, 65, her first taste of life on the road.

“I used to scream blue murder to sit in the truck, and I remember when I was six saying ‘I am going to be a truck driver’. Everybody patted me on the head and said it was sweet,” she recalls.

Wendy says trucking is ideal for women with families as it offers flexibility. She chose to be an instructor after her divorce. “I thought ‘here I am, a single parent with two children. I couldn’t go waltzing off to Spain and Italy’.”

Now Wendy and her husband are busy passing their skills on to the next generation through the driving school they set up five years ago. Wendy has also published a series of Mother Trucker books.

She says since being on the TV programme she has been inundated with requests from women wanting to become truckers.

Having “a bit of attitude” helps, says Wendy.

“When I was first learning to drive, my instructor said trucking is 90 per cent attitude and ten per cent the skill of handling the vehicle. Your attitude has a knock-on effect on your skill.”

She believes for many women the appeal is the trucks. “When my uncle drove them you needed muscles to get them round corners, but the modern truck has power steering and they have lighter peddles,” she says. “It isn’t much different to driving a car, except it’s big and you’re pulling your ‘living room’ behind you!”