Machinery is in the blood for The Digger Girl

Instagram is definitely the place to be on social media these days, at the moment it appears to be a much friendlier place to share one’s material and day to day experiences. Its also a place where there is an ever-growing number of plant & machinery related social media influencers, among them is Amy Underwood aka the_digger_girl.

Amy Underwood (25) hails from the west coast of Scotland and has been in and around plant and machinery for most of her life. She has been working for her father’s business, John Underwood Plant Hire Contractor Ltd since leaving school, but even before leaving school she could often be found operating a piece of equipment to help her dad out during the school holidays, or even on the odd occasion skip off school for a day or two.

Talking about her life in plant so far Amy said, “I did my plant operatives apprenticeship in 2012/2013 at The National Construction College in Norfolk. I actually received 4 apprentice of year awards in that time. Then at the age of 18 I went on to train and complete a course for my HGV licence”.

Amy continued, “After I finished my apprenticeship there was still a lot of learning to be done. I often used to sit in the footwell of the Volvo EC140 watching my dad work away then he’d let me hop on and do a bit, while teaching me a few tricks as I went. To be honest it was a long process with a lot of disagreements along the way”.

Asked if she has a favourite machine Amy said, “I can’t really say which is my favourite because like everything, they all have their pros and cons, and of course different sizes suit different jobs, but having said that our Kubota KX57-4 is always my go to machine”.

Photo: Amy with her "go to" machine the Kubota KX57-4.

Amy has recently started attending college at nights doing a construction management course, but says she doesn’t currently have any plans to go down the management route in the foreseeable future. “I’m really quite content operating at the moment and really enjoy working alongside my dad” she said.

Talking about being a woman in the construction sector Amy said, “It’s difficult being a girl in a man dominated industry, for example I originally wanted to be a mechanic and went round literally every garage in town, and not one single person was interested. Hopefully with more girls getting into it, it will change the prospective of others and make it normal. I’ve been very lucky with my dad and having all the opportunities I’ve had so far, he’s my biggest supporter and above all else my best friend”.

Pictured above: Amy with her dad and best friend John Underwood.

Amy and her dad get to work in some stunning locations, as we see in this shot below, with dad on the Hyundai and Amy on her preferred machine the Kubota KX57-4.

Its great to see the women in construction message getting out there especially on Instagram. With the skills shortage the country will be facing in the future, its essential that we attract more females into our industry.

Amy has recently passed the 10k follower’s milestone on Instagram, if you use the platform please pop over and give her a follow too @the_digger_girl