This is the first in a series of articles by Transport Women Australia Ltd.

Recruitment – the main challenge facing the Australian Transport Industry

Even as Australia’s demand for road transport increases exponentially, the pool of people to drive the trucks, service them and manage logistical operations is shrinking every day. Recruitment is now the single biggest challenge facing the Australian road transport industry.

Transport Women Australia Limited (TWAL) Director Melissa Strong, is Human Resources Manager at Lindsay Transport, one of Australia’s best-known logistics providers. In this role, she is only too aware of the issues.

‘A number of factors are combining to create this problem. The first is our ageing population: there are simply fewer young people entering the workforce, so the absolute numbers available are shrinking.

‘The second factor is quite simply money. The transport industry is famous for its narrow margins, and is facing stiff competition from the mining industry. The miners’ demand for heavy vehicle drivers and workshop staff is matched only by the high wages they’re able to pay.

‘Young men come here to do their apprenticeship as a mechanic,’ says Melissa, ‘and the moment they finish they’re off to the mines. After a couple of years there they can buy a house, so you can’t blame them, but the transport companies simply can’t compete on wages.’

The Global Financial Crisis has had an impact in the other direction, as many drivers who would normally be retired are applying for jobs.

‘Ten per cent of our drivers are over 60,’ says Melissa, ‘and I had a 70-year old apply last week. But rather than have them out driving, we’d like to find ways to help these experienced drivers share their skills and knowledge with new drivers during a transition to retirement. Those young people who do apply turn up with a truck licence and are keen to go, but they know nothing about loading a truck, driving in bad weather, or what to do if your load shifts when you’re miles from anywhere.’

Legislation, improvements in safety regulations, and competition among companies can also create difficulties.

‘Years ago if you had a licence you could turn up and be driving a truck that day,’ says Melissa, ‘nowadays the regulations are a bit stricter and some companies, especially the smaller ones, have such a demand for drivers that they’re prepared to turn a blind eye to some of the requirements. This of course carries all manner of risks and distorts the labour market.’

Lack of training and career opportunities are often cited as a reason why the industry is not seen as an attractive proposition, but more of a ‘last resort’.

‘Yes, the idea that if things get really bad “You can always become a truck driver” is hard to shake,’ says Melissa, ‘but with margins so low, companies simply can’t afford to have a truck off the road while they train drivers—this can make it difficult to sell the longer-term prospects.’

Could immigration be the solution?

‘I know that NatRoad have been speaking with the Department of Immigration about this,’ says Melissa, ‘but as the industry isn’t considered to require ‘skilled’ labour, it rarely appears on reports as having a skills shortage. There was a discussion about individual arrangements with companies—designed to prevent possible exploitation of foreign workers—but realistically, the demand is so high that companies aren’t looking for low-paid workers: they’ll take any workers they can get who can do the job.’

Melissa believes that a concerted campaign to improve the image of the industry would work wonders.

‘Queensland did this with the mining industry, and they genuinely changed people’s perceptions of what the industry did, why it was important and how it affected their daily lives. We need to do the same with road transport. If you remind people that the milk on their Weet-Bix got there on a truck, they can see that their personal relationship with the industry is a lot closer than they realised.’

‘As this shortage worsens, the costs of logistics will necessarily rise, and those costs will be passed on, either to the customer or to the primary producer, or both. I believe that a major effort now to address some of these issues would go a long way to avoiding a crisis in the future.

‘The major transport associations and the peak body the Australian Trucking Association (ATA), and of course TWAL, need to work together and plan a campaign to promote the industry, improve its image and show its career potential. Once people get into the industry they rarely leave, because there’s a huge amount of job satisfaction and mateship that you simply don’t find working in a bank.

‘I have no doubt that if the associations demonstrated a willingness to take action and promote the industry, all of the big transport companies would get behind them and push, but it needs to happen sooner rather than later.’