Truckie shortage

Wheels not in motion: Australia running short of truckies.
May 6, 2016 - Melbourne 'Age'.
The average age of a truck driver in Australia is 47, a survey has found, leading to warnings of a looming skills shortage. Photo: Pat Scala Australia is rapidly running short of truck drivers, and is on course for an economic hit in the next decade as transport companies increasingly fail to find enough staff to meet the growing demand to move freight.
A large-scale survey of the trucking industry has found that it is ageing, overwhelmingly male and on the cusp of a big slump in driver numbers, with one in five working drivers at retirement age.
The average age of an Australian truck driver is 47, the survey found, up from 43 just two years ago.
Less than one in five truck drivers in Australia is aged under 30, while women make up just 3 per cent of the workforce.
Projections show the amount of freight required to be moved by truck in Australia will double between 2010 and 2030 and Victoria's Transport Department has suggested in a 2010 report that the industry must step up its recruitment rates by 150 per cent to meet demand.
The looming skills shortage is considered so urgent that the $40 billion road transport industry will this year take radical action and begin touring primary schools to encourage children to consider a career as a truck driver.
The recruitment drive is allied with a new truck safety campaign targeted at children, Stop, Look Wave, which launched in Melbourne this week with the involvement of grade one students from Glen Iris Primary School.
The program is being led by Volvo, which manufactures heavy vehicles in Australia and also commissioned the survey of 547 transport businesses.
Australia is desperate need of more truckies. Photo: Paul Rovere Peter Voorhoeve, president and chief executive of Volvo Australia, admitted the truck driving profession has an image problem, which contributes to its failure to attract young workers, but said stereotypes about the industry were outdated.
"People still think, the blue singlet, the old, dusty truck ... enormous stick shift in the middle," Mr Voorhoeve said. "There is no stick shift any more."
In truth, modern heavy vehicles are more technologically advanced than most cars, with safety features including lane change assistance, emergency braking and satellite tracking, he said.
Despite technological progress, truck driving remains one of the least safe professions in Australia, with a fatality rate of 20 deaths per 100,000 workers, which is 12 times above average, according to Safe Work Australia.
Trucks, which make up 10 per cent of road traffic, are also over-represented in fatal crashes.
Last year, 210 deaths on Australia's roads involved a heavy vehicle, comprising 17 per cent of the road toll.
The industry is also hamstrung by regulations that prohibit young people from driving the largest heavy vehicles on the road, such as B-Doubles, until age 25, meaning few school-leavers take up the profession.
The shortage led to unsuccessful industry appeals to government two years ago for permission to employ foreign drivers on 457 visas.
Mr Voorhoeve said Volvo was setting up an academy to employ and train prospective drivers as a way to recruit staff under the age of 25.
Already, with 46 per cent of surveyed businesses reporting a skills shortage now, trucks are sitting idle for want of a driver.
"It's not an issue for me selling trucks, it's an issue for Australian society at large," Mr Voorhoeve said.
< www.theage.com.au/victoria/wheels-not-in...20160506-goo7o5.html >

Thank You for your post Roderick............



In response.....


Where would anyone begin to start their answer?





chocs

Have a think about it....
"Ya get out what ya put in"




Truckin......the old days
By Rick Hayman aka Chocs


Sundy morning, in the dust and dirt
At the transport yard, where my Dad worked
They ‘d be loadin trucks with all kinds of freight
As the day went by, they’d be runnin real late
Dogs n chains n gates an tarps
No rest here, till the last one parked

They were rugged men with sunburnt arms
Cursed and swore but meant no harm
Good mates here, at the transport yard
All the same, with the one brush tarred


They were finally finished, no time to spare
The diesel smoke, soon filled the air
As they started em up one by one
They’d be headin out, in the arvo sun

Some head north, others head west
Out on the road, they’d join the rest
Crossing the nation as nightfall fell
Travelling the roads they knew so well

They’d drive all night at a crackin pace
No time to stop, not a minute to waste
Till they got to the border..and all stopped to eat
But not for too long, they had deadlines to meet.

The race was on as the clock went three
Things to do and places to be
All these trucks, what a sight to see...
Flyin along, just my Dad and me.

That was years ago and its all changed now
Ropin and tarpin, they wouldn’t know how
Its curtain sides and autoshifts
No joey boxes or 2 speed diffs...

Gone are the days of helpin ya mates
We don’t fuel trucks, we don’t load freight
We don’t change tyres, cos we don’t carry spares
Just get on the phone, tell someone who cares...

The singlets and thongs are no longer seen
Just bright flouro tops, all washed and clean
Head down to the depot and you’ll see what i mean
Truckin today, is a whole different scene....


Things sure have changed since i got a start.....
Long live the legends of this dyin art

Good one Chocs, very apt.

.
.
Not bad Chocs.......
........I don't think there is an easy answer at all.........
All the young ones want to play with electrical gadgets..........
Talking to them at an early age to get their thoughts runnin in the
right direction might help.............but...............
then,.... they might want to go from school straight into a B Double or what ever..........
.........................Billy...........................

Chocs,Very Good work Mate..

I reckon The Answer (or another Can of Worms) is in the Last Sentence of the Article That Roderick put up...

"It's not an issue for me selling trucks, it's an issue for Australian society at large," Mr Voorhoeve said.

Just my 2 cents.

Well said Chocs, love your work...
As Seed says, an issue for the whole country.. The nation as whole has spent years and years making it harder and harder for small business, and gradually turning us into a nation of employed (or unemployed, as the case may be)
There is no way the small independent can compete agains the big companies, whether it is fuel, supermarkets, transport, or any business you choose to name. Just the OHS and compliance rules alone mean that the small bloke eventually gives up, and quietly goes away, with no one to cry over his absence - witness the whole sorry RSRT sage that has just gone on recently. It was a close run thing.
Years ago, truckies, and people like them, were the ones we looked up to and admired, the whole "Anzac spirit, have a go, make work and make do"- now, we hate them because they are white, middle aged, noisy, smelly, and in your way when you are trying to run the kids to school and pick up your latte in your SUV...
And I did hear a story a while ago that i thought was pretty apt-
"A fellow walks in to a Porsche dealership, and asks how much for a new 911 sport. the salesman answers One hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The fellow says "I'll give you sixty grand" to which the salesman replies "no way", so the bloke walks out- and tells all and sundry that there is a shortage of Porsches, and he can't get one...
They say the same with a shortage of drivers..
And I must say that the media, government, and the public in general has spent most of it's time slagging off on truckies-"drug dealing, speeding juggernauts", not to mention the continual harrasment of poor bloody truckies just trying to make a living and so on- and then they ask why there is a shortage of them???? HUH???
There'd be no shortage of drivers if they were given the respect that they deserve. But maybe we as a whole, need to get together and EARN that respect....So perhaps we have ourselves to blame..
Food for thought?

Hey Chocs, does that qualify as a rant????
Cheers!
Rich

Chocs, you certainly have a way with words. Very good..... Prodrive, I like your analogy with the Porsche.....Most companies have champagne taste, with a beer budget, when it comes to drivers.

I figure this problem is a lot more complex than it appears. Everyone is pushing his own barrow with those having other ideas cast as some sort of opposition.

The only reason for a company to exist is to make a profit. Their total interest is to make their business as efficient as possible - new trucks, auto boxes, contract tyre changers, specialist trailer loaders and specialist drivers, GPS tracking etc etc are all a part of this. It is in nobody's interest to have pissed off uncooperative staff.

Complaining is a natural form of life. How many of us have Uncle Charlie who worked as a lathe operator for 40 years at the same company whose management were real bastards? Charlie must have been a good operator or he would not have kept his job but he could have walked across the road and worked for someone else at any time in that 40 years.

The hard thing with all this efficiency is anyone in their mix (this means subbies) has to be subject to the the same rules. There is absolutely no reason for a company to employ subbies unless they are as efficient and cheaper (including the cost of capital equipment investment) as having an all company fleet and staff. This goes for quite big transport operators on the second rung who have to toe the giants' line not just single operators.

The aim of the game is to shift freight around the nation. It is great to raise your eyebrows and reminisce "Those young blokes driving those Ford Model T trucks would not know the head from the arse of a horse, having to get to work an hour early to harness up and spend an hour at the end of the day feeding the bastards. They hop in, drive away, hop out, go home. The lost skills will stuff the transport industry"

Many professional musterers don't even own a horse anymore, just a Landcruiser ute and a couple of quad bikes often with a helicopter to help.

Time marches on. The lost joy of being King of the Road at 3 o'clock in the morning listening to the song of your 120hp Perkins while the Hay Plains flash past at 40mph on a warm night will never return. We are privileged to have experienced that and have something that nobody today can ever have.

It would take me 4 trips from Sydney to Adelaide at 40mph to carry what a B-Double would do in one trip at 60mph. Today it is all about technology and the machine. A good driver needs few of the old skills or knowledge not directly related to steering the truck. There are exceptions but can the current crop of cattle road-train drivers in their airconditioned cabs compare themselves with somebody changing a diff in his Foden under a tree on the way to Wave Hill?

The laws of supply and demand rule and if there is a real shortage of drivers the system will train them and pay and benefits will increase to make it more attractive. The one who will suffer is the subbie who just does not have the economy of scale to compete with giants.

We are seeing the end of an era but "We were there!"

There is no real shortage of truck drivers. There is a shortage of people prepared to work for the money and conditions currently offered.