Truck Driver Recruitment - Foreign Nationals

Yep... They want a 21 y/o with 5 years industry experience...

There seems to be an opening for a Certificate in Heavy Trucking. What about a cadet scheme to take in 21 year olds and give them a thorough theory course then mate them up with senior instructor drivers for say 3 months. At the end of 3 months give them their certificate and employ them on probation for say 6 months before becoming full time employees.

This would be run in-house by the bigger companies ensuring the cadets got full training to company standards. If you had been through the Toll or Linfox cadet driver scheme others in the industry would know that your knowledge and skills had been professionally assessed and your chances of a job would be very high. It would also raise and standardise the industry skills.

Companies would be very keen to keep their cadets and progress them through the ranks because they knew them and they knew the company.

just an idea.

Lang

Lang wrote: There seems to be an opening for a Certificate in Heavy Trucking. What about a cadet scheme to take in 21 year olds and give them a thorough theory course then mate them up with senior instructor drivers for say 3 months. At the end of 3 months give them their certificate and employ them on probation for say 6 months before becoming full time employees.

This would be run in-house by the bigger companies ensuring the cadets got full training to company standards. If you had been through the Toll or Linfox cadet driver scheme others in the industry would know that your knowledge and skills had been professionally assessed and your chances of a job would be very high. It would also raise and standardise the industry skills.

Companies would be very keen to keep their cadets and progress them through the ranks because they knew them and they knew the company.

just an idea.

Lang

Lang let us for a moment call truck driving a trade, as it has the same problem of keeping the people in the job that can do the job as all trades have, we can then bring them all under the bullshit cry we all hear ''trade shortage'' and we hear that one every week, out of my electrical trades course there are only two still working in the trade, and as dual tradie I only work maybe 1/3 of my working life in the electrical trade and maybe a 1/4 at my other trade a welder, so were is the trade shortage 1 and 1/3, so there is another 13 and 2/3 electricans out there doing something else for better pay and better conditions multiply that by the 42 years that have gone pass after I finished and that's just for one tech. My Mate who owns a engineering shop is the only one out of thirty, the Night that Jeff Fenech fought the Mexican there was 22 truckies in the tv room at the Gilgandra, 20 of us were electricians I was only 30 something at the time so it's not a new thing. I not that long ago I was work in a management roll in a big mine expansion were we needed 200 Electricians to do the job, a lot of the competition did not quote because they said you would never get the men to do the job, the company paid $12 a hour more and a few better conditions than those around and we could of had the pick of 400.
Everyone talks of a free market economy but no one wants to pull a few Dollars out of their pocket and make it work in their favour

Lang, that sounds like every big company 30 years ago in all trades. It died an instant death when mandatory apprentice ratios were made illegal to include in workplace agreements. One manager suddenly makes great numbers, 10 years later company is crying they can't find trained staff to replace retirees.

Jarrod.

Jarrod

I am not suggesting a multi year apprenticeship just a certificate course for 3 months which would be on-the-job training but with proper structured supervision. Maybe the theory side could be done as night classes in the cadet's own time - full road rule knowledge, trucking regulations and paperwork, loading, safety, basic mechanics, truck operations (tie down, stacking, tarping etc). Maybe even give them a forklift licence.

Lang

I agree. It's a similar thing, though. The management have to be convinced that it is an investment, rather than an expense. A bit of long-term thinking required, not just how do I get my KPI's?

Jarrod.

Jarrod.

I cant imagine ever hitting the roads in a semi again......fines for some tiny mistake are outrageous,.....lose a months pay ,for taking a wrong turn ......This is the advantage to a lot of employers of third world drivers .....driver gets a big penalty,no worries ,he s on the plane tomorrow.,fines never paid,incriminating statements about the employer never made..

Getting fresh blood in the industry is always going to be tricky. It is not as if it is a 445K Hyundai van you are putting inttheir control it is a huge investment but someone has to take the chance.
When I got out of panel beating by the time I was 19 I went into earth moving. I was shown how to start it, check the fluids and shut it down. Quickly shown how to push a full blade of clay into a stock pile and then shown how to use the front end loader. The next part of the lesson was the big part. I was told that in 2 weeks 15 trucks will be doing 3-4 loads a day, make sure you have enough stock piled, and I did.
Next I wanted to get into operating a backhoe. First place I went to was a bit of a joker but he said drive this over theroad and dig a trench through that stock pile and I will be over there soon. 20 minutes later he was there and I had a trench through the stock pile. He said that was my machine start in the morning. Now this was a big chance he took as well as his contract was to a number of local councils and they did not want to pay for a learner so he dropped his hourly rate for a short time. Yes, I did pull a few water pipes while boxing out but within a month boss man was on full rates and I was improving. He did this to another 4 blokes that I know of so he was very generous with his time and money but it did pay off for him as we did our best for him for many years.

For over half my working career I was an employer not an employee.

I learnt very early the better you look after and treat your staff the more loyal and hard working they will be.

We were successful because our staff had our backs all the time and would do their utmost to keep things running smoothly.

Sure we had a couple of drop kicks but on the whole you reap what you sow.