Several transport associations have come together to form a new heavy vehicle reform group focusing on creating change in the areas of driver licensing and heavy vehicle workers.

The new Heavy Vehicle Licencing and Employment Pathways working group is set to allow the road transport industry to be recognised in driving the current processes of heavy vehicle licencing by implementing necessary training structures to ensure a strong employment and career pathway within the industry.

A recent meeting between a group of transport association representatives and Senator Glenn Sterle at Parliament House saw the establishment of a workforce action plan that will underwrite the implementation of a structured training regime drawing from existing models to deliver a higher quality of professional drivers into the heavy vehicle road transport industry.

The meeting followed the Heavy Vehicle Road Transport Safety Roundtable attended by 37 industry representatives from transport companies, company representatives from key supply chains, unions and transport and industry associations.

Following this, most state associations have already created their own driver development programs to call for industry to do more to create trained and job-ready drivers, with the current licensing system impacting the industry’s ability to attract and employ long-term skilled drivers.

The new working group is borne from frustration with the state and federal government agencies’ lack of urgency in what the industry sees as its most critical issue in the driver shortage.

The group will clearly project the training requirements required before achieving a heavy vehicle licence and ensure that the pathways for career development are in place for all new entrants to heavy vehicle driving.

With a huge bank of training resource material, working knowledge and practical experience, the group says it is now incumbent upon this group to have these resources ratified, funded and implemented. The action plan was formulated at the meeting with more meetings scheduled in the near future to ensure that the outcomes expected are delivered as quickly as possible.

The federal government has agreed to Skills Australia Workforce plan 2024.

“We now call on the government to implement the recommendations for an apprenticeship scheme in the transport and logistics industry,” the group says.

“The heavy vehicle road transport industry needs skilled, trained and safe drivers who see the employment pathway as one that will ensure a growing career and obvious returns. The current systemic block is in the institutionalised licencing system that has not listened to the road freight industry.

“We look forward to driving the change.”