Time to Take Our Head Out of the Sand

Looking at the results of the survey conducted by the International Road Transport Union in partnership with NatRoad, it is clear that, for the trucking industry, it’s time to take our head out of the sand and wake up to the implications of our drastic shortage of drivers, needed to take the industry forward.

Natroad describe this as a crisis for the trucking industry, which can also be characterised as a crisis for the Australian economy. If our industry cannot keep up with the demands, in terms of transport for the economy, we move from being a driver of economic growth to being a sheet anchor slowing down economic growth.

This is not where the trucking industry needs to be and it genuinely is time to take our head out of the sand and realise that we are falling way short in the need to replace the drivers who are all approaching retirement, with little new blood coming into the gameto keep our vibrant industry alive over the next 30 years.

The trucking industry has managed to survive relatively well as the number of drivers over 60 or over 70 has increased, but that is going to come a point at which the situation will be unsustainable.

The survey tells us that there is a shortage of over 26,000 drivers needed to simply fill the gap in the numbers at the moment.

The survey also found that 50 per cent of all truck drivers were over the age of 55, and the average age of drivers is 49. It also tells us that the number of women in the trucking workforce is just 6.5 per cent of the driver population.

These worrying figures look even worse when we also examine the projected increase in the freight task between now and 2050. There is going to be a lot more freight being handled on the road, if the economy continues as it has to date, and this is going to mean a very high demand for competent truck drivers on our highways.

Yes, productivity gains like A-doubles and B-triples and the rest, are going to improve productivity up to a point, but there is still going to be a massive need for skilled operators to enable trucks to get from A to B over large distances across the country.

Another aspect of this problem is that the urgency cannot be overemphasised at this point. Something needs to be done about this situation now because delaying any decisions on ways to increase the available driver pool will take considerable time to take affect and we need an influx of new young drivers now, not 15 or 20 years into the future.