The transport industry is currently reeling in the midst of a truck driver shortage. While there are solutions in the works, one operator is taking matters into his own hands.
Of the many things that Mark Tobin had to worry about when COVID-19 first hit Australia, having enough truck drivers wasn’t one of them.
But now the Followmont Transport CEO and director is struggling to manage the ever-increasing freight tasks piling on his warehouse with the waning number he now has at his disposal.
“We just don’t have bums on truck seats,” Tobin told ATN. “We’ve been trying to get truck drivers in the door, but we just don’t have enough.”
Tobin says he first noticed he had a lack of trained truck drivers when COVID restrictions and isolation rules prevented many drivers from operating. When they eventually could get back into the truck, many were turned off by the poor truck stop conditions and gruelling tasks facing the freight industry as the supply chain began to rely heavily on the sector to remain mobile.
But, in the months that have followed the COVID pandemic, Tobin says nothing has changed and many truck drivers haven’t returned to the transport industry.
“It hasn’t gotten any better for us at all,” Tobin said. “We’ve been inundated with freight tasks, delivering to people in the supply chain, and that’s added pressure to what we have to do without the adequate amount of drivers on board.”
Tobin stresses the problem isn’t an easy fix. Transport companies simply can’t quickly train new drivers and pluck them from obscurity for arduous truck runs. Tobin says Followmont Transport has had to tread a fine line between prioritising the safety of drivers while also completing as many tasks as possible.
“You can’t ever jeopardise a driver’s safety and we have zero tolerance for that,” Tobin said. “We’ve been trying to get drivers in while making sure they’re competent.
“You can’t just throw a new truck driver straight in a truck. They require training and educating before they work and it’s a process.”
Yet the transport company CEO says this spike in truck driver shortages isn’t a new issue. For years he says the cultural landscape of truck driving has failed to attract a younger generation of workers. He says the average age for truck drivers continues to push above 50 and that a lack of youth will only exacerbate the issue in coming years.
A nation-wide shortage
It’s not a problem specifically haunting Followmont Transport. Gary Mahon, CEO of the Queensland Trucking Association (QTA), says he is witnessing more and more companies reporting skilled driver shortages in recent times. From Mahon’s perspective the problem has worsened over the past few years, with the pandemic adding to an aging profile of drivers and growing demand for supply chain tasks, creating an acute problem that’s hurting the entire Australian transport industry.
He says he’s seen a wide range of problems emerge from transport operators failing to retain enough competent truck drivers.
“It’s an ever-shrinking group of people that you can recruit from these days,” Mahon told ATN. “Some companies are doing better than others but it depends on the nature of the work and whether it’s a long distance or urban-based business.
“Our concern has now turned towards how to better recruit drivers to bolster the industry before it’s too late.”
RELATED ARTICLE: Transport companies on the brink of disaster
Mahon says many truck drivers decided to leave the industry during the COVID period due to the testing restrictions placed on workers. Although the road freight sector kept trucking along, constant PCR tests, cabin cleans, border arrangements and self-isolation protocols turned drivers away. When they did finally get out on the roads, Mahon says drivers were confronted with poor truck stop conditions.
Yet Mahon can only praise the thousands of truck drivers who kept transporting goods during COVID lockdowns, even if they eventually chose to leave the industry.
“I take my hat off to those drivers as they were the people out there day and night keeping up with the requirements,” Mahon said. “I don’t think many in authority fully understand what drivers had to weather during that period.”
Mahon has been in and around the transport industry for all of his life, but even he hasn’t seen a period like now where freight operators have prime movers lined up ready to go without drivers. He says it’s creating a stunting effect where operators want to expand to meet the growing freight demand but are hamstrung by a lack of drivers to absorb that growth.
A range of fixes
Both Mahon and Tobin agree on the solution. For years the federal government has been teasing a jobs-ready initiative that would provide apprenticeships and traineeships for young people to hasten their safe transition into the truck driving industry. Mahon says this system wouldn’t just haphazardly usher in a flood of young drivers not prepared to face the dangers of Australia’s freight routes. Instead, he says it would lift the safety standard of all drivers in the country.
 |
|
A Followmont driver
|
“The jobs-ready program will improve the safety of all drivers in the industry,” Mahon said. “We know there’s a range of people with a truck license who can’t get a job because they lack experience.
“This is a different and better way of developing the experience so that employers know what they’ve been through and can assess them through mentoring. They then know that, when the driver has finished the program, they will have a capable employee on their hands.”
Mahon says a program like this used to happen regularly in the industry 30 to 40 years ago, where young people worked their way through the industry to eventually become drivers. But he says this initiative is an accelerated and more formal version of this idea, which can provide a pathway for inexperienced drivers to develop their skills.
Although Tobin likes the idea and is keenly waiting for the initiative to begin, he says he has learnt not to solely wait on the federal government to replenish truck driver stocks. Instead, Followmont Transport has been implementing its own programs designed to lure young prospects into the industry while also tapping into sections of the population who haven’t been traditionally considered as viable truck drivers.
“We’ve been looking at Indigenous Australian communities and wondering how we can encourage people from schools to come in who have diverse backgrounds,” Tobin said. “It’s not just about how you attract a male into the industry; it’s about how you can attract everyone.
“As an industry it’s our language that we use that has caused this trouble. We need to start talking a different language when it comes to diversity and getting more women to come and work for us.”
Other initiatives Tobin is introducing at Followmont includes driver bonuses for recruiting a new employee to the business and solid schedules that don’t result in drivers working overtime to transport goods.
Followmont has also introduced ‘Pinky’ – a new branded truck on the road that celebrates women in transport and encourages more women to consider truck driving as a career choice. Through projects like ‘Pinky’ and a series of videos on diversity, Tobin says his company is conscious of using its brand and marketing to connect people to the operators and promote its inclusive values.
While Tobin continues to explore avenues of luring more skilled workers into the transport industry, he is also longing for the apprenticeship system to be put in place. He says it’s a primary solution that must be implemented as soon as possible.
“The biggest thing we talk about with the federal government is the apprenticeship and traineeship scheme, but they still haven’t gotten it together,” Tobin said. “It took years to recognise they needed this for truck drivers, but it’s a process we need right now.”
For now, both Mahon and Tobin are intent that positivity is key. Tobin says the new jobs-ready program won’t necessarily save the industry, but it needs to get off the ground.
But while Tobin waits, he’ll keep doing whatever he can to make his business and brand a lucrative option for young drivers wanting to join the industry.
“We simply have to be positive and focus on the solutions and not the negatives,” Tobin said. “All these changes in the industry recently means we need to look forward and promote the sector at every level we possibly can.
“It’s a great industry and we need to make it more attractive for a diverse range of young people wanting to join such a rewarding sector.”