The country's best trainers warn that industry education is misdirected and falling short, Rob McKay and Steve Skinner write
By Rob McKay and Steve Skinner | July 10, 2013
Is the trucking industry in danger of losing a significant portion of the political capital it has worked so hard to build up? On the face of it, the affirmative would seem an argument too preposterous to sustain. After all, the industry has so many strengths.
Trucking has many facets but the profile is much the same – lean. Perhaps too lean. As the economic screw tightens, so values slip among those struggling to survive. One of the major outcomes of the GST has been a corresponding reduction in truck maintenance. That wilfully blind choice belongs to the person who runs the operation. Yet no one person ‘runs’ the industry. It goes its own direction, influenced by the many good and bad things done by those within it, those who care about it and those who would control it.
Despite the truly excellent efforts of the best in the industry, it seems significant parts of it are headed down a path of reduced industry rigour.
This thought coalesced when we reread ATN’s profile, in December 2011, of Roseneder Award winner Brian Murphy. Coincidentally, speaking of control, it featured a picture of Murphy with a beaming New South Wales Roads Minister, Duncan Gay, in one of his earliest industry appearances in that job.
Murphy’s disenchantment with the direction of apprentice mechanics’ training was striking. Anyone who witnessed the apprentices’ performance at the Brisbane Truck Show might think little can be wrong there. But they are the cream of the crop, from companies that are healthy and strong. Yet Murphy was talking about another, broader, reality.
“I am concerned there is not enough practical training for apprentices; it is mostly theory these days,” he said at the time, adding: “The industry needs to instil a wider skill set into apprentices – welding, stripping and repairing components. The current training format is not skilling apprentices in these areas.”
Now, within 18 months, another prize-winning expert and exponent, Rob Pfeiffer, has voiced his concerns about driver training.
Long before dodgy driver training worries surfaced in Victoria, issues were raised about the adequacy of license testing across Australia – even assuming all the assessors are honest.
The stories and incidents witnessed are all too common – freshly-minted drivers dropping trailers; losing loads; only being able to drive B-doubles forwards; not being able to change gears properly; and not being able to read road signs.
Of course, it’s not their fault if the license test gives them an eternity to reverse a B-double a short distance in a straight line only; if the test doesn’t require un-hooking; if they’ve only ever driven automatic cars and trucks but then find themselves legally behind the wheel of a manual; and if they’re not even warned to tap the potentially lethal wedges on spider wheels before taking the nuts off let alone actually taught how to change a wheel.
In the absence of an apprenticeship or some sort of formal training, a truck drivers’ licence on its own is really just a licence to learn. All too many drivers have had to learn the hard way to the cost of themselves, their bosses and the public, and all the more if they are one of the legions of casuals in the industry and are thrown in at the deep end.
But even if the industry and authorities get serious about training, there is a shortage of good trainers, and like a lot of other things in the trucking industry it boils down to pay. That is recognised nationally by the Transport and Logistics Industry Skills Council and others.
Considering this, any company that puts an effort into training is not only doing the right thing by the industry, but probably saving themselves a fortune in accident costs.
The Victorian Transport Association deserves to be applauded for its new cadetship initiative. It’s the sort of thing that’s been talked about and sorely needed for years.
Both Pfeiffer and Murphy represent the best of the best in their respective excellences. Their commitment can’t be discounted not their concerns ignored.
If those in the industry who are not so committed to it wish to continue doing their job with what lack of intrusion that they have left, they must address these fundamental issues. Or those who wish to control them more will have an excuse to.
