Aiming to celebrate and reward the young people building the rural transport industry of the future, nominations for the 2024 Rural Transport Rising Star are now open.
An initiative of the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association (ALRTA) and PowerTorque magazine, the award is open to anyone working in a rural area or involved in rural transport, who is under 35 years of age.
At a time when the industry is struggling to attract new talent, the award shines a spotlight on and encourage the best in the young people who are working in the rural trucking industry and driving it into the future.
The award is designed to highlight young people currently working across various roles in the sector, creating change and improving the industry, to demonstrate the possibilities for other young potential entrants into our industry.
The 2023 winner was Amy Throckmorton who works as an operations manager for TGR Transport in Geelong, running a fleet of company trucks and subcontractors hauling various loads around the country.
“I learnt early on that transport is about learning on the job,” she said. “You learn quickly when things go wrong! My roles have varied from scheduling milk trucks at McColls to running the Kenworth service office. I take every chance to attend truck shows, conferences and courses as this industry always changes.
“I like the fact that the Rural Transport Rising Star award is going to highlight the fact that we’re an industry that needs new people coming through in lots of different areas.”
She continued, “We only highlight truck drivers and you don’t see all the behind the scenes people that may handle things like scheduling. You don’t see the 3am ridiculous phone calls, or any of that.”
To nominate someone for this award, you will need to be a member of an ALRTA industry association. Nominations can be made by clicking here and will close on February 2, 2024.
The 2024 Rural Transport Rising Star award will be presented at the LRTAQ/ALRTA Combined Conference in Toowoomba on March 21, 2024.