Truckie turned Senator Glenn Sterle has used his appearance at this week’s annual NatRoad conference in Coffs Harbour to call for a quicker pathway to an MC licence.
With an estimated shortfall of 52,000 people in the transport industry, Sterle told attendees that the industry can’t keep kicking the can down the road on this issue, or it’ll be too late.
“I don’t want to make it easier to get a truck licence, but I want to make it quicker,” Sterle said.
“Why do we have to wait until someone is 25 before they can drive an MC?
“This is nonsense stuff. We can put a kid in an aeroplane at 16, but we can’t put behind the wheel of a forklift at the same age with proper training, the proper safety protocols.
“With the proper licence training on your forklifts, at your depots, with your experienced trainers and your experienced personnel, handling your client’s product, no TAFE can match that.”
Sterle said fixing the driver shortage is now a top priority for industry in Canberra where he says trucking’s stocks have not been as high in nearly 20 years.
“It’s finally sinking in that we’re an essential service and that came out of Friday’s roundtable in Canberra.”
Sterle concedes progress has been hampered by getting the different states and territories aligned on the right approach to licensing and recruitment, but is encouraged by progress made in his home state of WA.
The TAFE-run Heavy Vehicle Driving Operations Skill Set course there continues to lead the way in bringing new faces into the industry.
The six week-long, fee-free program, the brainchild of the Western Roads Federation (WRF), boasts an impressive 79 per cent completion rate.
“They actually have a government in WA that sees the crisis [ahead] if we don’t train people into the transport industry,” Sterle said.
“Of the 900 that have gone through in WA, 770 are now employed, because the deal was done with the employers and Western Roads Federation and the TWU and the government.
“Not training for training’s sake, there’s a job at the end of it. So that’s not bad. Why can’t we cut and paste and reflect that around the nation?”
We’ve all been trying to get apprenticeships in transport for the 40 years I’ve been in it. Let those that know train the next lot. Not according to insurance companies. They’d rather put premiums up when inexperienced people get hurt. I was raised in a truck cab. You can’t get a kid on site now. Just leave them at the gate if you want to unload. About time someone took this issue to the control room. It’s been too long that people who don’t know the job run the job. I’m a qualified trainer and assessor. Did it because I was sick of so called trainers training people the wrong way. You want to fix the problem? Start by treating people how they should be and stop those that haven’t done it pushing people to do dangerous hours.
Age 25 because drivers need a bit of maturity and understanding about the industry to go on the road.