Frustrated by years of talk but no action from governments, a group of industry associations has joined forces in a bid to finally get a truckie apprenticeship scheme off the ground.
Already most state associations have started their own driver development programs, embracing industry calls to do more to create trained, job ready drivers.
But none provide fully-funded apprenticeship pathways into a driver’s seat from school, ensuring youngsters aren’t lost to other industries.
With more than 25,000 driver vacancies on Seek.com.au each week and the domestic freight task predicted to increase by 16.4 per cent by 2030, the newly formed Heavy Vehicle Licencing and Employment Pathways Working Group believes the issue is now at a crisis point.
“We’re really trying to get this message through to those bureaucrats who just don’t get our industry, who don’t understand what we’re really trying to achieve,” said Peter Anderson, CEO of the Victorian Transport Association (VTA), one of 11 peak bodies to join forces.
“There’s no personal gain in this for anyone in our industry except the individuals who will get a career in their lives.
“Yet we can’t get this through to the bureaucrats – the administrators administrating administration.”
Anderson said providing a career pathway into a truck driver’s seat has been the number one issue for the VTA for the last decade.
The association has had enormous success with its Driver Delivery Program, an eight-day training course that provides individually tailored training, mentoring, and behind-the-wheel practical heavy vehicle driving experience.
But that doesn’t go far enough to help entice school leavers, or anyone else looking to progress through the ranks and learn from the ground up.
“Training people to drive heavy vehicles is not only better for our industry in regard to attracting people, but it’s safer for the community, and why don’t we have that common goal? Why is that so hard to share?” Anderson said.
“The industry wants this. This isn’t a couple of trucking companies going, ‘Oh, hang on a sec, we reckon that if we could do this, we could make a couple more bucks ahead of somebody else’.
“This is the industry saying, ‘We’ll fund this, we’ll do this. Just give us the ability to be able to get people into our industry’. And they keep stopping it, they keep blocking it.”
After following the traditional routes to get the message across with no success, Anderson said it’s now time “to go rogue”.
“Now we have to start talking about coming from different directions, getting different stakeholders, trying to force this conversation to be something that will generate interest.
“We need a strong voice of united representatives from different organisations, as many companies along the way as we can to get our voice louder and louder.
“We can’t be quietened down by just ignoring us.”
To illustrate the bureaucratic roadblocks, he’s encountered over the years, Anderson cites the story of the time he was put in charge of a state government review of the way truck drivers were trained and licenced in Victoria by a former roads minister.
He had a VicRoads representative tell him that you can’t train 18-year-olds to drive trucks because their brains aren’t developed enough.
“I said, ‘Where did you get that from?’ He said, ‘Oh, there’s been studies.’”
Anderson said he’d love to stand up in a group of Year 12s and tell them that when they leave school, they could be earning $60-80,000 a year in the logistics industry within 2-3 months.
“In three to five years I’d tell them they could be earning $120,000 a year and own their first investment property at 35.
“All of a sudden, we start to see 18-year-olds, smart young people building careers in our industry.”
At present, Anderson said operators are more focused on staff retirement levels, rather than career development.
So, how would that pathway into a heavy-duty truck seat look for a school leaver?
“It could be two years as a forkie, learning of the inside, paperwork, how to allocate, how to run a warehouse, how to manage books, how to be part of a team.
“Learning about what working in an environment with other people is all about, then at 18 they can get their truck licence, and they’ve got their career well and truly underway.
“If we’re happy with the same old, same old, then don’t do anything. But if we’re dedicated to actually improving the road toll and building a better environment upon which our community lives, then this is the sort of thing that needs to change.”
In Queensland, the state government did green light an apprenticeship scheme in 2022, but the employer, or employee, are still left carrying the cost.
Gary Mahon, the CEO of the Queensland Trucking Association, which is also part of the new working group, said he now plans to lobby the new LNP government for more support.
“Employers within road freight should get the same treatment that employers of a broad range of other apprentices get and be supported in developing those capabilities with a new cohort of people coming into the industry,” Mahon said.
To rub more salt into the wounds, the federal government also recently announced it had partnered with states and territories to deliver over $1.5 billion in funding for 500,000 Fee-Free Tafe and vocational education and training (VET) places across Australia to 2026.
But Queensland’s trucking apprenticeship wasn’t included in that list of approved courses.
“So, what we’re asking for is our employers to be treated the same as other employers who are training apprentices and get funding support while those people are in training.”
Mahon said the QTA’s Job Ready program proves the difference a training subsidy can make to employers.
Using an $8000 grant from the NHVR’s Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative, employers were able to place licence holders into a practical training program incorporating up to 160 hours of supervised on-road driving experience.
The QTA has also had success with its Driving Townsville’s Future Program, a scheme funded by Jobs Queensland through the Grow Your Own (GYO) Funding Program which is designed to tackle regional workforce challenges in Townsville.
The program aims to create a pathway into the Heavy Vehicle Driving Apprenticeship, Bus Driving and Supply Chain Traineeships.
“Parents in particular will ask the question, over and over, ‘If my kid goes into your industry, what qualification to they get?
“And I can assure you, saying a driver’s licence is no longer good enough.
“We’ve got to get on the job now and open up these channels to get a feeder group coming through.
“It’s time for us to acknowledge that the days of 30-40 years ago are long gone, but you still need a tremendous skillset to function as a truck driver, and that deserves and warrants an apprenticeship and to be formally recognised as a trade.”
The new working group was formed after a recent roundtable of 37 industry heads at Parliament House called by WA Senator Glenn Sterle to address the industry’s biggest issues.
The former truckie turned politician told Big Rigs that the industry has a crisis on its hands if it doesn’t solve the skills shortage quickly.
“I don’t know who we’re going to move freight in this nation safely in five, six,10 years; I shudder to think what this is going to look like.
“I’m sick of the talk, and I’m sick of being told by the likes of NTC and Austroads what’s good for the industry.
“We know what the problems are, and we know what the solutions are. This working group that’s industry driven will now take all the solutions to the relevant minister.”
Sterle said it’s clear the industry can go back to the “good old days” of new drivers being trained by other family members.
“But my goodness me, look at the value of having youngsters trained on trucking companies’ forklifts, in their yards, with their trainers, with their workers, with their systems, with their clients’ product in their warehouses.
“This is what we’ve got to do – on the job training but done properly and to an extremely high standard.”
The other parties in the Licencing and Employment Pathways Working Group are: National Road Transport Association, National Road Freighters Association, Australian Trucking Association, Australian Furniture Removers Association, Bus Industry Confederation, Western Roads Federation, Tasmanian Transport Association, Transport Workers Union and Northern Territory Road Transport Association.