If we don’t invest in youth around career paths, and in training development, we’re going to have a huge gap in employment.
We need to positively understand what the transport industry and supply chain does to employ staff and have a positive outlook rather than the negativity that the mainstream media gives us.
We need to promote the industry so we’re attracting people. The issue we have is that we don’t have youth coming through from the next generation, like we had 10 years ago. It would be great if we could all employ Australians to do the job but we don’t have the workforce – as a business, we’re finding this is an uphill battle.
The state and federal government also need to come together, especially in Queensland, around infrastructure funding. The current highway network is not sustainable for the freight task.
We need to have some sort of consistency, with governments working together.
The transport industry needs better infrastructure and a bigger focus on strategies around how the highway network in Australia is going to fit in with the current freight task. Rail is unreliable, but the current road network – especially in Queensland – is not sustainable for what our needs are.
Governments also need to promote larger mass vehicles, which means there would be less vehicles on the road.
The sustainability of the current network is not fit for purpose.
The current Liberal government bringing back the Bruce Highway committee is a great thing, but we need to see action. If you look at the road from Brisbane to Sydney, compared to Brisbane to Cairns, it’s totally different.
There are too many deaths on our roads. They need to look at the data around what is shown to be high risk and make change from there.
There’s not enough support or focus on how we go forward into the future.
- Mark Tobin is Managing Director at Followmont Transport. This story is part of our 2025 New Year Wish Lists feature, in the January 17 issue of Big Rigs.