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NatRoad Proposes Driver Shortage Plan

Driver Shortage

After partnering with the International Road Transport Union for the Global Driver Shortage Survey, NatRoad has released its Policy Statement to address Australia’s ongoing truck driver shortage.

“We already face a driver shortage of over 26,000 unfilled positions. If trucking stops, Australia stops,” NatRoad says in its statement.

According to the survey, 49 per cent of the transport industry has faced some level of difficulty in filling driver positions. 38 per cent are anticipating having more issues in recruiting drivers in the next year compared to 2024.

Only 5.2 per cent of the companies surveyed reporting having drivers under the age of 25, and only 6.5 per cent have women employed in driving positions.

The average age of those drivers is 49, with 47 per cent reporting that they employ drivers over 55.

NatRoad is proposing an eight-step process to address this driver shortage, as follows:

  1. Create a national truck driver standard
  2. Implement the national truck driver apprenticeship
  3. Create a national heavy vehicle skills hub
  4. Introduce training incentives
  5. Reform licensing and training
  6. Deliver key actions in the ISA Workforce Plan
  7. Recognise driver skill levels
  8. Address other road freight industry skills shortages

“We need a National Truck Driver Standard – a clear, nationally-consistent and competency-based standard that represents best practice for training truck drivers,” NatRoad says.

“There should be multiple pathways to achieving the standard, including the apprenticeship, the certificate III in driving operations, quality industry-based programs and competency-based pathways.”

The skills hub aims to follow in the footsteps laid out by rail – “an opportunity to improve access to quality information about the apprenticeship and other training opportunities and incentives”.

The need for licensing and training reform references Austroads’ review of the National Heavy Vehicle Driver Competency Framework, which reported shortcomings with the current competency standards and training and assessment pathways.

These include drivers not being sufficiently skilled for employment when they are first licensed, coroners’ inquests which have identified deficiencies in the skills of some truck drivers and significant variation in the length of training and assessment programs, including some very short courses.

 

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