Opinion

Reasons to be Cheerful

reasons to be cheerful

A survey published week suggests the Australian trucking industry does have some reasons to be cheerful in these dark times. 2020 has been a disastrous year for many globally coupled with the uncertainty and insecurity of the crisis do, things do tend to spread doom and gloom evenly around all industries.

In some sectors the trucking industry is functioning as normally as possible and at levels to which it has become accustomed over the last few years. For others, the pickings have not been so have not been so good.

Everyone in the industry is having to deal with the extra compliance and testing workload added to their processes by Covid-19. Border closures wreak havoc with schedules and then the whole process is slowed down by adhering to all of the Covid-safe guidelines.

Despite all of these issues, the trucking industry remains relatively confident about the future. At a time where it would be very easy for anyone running a business to get down in the mouth, a survey sponsored by Isuzu Trucks and carried out by Fiftyfive5 has found 41 per cent of respondents saying they were confident their businesses will survive and thrive post pandemic.

Despite the large number with a positive outlook, 93 per cent replied that the pandemic and the health measures had an impact on their business. What the other seven per cent were doing is anyone’s question. 

However, 39 per cent described the disruption as ‘major,’ and one requiring systemic changes to business models and overall strategies.

Of course, being sponsored by Isuzu means the survey was also interested in the changed attitudes to buying capital equipment. Here, the crisis has made the trucking industry a little more circumspect and conservative in their buying decisions.

The survey reports the tendency is for truck buyers to stick with brands they know and also prefer to be fleets with just one brand of vehicle. So, there are reasons to be cheerful for the large well-established brands, but not such good news for the new brands trying to break into the market or expand into new industry sectors. 

reasons to be cheerful

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