A Fair Go for Owner Drivers

The future of the transport industry is in doubt as it fails to attract younger drivers and the average age of truck drivers continues to rise. We have heard these comments for years now, and as usual with problems within the transport industry, the answers are slow in coming. Good qualified truck drivers are hard to find. Truck drivers are not retiring at sixty-five with many driving well into their seventies but younger drivers are not coming forward to help fill the gap when the older drivers finally retire.

The attitude with all concerned is that we have survived okay up until now so the industry will sort itself out. The trouble is that it is not sorting itself out and the industry and standard of drivers have deteriorated because of this lack of intervention by industry leaders.

The short term answer has always been to put bums in seats and get the freight carted. It soon becomes obvious that while the freight gets moved it comes with a myriad of problems. Untrained drivers are a hazard on the road to themselves and to other road users. They are also a hazard because they don’t have the experience in load restraint and they don’t understand the regulations of operating heavy trucks. While the short term solution is to just put bums in seats to get the freight moving the outcome is a lowering of standards which in time lowers the standards for the whole industry. The industry already has

an image problem and this is only making thing’s worse.

Generally speaking, the transport industry is made up of good hard-working dedicated individuals that take a huge amount of pride in what they do. If we were to improve the working conditions of truck drivers then we would go a long way to combat the driver shortage.

It may have been the norm twenty years ago for truck drivers to drive excessively long hours and be away from home for weeks at a time, living out their time in the has been on the back of a truck. If trucks stopped working for a few days the country would grind to a halt very quickly. It needs to be stressed that what truck drivers do is very important for the country. We should, therefore, be looking after our truck drivers a lot better than we do. Remember the identity of the driver is linked to the identity of the industry. Often, the image of the truck driver is seen as someone who is overweight from poor food choices, tired from driving long hours and being in poor health. This negative

cab of a truck with very poor amenities. Times have changed. Truck drivers should not have to work excessively long hours and be away for weeks at a time. They want a social life away from trucks.

For years, truck driving meant you are married to the job and everything else takes second place. This has to change. Truck driving is a specialised job and it should be treated as such. It takes a lot of skill and knowledge to be a good truck driver. Every single item that the public consume image problem is seen as a barrier to the recruitment of new drivers. We could also go on about the lack of truck bays and no basic amenities and toilet facilities and lack of suitable roadhouses. There are some big issues here that need to be addressed in an effort to entice more people into the transport industry. The Government needs to get involved and so do the big multinational companies. We can no longer ignore this problem as it will not fix itself. Keep it safe, Ray Pratt.