Australian Broadcasting Corporation

TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT

'Skills shortage' hits transport industry
Reporter: Nick Grimm


KERRY O'BRIEN: According to the latest official figures, more than 150 foreign workers are arriving here every day in response to the nation's shortage of skilled workers. Now the transport industry wants to deal itself into the game, arguing there aren't enough trained truck drivers to keep the wheels turning, underscoring just how widespread the shortage really is. The problem for the industry is that truck drivers are regarded as only semi-skilled, making foreign drivers ineligible under the Federal Government's skilled migration rules. But the union is arguing that the industry move is part of a strategy to drive down wages, and adds to the concern that Australia will simply end up with more and more low-paid foreign workers. Nick Grimm reports.

BILL VANDERMAST, THE TRUCK TRAINING CENTRE: (Addressing a trainee truck driver) Just hold it there for a sec. Now, what I wanted to do was to show you a little bit about what they call axle drag. (In the ensuing interview) I don't think there's a need so much to be bringing people in from the outside. I think it's more of a shortfall in the training itself. (Addressing a trainee truck driver) This axle here, it wanted to go straight ahead, but what's happening is the front axle is starting to turn sideways.

NICK GRIMM: Anyone wanting to drive trucks for a living, there's more to it than jumping in the cab and turning the key.

BILL VANDERMAST: (Addressing a trainee truck driver) What I want you to do is pick a low gear, just go nice and slow.

NICK GRIMM: In fact, there's a lot to learn and it's why driving instructors like Bill Vandermast specialise in teaching the finer points of controlling tonnes of mobile metal and rubber.

BILL VANDERMAST: (Addressing a trainee truck driver) That's it. Just keep coming. (In the ensuing interview) It does enable someone who doesn't know anything about a truck to be able to drive competently on the road - alright, they're not going to run into people; they can reverse it in and out of driveways; they know how to tie a knot; they know how to secure the load, but it doesn't necessarily prepare them for doing the job.

NICK GRIMM: But talk to anyone with a bit of experience with truck driving and they'll tell you that learning is the easy part.

KEN HURST, TRUCK DRIVER: Too many hours, too much pressure; unachievable deadlines, unachievable working conditions; just not safe.

NICK GRIMM: 52-year-old Ken Hurst is getting out after 30 years behind the wheel doing a job that he says drove him to the edge.

KEN HURST: Well, I started off as a local driver. Went to interstate, became to a point where drugs became an issue, where, on the odd occasion, had to take something to make sure I had the job done; unrealistic deadlines that you couldn't achieve; back loads that you couldn't come back on the same time frames that you had to go down on.

NICK GRIMM: It's little surprise then that transport companies are having trouble finding drivers prepared to stay on the road.

DUNCAN ABLETT, ABLETT'S TRANSPORT: In our situation, we found that there's less inquiry from people coming in off the street. Most of our drivers are in their 40s - this is the interstate drivers - and older. So, there's a real gap of labour once these older people retire or move out of the industry in about five or six years.

NICK GRIMM: According to official forecasts, Australia's total freight workload is expected to double in the next 15 years. That means a lot more big rigs on the roads and, of course, more drivers needed behind the wheel. The problem is where to find them.

DUNCAN ABLETT: I'm not sure how we can cope unless we bring in some overseas people.

NICK GRIMM: Duncan Ablett isn't alone in looking overseas for the solution to the shortage of truckies. The Road Transport Industry Group, the Australian Trucking Association, has already taken the plan to the Federal Government.

DAMIAN McFARLANE, AUSTRALIAN TRUCKING ASSOCIATION: Well, we see it as a possible short-term solution, as there are skilled drivers throughout Europe and various parts of the globe, that are eager to actually come to Australia because of the lifestyle we have. Conditions here in Australia are very good, not just in terms of employment, but also lifestyle.

NICK GRIMM: Foreign-trained workers are already coming to Australia under the Federal Immigration Department's 457 Visa. It's a four-year work permit for skilled migrants. The catch for the trucking industry is that truck drivers aren't classified as skilled workers; rather, they're defined as semi-skilled.

DAMIAN McFARLANE: If you look at the magnitude of the job, the average long-haul driver is given an asset worth more than $300,000, let alone the value of the freight. There's a lot of trust. The skill level that's required to operate that machinery or that technology is fairly high. So, I think, we can quite easily establish that yes, they are a skill.

NICK GRIMM: The Australian Trucking Association represents influential business interests like Australia's largest road freight operator, Toll Holdings. It wants truckies' special skills to be recognised so that they're eligible for 457 Visa. The company declined a request to speak about the issue, but in its online newsletter argues that hiring foreign truckies is a better option than training Australian drivers:

"Skilled migration offers a more immediate solution. [...] The 457 Visa [...] can be an excellent way to recruit for areas where Toll cannot compete [...] for instance, central QLD, where Toll loses many drivers to the mining industry. [...] Is it time to bring the global road to our doorstep?"

NICK GRIMM: Well, if you represent 40,000 Australian truck drivers, no way. The Transport Workers' Union claims Toll's global road will be a dangerous route.

TONY SHELDON, TRANSPORT WORKERS UNION: It's going to be a killing field out there if we haven't already got it. It's going to be worse. It's going to be people from everywhere from Cambodia to Bangladesh to other parts of the world coming in, taking Australians' jobs.

NICK GRIMM: Union attitudes like that smack of racism, according to a Federal Government that prides itself on deciding who comes into this country and the circumstances in which they come. But the TWU says there would be no shortage of drivers if companies simply offered better pay and conditions.

TONY SHELDON: What's wrong with paying people a decent pay rate to get them into the trucks? I mean, that's what we're supposed to be getting told: supply and demand is supposed to be driving this. What the Government wants to do is affect the wages going up by bringing overseas workers in to drive everyone's wages down.

NICK GRIMM: Meanwhile, Ken Hurst is joining other disenchanted truckies who have moved on. From now on he'll be driving a desk for a living in his new job as an organiser with the TWU. But his advice to other drivers? Get out if you can.

KEN HURST: It's not an industry that's attractive to a young person, if you... for me, I drive a B-Double, I get 33 cents a kilometre - it's not a lot of money. If my son, who I tried to get into this industry, went - he's a jeweller, he earns more money than I do. He's 19 years of age. He earns better money than I do.

DAMIAN McFARLANE: Gone are the days where it's very much 'my dad taught me to drive sitting on his knee and, therefore, I can drive a truck' - that's not the case. It's very advanced technology. These people are not just truck drivers; they are professional vehicle operators.

NICK GRIMM: Maybe so, but professional vehicle operators, or truckies as they're known to most, are represented by a union that's threatening aggressive industrial action to put the brakes on what it sees as big business exploiting overseas workers desperate for a job. Meanwhile, is this the thin edge of a wedge being pushed into the Immigration Department's skilled migration scheme? For its part, the Australian Trucking Association admits they're not alone in seeking to widen the existing definition of skilled migrants.

DAMIAN McFARLANE: I know that we're not the first industry group to go down this path and I'm sure we won't be the last. I think there's a message for the community at large: that we need to look closely at the skills that we're training our young people with.

BILL VANDERMAST: (Addressing a trainee truck driver) Just put it in a low gear and drive it slowly forward. As you come forward, just slowly turn it to full lock for me.

NICK GRIMM: For driving instructor Bill Vandermast, though, the solution to the industry's problems seem simple, and that's to make sure there are no lousy drivers of any nationality on Australia's roads.

BILL VANDERMAST: Everybody seems to think, "Oh well, he's just a truck driver. He doesn't need training. He's only got to drive it from here to there." And until that system is addressed by management, then you're never going to get the truck drivers that you want - you know, whether you get them from overseas or you just get people off the dole and get them to drive a truck, you'll never get the proper truck drivers to do the proper job unless they receive that training.

KERRY O'BRIEN: The Immigration Department says negotiations on an agreement with the trucking industry over importing drivers are continuing.