All truck drivers in Australia must meet the same licensing standards, a roundtable of multicultural drivers has told the Australian Trucking Association. ATA CEO Mathew Munro said the roundtable this month was part of an ongoing industry and government discussion about truck licensing and international drivers.
Munro said the ATA had convened the roundtable to hear directly from multicultural drivers about their lived experience with the driver training and licensing system, as well as their day-to-day experiences on the road.
“Drivers at the roundtable had a combined total of 64 years of driving experience on Australian roads,” Munro said. “They confirmed that multicultural drivers face wellbeing and safety issues, including vile abuse on UHF radio and social media harassment.”
The drivers told the ATA that all drivers should be required to meet the same licensing standards. They said that overseas driving credentials higher than a car licence should not be recognised.
They welcomed the concept of moving to an hours-based system for progressing from a heavy combination to a multicombination licence. At present, drivers just need to hold an HR or HC licence for a year to be eligible to be assessed for an MC licence. “As a result of the feedback we received from the roundtable, the ATA is urging every state to adopt South Australia’s MC Licence Program,” Munro said.
“Drivers undertaking the program need to complete 50 or 60 logged hours of supervised driving with learning components, followed by a practical driving assessment in an MC vehicle. Additionally, South Australia no longer recognises overseas truck driving experience toward obtaining an MC licence, except for drivers from New Zealand.”
Other initiatives from the roundtable include creating resources to help drivers understand “sham contracting arrangements” and report them and to develop an industry-wide charter to help employers and the industry as a whole stand up to racist abuse.
“While the focus of the roundtable was multicultural drivers, their insights into driver licensing and training are vital for the safety of all,” Munro said. “By strengthening training and licensing pathways, we can help address the current driver shortage while also creating a fairer, more accessible industry – one where all drivers have the opportunity to enter, succeed and build long-term careers.”
The roundtable was facilitated by ATA Diversity Reference Group ambassador, trucking operator and 2023 Australian of the Year Local Hero Amar Singh, along with ATA chief of staff Bill McKinley and marketing and corporate partnerships director Bianca D’Rosario.
The report is part of ATA’s InRoads Workforce Program which offers career resources to help students, career changers, high school counsellors and parents explore the great jobs on offer in the industry. The ATA and its members have distributed almost 3000 career factsheets this year.
More than 1850 people in the trucking industry have now registered for training under the ATA’s Diversity and Inclusion Program, offered in partnership with the SBS Inclusion program. The program supports employers in attracting, supporting, and retaining talent by deepening their understanding of emerging, yet under-represented, workforce segments.
Australia’s wood and wood product supply chain is dominated by road and is complex, with different processing steps depending on the type of wood and its end purpose. Latest figures show that approximately 86.6% of domestic freight for the forest and forest products industry is hauled by road, 12% by rail, and 1.4% by coastal shipping.
Furthermore, Australia’s sawmills are considered small by international standards, which increases the number of unique contact points in the supply chain and reduces the potential economies of scale available.
