Irish drivers sought to ease skills shortage in trucking
New Zealand is short some 2000 truck drivers and at least one recruitment firm is hoping Ireland can help solve the crisis.
Can staff is recruiting for drivers with a heavy goods vehicle licence to relocate to New Zealand, where wages are reportedly higher.
The agency’s managing director Matt Jones told the Irish Times that in some cases, haulage companies would pay for flights.
‘‘We realised how dire the shortage was when we could physically see the number of trucks parked up and out of use due to the lack of drivers,’’ Jones told the newspaper.
Road Transport Forum chief executive Ken Shirley said the situation was getting critical and could well push up freight costs.
It’s ‘‘very severe. It’s a chronic problem and it’s getting worse with the increasing freight task. It’s a global issue though.’’
Shirley said Ireland had been a solid source of drivers historically, as were Fijian-Indian and Indian drivers.
With the average age of truck drivers being 54, he said it was crucial to attract young people to the sector, but they were turned off by comparatively low wages and the ‘‘ridiculous’’ time it took to get a heavy vehicle licence.
‘‘Our graduated licence system, we’ve had it since 1999 ... it takes far too long and takes far too much money.’’
Shirley said young people traditionally had come into the industry straight from school, but ‘‘the whole pipeline that feeds into our industry is choked because of this time constraint and delays’’.
‘‘You’re 21 before you can get a heavy truck licence whereas in earlier days, 18-year-olds were driving trucks.’’
It was not economic to put younger drivers to work on smaller vehicles while they were waiting for their full licence, Shirley said.
But wooing young people back from better paying jobs was difficult. Construction, which soaked up much of the skilled labour market, was paying well. Fierce competition in the freight industry was making it hard for freight firms to lift wages.
‘‘Unless we can get freight rates up and pay higher wages, we’re going to reach a point, and I think we’re getting close to it, where goods just won’t be delivered.’’
Scott McAuley of Timaru’s Hilton Haulage said last month his firm was looking for about 200 drivers.
‘‘It’s like looking for the holy grail at the moment,’’ he said.
He wished young people would take a closer look at the industry.
‘‘I’m a bit biased but driving trucks is an awesome career and I can’t get my head around why people don’t want to take it up as a career.’’