Driver testing shutdown puts brake on farm job opportunities

A SHORTAGE of haul-out drivers in the sugar industry could be filled by people left without a job due to COVID-19, according to one of the Burdekin’s biggest cane farmers.

However, Invicta Combined Growers chairman and Claredale Pastures owner Ricky Mio’s idea is currently iced over by government restrictions on driver testing, something that has already impacted his own farming business.

Mr Mio said he had about seven employees at his farm who he had put through training for HR or HC class licences and were ready to complete their tests when COVID-19 restrictions saw driver testing cancelled.

“That is just the farm and earthmoving guys,” he said. “In saying that, one of the reasons we wanted to get them to HR is (because) usually there is a shortage of haul-out drivers.”

The Clare-based farmer runs two harvesting groups with four haul-out drivers to each group and said he would be limited on what he could allow the seven employees to operate.

“It’s not holding us up as such – it is inconvenient because it is not allowing those guys to improve themselves,” Mr Mio said.

“By not getting those guys those licences, it limits us and limits them on what we can get them to operate.”

Mr Mio said the shortage of haulout drivers was not a new problem for the Burdekin sugar industry, which was just weeks out from the beginning of the crushing season, but COVID-19 would amplify the problem and he had hoped to use the newly licenced employees to fill gaps in haul-out driver requirements.

Mr Mio said he had put an advertisement on Facebook looking for haul-out drivers and received responses from as far afield as South Australia and Victoria.

He is suggesting adjustments need to be made to allow for heavy vehicle licence testing to continue.

“There are also a lot of people who lost jobs in other industries (who) could have converted over to the farming side with very little interruption,” Mr Mio said.

“It’s an opportunity for those in hospitality (who don’t have a job) … let’s give them an opportunity to do something different – some will grab it, some won’t, but that’s not the point.

“Instead of just shutting this down until further notice … why not look at an alternative.”