“We’re solving multiple problems.”
is that 96% of drivers are men. The median age of truck drivers is 54. And 40% of drivers have no formal qualifications. And those are things that over time we can overcome.”
Wood too focuses on the industry’s “ongoing challenge of making sure that we do have a workforce that is fit to meet our needs, not just now, but in the future.
“The work that RTF and others have done has revealed that we’re going to have to do some work and get innovative if we want to meet that need. And also if we want to have a workforce that looks and feels more like the NZers that we serve…”
He reaffirms something Sepuloni has said – that the collaboration between Government departments and industry to address problems is, “one of the things that we love in Government and we’re constantly trying to do better…
“And the reason that you’ve got two of us from Cabinet here today is because that’s what we’re seeing happening, in a very real and very impactful way, through this project.
“We’re solving multiple problems. We’re dealing with those longterm workforce needs. We’re dealing with our shared ambition to diversify the workforce. We’re dealing with the fact that we know in NZ that we do have too many of our young people who fall out of the system and who don’t get into careers that can take them places, give them stable incomes, a sense of wellbeing and purpose.
“And through bringing together our organisations – through having a shared strategy and a common purpose here – we’re solving multiple problems there. So I think this is a real breakthrough…”
Wood acknowledges Carr & Haslam “for stepping forward, bringing trainees into your organisation. No doubt there is some cost involved at the outset, but I’m absolutely confident that this going to be a great longterm investment for you.”
And he lays down the challenge “to others, to come forward as well. Because when we work together, we can get really great outcomes, both for the sector and for the young people of our country.
“When we get an initiative like this set up, and we get a structure and a framework in place, we need people to come forward and take it up.”
Carr confirms that “yes, there is some cost” in taking on the trainees, and adds: “But how much would the cost be if we didn’t do it?”
In Carr & Haslam’s 159 years in business, it has progressed from horse and cart, to petrol engines, to diesel engines…and will soon have an electric truck. But there’s always been one constant: “Every one of those bits of equipment we’ve had has had a driver in the front of it. That’s going to remain for a long time. And anyone who tells you that autonomous trucks will replace drivers are actually talking through a hole in their what’s-it!”
“The Roadtosuccess for us has been great – even in these very, very early days.”
The three drivers arrived “well-prepared to do the job. Not to the standard that we will be asking them to (achieve), but certainly to a standard that any educational facility could prepare them for. So we were dealing with people who knew what they were doing to start with. So that was absolutely great.”
Better still, he says, they came with “a great attitude. You can train people, but you can’t train attitude… The thing with this programme is the mentoring and support that will follow it up. So we can all help them maintain that attitude, while we increase their knowledge in what we do.”
He stresses the importance of the programme’s qualifications: “They will earn and take qualifications away from us that they can take to another job…overseas if they need to. These are qualifications that will remain with them permanently.”
Carr closes with this: “Just remember – a moving truck is a moving economy.”
He thanks the RTF and MSD “for getting this programme established….and I challenge my fellow operators to get off their arses!” and support it.
Liana Manu had worked at CourierPost as a freight handler, before becoming a Mum. Now, with her son four and her daughter three, she wanted to get back to work – and, since she “loves” driving, was encouraged by her Dad to try truck-driving.
“I have had my full (car) licence for a while. And then when I found that you could do truck driving, I jumped on truck driving.”
Through MSD’s Kiwi Can Do she was supported to successfully study for and gain her Class 2 truck licence – and soon after (in March) was directed into her traineeship at Carr & Haslam.
She’s driving a Class 2 4x2, doing pallet deliveries around Auckland, overseen by a trainer.
What’s the truck? “It is….I have no clue,” she giggles, and adds: “It’s a manual though – eight-speed.
“I love it – love every moment of it. I love going to work. I think it’s about being able to be out and on the roads and that’s just….it’s amazing!”
And yes, she eventually wants to do “long-distance driving. I’m aiming to go all the way up to Class 5 – drive trucks and trailers.” Under the Roadtosuccess traineeship, she should achieve that after one year.
The people at Carr & Haslam, she says, are “really supportive. They’re not pushing me to do things that I can’t do.”
And the theory part of the traineeship? “It’s alright. It’s good actually….really easy to manage. It’s not too hard.”
Fellow-trainee Betty Heremaia Sola had tried a few different career possibilities before this. Initially she studied Te Reo Maori, “then I started a teaching degree, because I thought I wanted to be a teacher.”
But after one semester “I said no, I don’t want to carry this on. Maybe later – I don’t know. I want to go out and explore the world first….explore the workforce, and what career paths are out there before I commit to that.”
Last year she worked (in a paid internship) as a park ranger for Auckland City.
But then, “I just….I don’t know: I wanted to upscale my licence and see what opportunities would arise through that.”
It is, she says, “really good” that MSD’s Kiwi Can Do programme led to her getting her Class 2 licence…and then, in February this job.
After about a month in the yard, she went to work as a driver
– on the car transporting work which is one of Carr & Haslam’s specialties. She drives a small 4x2 single-car unit, picking up and delivering cars all around Auckland.
“It’s been good….really enjoyable. It’s different to what I’ve done before. I didn’t really have a big interest in cars, but since working here, I don’t know….I’m like, ‘oh my gosh, that’s a BMW!”
Not that handling expensive cars fazes her at all – nor does manoeuvring the truck in tricky spaces: “There are really tight places that I need to park in or turn around in. And a lot of like cars surrounding me too – but I just take my time usually.”
Shaun Tomai came to Roadtosuccess after first working in the warehouse at Owens, picking and packing, then trying his hand as a house painter. That ended badly: “I left because the boss ripped us off.”
He had an idea – “to do something along the lines of driving and deliveries.” So he joined the Kiwi Can Do programme, got his Class 2 licence through that…and this traineeship as well.
Just two weeks into it, he’s in the yard and the store – learning about the tricks of driving the different cars: “Like there’s all brands of cars and some of them are hard to drive. Like you know, using the handbrakes and the mirrors.
“Because when you get to pick up the cars, you need to know where everything is. You could be picking up cars like Porsches and McLarens or something. So you’ve got to be real careful about the things you do.”
“So far,” he says, “the job is real good.” He appreciates the traineeship: “All these places around, like they don’t really offer you experience eh like what we’re doing here.
“This is a real good foot in the door. See, like driving Class 2, Class 4, Class 5. Yeah, it’s really good, it helps people. Young people like me and all the other cadets around.”
His family, he says, is right behind him: “They’re telling me that I should go for it, because in the future I want to try and become a contractor. Get my Class 5…have my own truck.”
Seeing the country is one thing that attracted him to truck driving: “Well…I haven’t been out of Auckland. Or, like I only go up North – but that’s all. So, I’d like to maybe get to explore Auckland and NZ while driving trucks.
“And plus I like working by myself, because you don’t have to rely on a team. Especially when you’ve got to pick up the slack for them.”
Nick Leggett says that Roadtosuccess “is going to be measured by how sustainable it is. So is it still alive in five, 10 years’ time?
“But the biggest, most important measure is: Are road transport businesses going to take the philosophy into their hiring, into their
them to do that.
“The message, I suppose, is that – well, trucking operators know – good Class 5 drivers don’t grow on trees. We’ve got to grow them.”
The traineeship programme provides companies with the tools: “A lot of companies don’t have these tools because they’re small businesses, medium businesses. And so it’s the micro-credentials, it’s the licensing progression, it’s the support from Fiona…
“And it’s the training structure and, of course, actually finding the recruits.” To which McDonagh agrees: “Finding the recruits. It’s the introduction to some new people, rather than using the same techniques and the same things.”
Leggett and McDonagh believe that the launch of Roadtosuccess is the start of a movement, as he says: “Some people will join the movement. Some people have joined. Some people will join in the next year. Other people…won’t join at all. That’s fine. We need probably 5% of road transport operators to take part in this and we will make a tangible difference to the supply of Class 5 drivers.”
And that, he and McDonagh believe, is “100%” a realistic target. This year, says Leggett: “Our target’s to get it up and running and get some people graduated. As I say, we could be target-driven fruitcakes and put all our efforts into signing people up to bolster the numbers. Or we can build something sustainable….
“We’re taking time. Fiona’s doing a great job at building the kind of business processes and assistance and fleshing out the structure. So operators have got some good, tangible resources.
And that’s what we’re spending our time doing.
“If in a year’s time, we could have 50 people going through, I think we’d say that’s a success.”
McDonagh: “It’s being able to see Betty, Shaun and Liana at a graduation in 12 months’ time – still passionate, still engaged, still motivated and supported. That’s what we’re aiming for.” T&D
OVID, COVID, COVID….AND….COVID. THE NAME OF the pandemic that’s cruelled the world these past 18 months just has to be word of the times.
Behind it….a bunch of new buzzwords and catchphrases that also capture something of the spirit of this point in our history – Jacinda’s “team of five million,” for one. Then there’s the likes of ordinary old words that have taken on a new meaning – like “lockdown.”
And the creation of new word combos – “travel bubble,” for example. And then there’s “community transmission” and “contact tracing.”
But outside of all that COVID stuff, the global trucking industry has come up with a few new trending terms and buzzwords of its own. So many people and organisations in our industry are now “on journeys” – a journey to decarbonisation, a journey to fossil-free transport…. to zero emissions, to sustainability, to electromobility, to “a hydrogen future.”
Shrug off these words as “mere words” at your own risk: Sure, some people in the industry have been saying some of these words for a few years now….
But here in New Zealand we can still feel as far removed from all of this “future stuff” as we have been from the worst of COVID-19’s horrors.
And yes, it is safe to say that the chances of NZ’s truck fleet suddenly going green – and ditching diesel combustion-engined trucks in great numbers in favour of battery electric, hydrogen fuel cell electric or even 100% bio-diesel alternatives – is about as likely as this Labour Government doing what they’re ‘sposed to and investing all of the trucking industry’s RUCs on the roads. LOL.
So what’s the big deal? Well, in the global truckmaking industry it seems like, as the saying goes: “Shit’s getting real!” Where before there may have been “just words,” now there’s substance – substantive action even – piling in behind those words.
And mate, they’re no longer talking timeframes that are far off in the distant future: The bosses of global giants Volvo Trucks and Daimler Truck are, for example, banking on a dramatic switch to hydrogen fuel cell heavy trucks beginning in Europe within the next six years!
Their belief is such that it’s led to something that only recently would have seemed unthinkable: Two of the world’s Big Three truckmakers (the other one being Traton) getting together in a jointventure partnership to speed their development of hydrogen fuel cells for long-haul trucks.
Within 10 years Volvo aims to have fully-electric models accounting for half of its European truck sales. And Volvo and Daimler are both saying they will achieve zero emissions by 2040….or 2050 at the outside.
Even the Aussies, whose trucking industry sometimes seems as stoically old-school as they come, are getting on board. Well, some of them (in high places in the industry) are anyway – as this year’s annual Volvo Group Australia media conference makes clear.
It’s a sign of the times that the conference sees a mix of some journos turning-up at VGA’s Brisbane HQ in person, while others (like me and a number of inter-state stay-at-homes) tune in online. (Which brings to mind another new term – call).
In this media conference, sustainability, electromobility and decarbonisation are frequently to the fore – leaving no doubt that they are very much front-of-mind with the VGA management team.
It begins with VGA president and CEO Martin Merrick opening the show, observing that trucking globally is “an industry in transition” – with the mother company not only managing things through the COVID-torn 2020 “in a very good way,” but also actually upping its game financially “to continue the execution of our transformation journey.
“Even with a sales decline of 22%, we delivered a margin of 8.4…. And, rather than COVID altering our strategy, we’ve accelerated the commercialisation of electric vehicles, whilst continuing to invest in our well-known technologies.
“In addition, we’ve announced some exciting partnerships – the hydrogen fuel cell JV with Daimler; H2Accelerate with Daimler, Shell and others (including Iveco) – which is all about investing in the infrastructure and distribution to really accelerate the adoption of fuel cell technology.
“And let’s not forget our partnerships with Samsung (to develop truck battery packs), NVIDIA (to develop artificial intelligence for autonomous trucking)…and not to forget our strategic alliance with Isuzu.
“And on top of all this, creating a new business area: Volvo Energy – to lead our battery and infrastructure strategy to support the development of electromobility.
“We have performed to transform and we will continue to do so – investing in where it really matters globally…and locally.”
Talk of all these partnerships prompts another catchphrase from Merrick and a couple of his management team: “Partnership is the new leadership.”