ATA Chair Mark Parry, has implored Australia’s governments to take a new approach to truck driver licencing to increase safety and encourage more people to join the industry.
Parry was releasing the ATA’s plan for truck driver licensing, which was developed with the advice of a Workforce and Driver Training Summit held in June.
The ATA boss said the licensing arrangements for truck drivers were inadequate and must be changed.
“The problems became apparent to all in February 2016, when the crew of a B-double proved unable to reverse their over-height truck out of the entrance to a Sydney tunnel,” Parry said.
“The association of government transport agencies, Austroads, has done an extended review of driver licensing, but governments now need to act.
“Many driving training organisations do a great job. Others train to a price or a time. Driver trainers must be assessed more rigorously, by experienced auditors who understand driver training and competencies.
“There should be minimum behind the wheel training times, with the driver training experts at our summit proposing longer training times for discussion than the ones put forward by Austroads.
“At present, truck drivers progress through the licensing classes on a time basis. For example, once you have a medium or heavy rigid truck licence, you must wait a year before you can get a heavy combination (HC) licence.
“You are not required to use your licence and build up your driving skills and experience,” the ATA chair said.
“Austroads has proposed that drivers should also be able to advance through the licence classes based on their driving hours, with accelerated progression for drivers who are supervised and there would still be training and assessment requirements.
“We support these new pathways, but the existing time based option should be removed because there is no connection between the passage of time and driving skill,” he said.
Parry said the current MC class should be split into two classes, to reflect the extra skills required to drive combinations such as triple road trains, quads and quins.
“Drivers with existing MC licences would be automatically assigned to the higher MC2 class,” he said.
Parry said driver medicals should be part of the licencing process and should be done before training gets underway.
“Our summit participants told us about job applicants who had gone to the time and effort of getting a licence and then being offered a job, only to discover during their employer induction that they did not meet the driver medical standards,” he said.
Parry said that strengthening driver licensing and training would encourage more people to join the industry.
“Truck driving is highly skilled, but the issues with the licensing system mean that many drivers end up having to learn critical safety skills and attitudes on the job,” he said.
“Many people who might consider a driving job can’t see a connection between getting a licence and having the skills to work safely and confidently in the industry.
“Strengthening driver licensing is a vital step toward encouraging more people with a safety-first attitude to join the industry,” he said.
The ATA pointed out that the 2024 Workforce and Driver Training Summit also developed industry approaches to vocational education, short courses and licensing drivers from overseas and that it would announce its plans on these issues soon.
The ATA claims it is a united voice for its members on trucking issues of national importance and that through its ten member associations, it claims to represent 60,000 businesses and 200,000 people who make up the Australian trucking industry.
The ATA’s driver licencing plan can be see here: ATA’s driver licensing plan