"The average age of truck drivers now is fairly old. So if a young fella is really interested in driving trucks, we've really got to coax them through it now and do what we can."
Mr Garrity said there were a few factors that were discouraging young people from entering the heavy goods driving profession including the high cost of heavy vehicle driver licences "between $2000 and $5000", and a lack of "small jobs" for juniors to gain driving experience in.
"A lot of guys can get their licence fine, then you put them Big jobs make it hard for newcomers to gain experience
in a big truck and they just haven't got the feel for it," he said.
"You've got to start at the bottom on a smaller truck and work your way up.
"But these days, there are no small jobs it seems. They're all big jobs for big rigs and it's hard to get enough experienced drivers for that."
He said Wairarapa was a good place to start a career because "some of the companies here do have the smaller trucks" that can be manned by less experienced drivers.
"We've got little trucks, but we don't get enough small jobs to put a permanent young fella on there," he said.
"Martinborough Transport have got a little truck and they definitely have a fulltime driver of that, Pinfolds have got a couple of them, and so have Wairarapa Livestock, McAuley's have little freight trucks driving around too."
McAuley's Transport manager Steve McMahon said their company has "a couple of young ones started with us and they seem to be doing well, but there's definitely fewer coming through the ranks".
"Lowering the costs and speeding up the process of getting a class 5 truck and trailer licence would help encourage more people to join the industry," he said.
According to Unions Northland, many truck drivers earn $16.60 an hour. Representatives say this rate should be in the mid-$20s to incentivise the career path.
