Where have all the truckies gone?

By MARK STORY

How's this for an early - and stressful - start to the day: rescheduling truck deliveries before dawn to cover for a driver who has called in sick at four in the morning.

It always requires some fancy footwork, but by bringing old guys out of the woodwork or filling in himself, Calven Bonney, 52, managing director of Auckland transport company L.W. Bonney & Sons, says he has never let a client down.

But the firm is one of countless transport companies throughout the country facing a driver shortage, especially over the past three years.

For the first time since Bonney's father and grandfather set up the business back in the 1940s, he has had to start advertising for staff.

"Up until the early 1990s finding staff was all word-of-mouth," says Bonney, whose 50-strong fleet of 44-tonne trucks mostly haul tankers.

"Up until then we had a dozen drivers ready to drive at any time. These days there's nobody queued up, and my oldest driver is now 70 years old."

People still want to be drivers and there is no shortage of big rigs.

The trouble is, says Tony Friedlander, chief executive of industry body the Road Transport Forum, there are just not enough people.

And the country needs them, especially when the so-called "wall of wood" soon starts being harvested from our forests.

Rob McLagan, head of the Forest Owners Association, says the amount of wood being grown is expected to double between now and 2015.

A report commissioned by the forum, the Log Transport Safety Council and forest owners suggests New Zealand now has about 21,000 truck drivers - 1250 fewer than needed.

Friedlander, a former Transport Minister, expects the shortage to compound. Given the rate at which drivers are leaving, he expects the present shortage to increase by 1000 drivers a year.

So what is deterring drivers? Three key factors, he says:

* Low pay and less-than-attractive conditions, such as no health benefits and long hours away from home.

* The cost of getting the special driver's licence required.

* Labour market changes that have created a greater variety of jobs to choose from.

There is no easy solution, and bringing in overseas drivers is not the answer, says Friedlander.

It needs a concerted effort from agencies such as the Labour and Transport Ministries as well as Work and Income.

Bonney says the stereotype of a tanktop-wearing, pot-bellied truck driver has also made driving a difficult job to promote.

With the transport industry running on low margins, pay - typically from $13.50 to $18 an hour - remains an issue.

Bonney doubts whether the economy could absorb the cost increases required to boost drivers' pay.

Also, he says, laws limit truck drivers to a maximum working week of 70 hours.

"To hire these days, we're typically taking truck drivers from rival firms.

"I've just spent three months training a young guy, only to have him poached by another firm offering him an extra $3 an hour."

Friedlander says poaching is having the biggest impact on driver numbers in the logging industry, which uses big 44-tonne rigs.

McLagan says complying with the law and the fear of a breach add other stresses.

Anti-social work hours also makes truck driving hard on families.

This is even more so for logging truck drivers. Rapid-growth forests are typically in remote areas, such as Northland and the East Coast, where roads are generally poor.

Big-rig drivers must be 18 years or older with a class 5 licence, which allows someone to drive a truck and trailer weighing more than 25,000kg.

Five tiers of classes separated by obligatory stand-down periods means it can take more than two years to gain a licence. That, plus the $2000 cost, can be a deterrent.

So what is the industry doing to improve driver retention and recruitment?

Strategies are being developed to make driving more affordable to new recruits, reduce pressure on drivers and improve the industry's image through improved pay and conditions, says Friedlander.

The forum is also promoting truck driving in high schools as a worthwhile industry because many drivers can run their own businesses.