National Transport Insurance (NTI) has welcomed NatRoad’s recent announcement of a program that seeks to address heavy-vehicle transport and logistics-skills shortage, as it urges all industry bodies to work together in developing a national solution.
Mike Edmonds, NTI’s general manager of commercial, said the transport and logistics insurer has long been committed to increasing diversity and reducing barriers to entry, contributing $750,000 annually to industry associations and investing into safety statistics.
“NTI made a change around four years ago in consultation with industry representatives, to overhaul our driver-acceptance criteria and change the snapshot of what the workforce looks like,” Edmonds said. “The agreed approach reflects the need for appropriate experience and training to ensure the safety of all road users – industry driven, industry approved. Our goal since then has been to reflect Australia’s licencing system which supports graduated pathways for drivers, and to align driver experience with vehicle combinations.”
Edmonds said that with freight movement becoming more and more complex, it is also important to support continual driver education and skills development, to “attract not only young talent, but more talent.”
“Our priority is first and foremost based on safety outcomes for all road users,” Edmonds said. “Our data tells us that inappropriate speed, driver error, and fatigue remain the largest contributing factors in incidents involving heavy vehicles for all drivers – irrespective of age.”
Geoff Crouch, chair of Australian Trucking Association (ATA) said governments, on their part, should upgrade truck driver licencing “to improve safety and make truck driving more attractive as a skilled, safe occupation.”
