Transport Industry Seeks Coordinator to Attract People to the Transport Industry

The Road Transport sector has joined forces, RTANZ, NZ Trucking & NRC, to work on a Workforce Development Strategy with the principle aim to address the driver shortage.

As part of this work, The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) have confirmed that the Road Freight Transport (RFT) sector has been included in Sector Workforce Engagement Programme or SWEP. This is a new government initiative to drive the Business Growth Agenda, that supports businesses growth through improved access too reliable and appropriately skilled staff at the right time and right place, and ensures that New Zealanders get job opportunities.

The RFT Group, made up of industry and SWEP representatives is now looking to appoint a coordinator on a 12-month contract to assist getting the plan underway. The aim of the role will be to develop the strategies further supported by government and industry to ultimately work towards resolving the issues around the driver shortage as identified. This person will have the full support of the SWEP team to assist with government engagement.

An ad will be placed looking for a suitable candidate. If you know of any suitable candidates that could potentially fill this role, please advise your association or have them reply to the ad. See the ad here.

The Driver Shortage Strategy is a long term plan that will take time and in some cases years for all the changes to take effect. The key to its success will be industry support. Without this many of the initiatives will have the full support of the SWEP team to assist with government engagement. Industry will need to be prepared to make changes. This means taking on new drivers that present themselves, training and in some cases even changes to fleets to be able to take on Class 2 & 4 drivers.

We look forward to your ongoing support.

Kind regards

David Aitken (on behalf of the RFT Group)