Closed borders and a hike in demand have exacerbated worker shortages across Australia’s logistics and transport industries, leading to fears future supply chains will deteriorate.
Industry leaders argue more focus is needed on training and raising the industry’s profile to avoid a looming workforce crisis.
Australian Logistics Council chief executive Brad Williams says pandemic impacts on borders, immigration and demand had added urgency to the skills need.
“The sector is growing, the freight task is increasing and the ability to access workers who are skilled and able to deliver on those transport tasks is becoming increasingly difficult,” he says.
“That rise of the freight task has shone the spotlight on the challenges from a skills point of view in the supply chain sector.”
Australia’s $101bn supply chain workforce is under strain.
Australia Post is seeking almost 5000 workers, including truck drivers, to deal with the expected online shopping boom and parcel-delivery services ahead of Christmas.
More than 80 per cent of employers had skills shortages for heavy vehicle drivers and general drivers, as reported to the Transport and Logistics Industry Reference Committee 2019 Skills Forecast. And amid rising demand, the workforce is ageing more than twice as fast as the national average. Already an average logistics worker is 45.6 years, while an equivalent trucking industry worker is 47 years and a train driver is 48, according to the Australian Industry Standards’ Transport and Logistics outlook.
Digital transformation is changing supply chains globally, with embedded technologies and growing automation meaning new skills are required.
“There is a need for more skilled workers as the industry develops and grows and increasingly digitises,” Williams says.
“Being able to attract those professionals into the business and understanding the role of data, digitisation and automation is playing in the sector, that’s a challenge as well.”
Industry and government are trying to get ahead with training and skills programs to build capacity and a future workforce.
Industry has welcomed a push to professionalise the industry though a driver apprenticeship program and the ongoing rollout of the National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy. This includes addressing the different licensing systems across states and territories, and also inconsistent safety practices, so people’s skills are transferable.
Further, a Department of Education, Skills and Education spokesman says the JobTrainer Fund supported low- or no-cost apprenticeships, including more than 5000 enrolments in freight and supply-related qualifications.
Industry is also creating their own upskilling programs.
LINX Cargo Care Group operates diversified logistics handling across 70 sites, including the Geelong Port to rail, warehousing and transport.
The group’s human resources and communications executive general manager Emma Porteous said the Covid-19 drop in immigration meant they were competing with other industries for the same talent.
Along with truck drivers, skilled workers, such as mechanics and fitters, in regional areas are in hot demand.
“The competition for local talent is intensifying,” Porteous says.
“In addition to continuing to manage our own workforce and have the right skills, we need to be attracting people outside the industry or people at an earlier stage in their career to replenish the labour that will be moving out or pursuing less manually intensive work as they age.”
The group is starting a pilot program, LINX FastTrax, to upskill up to 30 young people in the NSW Hunter Region.
An initial five-week course will provide entry-level and supply chain training, ahead of a second round that includes driving, supply chain and administration traineeships.
Among the challenges of building Inland Rail – one of Australia’s biggest infrastructure projects – is finding sufficient skilled workers.
Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) interim chief executive Rebecca Pickering says skills challenges were widespread across industry, as well as infrastructure construction.
She pointed to work from BIS-Oxford Economics that forecast demand for rail-facing construction and manufacturing jobs would grow from the current 80,000 workers to 140,000 in five years.
ARTC launched the Inland Rail Skills Academy with the Australasian Railway Association to promote to school students in STEM courses, sponsor university placements, and partner with skills-training organisations to increase trades training.
“It’s a challenge but it’s also an opportunity,” Pickering says.
“We are focused on a long-term approach. When we stop and think, we all know the logistics industry is working literally 24 hours a day, seven days a week moving things around the country to meet our needs. But because it’s not front and centre we do take it for granted.
“Even though (the logistics industry is) everywhere, nobody really sees us. We’re not really an industry that pops into people’s minds when people think about what is my career path, what are my opportunities.
Coca-Cola European Partners regional vice president and general manager Peter West says they developed a Supply Chain Academy to standardise training across their manufacturing and logistics operations, and provide skilled workers when needed.
“Our dedicated capability team ensures that as the business grows and evolves, so to does the training and support we provide our employees across the supply chain,” West says.
He says their recent transport management and warehouse systems technology and new can lines were introduced alongside training programs.
West says reduced immigration and border restrictions had added strain to the system during the past 18 months and “the sooner we can open up immigration into Australia and reintroduce migrant labour into the country, the better”.
Ultimately, though he says generational renewal meant more needed to be done to promote the sectors.
“More investment and industry collaboration is required to make that happen, we can’t do this on our own,” he explains.
“As an industry we need to consider how we build the futures of technicians, encourage and support more women into the industry and into leadership roles, and at the frontline level think through what flexibility can look like in the context of those roles and the type of work required.”