Driverless trucks are not the answer to a drop in people wanting to join the industry, transport workers have told a government inquiry.
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Two members of the Senate's Rural Regional Affairs and Transport committee came to Albury on Friday for the first in a series of public hearings in its inquiry into the road transport industry.
Holbrook business owner and National Road Freighters Association national vice president Gordon MacKinlay was one of those to give evidence and was passionate in asking for truck drivers to be treated with more respect.
"The road transport industry is a fantastic industry that I believe should be considered the same as power, water and sewerage - an essential service. Without it, we would have nothing," he said.
"There's an old saying: 'the only thing not delivered by a truck is a baby'.
"We are an essential service, but we're unfortunately not recognised like that, we're not treated as such.
"You wonder why anyone would want to have anything to do with this industry and that's a really good question because we're finding it really, really hard to get people involved."
The average age of truck drivers in Australia is increasing, as fewer young people choose to get into the industry.
"I we can't put drivers in trucks, then what will we do?" Mr MacKinlay said.
"I don't believe that driverless truck are the cure.
"I think driverless trucks may be a bandaid fix to a problem that exists because we have other problems in the industry."
"We are an essential service, but we're unfortunately not recognised like that, we're not treated as such.
- Gordon MacKinlay
The committee is chaired by Senator Glenn Sterle, whose father was a truck driver when he was growing up and who knows Mr MacKinlay through the National Road Freighters Association.
He asked how to get more young people driving trucks when the older ones burn out.
"If we don't, who the hell's going to be moving all this freight? Don't start me on robots or automated trucks," he said.
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Albury's O'Brien Transport director Dean O'Brien also gave evidence that cost pressures had increased over the past couple of years.
"This year hasn't been a great year for anything in the transport industry, we're hoping next year will be good," he said.
"It does put a lot of pressure on companies out there, I'm not hearing many good stories from any transport companies."
Pressure is leading to 'crisis' for trucks
Senator Glenn Sterle does not care that goods cost more when they have been transported by truck, in fact he welcomes the higher price.
Speaking as chair of the Senate's Rural Regional Affairs and Transport Committee, he said truck drivers should not be embarrassed to be making a profit and a living from their work.
"This is the argument we don't have as a nation," he said.
"We want our roads safe, we want our road users safe, we want our truck drivers safe - we want our truck drivers paid and remunerated properly."
The low base wage for truck drivers will be one of the issues examined as part of the inquiry into the road transport industry.
"The rates are going south, the pressure is going north from overregulation in this industry," Senator Sterle said.
"The squeeze coming from the top of the supply chain is getting to a crisis state."