![DIVERSITY CHAMPION: Troy Cook. Photo supplied. DIVERSITY CHAMPION: Troy Cook. Photo supplied.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/nicholas.fuller/9788e9c0-3ad8-44d7-aa16-23b0053d47ff.jpg/r0_0_2405_3206_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Trucking has traditionally been a male-dominated industry - but a Goulburn resident is determined to open it up to women.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Troy Cook, transport manager at Divall's Earthmoving & Bulk Haulage since 2003, wants to end the stereotype that trucking is a man's job, and ensure that anyone - regardless of gender, sexuality, age or ability - can become a professional driver.
This year, Mr Cook was named a Diversity Champion: one of 10 experts - seven women and three men - from around the country selected to join the 2020 Teletrac Navman Driving Change Diversity Program, run in partnership with the Australian Truck Association. The initiative aims to celebrate diversity in the trucking industry, and improve the industry's image.
"Like-minded, passionate people will look at the problems in our industry, and bring up ideas of how to recruit ladies, young people, or people from different nationalities," Mr Cook said. "If we can bolster our industry with the strength of those people, that's got to be good for us all."
Mr Cook was nominated both through his work, where he set up a scheme to train women truck drivers, and through the National Road Transport Association (NatRoad), on whose board he sits.
READ ALSO:
Mr Cook has been a keen advocate for diversity in the trucking industry since a motorcycle accident in 2011 left him wheelchair-bound. That experience, he said, changed his perspective.
"I came back into the industry after a stint in hospital, and straight back into my job," he remembered.
"I was in hospital with guys who were bus drivers, and who couldn't go back and do their old job. There I was, going straight back into an industry and a workplace where I was able to pick up where I left off and carry on.
"Obviously there's a portion of this industry where someone in my situation or who had some sort of disability would be a real asset to the business."
An ageing workforce
The trucking industry is facing a shortage of trained truck drivers, according to Teletrac Navman's 2019 Benchmark Report.
The industry skews middle-aged (the average age of a driver is 53), and many experienced drivers are retiring too fast to be replaced. The industry struggles to recruit new drivers, partly due to perceptions that trucking is unsafe and the hours are too long; only 15 per cent of drivers are younger than 30.
39 per cent of businesses surveyed nationwide suffered a shortage of heavy vehicle drivers. The shortage is particularly bad in Victoria (which needs 5000 extra drivers) and in remote areas like south-west Victoria and south-east South Australia (1000 new drivers needed).
"The industry had to do something," Mr Cook explained. "Otherwise, it was just potentially going to get worse and worse."
A shortage of women truck drivers
The trucking industry has become more diverse over the 18 years Mr Cook has worked in it, but women truck drivers are still very much in the minority.
According to Teletrac Navman, women only account for 5 per cent of heavy vehicle operators. (The Women in Trucking Australia advocacy group gives even lower figures: only 2 per cent of heavy vehicle drivers.)
In 2018, Mr Cook launched "Women Behind the Wheel" - an initiative to train Goulburn women as truck drivers for Divall's in 2018. Over three months, participants learnt how to drive a heavy vehicle, and gained their Heavy Rigid drivers licence.
Women Behind the Wheel, Mr Cook said, showed that women were more than capable of working in the industry.
"I have some male colleagues who disagree with me," Mr Cook said, "but women as a whole are a little bit more sensitive to the machinery. They change the gears a bit nicer; they're more cautious."
Two of those women are still employed with Divall's, driving big haulage trucks. Divall's employs 12 women; besides the women truck drivers, others work on the plant side, or in a management role in the yards.
Mr Cook wants to run the course again, perhaps early next year. He would be delighted if one of the women participants were offered a job elsewhere as a transport operator.
"It's not just for Divall's," he said; "we're looking at this for the transport industry as a whole. If we can help more people to join the industry, then that's a win for us."
A call for younger truck drivers
Mr Cook is also passionate about getting young people into the trucking industry. His own interest began as a child.
"My father was a truck driver," he remembered. "When I was a child, I went to work with my dad on school holidays. I'd spend two weeks in a truck with him. I learnt his work ethic; he taught me how to steer in a paddock; and I gained that passion."
A lot of young people today don't have that opportunity, Mr Cook believes; workplace safety regulations do not allow drivers to take passengers, let alone children.
"There's got to be some way our children can experience the transport industry without gaining it through their parents," Mr Cook said.
Mr Cook has worked with local schools on career days to showcase the industry.
"The old stereotype of driver with his thongs and blue singlet has gone," Mr Cook said. "Our guys are fit young men; they're younger guys and they wear a uniform. They're proud of the transport industry and proud of their trucks, and they make a very good living."
Due to COVID, the participants in the 2020 Teletrac Navman Driving Change Diversity Program have not been able to meet in person. They will hold a national conference online on September 23; some diversity champions will make presentations on how to attract different groups into the industry. Mr Cook hopes to be one of the presenters.
Troy Cook thanked the ATA and Navman Teletrac for the opportunity to be part of the program.
For more information about becoming a truck driver, you can contact Troy Cook through Divall's Earthmoving & Bulk Haulage Goulburn (www.divalls.com.au).