The trucking industry faces an extreme shortage of truck drivers over the next five years. One estimate is that the trucking industry will need an additional 10,000 drivers by 2012 as it responds to Australia’s rapidly growing freight task.
The industry’s greatest unmet demand is for heavy combination (semi-trailer) and multicombination (B-double, B-triple and road train) drivers. The unmet demand for rigid truck drivers is not as high, which has important policy implications.