Why We’re Driving Change in the Transport Industry

It has been really exciting to watch the transport industry in New Zealand change over the last few years. There is a much greater understanding of the role we play in keeping New Zealand running and the skill and expertise of our workers is far better understood. We’re investing more in our people and working hard to increase the awareness of the broad range of opportunities in the industry.

There are many reasons why diversity and inclusion are becoming more and more essential with each year. One key trend that we need to address is the significant proportion of key workers who are heading towards retirement age. When they leave, their tacit and practical knowledge of how to drive and how the industry works will leave with them, leaving a massive gap to fill. To deal with this existing and growing worker shortage, we need to change the public perception of trucking. Switched-on organisations have already realised that making workplaces more inclusive and diverse helps to attract talent from previously un-tapped fields or markets.

Being diverse and inclusive also means that we try to make people feel valued, respected, and a part of a team. Being accepted, welcomed, and valued for the input that you provide has the effect of helping to establish people in their broader life. It ensures that people find meaning and value through their work. Everybody wants to wake up and go to work somewhere where they’re happy.

Leadership matters

To accomplish this, leaders in organisations need to set good examples for their employees. No matter how large or small your organisation is, you need to have good and strong top-down leadership. Employees need to see CEOs, general managers, yard managers, hiring managers and other managers enacting and supporting the principles of diversity and inclusion. Strong leadership, accompanied by people-focused company policies, initiatives, internal programmes, and stories all help to ensure employee buy-in at all levels of the organisation. Also, having the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion clear in your hiring practices lets new hires know the company’s position and what to expect from it as a workplace.

When the words diversity and inclusion start to be a part of business lingo within companies, they can identify things that they’re already doing and opportunities where they could be doing more. Given enough time, diversity and inclusion practices will snowball and will become part of everyday business. In the meantime, however, it’s still important to keep telling the stories and keep enriching workplaces.

The shift in society to being more diverse and inclusive will eventually bleed into every company as it will become a necessity. Despite diversity and inclusion being a necessity for business success, women, people from overseas and people with disabilities still are not a target market. It is interesting to note that our industry has seen significant improvement in wages, particularly over the last two years. However, while wages play a part in recruitment and retention, they are not the number one priority for most people.

The right attitude

Driver skills can be taught if the right person has the right attitude. Technology and the design of new trucks make it a very accessible job for people who maybe historically would have had trouble operating a vehicle. While sectors like logging and livestock still have a very manual element, less manual labour is required on average nowadays. We believe that there’s a role within industry for anyone who wants to come in. The only thing that we can’t teach is an attitude that says, “I want to be doing this, this is a passion, I want to learn”.

The transport industry is in a position now where change and new ways of doing things are truly possible thanks to advances in technology and with the ever-increasing openness of business to a diverse workforce. Everyone is aware that we need to think outside the box to solve these problems.

Not if, but when

Many companies in the trucking and transport industry are already doing great things to ensure that they’re a diverse workplace. We’re finding that companies who are on the ball are naturally becoming more diverse. Business is always changing and evolving, and so are successful companies.

People I speak to in the industry are aware that diversity and inclusion is important and that it needs to be welcomed. There is always some resistance, little pockets of it for whatever reason. Some people are just waiting to see which way the wind is blowing and what the majority is going to do. There will always be people who disagree, but on the whole, the industry is realising that there are plenty of great people out there that have been missed previously due to non-targeted messaging. Ultimately, diversity policy will become as regular and as essential as health and safety policies. At Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand we are passionate about supporting and facilitating such a shift.

As Membership Manager at Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand, Fiona works for a forum that represents 1,200 individual road freight transport companies, who operate 14,000 heavy trucks across New Zealand. Fiona is passionate about putting the focus back on those behind the wheels in the industry. She works alongside others to improve wellbeing and workplace culture in the transport sector and she is well-attuned to the mood and trends of the industry.