FleetWatch Online - 59-Transporters Perspective

Training people costs money and in the highly competitive road freight industry, margins can be substantially reduced by the establishment of a training infrastructure. The upper, middle and lower tiers of the industry are adopting different approaches to fill job positions in their organisations. While many subscribe to government's skills development process, a large number of transport operations are plugging their human resources leaks with under-skilled personnel, truck drivers in particular, discovers Paul Collings.

In order to access rebates from their skills levy contributions, which can be as much as 60% of the 1% of total payroll, transport operators need to comply with the statutes of the Skills Development Act and the Skills Development Levies Act. In anyone's book, this is not a simple process. A qualified team of experts is required to lead learners through accredited training programmes (getting course material accredited by SAQA [South Africa Qualifications Authority] is an arduous process in itself). Many companies have the resources to train in-house while others choose to outsource their training requirements. Both avenues enable operators to claim money back from the Skills Development Fund. One hopes that rebates are ploughed back into further training programmes but the word on the street is that it finds its way elsewhere.

Why so complicated?
Assuming a transport company has its own accredited learning material, it will need to conduct a skills gap audit, compile a workplace skills plan (WSP), submit it to TETA for approval, then employ trainers, facilitators, assessors and moderators to implement the WSP and comply with skills development legislation. To access learnership funds, companies need to recruit inexperienced, unemployed learners and put them through a 9-month training programme, either in-house or through a TETA-accredited service provider. This cost is borne directly by the operator who has no guarantee that the learner will stick with the training or work at the 'benefactor' transport operation once graduated.

It's no surprise that most companies shy away from learnerships, electing rather to upskill from within, training existing employees to fill the critical skills gaps. While being less risky, this route is still costly. Training expenses need to be met and trainees are removed from day-today operations, often requiring the employment of replacement staff.

Budget-conscious operators find it difficult to meet these costs and play the 'skills game' in an ad-hoc manner, recruiting personnel from wherever they can find them, be it at their own gate or through labour brokers/recruitment agencies. More often than not, under-qualified people are hired, simply to keep business rolling. In the case of heavy vehicle drivers, this can be fatal.

Removing obstacles
Anthony Healy, MD, H&M Removals points out that drivers need skills over and above those required to pilot the vehicle. "Drivers need to read documents and conduct several admin tasks. They need people skills, the ability to manage crews and multitask."

Because of the levels of competency needed by furniture removal truck drivers, Healy promotes from within. "We could hire on a contract basis using a labour broker but experience has shown this to be an unproductive route. The Labour Relations Act has made it very difficult to employ contract labour without running substantial risk of ending up with disputes and CCMA hearings. Basically, labour legislation is stifling job creation and effective employment."

Healy asks the question: "What has government done to create a structured driver training programme? There's no communication material coming from TETA in this regard. We hear that the RFA (Road Freight Association) is planning a driver training academy and recruitment centre but at present, the plan's a long way from being realized."

There is reluctance on the part of operators to work together on the skills shortage/development problem, says Healy, because "they don't want to give away any competitive advantage they may have. We will never overcome the problem if we don't have an association representing the interests of the entire road freight industry. And government needs to regulate the industry. Transporters should only be allowed to operate if they meet set standards and audit criteria. At present, anyone can operate using sub-standard skills and resources."

‘We used to use outsourced training organisations to upskill our staff, but found doing it in-house produced better results’

Malcolm Gordge,
General Manager,
Unitrans Fuel & Chemicals

Creating self sufficiency
Unitrans is one of the country's largest transport operations, moving everything from freight, sugar and timber, to fuel and other Dangerous Goods (DG). Their human resources needs are constantly growing as business booms and the company grows. "We used to use outsourced training organisations to upskill our staff but found that doing it in-house produced better results," says Malcolm Gordge, general manager Gauteng, Unitrans Fuel and Chemical. "There is a definite skills shortage when it comes to heavy duty truck drivers and diesel technicians. We have established a dedicated training office to upskill existing employees and process learnerships. We interview hundreds of applicants for dangerous goods driver positions and there's a pass rate of 1%, which clearly shows the extent of the problem."

Gordge suggests that the costs of skills development should be borne by operating rates. "Skills development needs to be reflected in wages paid to those employees who have acquired new skills," adds Gordge. "Not easy to do with the pressurised margins characterising the fuel industry."

One of the biggest problems for Gordge's division is the 'experience' factor when it comes to DG drivers: "We need a minimum of three years experience and the applicant has to be 25 or older. These factors narrow the prospective driver pool considerably."

Supergroup, another leading logistics organisation, has also adopted an in-house approach to training. Says Kevin Govender, depot manager, Pinetown: "new drivers are mainly required for growth in our business. Drivers do need to be replaced on a monthly basis as well due to poor health, dismissals and resignations - on average, we lose about six drivers a month."

Supergroup does not employ truck technicians, having outsourced that function over ten years ago, says Govender. "This decision was unrelated to skills supply, but we have found driver shortages to be a huge problem. We do use labour brokers to source drivers for us, but our HR centre screens and tests all applicants before hiring. We also have driver training facilities at all our major centres where all drivers are tested, evaluated and retrained."

Govender concludes by saying, "we definitely foresee a major problem for the future of transport in this country when it comes to skills provision. The industry needs to put heads together to avoid a disaster."

A time bomb ticking?
Hannes Coetzee of Stuarts Transport says the company's driver turnover is around 7%. "The main reasons are HIV/Aids and resignations due to better remuneration at other transport operations. We're finding it difficult to source new drivers and technicians. Many applicants are screened but very few are suitable, especially driver applicants. They have licences but they're simply not capable."

As far as truck technicians go, Coetzee says, "they're very scarce nowadays but the ones that do exist want a fortune for a normal day's work. There don't seem to be any formal technical (truck) training institutions available either."

Labour brokers are used by Stuarts Transport to source technicians but not drivers. "We find the quality of drivers sent to us by brokers is way below the desired level of proficiency," says Coetzee. "We have an in-house apprenticeship programme for technicians and do all driver training ourselves. Our courses are TETA accredited which allows us to claim Levy rebates."

Coetzee is somewhat gloomy about the future: "A disaster is definitely looming with regards to the skills crisis. It's a time bomb ticking! The economy is growing and while demand for skills increases, supply drops. Our biggest problem is the lack of capable trainers and accredited driver training institutions. We need a training academy. The industry and government have to work together to put such a facility in place. If we are not pro-active on this issue, our trucks will stand loaded without drivers!"