Though critical skills gaps in the primary sector are being eased with exceptions being made to the usual immigration rules to open the door for 1,580 additional experienced workers to come to New Zealand for jobs in forestry, the dairy industry and meat processing, New Zealand still urgently needs more overseas truck drivers to fill a growing shortage, says National Road Carriers Chief Operating Officer, James Smith.
“The people crisis is becoming glaringly obvious,” says Mr Smith. “We need thousands more people in the transport and distribution sector.
“People in the industry are giving up because they are exhausted. Employees in their fifties are retiring – selling up in Auckland, making the most of the recent property boom to cash in and downsize out of the city. And the problem is compounded by overseas recruitment agents targeting New Zealand employees via LinkedIn and Facebook.”
He says New Zealand’s immigration processes to fill the gaps are slow and clunky. “Government officials are sitting on a whole pile of applications for residency and citizenship that are not being processed. We desperately need these people. We should be making it as easy as possible for people to come here and stay here by giving them a pathway to citizenship. We’ve done it before.”
Mr Smith adds “with the best will in the world” truck-driver vacancies will not be filled by most long-term unemployed New Zealanders who would struggle to drive a heavy vehicle.
“Some companies have had vacancies for more than a year. One landscape supplies company I visited recently has been advertising for a Class 2 driver and a yardman for a year and has had no applicants at all.”
Mr Smith says the problem is industry-wide. “If there is no one to drive the truck or fork-hoist, guess what? The truck isn’t going anywhere. And if there is no mechanic and no one to change the tyres, it’s the same story.
“The economy is going to stall if we don’t get more people. We need to make New Zealand more attractive for people to work here. We need the same amount of effort applied to the immigration pathway to enable people to come to New Zealand to work and gain citizenship as we do to promoting tourism.
“We live in a highly competitive global economy and New Zealand should be attractive to people who want to get further away from the world’s trouble spots.”
