Based in Bolwarrah, about half an hour out of Ballarat in Victoria, Mark and Kaye Rix run a small rural bulk freight business from their small property on the edge of the settlement, Marcay Transport is one of many small rural trucking operations looking to the future.
The business hauls grain out of the surrounding country, following the harvesting and transporting seasons around most of rural Victoria and across the River Murray into the Southern parts of NSW.
“We cart mainly grain and fertiliser around Victoria and Southern NSW,” says Mark. “We have a lot of regular work but it’s all over the place. A different place every day, although you might get a couple of trucks going to one place and carting out of there for the week. In the main, the trucks are pulling grain out of the Graincorp system, into the Port in Geelong.”
Mark and Kaye’s son, Ben, at 34 is a good mechanic working in the business, but has told his parents that when they want to think about retirement, he doesn’t want to take over the business. He doesn’t want any part of the problems around regulations and having to deal with bureaucrats.
Like all small rural trucking operations looking to the future, getting drivers gets harder every year and the business does not have any answers to the conundrum around making the job attractive to young people. In fact, the age profile of the drivers they already have is better than it is for many fleets. The oldest driver in the fleet is 60 and the youngest is 35.
“No matter how much money you offer to pay, you can’t get them,” says Mark. “You’ve got to be realistic because you can’t pay more than what you can afford. We wouldn’t want to grow any more than what we are. But even if we wanted to, and the opportunity is there, we can’t find employees, we just can’t.”
“I honestly think the way the industry is heading as a whole if we can stick it out for another five years we’ll probably be doing good. It’s not going to get any easier to get drivers, unless the whole system changes, the whole compliance situation, everything has to change. It’s just not going get any easier.
“When we employ a driver they are always told that you will probably leave home Sunday and get home Friday, if you get home in between, that’s a bonus. Young people are not prepared to make a few sacrifices and the partners aren’t prepared to put up with it either.”