2007 IRU ACADEMY SEMINAR

OPENING SPEECH

BRUNO DINGEMANS

Amsterdam, The Netherlands
27 September 2007

Ladies and Gentlemen good morning. Thank you very much for attending this 5th international IRU academy seminar. I would like to express my sincere thanks to our hosts, so please allow me to express my gratitude to CCV and ECOS, to NEA, the Westland Groep, and to TLN, EVO, KNV and NIWO. Their support to the IRU Academy and help with organising this seminar here in Amsterdam is very much appreciated.

As you are all well aware, the IRU Academy was created in 1999 as the educational arm of the International Road Transport Union, IRU, to meet the increasing demand for high quality driver and manager training.

Indeed, appropriate training today is a prerequisite to ensure a competitive advantage to companies that are active on local and international markets alike. However, transport companies seeking effective training solutions often face a regrettable lack of harmonisation and transparency in training standards. The IRU Academy solves this problem through the “IRU Academy online“application.

But we will get back to it later. For now, let’s focus on this year’s international IRU Academy seminar, which addresses the hot issue of driver shortage.

The dictionary gives us the following definition of a shortage: ‘a situation in which something needed cannot be obtained in sufficient amounts’. When I read this, my first thoughts concerned the state of my bank account. Unfortunately this is a point my boss and I can never agree on.

The second example that occurred to me was a water shortage where an absence of rainfall can lead to depleted reservoirs and serious knock on effects for the Dutch tulip farmers. Then there are power shortages. Here, electricity is lost in a second but the effects are generally short lived. The power grid is restored and everyone soon happily returns to increasing their carbon emissions.

In my view driver shortages – for both the freight and passenger transport sectors - are more like water shortages. The supply decreases gradually and as long as the reservoir is not refilled it’s only a matter of time before the system runs dry. Drivers are to road transport what rainfall is to farmers. With them a business can flourish. Without them or with an inadequate supply, growth or even just sustaining what you’ve got is impossible.

The road transport industry’s greatest strength is surely its flexibility, its ability to deliver ‘just in time’ and provide door to door services, with the necessary skill and flexibility to fulfil increasingly complex legal, operational or product requirements.

A lack of the right number of drivers at the right time, with the right skills, can cripple this ability. It may result in operational disturbances, lost revenue and probably the lost trust and business of clients. This is a situation that companies are increasingly facing, or will face at some point in the future.

But why now, why has the driver shortage suddenly become such a burning issue? Well it hasn’t happened overnight. It’s taken its course slowly, over recent years, alongside sustained growth in the global economy and a corresponding surge in transport demand. This economic growth is without question a highly positive development but service industries like transport must catch up with the demand and recognise that the workforce must grow too in order to keep delivering efficiently.

The driver shortfall has so far shown itself most clearly in the mature economies of the west, not just in Europe but in North America and wherever there are highly competitive job markets and relatively low unemployment. But driver shortages are beginning to show in lower wage countries too. The brain drain phenomenon has become familiar across many branches of the economy. In the age of globalisation, there is now a tendency for an emerging country’s best, brightest and most skilled, to go abroad and ‘try their fortunes’ elsewhere. Lawyers, academics and nurses the world over, have all taken this path. Skilled drivers are no different. So the driver shortage is not just a problem in high wage countries, its something that needs to be tackled everywhere.

If drivers are to road transport what rain water is to farmers then we need to construct an excellent irrigation system to channel the right personnel through to the businesses that need them and to make sure that none of this precious human resource is wasted. But how to ensure the supply?

We have to wake up to the fact that drivers represent an ageing workforce with average ages showing a definite upward trend. Older drivers certainly have their place. Drivers with long professional experience are invaluable and nothing can adequately replace the practical experience gained through long years on the road.

In fact it could be that more countries have to initiate policies like they have in the UK, to encourage older workers to stay on in the labour market beyond the usual age of retirement. But younger drivers are needed urgently to restock the reservoir and especially since those who are part of the IT generation are more likely to have the skills increasingly needed by transport managers in an ever more technologically-driven industry.

The age pyramid needs to be broadened at its base with an influx of younger drivers. We need this to ensure that in 20 years time we can still say that at the peak of their profession the industry can boast thousands of drivers with the expertise that is only arrived at through long service.

Of course road transport operators can’t wait for young drivers to fall out of the sky like rain. But as an industry, it is an advantage that we can develop a vigorous policy of driver cultivation. .. But if we don’t – unlike the farmers - we have no one to blame but ourselves when the business fails.

This policy has to consider not just how to recruit drivers but also how to retain them. So what are the obstacles to encouraging more youngsters into the profession and then keeping them?

Well we must contend with the fact that many young people choose jobs other than road transport because of the profession’s negative image in the public eye. Promotional campaigns can do much to highlight the positive aspects of the job. But we should also take a look at the impact of lengthy conditions of access to the profession and at the impact of the new driver training directive. A blessing, a burden or even a bottleneck? We will return to this question later. So much for the barriers to entering the profession … But what about the exit signs prompting drivers to go elsewhere. We have to acknowledge that unsociable working hours involving long periods away from friends and family don’t help to attract or retain drivers. then there are issues like wages, career development, technological change and the new operational practices which can cause many ‘old hands’ to leave the industry.

Once we get a clearer picture of these realities, they should be set against other facts: labour mobility, demographic and social change, rising levels of education and career expectations. There must be solutions for all of these apparent difficulties. i personally believe that by harnessing the opportunities provided by modern education and then matching jobs and above all training to expectations, we can make the road transport industry a career of choice for the 21st century workforce.

Let me dwell a little longer on training before concluding. In a global economy it does not matter if a company is large or small, it is the quality of service that counts. Raising the quality of service offered by the industry and ensuring proper professional development through training are synonymous and essential to counteract the driver shortage. They are also the “raison d’être”, the original purpose, of the IRU Academy.

The IRU Academy’s objective is to give international recognition to IRU Academy Accredited Training Institutes and their graduates in the road transport sector. We provide training through a network of 30+ accredited training institutes based in 30+ different countries. These centres award graduates an internationally recognised IRU Academy Diploma to certify their professional competence.

The IRU Academy is uniquely placed to drive the harmonisation of training standards, incorporate international best practices and verify – in an independent capacity - that these training standards are in compliance with EU regulations and other international instruments.

The IRU Academy offers certificates of professional competence for transport managers. CPCs for dangerous goods transport, proper tachograph use and a programme for professional drivers is now being piloted. They will subsequently provide graduates with a first class knowledge!

In a further development, which reflects the needs of drivers to demonstrate their professional development and competences in a competitive job market, the IRU Academy has gone online. IRU Academy graduates through their private and secure individual web site, have online viewing of their IRU Academy certificates and or diplomas in PDF format. Their web site allows them to update their personal information, create their curriculum vitae and viewing of their IRU Academy qualifications and CV by potential employers online.

Moreover the IRU Academy is very fortunate to have the support of a high-level advisory committee of representatives from the World Bank, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the International Transport Forum, the European Commission, the European Transport Workers Federation and the European Training Foundation. The IRU Academy is also proud to be supported by the International Labour Organisation and the European Parliament.

Ladies and Gentlemen, no one is a greater asset for a business than an employee with pride in his work. Ultimately this is how drivers should be attracted to the road transport profession and this is what we are trying to achieve via the IRU Academy. I am convinced that in the long term a strong future for the IRU Academy will go hand in hand with raising the numbers, skills and excellence of drivers in the road transport industry.

There is a legend in Holland, about a little boy who saved his country from flooding by putting his finger into the dyke to stop the flow of water. I’m looking forward to the day when we have to take similar measures to hold back a flood of new drivers trying to enter the profession. Hopefully today we will identify what needs to be done to reach that happy state of affairs. Until then i am looking forward to working together with you to achieve that better future.

Thank you.

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