9 minute read
Haulout driving 101
BY PETER ALBERTSON,QAWN OFFICER FOR CENTRAL QUEENSLAND
Since COVID, there’s been a major shortage of haulout drivers for harvesting contractors in all the sugarcane growing regions of Queensland.
CANEGROWERS Mackay has been successfully operating a Haulout Training Course for the past 20 years in Central Queensland, and in mid-April the course was replicated for the first time in Tully, as part of a Queensland Agriculture Workforce Network (QAWN) initiative to address this issue and expand the Central Region’s Haulout course.
The training course involves one full day of theory and three days of practical, hands-on experience operating haulout vehicles under field conditions and the opportunity to receive four units of competency towards a Certificate II in Rural Operations. The course is funded through the Department of Education, Small Business and Training’s (DESBT) Skilling Queenslanders for Work (SQW) Program.
One of the key factors to ensure the success of a haulout course is having highly skilled trainers, a skilled assessor and industry supporters who are willing to provide the heavy machinery required, in this case three haulouts and one cane harvester. As occurs in Mackay, the trainers are also the individuals willing to supply the heavy machinery.
For the Tully course, Dale Bray, a local harvesting contractor, not only provided all the heavy machinery but was also one of the Junior Trainers.
“I have experienced firsthand the shortage of haulout drivers recently,” Dale said. “It only seems to be getting worse each year.”
He had previously heard of the CANEGROWERS Mackay Haulout Course and was eager for it to be trialed in Tully.
“It may be a way to attract new people into the industry,” he said. “From my experiences when trying to recruit new haulout drivers, they don’t seem to be either truly interested in the role or they’re completely unaware of the high demands and commitment level required.”
Consequently, finding a suitable applicant for the haulout role has been extremely difficult for Dale, and this is a common experience for most harvesting contractors throughout Queensland’s sugarcane growing districts.
One point that Dale raised was that although this labour shortage issue is a significant one for the sugarcane industry, the full impact is only fully felt and understood by the harvesting contractors.
This was also previously identified by QAWN in Central Queensland through phone surveys and discussions with contractors. They detailed the significant family sacrifices made to ensure that their businesses’ harvesting teams were fully staffed.
Many described having to call on family members to return to the farm to fill the labour shortages. This included senior family members who had retired or young adults who had started tertiary education or work elsewhere. In these instances, it can cause significant stress within a small, family-run, harvest contracting business which can have a longlasting, negative impact.
To address this difficulty experienced when attempting to source haulout drivers, the CANEGROWERS Mackay Haulout Course has three key approaches, an extensive promotion and marketing campaign to maximise the number of Expression of Interests (EOIs) in the course, a strong assessment and selection process to choose the best 10 candidates for the training and employment placement organisations are not involved in the course or, more importantly, the selection process.
Although everyone is invited to submit an EOI in the course, the selection of trainees is based on individual merit, capability and willingness to fulfil the obligations of a haulout driver.
Within 10 days of promoting the course in late February, CANEGROWERS Tully staff were inundated with 64 EOIs. This high level of interest exceeded expectations and forced an earlier closure to further applications.
Phone interviews of all EOI applicants were conducted by CANEGROWERS Tully as the first stage of the selection process. A review of the collected phone interviews led to the second stage of the selection process where 20 applicants were offered face-to-face interviews.
During the face-to-face interviews, the QAWN Central Officer provided a ‘warts and all’ understanding of what the haulout operator role involves and what is expected of them. This was followed up with a series of set questions for each trainee to respond to and an opportunity for the interviewee to have their own questions answered.
Based on their responses, 10 applicants were offered a traineeship and a further three were placed on a standby list.
Leading up to the training course several trainees declined their traineeship and were promptly replaced by those on the standby list. This is a common occurrence when conducting the course in Central Queensland so for the Tully course, a significant number of standby positions were implemented to ensure that the course had a full complement of 10 trainees at its commencement.
The first day of the course was theory work which was conducted in the Tully Mill’s Recreation Hall. Dale was also in attendance and, although the true test of how well an applicant can perform is during the practical training, his overall first impression of the trainee group was cautiously positive and optimistic.
As a Junior Trainer, Dale also provided parts of the practical training component and experienced the skills of all trainees firsthand. Unfortunately, due to his business commitments, he couldn’t provide Junior Trainer duties for the full course, but had one of his senior staff, Ross Hansen, take his place for Days 2 and 3, while on the fourth and final day, both Ross and Dale were in attendance.
As part of completing the four competencies towards a Certificate II in Rural Operations, the trainees’ bookwork had to be marked by Axiom College’s, the course’s Registered Training Organisation (RTO) assessor, Chloe Ottone. Ms Ottone also has over five years’ experience in haulout driving.
Whether a trainee is awarded a pass was determined by all four of the trainers as well as the assessor. These individual decisions are not taken lightly as it is the trainer’s ‘industry reputation’ that is at stake.
For the Tully Haulout Course all 10 trainees passed and all received the four competencies towards a Certificate II in Rural Operations.
Within two weeks, all trainees had been offered haulout positions with harvesting contractors and 90% have accepted. As eight of the ten trainees had been unemployed prior to the course and all have now secured employment, this is a fantastic outcome not only for those individuals but also for Tully and the local cane industry.
One of those trainees was Nicholas Porter, a 41- year-old, who had moved to Tully from Brisbane in early 2020. He had previously worked in the sheet metal industry as well as paid and voluntary work for the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service. The reasons for Nicholas’s decision to leave Brisbane were numerous, but mainly to be closer to his son and also offered adventure and better fishing.
When Nicholas saw the haulout driver course advertisement in social media, he was extremely interested.
“Seasonal work would allow me to have some freedom in the offseason to do some travelling, fishing and being able to spend the whole summer school holidays with my son,” Nicholas said.
Nicholas Porter (LHS) with his Certificate of Attendance awarded by Bryce Macdonald, Chair of CANEGROWERS Tully Board during the Award Ceremony on the final day of the course
“I liked the course as it was thorough and that it was provided by the Training and Assessment Team who are also real-life farmers with extensive practical industry expertise.”
Within a few days of completing the course, Nicholas had been contacted by a local harvesting contractor in Tully who offered him a haulout role for the 2024 season, which he gratefully accepted. He is now looking forward to his new job as a haulout driver and the work/life balance that the seasonal work will provide.
Another glowing endorsement of the Tully Haulout Course has been the recruitment of three of the ten trainees for the 2024 season by Dale Bray.
As a ‘pilot’, there is always room for improvement, particularly in making slight modifications to better suite the different requirements and processes in Tully compared to Mackay, however these modifications are slight and will be made prior to the 2025 season.
From Dale’s perspective, he foresees a strong industry need to continue the course in Tully into the future. The concept is for CANEGROWERS Tully to submit a project proposal to the SQW Program in late 2024 for them to manage the course in 2025, and hopefully this year’s ‘pilot’ project has provided significant evidence and justification for DESBT to approve it.
The course’s success is strongly correlated to the involvement of key industry stakeholders who supported the Tully ‘pilot’ haulout course from concept through to fruition. This consisted of the Haulout Training and Assessment Team, Ron Gurnett (Senior Trainer), Dale Bray (Junior Trainer), Peter Zamira (Junior Trainer), Ross Hansen (Junior Trainer) and Chloe Ottone (Assessor for Axiom College) and the QAWN Officers from Central, Peter Albertson, and Far North Queensland, Leanne Kruss. This team was greatly assisted by the Mackay and Tully CANEGROWERS district office staff and the Tully Mill (COFCO).
For further information please feel free to contact Peter Albertson, QAWN Central Officer, peter_albertson@CANEGROWERS.com.au or 0457 201 927.
Acknowledgement
This Skilling Queenslanders for Work project is proudly funded by the Queensland Government. Skilling Queenslanders for Work funds not-for-profit communitybased organisations to deliver projects that respond to the needs of local job seekers and employment opportunities in their area. The Queensland Agriculture Workforce Network (QAWN) is funded by the department of Agriculture and Fisheries and supports Queensland agribusiness to attract, train and retain workers. QAWN is a free service available to Queensland agribusinesses regardless of commodity or organisational membership. The QAWN Central Officer’s role is hosted by CANEGROWERS Mackay.
