Truck Driver

Tania Bawden

Not every 16-year-old is cut out for higher education and South Australian trucking company boss Lynton Mackenzie holds himself up as an example.

Driving long-distance trucks non-stop in his late teens produced a career path and business which now employs 250 people and turns over more than $40 million a year.

Mr Mackenzie’s colourful career began after he left his family farm in the Wimmera mallee at 15, began driving long-distance trucks at 18 and bought his first truck at 22 (with help from a second-division lottery prize).

“Transport is a dynamic industry to be involved with,” says Mr Mackenzie, 49, of Bordertown.

“If your kid said he wanted to be a truck driver 20 years ago, it would have been a resounding ‘no’. Now it’s completely different.

“Our drivers can earn between $50,000 and $80,000 a year and can even have the ability to return to their homes every night, or at least at the weekend.”

The industry has become more regulated with a greater emphasis on compliance and enforcement.

“Not all kids are cut out for school,” Mr Mackenzie says.

“I’d like to take a couple of 16-year-olds through a government or industry apprentice scheme, train them up and see them drive a B-double truck out of the yard by age 20 or 21.”

This month Mr Mackenzie will oversee a $4 million rail siding to Mackenzie Intermodal’s Outer Harbour warehouse facility – and an $8 million purpose-built warehouse is being erected near the Port of Melbourne, to open next year.

The company’s claim to be the largest specialist freight and logistics company for wine in Australia is built on its service from production site to export destination. The group handles transport from production facilities, warehousing and logistics, containerisation and rail or road to the port for most direct shipping.

Foster’s Bilyara site in the Barossa Valley is one of the group’s largest customers. It also carries primary produce for export markets from several regions, including the South-East and Mid North.

Last year the company moved more than 20 million cases of wine offshore, worth more than $1.2 billion.

A joint venture with German beverage logistics company Hillebrand completes the international shipping service to markets in North America and Europe.

Mr Mackenzie says there is a shortage of qualified drivers across the state, particularly for the company’s expanding fleet of $500,000-plus B-Double rigs.

With the average age of drivers about 49, and the nation’s freight levels expected to double over the next 10 years, the resources boom also is adding to the mix by paying “over-the-odds wages to entice operators to mines”.

“It is becoming critical that we attract people to this industry. We don’t have the youth pushing through,” Mr Mackenzie says.

“The state’s boom in resources and defence is creating a great strain
on the transport industry, resulting in some truck driving jobs – paying well above award wages – going begging in SA.”

Added to the driver shortage is the need for B-double drivers to be more than 25 years old and have at least two years of truck driving experience.

“It does make it difficult to find the right people, as many of the older drivers are moving out of the workforce as they reach retirement,” Mr Mackenzie says.

A truck driver for more than 20 years, he says vehicles, regulations, compliance and driver safety have improved greatly, particularly over the past 10 years.

Mackenzie Intermodal and Mackenzie Hillebrand are looking for drivers to operate their Barossa Valley, Adelaide and interstate routes.

Drivers are required to complete round trips between Outer Harbor and the Barossa Valley and can be based in Adelaide or the valley.

Alternatively, metropolitan work is available or interstate work travelling between Melbourne and Adelaide based at either Bordertown, Naracoorte or Horsham.

“A number of our senior managers began as truck drivers,” Mr Mackenzie says.

“I believe it is this experience that has contributed to the success of our business. Driving a truck is a fantastic experience for men and women who enjoy the open road and have mechanical aptitude.”

The group employs about 50 drivers. Other positions are offered in administration, management, accounting, mechanics and logistics.

“It’s a fantastic industry. There is an enormous array of opportunities,” Mr Mackenzie says.

“It gave me the chance to begin my own business without much formal education.”

* Browse jobs available at the websites www.mackenzieintermodal.com.au and www.mackhill.com.au

* The SA Road Transport Association is initiating the SHIFT program – Shaping Individual Futures in Transport. It has been promoting truck driving to high schools and given about 50 children and young school-leavers work experience with transport companies. Phone SARTA on 8445 8177.

The lure of the highway took Lynton Mackenzie from the mallee to a multimillion-dollar trucking empire. With a shortage of skilled drivers, there’s an open road ahead for those keen to take the wheel…