Australia is short 28,000 truck drivers. Here's how we're training the next ones
Australia has around 28,000 unfilled heavy vehicle driving jobs right now. Factor in everyone due to retire and that gap is forecast to hit 78,000 by 2029. The average long haul driver is about 50, and only 5.2% of the workforce is under 25.
That’s not a scare story, it’s the arithmetic every transport operator in the country is looking at. We’ve been watching it happen from the inside since 1973. What we’ve decided to do about it is simple: stop waiting for experienced drivers to appear and start building them ourselves.
The industry created this problem
For years the standard job ad asked for five years of MC experience and offered nothing a young person actually wants. No path in, no training, no idea what the money looks like week to week, and a roster that keeps you away from home for most of it.
So a generation looked at trucking and picked something else. Fair enough.
The operators who fix this won’t be the ones offering another dollar a kilometre. They’ll be the ones who make the job worth starting.
What we changed
We train in house. Our driver trainers and instructors are Cert IV qualified and they work here. If you come in on your HR licence and you’re good, there’s a real path to HC and then MC, taught by people who drive the same routes you will.
We pay above award, and we pay weekly. Rates are per kilometre, above award, in your account every week. Pickups and drops are paid on top, not swallowed into the run. You should never have to guess what a week is worth.
Modern gear. 280 prime movers and more than 400 trailers, maintained properly. You’re not spending your shift fighting equipment that should have been replaced five years ago.
More nights at home than the industry norm. Our depot network runs Brisbane to Sydney, and the way the runs are built means a lot of our drivers sleep in their own bed far more often than linehaul usually allows. Some roles are home every night. And every one of our six depots runs selected four day weeks, so a three day weekend isn’t something you have to move interstate to get.
A drug and alcohol safe workplace, and we mean it. Everyone here works to the same standard, which is part of why our people back each other on the road.
Where you'd be based
Six depots, all within reach of somewhere you’d actually want to live: Brisbane, Chinderah, Grafton, Port Macquarie, Taree and Sydney. Regional NSW is where this company started and it’s still where most of our people are. That matters if you’d rather not raise a family in a capital city.
We're not new at this
Jim Pearson Snr started with one truck in 1973, carting timber around regional New South Wales. His son runs it now. Fifty two years later there are more than 650 of us.
Along the way we’ve won the Australian Trucking Association’s TruckSafe John Kelly Memorial Award twice, in 2015 and again in 2025, and Primary Connect’s Large Carrier of the Year in 2014 and 2020. We’ve hauled for Woolworths for more than thirty years. Those aren’t trophies for the wall, they’re the reason the work is steady.
A family business can’t afford to burn through people. It only works if drivers stay, and drivers only stay if the job is honest.
If you've never driven a truck
Start the conversation anyway. We take on trainee drivers, and we’d rather teach someone with the right attitude than keep hunting for a unicorn with fifteen years on MC.
If you’ve got your HR or HC and you’re wondering what’s next, that’s exactly the conversation we want to have.
How to apply
Frequently Asked Questions
HR, HC or MC depending on the role. We hire at all three levels and train drivers up through them.
Yes. We run trainee driver positions and provide in house training through Cert IV qualified instructors.
Six depots: Brisbane (Larapinta), Chinderah, Grafton, Port Macquarie, Taree and Sydney (Huntingwood).
It depends on the role, and some positions are home every night. All six of our depots run selected four day weeks. Ask about the specific run when you apply.
Above award kilometre rates, paid weekly, with pickups and drops paid separately.
