There is a great need for qualified truck drivers in Australia, and finding the right job is often a matter of knowing where to look. The salary and type of job you can get obviously depends on the truck licence you hold. If you do not already hold a truck licence, we recommend going straight to the HR licence at a minimum, as it will make you eligible for a lot more positions than a LR or MR licence. If you already have a truck licence, you might want to consider upgrading your licence to a higher class. Find out more information about the different truck licences here.
Restricted licences
It is not only the licence type you hold that can be a barrier to landing the job you want. The restrictions and conditions on the type of gearbox you can use can also be a major stumbling block to filling the advertised position. You will probably need fewer lessons to get your licence with an automatic gearbox (condition A), a synchromesh gearbox (condition B) or an unrestricted licence (unconditional). But if your potential employer only has a vehicle with manual transmission, you will not be eligible for the position. When getting truck driving lessons, find out whether the truck driving school has trucks with a gearbox that prepares you for getting an unrestricted licence.
So now that you have the licence sorted, where do you find the positions?
Other requirements
Depending on the position, there might be some additional requirements relating to personal appearance. Basically if the position will be dealing with customer contact, it is important to maintain a clean and professional appearance in regards to clothing. A lot of truck driver jobs require a lot of manual handling, such as removalist positions and delivery positions, meaning that you need to be fit and ready to do some lifting and carrying. For some positions, you will also need to have a forklift licence, as loading and unloading is often performed with a forklift truck.
Advertised truck driving jobs
Not all truck driving jobs and positions are advertised, but it is a good place to start looking at employment portals such as Seek.com.au. When looking for positions, use a combination of searches such as your licence class i.e. MR licence, MR Driver, Truck Driver and so on.
Gumtree is another portal that is increasing in popularity for posting truck driver positions. You can use their internal search function to look for jobs using the same kind of keywords as in Seek.
The problem with advertised jobs, is that once the ads have been posted, you will be competing with a host of other applicants for the same positions. Luckily for you, there are a lot of non-advertised positions waiting for the right person to come along and express an interest.
Non-Advertised jobs
Some companies are more likely to look for qualified truck drivers than others. Most of these companies have up to date websites where they list their positions directly, or offer you to register your interest for upcoming positions. The following is a selection of companies that you can contact directly for job opportunities:
- UPS: http://en.jobs-ups.com/au/home.htm
- Linfox: http://careers.pageuppeople.com/449/caw/en/listing
- DHL: http://www.dhl.com.au/en/careers/jobs.html
- TNT: http://careers.tnt.com.au/
- Fedex: http://www.fedex.com/au/careers/jobsatfedex.html
- Toll Group: http://www.tollgroup.com/tollpeople-looking-for-work
- Northline: http://northline1-px.rtrk.com.au/careers/
- Allied Express: http://www.alliedexpress.com.au/index.php/employment/drivers
- Nolan’s Transport: http://www.nolanstransport.com.au/?page_id=1338
- Fred’s Interstate Transport: http://www.freds.com.au/transport-jobs/
- Watsons Express Transport: http://www.watsonexpress.com.au/contact/
- GKR Transport: http://www.gkrtransport.com.au/careers.asp
There are also a lot of companies to contact directly with regards to your preferred industry, such as haulage and mining truck jobs. We are currently working on creating a comprehensive resource for these kind of jobs.
