In his 35 years in the truck and transport industry, Pat O’Connor lists the current skills shortage as one of the largest and most challenging issues he has seen.
Avoiding the term ‘technician shortage’, O’Connor stresses this is an industry-wide phenomenon, present at all levels of the transport sector, and one he hopes he can use his experience to help reverse.
“The shortage is across the board – it’s drivers, diesel technicians, parts people, managers and salesmen, to name a few,” says O’Connor.
“In previous economic slowdowns operators stopped purchasing new trucks, which was bad for dealers and distributors, but favourable for the parts and service sector who had to maintain an ageing fleet.
“This time around, we have seen operators with more trucks than they have work for, so those that needed repairs were simply ‘parked up’. For the after-sales industry this meant most companies, at least, introduced a ‘sinking lid’ policy of not replacing staff that left.”
O’Connor says the transport industry is now reflecting the improvement in the general economy, with fluctuating but improving sales levels, but a continued lack of skilled workers.
“This shortage is already affecting many companies’ ability to operate at 100% efficiency, and I believe this will continue on for many years,” he says.
Recently joining Automotive Employment NZ as a consultant, O’Connor has a key understanding of the transport industry.
“I’m confident that my position here can really benefit the industry – I have an intricate knowledge of how it works, who works in it, and I have dealt with Automotive Employment myself in the past.”
O’Connor’s background is one purely of transport; raised on a farm, he was surrounded by practical engineering and the ‘fix it if it’s broke’ mentality from childhood.
Leaving school, he took on an apprenticeship with Gough Gough & Hamer as a diesel mechanic, working on earth moving equipment around the country. In 1979 he shifted to Mack, his entrance into the trucking side on the heavy industry where he would forge his career.
Starting out in the South Island and working out of the back of a ute for Motor Truck Distributors, he then progressed further up the ranks over a period of 35 years, holding the positions of service manager, branch manager, regional manager, deputy general manager and finally general manager of Truck Stops.
“They were a great company to work for with good products and people, my time there was both incredibly rewarding and satisfying,” says O’Connor.
Seeking a lifestyle change and new challenges, the move to recruitment was natural. Automotive Employment’s decision to bring O’Connor on board is perhaps testament to their own philosophy of finding the best possible candidate for a placement.
The shift was made in the space of about two months, so when news broke of O’Connor’s new posting it was a surprise to many, although not purposely kept hidden.
“We haven’t made a secret of it, but there was a lot involved in a short space of time. We didn’t see much need to tell people until I was properly on board – that way when we made the move, people would know that I was here if they needed to contact me.
“We felt it was is important from a customer service perspective that I could be on the end of the phone when the announcement was made so that I can answer their queries.
“The response so far has been fantastic; there are a lot of positions and opportunities out there and I look forward to helping with making placements.”
While he posses a great deal of knowledge in relation to Truck Stops, O’Conner stresses that he will not be responsible for the account as this would prove a vested interest and an ethical problem.
“I’m in a very unique situation in that I now see both sides of the story. I was employing staff of up to 300 in the team and like everyone else we were suffering from shortages of staff across all different job roles. And now to be here and to see it across the whole industry, it really is a bit daunting to see the number of shortages that there actually are, and the vacancies that are occurring within the whole industry.”
While the exact figure can be hard to estimate, Pat believes the number of positions that need filling to be in their hundreds.
“We have such a diverse industry. In a lot of situations overseas you might specialise in just one small aspect of the industry, whereas here your role is quite varied.
One aspect of the shortage is the tide of skilled people departing for Australia, O’Connor says that needs to be matched by employing a great number of skilled immigrants.
“You can earn big bucks in Australia, but the shifts may be radically different to what people are doing here, and it becomes a case of how long can you keep it up for.
“We are currently targeting people in UK, SA and Europe. The website is set up so that it is easy for people all over the world to use.”
Automotive Employment has a close working arrangement with Silver Fern Immigration, a company they share a building with.
“They are independent but we work closely. It means we can smooth the process of getting people over here, a one stop shop for employers if you will. We reduce the time for companies getting people over to New Zealand, and we can show immigration that these people are highly skilled and productive. We go over their CV extremely closely, contact all referees, and have a stringent interview process.”
On the flip side, O’Connor acknowledges the need for there to be greater co-operation between training organisations and companies to attract new blood. It’s something he plans to get involved in, and an area Automotive Employment NZ owner Russell Philips takes part in, attempting to enhance the employability of automotive graduates ensuring the right skills are available for industry when needed.
“There has to be greater collaboration for a whole lot of reasons, and that is something we are seeing with the government’s targeted review of qualifications (TRoQ).
“It’s so important that we keep the number of skilled technicians that are trained to the correct level in the right method of training. It’s just critical to the industry that the end user, being the service companies and the training organisations, are both heading in the same direction.”
