Empty haulage trucks are parked in yards across WA's south-west as an ongoing driver shortage forces business owners to turn down work contracts.
The shortage has been impacting haulage companies in Manjimup for at least five years and some businesses are even looking to sponsor international employees.
Julius Cutts has three or four trucks parked at any given time at Cutts Transport.
"We've forgone quite a bit of work because we just don't have people who are reliable anymore," he said.
"So we've gone to the customer and said, 'Look, if you can find somebody else, do that.'"
Mr Cutts is in the process of sponsoring an international driver to live and work in Manjimup.
"I've managed to find a driver who's actually a South African guy but is in England at the moment," he said.
"He's keen to come here with his family and he's got a cousin who lives locally who is prepared to put them up."
Mr Cutts says increased competition from other transport companies has forced him to reconsider training drivers from scratch.
"We've traditionally trained people mostly from just an ordinary car licence to a multi combination," he said.
"But that's become more and more difficult, because we train them and then lose them as soon as they qualified."
'Trying to transition'
Down the road at the South West Haulage Co yard, a line of eight trucks is parked and waiting for drivers.
Owner Greg Smeathers says he also needs machine operators.
"I still got to pay for them so it affects our viability very much," he said.
"I wouldn't blame it totally on the mines, but the mines are certainly offering better wages than we can possibly offer."
It costs a minimum of $15,000 for Mr Smeathers to train a driver up to multi combination level and the training process is continuous at his operation.
He is also hopeful his family run company will survive but the driver shortage is only one of his major concerns.
Half of the business is tied up in native logging, which the WA government announced last year would be banned from 2024.
"We're going to lose that work, but we're trying to transition into new opportunities and maybe even the mining," Mr Smeathers said.
International shortage
Western Roads Federation chief executive Cam Dumesny has been aware of a driver shortage issue since at least 2018 and says the problems is widespread across the country, as well as in Europe and the United States.
"It's a problem that's not going to go away in the short-term and we've got to find new ways of attracting people to our industry," he said.
The organisation is working with groups of people Mr Dumesny says traditionally would not consider a road transport job.
"We're working with mature-aged women — they turn out to be outstanding after we train them up … and we're working with refugee and migrant groups," he said.
"So we're just going to be broad-minded in how we attract people to the industry and train them to a point where they're employable.
"It's not a short-term fix."
Mr Dumesny understands the pain that transport company owners go through when their employees leave as soon as they become fully qualified.
"As long as you've got a shortage of drivers, the negotiating power actually resides with the driver, because they've got the choice to move to other areas of skill shortages," he said.
