Australia is rapidly running short of truck drivers, and is on course for an economic hit in the next decade as transport companies increasingly fail to find enough staff to meet the growing demand to move freight. 
A large-scale survey of the trucking industry has found that it is ageing, overwhelmingly male and on the cusp of a big slump in driver numbers, with one in five working drivers at retirement age.
The average age of an Australian truck driver is 47, the survey found, up from 43 just two years ago.
Less than one in five truck drivers in Australia is aged under 30, while women make up just 3 per cent of the workforce.
Projections show the amount of freight required to be moved by truck in Australia will double between 2010 and 2030 and Victoria's Transport Department has suggested in a 2010 report that the industry must step up its recruitment rates by 150 per cent to meet demand.
The looming skills shortage is considered so urgent that the $40 billion road transport industry will this year take radical action and begin touring primary schools to encourage children to consider a career as a truck driver.
The recruitment drive is allied with a new truck safety campaign targeted at children, Stop, Look Wave, which launched in Melbourne this week with the involvement of grade one students from Glen Iris Primary School.
The program is being led by Volvo, which manufactures heavy vehicles in Australia and also commissioned the survey of 547 transport businesses.
Australia is desperate need of more truckies. Photo: Paul Rovere
Peter Voorhoeve???, president and chief executive of Volvo Australia, admitted the truck driving profession has an image problem, which contributes to its failure to attract young workers, but said stereotypes about the industry were outdated.
"People still think, the blue singlet, the old, dusty truck ... enormous stick shift in the middle," Mr Voorhoeve said. "There is no stick shift any more."
In truth, modern heavy vehicles are more technologically advanced than most cars, with safety features including lane change assistance, emergency braking and satellite tracking, he said.
Despite technological progress, truck driving remains one of the least safe professions in Australia, with a fatality rate of 20 deaths per 100,000 workers, which is 12 times above average, according to Safe Work Australia.
Trucks, which make up 10 per cent of road traffic, are also over-represented in fatal crashes.
Last year, 210 deaths on Australia's roads involved a heavy vehicle, comprising 17 per cent of the road toll.
The industry is also hamstrung by regulations that prohibit young people from driving the largest heavy vehicles on the road, such as B-Doubles, until age 25, meaning few school-leavers take up the profession. 
The shortage led to unsuccessful industry appeals to government two years ago for permission to employ foreign drivers on 457 visas.  
Mr Voorhoeve said Volvo was setting up an academy to employ and train prospective drivers as a way to recruit staff under the age of 25.
Already, with 46 per cent of surveyed businesses reporting a skills shortage now, trucks are sitting idle for want of a driver.   
"It's not an issue for me selling trucks, it's an issue for Australian society at large," Mr Voorhoeve said.