Trucking industry veterans have sounded the alarm about the dangers posed by a flood of foreign drivers – mainly from India – on Australian roads.
The concerned insiders warned that immigrant drivers on overseas licenses were unfamiliar with Australian safety standards, ignoring road rules, taking unsafe detours to get around road closures, driving poorly maintained and uninsured vehicles, forging defect clearances, and using truck stops as depots.
A driver called Greg, who operates a fleet of 50 to 60 trucks, told 2GB migrant drivers had poured into the industry during Covid when demand for freight increased, but were now entrenched and causing chaos on the roads.
Alexandra Avenue…. South Yarra.
It’s going to be awhile.
Trains halted. pic.twitter.com/wfM5NSuXLh— Heidi Murphy (@heidimur) March 15, 2025
“They’re having trouble reversing into docks, and when these floods were on the other day up the east coast when the coast roads shut they ended up back up in back roads trying to avoid the road closures and got themselves in tangled messes everywhere,” he said.
“They just don’t care or don’t understand.
“Do you really want your family travelling up and down the road with these trucks having bad steering components or bad braking components? It’s 65 tonne coming down the road that’s non-compliant, or the driver doesn’t understand.”
Another industry insider named Bruce said one of Australia’s largest cement companies was hiring Indian drivers, giving them three days’ training, and then “letting them loose”.
“I’ve cringed for so long because of the racist aspect of it, because unfortunately the Aussie mentality is to target that, but really what it boils down to is that they’re right,” he said.
When asked how uninsured and dangerous vehicles driven by unqualified drivers could stay on the roads in such a heavily regulated industry, Bruce said it was “a bit bewildering”.
“The problem we’ve got with the international guys coming out here is that they’re allowed to come out and drive for around six months and don’t have to have anything done with their licence, they just drive on their international licence … and then they tend to disappear,” he said.
“And as far as the trucking companies go that are actually owned by international people they are just rented trucks, rented trailers, so they get around [the regulations] in a totally different way.
“A lot of the truck stops have been complaining about them being used as a depot, so guys can’t go in there and stop and have their mandatory rest breaks because the other international guys don’t actually have depots and they’re just dropping their trailers, and as a result they’re undercutting all of the really good companies.”
A survey conducted last year by government transport agency peak body Austroads found that 85% of respondents thought those on overseas licenses should be banned from driving heavy vehicles, and identified issues with road safety culture, driving etiquette, road rules, experience, and language and driving skills.
The warning comes after an Indian student was killed when the cement truck he was driving near Perth crashed through a barrier and burst into flames, bringing the state’s road toll to a 10-year high.
Header image: Left, right, truck crashes on Australian roads (Facebook).
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