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Old - Hong Kong/China - Container trucking drives into its sunset years
Hong Kong,China -Cargonews Asia, by Greg Knowler -Feb 20, 2006 : -- As if Hong Kong's port didn't have enough to worry about. It emerged earlier this month that the majority of Hong Kong's 40,000 commercial trucking licence holders are over 50 and a large percentage of them are fast approaching the age of 60 when a recent mainland law will bar them from holding the licence... Around 15 percent of Hong Kong's cross-border container truck drivers will be too old in five years. Only 14,500 of the 40,000 licenced drivers in Hong Kong claim to make a living hauling boxes across the border, but it still represents another headache for the city's long-suffering Economic Development and Labour Bureau... But we have a simple solution. Just allow mainland truck drivers to transport containers to and from Hong Kong port... So what happens now? The trucking industry has to somehow attract young blood to an industry where driver incomes have dropped almost 60 percent in the last few years as costs have soared; Hong Kong's share of direct exports is declining; and routine four-hour delays at Dongguan Customs points have made it impossible for drivers to complete more than one trip a day, effectively placing a cap on drivers' potential earnings... So good luck with the recruitment drive, boys. But Hong Kong motorists are likely to see grizzled old faces in their rearview mirrors long before they see any eager mainlanders gripping the wheels...
posted by Unknown @ 10:57 AM
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