The fast-building issues of not enough drivers and an ever-rising demand for more products, delivered more often, is squeezing the nation's trucking industry to the point where "something has to give".
But the straight-talking, hugely experienced trucking magnate Ron Finemore whose company runs crucial supermarket supplies into Canberra has solutions which he says "won't cost the federal government a cent but would make a huge difference".
"The first is to make heavy line haulage an essential service so that we can gain access to drivers from other countries who we can bring here, train up, and skill up to fill the driving jobs that need filling right now," he said.
"But it needs to be like the regional doctor scheme; the visa conditions have to ensure that the drivers we invite in, settle in our regional areas because that's where the work is.
"The second is to prioritise attitude and competency over age; give young people - the 18-year-olds who want to join our industry as drivers - a crack.
"We keep on getting told that young drivers shouldn't drive big trucks; I disagree. If a young person has the right attitude and accepts the responsibility, then we, the operators, will take them on and provide the proper graduated training.
"But by investing years of training in these young people - cadet drivers, if you like - there has to be something in it for us so we can hang onto them; we can't just train them up and watch them leave."
Very few know the Australian trucking industry as well as 79-year-old Ron Finemore.
When he calls into truck stops along the Hume Highway and chats with his drivers, his views command respect not because he's the boss but because he has also driven tens of thousands of lonely big rig highway kilometres.
Ron Finemore launched the transport side of his parent's farming supplies business in 1962 and sold it to Toll in 2001. He then established Ron Finemore Transport in 2004 from components of Wodonga-based company Lewington's Transport, expanding with the acquisition of Smith's Transport in Orange.
Finemore's truck fleet is one of the safest and "youngest" in the country and includes more than 300 prime movers, and upwards of 550 pieces of trailing equipment travelling over 70 million kilometres annually.
Mr Finemore's trucks also keep huge inland regional centres like the ACT fed and fuelled.
Through his company's major logistics and cartage contract with Woolworths, his semi-trailers keep the food and produce flowing into Canberra supermarkets, and his tankers keep the busiest single dispenser of transport fuel in the region, Costco at Majura, constantly topped up.
In December, Australia's transport ministers gave in-principle support to a national driver competency-based framework - a consistent approach to the training and licence progression of heavy vehicle drivers. But change comes painfully slowly, and is mired in bureaucracy.
The average age of truck drivers in Australia is 47, while the average age of bus and coach drivers 10 years older. The trend is accelerating quickly as more leave the industry. There's very good money in driving heavy vehicles but too few people competent, qualified and willing to sign on.
"I could employ another 100 people tomorrow to drive trucks if I could find them," Mr Finemore said.
"We keep hearing that vehicle automation and self-driving trucks will provide the answers but the highway driving is just one element. At each end you need drivers who can also manage tasks like the loading, the securing, the dispensing, and the record-keeping. There's far more to the job than just driving."
Meanwhile, the National Freight Data Hub predicts that Australia's road freight needs will grow by at least 2 per cent every year as e-commerce takes off even further.
