I’ve beaten the ‘there’s plenty of diverse roles in transport’ drum on many occasions. I’ve been spruiking the ‘loving trucks leads to limitless opportunities’ mantra as well. Even more so when it comes to opening up the doors to women in transport. I haven’t, however, shone a light on the opportunities within transport for people that really don’t care about trucks.
That sounds very counterproductive, I know. However there really are so many different incentives for getting into this industry. You don’t have to be a card-carrying truck nut like me, and that was shown to me when I had the opportunity to sit down with a very talented young lady at Hallam Truck Centre in Victoria in Inndyah Chenoveth.
This amazing young apprentice has grown up around trucks – she now works around trucks, both brand new and with more years on the clock than herself. Yet when you put the question to the young apprentice ‘are you a truck nut?’ her honest answer is a ho-hum ‘not really, never had much interest. I knew them but I always saw them as a boy’s thing’. But here I sit, in the lunch room of the Hallam Truck Centre workshop, with Inndyah dressed in her finest coveralls and sporting a smile as bright as the lights she’s just been fixing on a customer’s DAF.
For while Inndyah may not have been drawn to her profession by the lure of the large rides, the transport industry and its offer of rewarding work has got a hold of this young lady and, as she eyes up the end of her auto-electrical apprenticeship, she is now contemplating doubling down with her heavy diesel mechanical apprenticeship as well.
As I mentioned, Inndyah is no stranger to the trucking world and the work ethic it takes to succeed within it. Her family runs East Coast Furniture Transport, a specialist company transporting furniture and homeware from warehouse to stores throughout Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia. I am reluctant, and a little aggrieved to repeat Inndyah’s ‘when I was younger’ quotes, as she is only 19 years old.
I still have work diaries older than she is, but Inndyah admits when she was younger, she had no interest in trucks, no inclination to become involved in transport and no aspirations to end up where she is now. All that changed, however, when COVID hit and all the rules changed.
“During COVID I would go to work with Dad when he was going in on the weekend to fix and service the trucks,” she admits.
“I was just doing little things to help out, and helping fit lights, stuff like that.”
Much to Inndyah’s surprise and her parents’ delight, Inndyah found herself becoming captivated more by the trucks.
“When I got older and started going to work with Dad on the weekends, I really started to enjoy it and learnt a bit more about it,” she says.
“At first I was just going to get out of the house during COVID, but found I enjoyed fitting stuff up in the trucks.”
That spark of interest led Inndyah to requesting and organising work experience through her school with Hallam Truck Centre.
“I never really liked school, I really struggled with it – I’d probably say I hated it,” she laughs.
“But when I got work experience here, I wasn’t just fitting stuff like I was with Dad, here I was learning to diagnose stuff and getting my brain working. I spent that week as a tag-along working with three of the other auto-elects. I didn’t do much myself, but it was exciting to see what they did, and they were all so helpful. I loved it.”
That week-long work experience was enough of a transport industry teaser for Inndyah to know that schooling wasn’t for her. Her path was chasing an apprenticeship.
“After that week, Halam Truck Centre offered me an apprenticeship, and I jumped at it,” she says.
“I loved the people I was working with and loved working here, so I filled out the paperwork and at the end of the school year I started.
“I do one day a week at TAFE and then the rest of the week I am here. The first year I was with someone every day, just learning. As I got closer to my second year, I was given jobs on my own. I was still working with someone but they were pushing me to be on my own.
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“Now I’m in my fourth year doing most things on my own. I’m still asking questions because no one is ever going to know everything.”
We need to take a little interlude here to focus on a feat that young Inndyah achieved yet tried hard to avoid talking about. An accomplishment that warrants more than just the fleeting glance the humble young lady tried to impose. I’ve mentioned that Inndyah is currently a fourth year apprentice, meaning last year was her third year. During her third year, Inndyah decided to join the hundreds of other PACCAR Technicians that enter their in-house Technician of the Year competition.
This competition is for both sides of the PACCAR camp, Kenworth and DAF. The competition is open to all the PACCAR technicians; you start by doing four online tests from your workplace. The top candidates then get invited along to PACCAR HQ in Bayswater, where they are put through several hands-on tests. Keeping in mind Inndyah is an auto-electrical apprentice, this competition tests the technicians on all areas; mechanical and electrical, four stations, 40 minutes per station.
Overseen by a PACCAR supervisor, each candidate has to assess, diagnose and repair a different issue. In the end, awards were handed out to the top three technicians and top apprentice. Not only was Inndyah the first female to make it through to the finals, in her third year as apprentice she picked up the award for fourth place in the DAF Technician category. It was a feat worthy of interrupting our story for.
Back to the Inndyah biography. For a young lady who admits her love of schooling was pretty much non-existent, she has found her groove among the faults and wiring of heavy vehicles.
“I feel good knowing I can find the problem and work out how to fix it. I am achieving what I want to achieve,” she attests.
Her placement of vocation has also played a major role in her success and enjoyment of the job.
“The whole team here at Hallam Truck Centre, especially the guys in the workshop, are great. They are so helpful and supportive,” she says.
“I was a bit worried when I first started, I was only 15 when I began, so I was definitely worried about it, but I have never had an issue. The drivers are great, if I speak to them, they are always very nice, polite, not trying to tell me how to do my job. They ask, ‘is this the issue?’ and I’ll explain what’s going on and they are very receptive. I really love it.”
Supportive is a key word when it comes to the systems in place not just for females, but for all apprentices at the Hallam Truck Centre. So much so that young Inndyah has eyes on a second specialty when she signs off on her auto-electrician apprenticeship.
“I love the auto-elect stuff, but I also enjoyed getting in and doing some mechanical work as well, so once I finish this, I am going to do my heavy diesel qualification,” she says.
For a young lady that despised school and her only interest in Mum and Dad’s trucking business came in the form of an excuse to avoid COVID restrictions, Inndyah has found her calling. She may never have a room covered in trucking posters. She most likely will never tarnish her weekends vacationing at truck shows. But the transport industry has offered her a role that is both challenging and rewarding, and I shall leave the last word to her.
“I never wanted to sit in an office, I’ve always wanted to be more hands-on and doing this stuff I have really enjoyed,” she says.
“Working out problems, the difficulty in solving those problems – I feel like sometimes females step away from this side because they think it is a man’s industry, but I’m all for woman being in it, it’s really enjoyable.”
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