## (3) Truck transport business

The number of motor truck carriers had been on the rise for long, but the number of newcomers and that of retirees have equaled since 2008, with the number of carriers moving crabwise at about 63,000.

While carriers are kept in an increasingly harsh management climate under the influence of light oil price hikes, etc., various countermeasures have been taken, including encouraging the introduction of fuel surcharges to pass on light oil price hikes to the freight charges and saving energy requirements in motor truck transportation to back up the carriers in their effort to improve fuel efficiency.

The MLIT will seek to rationalize the market, as by promoting and diffusing the practice of exchanging documents in writing and toughening checks made at the

launch of a business on the basis of discussions made at the Expert Council for Rationalization and Reactivation of the Trucking Industry and also upgrade the working environment and educate motor truck carriers more intensively to secure and foster truck drivers feared to run short in the future.

## (4) Securing and fostering bearers of motor carrier businesses, etc

Motor carrier businesses that undertake the movement of people and goods(trucking, bus and taxi businesses, and automotive maintenance business that contributes to safety assurance in these businesses) are a social infrastructural industry of vital importance to sustaining Japan’s economy and means of regional transportation.

A look into the employment structure of the motor carrier businesses, however, suggests that the workforce more or less depends on middle-aged and elderly workers, with female workers accounting only for about 2%. If this condition lasts, a serious shortage of bearers of these business is feared to occur in the future.

In the light of these circumstances, the MLIT has defined the year 2014 as the “first year of human resources securing fostering” and worked out its future approaches to analyzing current status across these businesses, identifying problems, encouraging the work of younger and female workers and so on.

The MLIT has also opened a website, called “Female Truck Driver Promotion Project Site,” that tells female job applicants how to become truck drivers and also introduces how active female truck drivers are at work. Preparing pamphlets that help business operators to improve their workplace environment is another measure taken by the MLIT to secure bearers of the trucking business. Campaigns made in respective automotive maintenance include visiting high-school principals and other key persons in a public-private collaboration to promote the work of the automotive maintenance business using explanatory pamphlets and preparing automotive maintenance publicity posters appealing to females and asking them to be posted at sites of local public entities, in public transportation facilities and elsewhere.

Figure II-6-3-5

Employment Structure of the Motor Carrier Businesses, etc.

Trucks	Buses	Taxes	Auto maintenance	Total industry average
Employment structure	Number of drivers and maintenance technicians	84 ten thousand	13 ten thousand	34 ten thousand	40 ten thousand	-
(Female ratio)	2.4%	1.4%	2.3%	2.1%	42.8%
Average age	Age 46.2	Age 48.3	Age 58.3	Age 43.5	Age 42.0
Working hours	220 hours	209 hours	196 hours	192 hours	177 hours
Annual income	JPY4.18 million	JPY4.4 million	JPY2.97 million	JPY4.19 million	JPY4.69 million

Source) MLIT