Livestock Transport Training

28 July 2025

Livestock transport is a vital part of Australia’s road freight industry. According to CSIRO’s 2022 freight mapping, over 14.9 million tonnes of livestock are moved across the country each year, with individual animals often transported multiple times during production.

Transporting livestock safely requires specialised skills. Heavy vehicle drivers must understand both animal welfare obligations and vehicle operation requirements. Recognising this, the Australian Livestock and Rural Transporters Association (ALRTA) approached Industry Skills Australia (ISA) to support the development of nationally consistent training for livestock transporters.

Jobs and Skills Australia also recommended improved delivery and uptake of formal livestock transport training in its report An Essential Ingredient: The Food Supply Chain Workforce.

Currently, industry faces challenges accessing relevant training. Units of competency related to livestock transport are spread across multiple training packages—AHC (Agriculture), AMP (Meat Processing), and TLI (Transport and Logistics)—but there are few qualified trainers available to deliver them. This limits access to essential training.

To address this, ISA will develop a new Skill Set that includes industry-identified units of competency, creating a benchmark for nationally consistent training and best practice in livestock transport. The Skill Set will align with:

• Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines – Land Transport of Livestock
• NHVR’s Regulatory Advice for Livestock Transport

Through research, analysis, and consultation with stakeholders, ISA will also identify future training and assessment needs for livestock transport. These findings will inform a second phase of the project.

This project will develop:

• 1 new Skill Set
• update the TLI Companion Volume Implementation Guide;
• develop a Scoping Report that details recommendations, timeframes, costings and a business case for future work, including: 

  • changes required to current qualifications and/or units of competency, including mapping of content to identify opportunities to enhance and/or consolidate training products within the TLI and other related training packages,

  • training that can be delivered online to offer flexibility for regional, rural and remote operators,

  • training that requires face to face delivery for practical demonstration and assessment of skills,

  • innovative approaches to training and assessment delivery that should be trialled,

  • VET system capacity and capability to meet the industry’s current and future training and assessment needs, and recommendations to address any identified gaps/barriers,

  • and implementation guidance to support delivery.

View the list of all training products related to this project.

• TLISSXXXX Livestock transport Skill Set

The reviewed training products are due to be submitted to the Assurance Body by 30 April 2026.

Industry Skills Australia (ISA) will engage with stakeholders throughout the life of the project and consider all ideas, opinions, and feedback to the revised training products to ensure they meet the needs of industry. A consultation log containing a high-level summary of all feedback and ISA’s response will be maintained and available on our website.

ISA will facilitate a webinar following endorsement of the training products to support stakeholders in understanding the changes and provide advice on implementation.