March 20, 2019
Trucks carried an estimated 214,789 million tonne-kilometres (tkm) of freight across Australian roads in 2017-18, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
“The 2017-18 figure represents a 5.0 per cent increase in tonne-kilometres (one tonne moved on road over one kilometre) since 2016,” ABS spokesperson Lauren Binns said.
“Articulated trucks carried the bulk of Australian road freight, transporting 165,336 million tkm, 77.0 per cent of the total road freight task. This is despite articulated trucks comprising less than 1.0 per cent of all vehicles on Australian roads.”
The majority of road freight transported crude materials (30 per cent) such as stone, sand and gravel, followed by manufactured goods (12 per cent) and food and live animals (11 per cent).
Freight vehicles registered in Victoria moved more freight than any other State or Territory with 55,450 million tkm.
This was followed by Queensland (49,038 million tkm), NSW (48,709 million tkm) and Western Australia (35,953 million tkm).
Passenger vehicles continue to make up the majority of registered vehicles in Australia (75 per cent).
In 2017-18, passenger vehicles travelled a total of 179,761 million kilometres at an average of 12,600km per vehicle.
A good sign that regions would benefit from reinvesting into rail that was left to ruin by particular administrations, costing each State more and more each year.