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Sep 27, 2026
Australia’s road freight industry is growing, but it is becoming an industry of one-person businesses, and those are the businesses most likely to close. ABS data shows:
With diesel prices surging in 2026 and an ageing truck fleet, small operators who know their true costs and price accordingly give themselves the best chance of lasting.
Australia had 65,225 road freight businesses at June 2025, up 22.7% from 53,157 in June 2021. Almost all of that growth came from operators with no employees. Small employers with 1 to 19 staff actually shrank.
| Road freight businesses, by employment size | June 2021 | June 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-employing (no staff) | 26,531 | 40,759 | +53.6% |
| 1–4 employees | 21,702 | 19,739 | −9.0% |
| 5–19 employees | 3,849 | 3,633 | −5.6% |
| 20–199 employees | 1,010 | 1,019 | +0.9% |
| 200+ employees | 65 | 75 | +15.4% |
| Total | 53,157 | 65,225 | +22.7% |
Sources: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits (cat. 8165.0), data cube 2, Road Freight Transport (ANZSIC class 4610). June 2021 from the June 2019 to June 2023 release (18 December 2023); June 2025 from the June 2021 to June 2025 release (16 December 2025). Change percentages are calculated from these figures.
Non-employing businesses rose from 49.9% to 62.5% of the industry in four years. In practice, that means the typical road freight business is now an owner-driver operating alone.
Most are also small by revenue. At June 2025, 11,633 road freight businesses turned over less than $50,000 a year and a further 24,742 turned over $50,000 to under $200,000. Together that is 55.8% of the industry. Only 1,130 businesses, 1.7%, turned over $10 million or more (ABS 8165.0, data cube 3, June 2021 to June 2025 release).
The longer trend is growth too. An earlier ABS release recorded 50,256 road freight businesses in June 2017, although earlier releases used different size bands and have since been revised, so that comparison is approximate.
More road freight businesses are closing each year, and the exit rate has risen from 14.4% to 16.6% in three years. New entrants still outnumber closures, which is why the total keeps growing, but the gap is narrowing.
| Financial year | Operating at start | Entries | Exits | Entry rate | Exit rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021–22 | 53,157 | 11,967 | 7,661 | 22.5% | 14.4% |
| 2022–23 | 57,463 | 12,411 | 9,292 | 21.6% | 16.2% |
| 2023–24 | 60,263 | 12,488 | 9,839 | 20.7% | 16.3% |
| 2024–25 | 62,912 | 12,738 | 10,425 | 20.2% | 16.6% |
Sources: ABS 8165.0, data cube 2, Road Freight Transport (ANZSIC 4610). 2021–22 and 2022–23 from the 18 December 2023 release; 2023–24 and 2024–25 from the 16 December 2025 release. Rates are as published by the ABS. The ABS revised its June 2023 count between releases (60,582 in the 2023 release, 60,263 in the 2025 release).
Exits rose 36% between 2021–22 and 2024–25. Most closures are the smallest operators: of the 10,425 exits in 2024–25, 7,944 (76.2%) were non-employing businesses and 2,284 had 1 to 4 employees. Only 31 businesses with 20 or more employees exited that year.
An ABS exit means a business stopped actively trading, for example stopped remitting GST. It is not necessarily a failure: some owners retire, sell or move into employment. Even so, the rising exit rate matches other evidence of stress covered below.
Just over half of road transport businesses trading in June 2021 were still trading four years later, well below the average across all industries. The gap is concentrated among the smallest operators. Road transport businesses with 5 to 199 employees survived better than the all-industry average.
| Survived June 2021 to June 2025 | Road transport | All industries |
|---|---|---|
| Non-employing | 45.6% | 56.8% |
| 1–4 employees | 65.4% | 69.0% |
| 5–19 employees | 81.3% | 78.5% |
| 20–199 employees | 88.9% | 85.4% |
| 200+ employees | 83.0% | 88.7% |
| All businesses | 52.9% | 63.1% |
Sources: Road transport calculated from ABS 8165.0 data cube 4 (survival by subdivision and employment size, 16 December 2025 release), summing all states and territories for ANZSIC subdivision 46, Road Transport. All industries from ABS 8165.0 data cube 1, Table 15 (26 August 2025 release).
Two cautions apply. First, the ABS publishes survival only for the whole Road Transport subdivision, which includes buses, taxis and rideshare as well as freight; 93,489 road transport businesses were operating in June 2021, against 53,157 in road freight alone. Second, the 200+ group is small (100 businesses at the start), so its rate can move a lot on a few closures.
The pattern is still clear. A non-employing road transport business had less than an even chance of lasting four years, while businesses with 20 to 199 employees had close to a nine-in-ten chance. The ABS data does not say why. Likely factors include a broader customer base, stronger buying power on fuel, tyres and insurance, and dedicated staff to manage costs and contracts.
Small operators face the same cost shocks as large fleets but with less room to absorb them. Four pressures stand out in the current data.
Fuel. The ACCC reports that average retail diesel in the five largest cities rose from 176.6 cents a litre on 20 February 2026 to 322.4 cents on 31 March 2026, after conflict escalated in the Middle East. It was 286.8 cents on 23 September 2026. The Government cut fuel excise by 32 cents a litre from 1 April to 30 June 2026 and fully restored it to 53.7 cents on 3 August (ACCC Weekly fuel price monitoring report, 24 September 2026). At the ABS average of 53.1 litres per 100 km for articulated trucks, that price move adds about $77 of fuel per 100 km at pump prices (ABS Survey of Motor Vehicle Use, 2020).
Freight prices chasing costs. The ABS reported that road freight transport output prices rose 15.5% in the June quarter 2026, driven by fuel (ABS, Price indexes and inflation). Operators on fixed rates or without a fuel levy carry the gap until their rates are reset.
An ageing fleet. BITRE reports an average age of 16.2 years for heavy rigid trucks and 12.5 years for articulated trucks in 2025, with 122,187 heavy rigid trucks on register built in 2004 or earlier (BITRE Road Vehicles Australia, January 2025). Older trucks generally mean higher repair bills and more downtime.
Business failures. CreditorWatch data reported by the Australian Institute of Credit Management put the road transport closure rate at 8.46%, about one in 12 businesses, in the 12 months to 31 October 2025, citing fuel, maintenance and labour costs, interest rates and price competition (AICM). Across all industries, ASIC recorded 14,722 companies entering external administration for the first time in 2024–25, up 33.2% on the prior year (ASIC Corporate Insolvency Update, Issue 37).
CreditorWatch and the ABS measure closures differently, so their rates are not directly comparable. Both point the same way.
The data shows larger operators survive longer, but it doesn’t show that size alone is the answer. Small operators can adopt the cost disciplines larger fleets rely on. These steps are general guidance, not findings from the ABS data.
The Freight Metrics Truck Operating Cost Calculator and Fuel Levy Calculator are built for the first three steps: they turn an operator’s own figures into cost per kilometre, per tonne and per day, and set a fuel levy customers can see.