Just over a year ago (May 2024) the Labor Federal Government released their Transport and Infrastructure Net Zero Consultation Roadmap.
This Roadmap being one of six sectorial consultation papers designed to stimulate discussions and recommendations from various levels of government, industry and the public, with regard to fashioning the government’s policy pathway to meeting its stated climate change objectives.
The Consultation Paper noted that the transport sector is the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia, amounting to 21 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 and since 2005, Australia’s transport emissions have increased by 19 per cent.
Without further action, transport will be the largest source of CO₂ emissions in Australia by 2030. The Consultation Paper details that road transport is the main source of transport emissions, at around 83 per cent, with emissions from light vehicles (passenger cars, motorcycles and light commercial vehicles) responsible for almost 60 per cent of the sector’s emissions.
This is followed by heavy vehicle emissions (trucks and busses) that account for 23 per cent of all transport emissions. The rest is made up domestic aviation (9 per cent), rail (4 per cent) and marine (2 per cent).
The Truck Industry Council (TIC) and our members welcomed the government’s Consultation Paper and we were particularly pleased to note that the Paper discussed the need for a “transition” to a net zero future.
Something that TIC has been championing for some time now.
Carbon abatement will not be a ‘light switch’ moment, it will take careful planning, government incentives, both regulatory and financial and importantly, it will take time.
The size of the challenge for the road freight sector should not be underestimated.
There are currently approximately 745,000 trucks operating on Australian roads and due to the ever-growing freight task that is expected to grow to 850,000 trucks by 2030.
Despite the continued take-up of low emission trucks (hybrids) and zero emission trucks (principally battery electric with some hydrogen fuel cell), TICs modelling shows that emissions from the Australian truck fleet will likely increase between now and 2030.
This is due primarily to the growing freight task and the increased number of trucks required to deliver that increased amount of freight.
In addition to low and zero emission trucks, TIC has highlighted a number of other CO₂ reduction measures that should be adopted by the road freight sector. These include freight consolidation.
By way of an example, freight delivered on a B-double combination reduces CO₂ emissions by approximately 30 per cent when compared to delivering the same freight on multiple semi-trailer combinations.
Moving freight on even higher productivity trucks, such as Performance-Based Standard (PBS) vehicles, can result in even greater CO₂ savings. Another significant CO₂ reduction measure that needs to be adopted in Australia is low carbon fuels.
In the heavy vehicle sector this is primarily renewable and bio-diesel though bio-methane is another renewable fuel that could be used for road transport.
TICs principal policy document that details a pathway for government to reduce the age of the Australian truck fleet, improve road safety and reduce CO₂ emissions in the road freight sector is the National Truck Plan.
A current copy can be found here: https://www.truck-industry-council.org/downloads
Recently, late April 2025, the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) released their proposal for reducing CO₂ emissions and improving road safety for trucks, a piece of work developed in conjunction with Deloitte Access Economics and titled: Emissions Modelling and Analysis.
One of the key issues highlighted in this report was that the current projected baseline case (business as usual), projects emissions from trucks will not reach the government’s 2030 target levels until 2049 and hence the transport sector is currently not on track to meet the government’s objectives.
The ATA/Deloitte report can be found here: https://www.truck.net.au/media/media-releases/atas-plan-trucking-industry-and-reduce-living-costs
Both TICs National Truck Plan and the ATA/Deloitte report have the same basic objectives and call upon government to incentivise the uptake of new low and zero emission trucks as well as provide incentives to foster the development of a low carbon fuels industry here in Australia.
Actioning these proposals will increase the take up of new low and zero emission trucks and will lead to a noticeable reduction in CO₂ emissions from the existing Australian truck fleet, while newer trucks will provide better road safety outcomes for all road users.
Tony McMullan CEO,
Truck Industry Council
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