According to the Road Vehicles Australia Report, formerly the Motor Vehicle Census, developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, that is released annually by the Australian Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE), in 2024 the average age of vehicles in the Australian truck fleet was 14.8 years.
That is average age, hence the total life of a truck in Australia in 2024 was 29.6 years.
Based on this ‘life’, a new truck sold in Australia this year will not be retired from the fleet until 2055.
That is a very sobering statistic. This begs the question, how old is too old? By global standards the Australian truck fleet is very old.
For example, Austria’s truck fleet has an average age of 6.3 years; China 7.0 years; Germany 7.2 years; Japan 8.1 years; Norway 6.2 years; Singapore 5.6 years and the USA 6.7 years.
The Australian road toll is too high and heavy vehicles are over represented in those crashes and this is partly to do with the fact that the older trucks in our nation’s truck fleet do not feature the advanced safety features found in newer trucks.
Despite record, or near record, sales in 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 we have witnessed the age of the Australian truck fleet grow older, from 14.4 years in 2007 to 14.8 years average age in January 2024, as the nation’s freight task continues to grow year-on-year.
With a raft of new safety Australian Design Rules (ADRs) mandated by the Federal Government for introduction on new trucks over the next three to four years, the age of our truck fleet poses a significant barrier to the wholesale take-up of these important safety systems.
It is typically difficult to achieve 100 per cent of anything and that is very much the case with the uptake of safety technologies in motor vehicles. Generally, take-up rates are accepted to have reached maturity, or saturation, once 95 per cent of the fleet has seen the deployment of the specific technology.
The Truck Industry Council’s (TIC) modelling shows that with the current uptake rates and fleet age applied, it will take until 2050 for 95 per cent of the fleet to be fitted with Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and until the year 2053 for 95 per cent of the fleet to be fitted with Automatic Emergency Braking Systems (AEBS).
This is based on the ADR implementation dates and with the advanced fitment of these technologies to many truck models by TIC members also factored in. While the realisation of the safety benefits of Lane Departure Warning (LDWS) will take even longer, with TIC’s modelling detailing that a 95 per cent fitment rate will not be achieved across the truck fleet for LDWS until 2056.
Now if the Australian truck fleet age was that of the German fleet, at 7.2 years, the road safety rewards afforded by these life-saving, advanced truck safety systems would be realised significantly sooner.
TIC’s modelling shows that Electronic Stability Control would reach 95 per cent fitment by 2034 and by 2037, 95 per cent of the Australian truck fleet would be fitted with Automatic Emergency Braking Systems.
While the realisation of the safety benefits of Lane Departure Warning, based on 95 per cent fitment, could be achieved across the truck fleet by 2040.
In all three cases, the road safety outcomes, lives saved, serious injuries prevented, afforded by these technologies would be realised some 16 years sooner than will happen currently.
It is all well and good for government to develop and mandate new heavy vehicle safety and emission standards via the ADR process.
As can be seen from above, those regulations exist. What does not exist, is meaningful implementation and hence a truck fleet that contains vehicles with these technologies and systems.
That fleet is three decades away. This situation is a muti-generational government policy failing.
A failing that is putting the safety and health of every Australian road user at undue risk. A situation that Australians should be made aware of, and a state that we as a nation should not accept.
TIC calls upon Australian governments at all levels, to acknowledge that we have far too many old trucks on our roads and that policy must be developed that will lead to a positive reduction in our nation’s truck fleet age. How old is too old? The Australian truck fleet.
Tony McMullan CEO,
Truck Industry Council
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