In combination with its member associations, the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) collectively represents the 60,000 businesses and 200,000 people in the Australian trucking industry.
It really is the leading voice for the nation’s vitally important commercial transport sector.
Leading up to the May 2025 federal election, the ATA formulated a new three-year strategic plan which involved consultation with its members and some analysis of the interests and intentions of both the elected Government and the Opposition.
“We landed on four strategic pillars based around safety, decarbonisation, workforce, and infrastructure and charging,” says Mathew Munro, CEO of the ATA.
“We took those four issues to the election and by and large those issues over the rest of 2025 have not changed, although there are some new things on the horizon.”
Safety
Safety is quite probably the main reason the ATA came into being in 1991, after the Grafton truck and bus crash in October 1989 claimed 21 lives and was the worst accident in Australian road transport history at the time.
Road user safety and well-being is now even more of a hot-button issue, following the recent reforms of the Heavy Vehicle National Law, many of which involve safety.
The new HVNL will require all operators accredited under NHVAS to have a Safety Management System or SMS. The ATA’s own TruckSafe accreditation scheme has adopted an SMS focus and will be particularly suitable for smaller operators who don’t wish to deal with lots of documentation.
“Everyone must operate safely and the best way to demonstrate it is through accreditation and auditing,” says Mathew.
“A good SMS like TruckSafe will be tailored to your own business and address your specific risks.”
Following the Mona Vale tanker crash in 2013, the ATA has called for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) to undertake no-blame investigations into crashes involving trucks where there are lessons to be learned.
“We need an independent no-blame safety investigation so people can speak with the investigating team with confidence and not fear they will be prosecuted for what they say. But it needs to look up the chain and start asking questions about why did this happen. What was going on at the next level?” says ATA’s Chief of Staff, Bill McKinley.
Decarbonisation
The Australian road transport industry has come under scrutiny in terms of its emission levels and the ATA has been doing a lot of work in this space.
“Decarbonisation has clearly been a challenge for the industry, we’re ready to go in part but cost is an issue and we don’t have a full range of technologies available and mature enough to make a full transition,” says Mathew.
The availability of low carbon fuels is expected to be boosted with the Federal Government’s commitment of $1.1billion over ten years to develop a local industry.
The ATA also supports the expanded availability of incentives to purchase new low or zero emission vehicles.
“When someone buys a truck today it could be on the road for another 15 years or so,” says Mathew.
“Getting over the barrier of the upfront cost of a new low emission vehicle would assist. Recent government commitments to providing discounted finance for EV leases and residual value guarantees is a step in the right direction.”
Infrastructure and Charging
The ATA is concerned that lobbyists from other industries are pushing to remove fuel tax credits which they say is a fossil fuel subsidy.
“We are very strongly against that because fuel tax credits are not a subsidy, it’s a tax correction mechanism,” says Mathew.
“Heavy vehicles pay their fair share of road use via the PAYGO system. Fuel tax credits refund overtax we’ve paid at the bowser. We think there is a very strong case for their retention in our sector.
“There is a new charging model coming soon with a forward looking cost base. When that happens our industry should get a say in what it is we’re paying for and make sure that it’s fit for purpose over the coming generations.”
Workforce
It is generally accepted that the road transport industry is desperately short of workers and has been for a long time. Currently Australia requires 28,000 additional drivers to handle the national freight task.
“We need to have a strategy for fixing this issue and it needs to start with what we can do as an industry to attract and retain people,” says Mathew.
“We need to look at our licencing pathways, our training support and eventually our skilled migration pathways so we’re exploring every avenue. We’ve done some very good things in terms of attracting people to the industry.”
The ATA has developed its InRoads Workforce Program which includes career fact sheets, recruitment guides and inclusion training, with all of the information free to download.
“We’re also connected into what Transport Women Australia are doing in supporting the career fairs at high schools, starting in Year 10, and we are supporting the ‘Steering the Future’ careers trailer,” says Bianca D’Rosario, ATA’s Director of Marketing and Partnerships.
“We are seeing strong momentum in the space, and we’ll add more resources around other roles in the industry.”
Sham Contracting
Sham contracting has emerged as a major challenge for the industry.
“Sham contracting was low on our radar at the beginning of 2025 and over the course of the year it became one of the top issues,” says Mathew.
“There is a lot of competition in the industry and we’ve had a spike in insolvencies. We’ve got people complaining about unidentifiable plain white trucks on the network. People don’t really know who they are working for.
“Those are probably just symptoms of the underlying problem which is sham contracting. People illegally putting drivers on under ABN’s are getting a 30-40 per cent cost advantage by doing so, and they’re robbing the workers compensation system of contributions, plus they’re not paying superannuation.
“Some of these people wouldn’t be paying tax, either. There’s payroll tax and things like that leaking from the system. It’s become a huge issue like we’ve seen in the past with misuse of primary producer registration.
“It gets so out of control that if everyone you’re competing with is doing it, you don’t really have a choice. You either leave the industry or go broke or you have to get on board with them because you can’t compete. If there is no enforcement, people make a rational choice in terms of keeping their business alive.”
The Federal Government has initiated the Shadow Economy Task Force which will now give some attention to this problem in the road transport industry.
“We want a competitive industry with reasonable rates, but we can’t have people undercutting because they’re breaking the law. That just drags everyone down. We need a level playing field. The biggest impact is on the people who are adhering to the law, the people with all the safety systems and the only way we can be sure they are viable is to stamp this issue out, “says Mathew.
Future Outlook
Despite the challenges facing the industry, Mathew Munro remains upbeat about the immediate future.
“Something really positive to take into 2026 is a lot of the work we have done in skills and workforce, and decarbonisation,,” Mathew says.
“The reformed HVNL has some good productivity measures in there like potentially going to from 4.3 to 4.6 metres high, to go from 19 to 20 metres in length and the general uplift from general mass to our concessional mass limits. These are all significant things which the industry fought hard to achieve.
“We could have an enforceable 30-day payment terms order with fair annual rates reviews in place which is something we’ve wanted for a long time. We take the view here it’s a very good industry, a very safe industry, a very productive industry with excellent people in it and it’s a great industry to join.
“We need to start talking ourselves up. We are the backbone of the economy and we need to get back to selling that to people because that’s who we are and that’s what we do.”
ATA Fast Facts
- Formed in 1991
- Chairman: Mark Parry
- CEO: Mathew Munro
- Represents 60,000 transport businesses and 200,000 people
- Purpose: “United voice and forum for our members on trucking issues of national importance.”
- Mission: Safe, Progressive, Viable
- 2025-2028 strategies: Safety, Decarbonisation, Workforce, Infrastructure and Charging
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