Articulated trucks average 79,400km a year

Articulated trucks account for fewer than 100,000 vehicles on the road, yet haul around 77 per cent of our total freight transport.

The recently released Australian Bureau of Statistics' survey of motor vehicle use, relating to the year ending June 30, 2018, shows the average articulated truck travels around 79,400km a year, or more than six times the average annual passenger vehicle use of 12,600km.

Freight transport is measured in tonne-kilometres (TKM) and on that basis articulated vehicles accounted for 165,336 million TKM, or 77 per cent of the national total. Rigid vehicles transported 18.6 per cent and light commercials delivered the rest (4.4 per cent).

On a per-truck average rigid vehicles come closer at 95,500 tonne kilometres a vehicle, against 1,822,700 tonne-kilometres for trucks with a turntable.

In the process of hauling our produce and consumer goods, ABS data shows the average articulated truck used around 55L/100km.

Rigid trucks and buses averaged around 29L/100km, while the average passenger vehicle used 10.8L/100km.

The total freight fleet of 3.79 million vehicles represents almost 20 per cent of the 19 million-strong automotive fleet in Australia.

Light commercial vehicles are the most dominant sector, with more than 3 million classified as freight vehicles, while there are just under 500,000 rigid trucks.

Australia's vehicle fleet used a total of 34,170 megalitres of fuel in the 12 months to June 30 last year, of which 51.4 per cent was petrol and 45.8 per cent diesel.