![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/461a4198-e357-4e4a-a65d-e92a8284ac21.jpeg\")
Australian trucking companies are facing tough times. (Paul Jeffers\/The Age)<\/p>\nA\ufeffustralian trucking companies are at breaking point, with one in 12 forced to close over past months, a new report warns.<\/p>\n
The triply whammy of rising fuel and labour costs, stubbornly high interest rates and fierce competition has left many freight operators struggling to remain solvent, the research by CreditorWatch found.<\/p>\n
Smaller and family-run carriers, many of which serve critical industries on regional and interstate routes, are particularly vulnerable because they lack the cash reserves or negotiating leverage of larger logistics companies.<\/p>\n
Australian trucking companies are facing tough times. (Paul Jeffers\/The Age)<\/p>\n
The road transport industry is also facing other big headwinds.<\/p>\n
A shortage of drivers is pushing up labour costs as a lack of younger drivers taking up the job leaves companies with an ageing workforce.\ufeff<\/p>\n
The price of second-hand trucks, which jumped during the pandemic, has now fallen dramatically by more than 60 per cent.<\/p>\n
Added to these are volatile fuel prices, higher insurance premiums and rentals and the demands of environmental compliance.<\/p>\n
CreditorWatch data shows the closure rate for road transport businesses during the past 12 months was 8.46 per cent, or one in 12 businesses.<\/p>\n
This was an increase of 40 per cent year-on-year and a 26 per cent rise since this January.<\/p>\n
The closure rate for transport companies has rocketed and now rivals that of the hospitality sector, traditionally one of Australia’s most failure-prone industries.\ufeff<\/p>\n
There are some bright prospects for trucking firms, particularly in the mining and commodities sectors.<\/p>\n
But the benefits are unlikely to compensate for the industry’s current dire condition, according to CreditorWatch chief economist Ivan Colhoun.\ufeff<\/p>\n
“Elevated cost bases, stretched balance sheets, and soft freight demand from retail and manufacturing mean insolvency pressures are set to remain high through 2026,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\ufeffustralian trucking companies are at breaking point, with one in 12 forced to close over past months, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-296181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}