The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has released its 2024 Heavy Vehicle Industry Safety Survey, with there being a massive change in how drivers are operating within the local transport landscape.
The main change is seen in whether drivers own and run their own vehicles or choose to be employed by a business. In the 2022 survey, 70 per cent of drivers ran their own vehicles while 20 per cent were employees by a business and nine per cent sub-contract.
Driver shifts
In the 2024 edition, which surveyed 8,883 members of the transport industry, now only 29 per cent own and drive their own vehicle while 65 per cent are employed by a business – a shift of 45 per cent. The 2024 survey says only six per cent of drivers now sub-contract for a business.
When it comes to where these drivers are based, there’s been a shift away from Victoria, with the number of drivers being based in Victoria dropping from 50 per cent in 2022 to 32 per cent in 2024. In its place, there’s been rises in NSW (up from 20 per cent to 27), Queensland (up from 15 to 19 per cent), South Australia (up from seven to nine per cent), WA (one per cent to four) and the Northern Territory (from 0.1 per cent to 0.4).
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Company size changes
There are also less and less operations running just the sole truck while the number of major operators has grown. One-truck operations has decreased in popularity from 15 per cent in 2022 to seven per cent in 2024.
In its place, the number of businesses with 200 or more vehicles in the fleet have risen from six per cent in 2022 to 14 per cent in 2024.
This is reflected in the business size trends by people – now, 12 per cent of respondents in the industry have only the one person, while the number of operators with two to 10 people having fallen from 61 per cent in 2022 to 30 per cent in 2024.
On the other end, the number of businesses with 500 people or more have risen from three per cent to nine per cent in the latest iteration of the survey.
Industries impacted
When it comes to what primary industry sectors these companies work in, there’s been a swing in buses, construction and landscape, general freight and primary production/farming.
The number of bus companies participating in the industry survey has risen by 14 per cent to 16 per cent in 2024, while construction and landscape product businesses have fallen from 18 per cent in 2022 to 12 per cent in 2024.
General freight companies have risen by two per cent to 22 per cent in 2024, while primary production and farming groups have fallen to 13 per cent in 2024, down seven per cent from the last survey.
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