Archive, Product News

Growth spurt for light rigids over past five years

ABS stats show truck type ahead of all other four-wheeled vehicles

September 12, 2012

Light rigid trucks sit behind only motorcycles as the fastest-growing registered vehicle type of the five years to January 2012, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures released today.

The leading commercial vehicle type, light rigids rose 24.8 percent since 2007 to 124,291, the ABS’s Motor Vehicle Census shows.

For the others, over the five years, light commercials grew 19.6 percent to 2,617,799, articulated trucks 18.2 percent to 87,995, and heavy rigids 9.2 percent to 322,115.

Light rigids were also the fastest-growing commercial vehicle type of the past year, up 4.7 percent, with light commercials up 3.4 percent, articulateds up 2.4 percent and heavy rigids up 1.2 percent.

Despite the growth for light commercials, the ABS notes an anomaly related to average age.

“Campervans showed the largest decrease in average age, by 1 year, followed by light rigid trucks by 0.3 years, buses by 0.2 years and heavy rigid trucks by 0.1 years,” the ABS says.

“Over the same period, light commercial vehicles increased by 0.6 years.”

Light commercial vehicles accounted for 15.6 percent of all vehicles registered in Australia for 2012, the second highest proportion behind passenger vehicles.

Rigid trucks accounted for 2.7 percent of the total number of vehicles registered in 2012 and 2007.

Registrations of rigid trucks with a gross vehicle mass (GVM) greater than 20 tonnes have increased by 22.3 percent since 2007, while registrations of rigid trucks with a GVM of 20 tonnes or less have increased by 11.1 percent over the same period.

For 2012, articulated trucks accounted for 0.5 percent of the total number of registered vehicles in Australia.

From 2007 to 2012, the number of registrations of articulated trucks with a GCM over 20 to 40 tonnes has decreased by 26.4 percent, while the number of Articulated trucks with GCM over 60 to 100 tonnes and greater than 100 tonnes has increased by 31 percent
and 49 percent respectively.

Bookmark and Share

Previous ArticleNext Article
Send this to a friend