THE ENGINE ROOM

The Premier Commercial Fleet Guide provides an overview of who has what in the fast lane of road transport in Australia.

Much has been written about the litany of factors inhibiting growth over the past 12 months. With good reason, too. The repercussions of a destabilised supply chain in which truck order wait times have ballooned, in many cases, to 18 months, have made planning capital expenditure programs for fleet procurement and replenishment a much different beast to what it was just ten years ago. All the same, a record year for truck sales suggests the service sector, which dominates the Australian economy, comprising nearly two-thirds of Gross Domestic Product and at present employs nearly 80 per cent of the labour force, was not on the wane any time soon. The numbers of the biggest fleets and trends in Performance-Based Standards go some way of backing this up with the likes of

Linfox, QUBE and Centurion, all driven by operations plugged directly into the same service sector.

Growth was still achievable, as the more forward-thinking and innovative carriers have demonstrated, through shrewd investments, customer diversification and closer relationships with the more astute suppliers.

Parts and componentry scarcities have also thrown sand into the gears for many top tier transport operators who have been forced to navigate the vagaries of container imports, production backlogs and material shortages.

Outside of the official 44,379 new trucks sold in Australia, there’s another story to be told in the burgeoning secondhand market, which has sadly, for some, been sustained by several journeyman transport operators closing their doors. These trucks whether sold privately or