The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released the annual census of the national vehicle fleet, which shows that Australian vehicles are growing and aging.

The ABS stats are available here, in PDF form. 

The numbers show that there are more freight vehicles than ever, and are in greater proportion to the number of passenger vehicles too.

Rigid trucks accounted for 2.6 per cent of the total number of vehicles registered in 2014, up 6 per cent on 2009 figures, while numbers of light rigid trucks have risen 22.5 per cent over the same period.

But the Australian truck fleet is not getting any younger.

The influx of new registrations has not changed the average age of the national freight transport fleet. Light commercial vehicles’ average of 10.4 years has not changed since 2009, but light rigid trucks have increased from an average of 10.9 years old in 2009 to 11.1 years in the latest survey.

The average ages of heavy rigid and articulated trucks are up from 15.4 to 15.6 years and from 10.7 years to 11.4 years, respectively.

The ABS says 43.5 per cent of the 329,464 Australian heavy rigid trucks were manufactured in or before 1998. Just 60,882, or 18 per cent, were made in the last five years.