9208.0 - Survey of Motor Vehicle Use, Australia, 12 months ended 31 October 2006  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 19/10/2007   
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NOTES


ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION

This publication presents estimates from the 2006 Survey of Motor Vehicle Use (SMVU). It contains statistics on passenger vehicle, motor cycle, truck and bus use for characteristics such as distance travelled, tonne-kilometres and fuel consumption.


The data were collected in four quarterly sample surveys conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) over the period 1 November 2005 to 31 October 2006.


COMPARISONS WITH PREVIOUS SURVEY RESULTS

This survey has been designed to provide a measure of total distance travelled and tonne-kilometres for each state/territory of registration by type of vehicle. While comparisons are made between 2006 survey results and earlier iterations of the SMVU, the survey has not been designed to provide accurate estimates of change.


Care should be taken in drawing inferences from changes in data over time as movements may be subject to high relative standard errors and the resulting estimates of movements may not be considered statistically significant. See Explanatory Notes paragraph 14.


Additional information about the reliability of the level and movement estimates is given in the Technical Note.

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.

SUMMARY COMMENTARY


NUMBER OF VEHICLES

In the 12 months ended 31 October 2006 there were an estimated 14.4 million vehicles registered in Australia.


Passenger vehicles (78.5%) made up the largest group of registered vehicles in 2006, followed by freight vehicles (17.7%). The remainder (3.8%) comprised buses, motor cycles and non-freight carrying trucks. Of the freight vehicles, 82.0% were light commercial vehicles, 15.2% were rigid trucks and 2.7% were articulated trucks.


The 14.4 million vehicles represented an increase of 1.5 million vehicles (11.7%) compared with the 12 months ended 31 October 2002.


KILOMETRES TRAVELLED

Motor vehicles in Australia travelled an estimated 209,405 million kilometres in the 12 months ended 31 October 2006. While the number of vehicles increased by 11.7% compared with the 12 months ended 31 October 2002, the distance travelled by these vehicles only increased by 8.9% over this time.


The state/territory proportion of total kilometres travelled is closely related to the number of registered vehicles in each state/territory. New South Wales had the largest share of total kilometres travelled (29.3%) and the largest number of registered vehicles.

Proportion of vehicles and total kilometres travelled, State/territory of registration-Year ended 31 October 2006
Proportion of vehicles and total kilometres travelled, State and territory of registration-Year ended 31 October 2006

Motor vehicles registered in Australia travelled an average of 14,600 kilometres per vehicle in the 12 months ended 31 October 2006. Queensland (15,600 kilometres) and the Northern Territory (14,700 kilometres) were above the national average, while vehicles registered in Tasmania travelled the least number of average kilometres (13,500). Of all vehicle types, articulated trucks had the highest average kilometres (88,300).

Average kilometres travelled, State/territory of registration - Year ended 31 October 2006
Average kilometres travelled, State/territory of registration—Year ended 31 October 2006

Passenger vehicles accounted for 74.6% of the total distance travelled in the 12 months ended 31 October 2006. This represents a slight decrease compared with the proportion travelled by passenger vehicles in the 12 months ended 31 October 2002 (75.3%).


Personal and other use accounted for 51.6% of the total kilometres travelled by passenger vehicles in Australia during the 12 months ended 31 October 2006. Travel to and from work (29.3%) and business use (19.1%) accounted for the remaining kilometres travelled by passenger vehicles.


Freight carrying vehicles accounted for 49,401 million kilometres travelled (23.6%) in the 12 months ended 31 October 2006. Of this, light commercial vehicles accounted for 71.3% of the kilometres travelled, rigid trucks 16.3%, and articulated trucks 12.5%.


TONNE-KILOMETRES

Freight vehicles in Australia travelled an estimated 167,935 million tonne-kilometres in the 12 months ended 31 October 2006. This is an increase of 26,997 million tonne-kilometres (19.2%) since the 12 months ended 31 October 2002. Over this period, total tonne-kilometres for light commercial vehicles increased 40.7% while articulated trucks increased 20.6% and rigid trucks 9.4%.

Total tonnes-kilometres travelled, Type of vehicle - Years ended 31 October 2002 and 31 October 2006
Total tonne-kilometres travelled, Type of vehicle—Years ended 31 October 2002 and 31 October 2006

Articulated trucks accounted for 76.8% of the total freight vehicle tonne-kilometres travelled in the 12 months ended 31 October 2006. Rigid trucks accounted for 18.5% and light commercial vehicles for 4.7%.


Articulated trucks each travelled an average of 2.0 million tonne-kilometres. In comparison, rigid trucks and light commercial vehicles travelled an average of 93,700 and 6,800 tonne-kilometres respectively in the 12 months ended 31 October 2006.


In the 12 months ended 31 October 2006, articulated trucks of a Gross Combination Mass (GCM) over 40 tonnes travelled 123,272 million tonne-kilometres (or 95.5%) of the total 129,014 million tonne-kilometres travelled by all articulated trucks.


There were 129,014 tonne-kilometres travelled by articulated trucks in the 12 months ended 31 October 2006. The most tonne-kilometres were travelled in New South Wales (41,923 million), followed by Queensland with 29,362 million tonne-kilometres.

Total tonne-kilometres travelled by articulated trucks, State of operation-Year ended 31 October 2006
total tonne-kilometres travelled by articulated trucks, State of operation-Year ended 31 October 2006



FUEL CONSUMPTION

Registered motor vehicles in Australia consumed 28,898 million litres of fuel in the 12 months ended 31 October 2006. Of the total fuel consumed by motor vehicles in this period, 65.8% was petrol and 29.8% was diesel.


Passenger vehicles used 16,299 million litres of petrol in the 12 months ended 31 October 2006. This was 91.4% of all fuel used by passenger vehicles.


A total of 5,744 million litres of diesel was used by articulated and rigid trucks. This was 66.6% of all diesel used. Light commercial vehicles used 1,634 million litres which was 19.0% of all diesel.

Total Fuel Consumption, Type of fuel - Year ended 31 October 2006
Total Fuel Consumption, Type of fuel—Year ended 31 October 2006

The average rate of fuel consumption for all motor vehicles in the 12 months ended 31 October 2006 was 13.8 litres per 100 kilometres. Articulated trucks had the highest average fuel consumption with 55.6 litres per 100 kilometres.

Average fuel consumption, Type of vehicle - Year ended 31 October 2006
Average fuel consumptiion, Type of vehicle-Year ended 31 October 2006