9208.0 - Survey of Motor Vehicle Use, Australia, 12 months ended 31 Oct 2007 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 28/08/2008   
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NOTES


ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION

This publication presents estimates from the 2007 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 2006 to 31 October 2007.


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 2007 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 2007 there were an estimated 14.8 million vehicles registered in Australia.

Passenger vehicles (78.0%) made up the largest group of registered vehicles in 2007, followed by freight vehicles (18.0%). The remainder (4.0%) comprised buses, motor cycles and non-freight carrying trucks. Of the freight vehicles, 82.4% were light commercial vehicles, 14.8% were rigid trucks and 2.8% were articulated trucks.

The 14.8 million vehicles represented an increase of 1.6 million vehicles (12.1%) compared with the 12 months ended 31 October 2003.


KILOMETRES TRAVELLED

Motor vehicles in Australia travelled an estimated 215,171 million kilometres in the 12 months ended 31 October 2007. While the number of vehicles increased by 12.1% compared with the 12 months ended 31 October 2003, the distance travelled by these vehicles only increased by 6.8% 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 (29.2%) and the largest number of registered vehicles.

Proportion of vehicles and total kilometres travelled, State/territory of registration-Year ended 31 October 2007
Graph: Combo_NumVehs_TotKlms_


Motor vehicles registered in Australia travelled an average of 14,600 kilometres per vehicle in the 12 months ended 31 October 2007. Queensland (15,200 kilometres), the Northern Territory (15,100 kilometres) and Victoria (15,100 kilometres) were above the national average, while vehicles registered in South Australia travelled the least number of average kilometres (12,400). Of all vehicle types, articulated trucks had the highest average kilometres (93,200).

Average kilometres travelled, Motor vehicles by state/territory of registration - Year ended 31 October 2007
Graph: Average kilometres travelled, Motor vehicles by state/territory of registration—Year ended 31 October 2007


Passenger vehicles accounted for 73.4% of the total distance travelled in the 12 months ended 31 October 2007. This represents a slight decrease compared with the proportion travelled by passenger vehicles in the 12 months ended 31 October 2003 (75.3%).

Personal and other use accounted for 51.1% of the total kilometres travelled by passenger vehicles in Australia during the 12 months ended 31 October 2007. Travel to and from work (28.7%) and business use (20.2%) accounted for the remaining kilometres travelled by passenger vehicles.

Freight carrying vehicles travelled 52,958 million kilometres (24.6%) in the 12 months ended 31 October 2007. Of this, light commercial vehicles accounted for 70.6% of the kilometres travelled, rigid trucks 16.3%, and articulated trucks 13.1%.


TONNE-KILOMETRES

Freight vehicles in Australia travelled an estimated 184,072 million tonne-kilometres in the 12 months ended 31 October 2007. This is an increase of 31,295 million tonne-kilometres (20.5%) since the 12 months ended 31 October 2003. Over this period, articulated trucks increased 24.2% and rigid trucks 11.4%.

Total tonnes-kilometres travelled, type of vehicle, years ended 31 October 2003 and 31 October 2007
Graph: Total tonnes-kilometres travelled, type of vehicle, years ended 31 October 2003 and 31 October 2007


Articulated trucks accounted for 78.0% of the total freight vehicle tonne-kilometres travelled in the 12 months ended 31 October 2007 with rigid trucks accounting for 18.4% and light commercial vehicles for 3.6%.

Articulated trucks each travelled an average of 2.1 million tonne-kilometres. In comparison, rigid trucks and light commercial vehicles travelled an average of 101,900 and 5,500 tonne-kilometres, respectively, in the 12 months ended 31 October 2007.

There were 143,601 tonne-kilometres travelled by articulated trucks in the 12 months ended 31 October 2007. Of those, articulated trucks of a Gross Combination Mass (GCM) over 40 tonnes travelled 137,172 million tonne-kilometres (or 95.5%) of the total tonne-kilometres travelled by all articulated trucks.

The most tonne-kilometres were travelled in New South Wales (43,201 million), followed by Victoria with 32,629 million tonne-kilometres.

Total tonne-kilometres travelled by articulated trucks, State of operation-Year ended 31 October 2007
Graph: area of operation



FUEL CONSUMPTION

Registered motor vehicles in Australia consumed 30,047 million litres of fuel in the 12 months ended 31 October 2007. Of the total fuel consumed by motor vehicles in this period, 62.8% was petrol and 31.2% was diesel.

Passenger vehicles used 15,910 million litres of petrol in the 12 months ended 31 October 2007. This was 87.9% of all fuel used by passenger vehicles.

A total of 6,206 million litres of diesel was used by articulated and rigid trucks. This was 66.2% of all diesel used. Light commercial vehicles used 1,687 million litres which was 18.0% of all diesel.

Total Fuel Consumption, Type of fuel - Year ended 31 October 2007
Graph: Total Fuel Consumption, Type of fuel—Year ended 31 October 2007


The average rate of fuel consumption for all motor vehicles in the 12 months ended 31 October 2007 was 14.0 litres per 100 kilometres. Articulated trucks had the highest average fuel consumption with 54.6 litres per 100 kilometres.

Average fuel consumption, Type of vehicle - Year ended 31 October 2007
Graph: Av_fuel_cons by veh_type