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Australian Transport Economic Account: An Experimental Transport Satellite Account

Latest release

This publication presents estimates of the total contribution of transport activity across the economy, including GDP, value added and employment

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Reference period
2010-11 to 2020-21

Key statistics

  • Total transport activity contributed 7.9% ($164.4b) to GDP in 2020-21.
  • Total transport activity was the second largest industry contributor to the Australian economy behind mining in 2020-21.
  • There were around 1.2 million employed persons in the total transport industry (including warehousing) in 2020-21.

Overview of Australian Transport Economic Account

The Australian Transport Economic Account (ATEA) is an experimental transport satellite account that provides a more comprehensive picture of transport by bringing together components of transport activity performed throughout the Australian economy.

A key role of the ATEA is to identify the full extent of transport activities, beyond what is undertaken by the traditionally defined transport industry. It draws together a picture of transport activity conducted on a for-hire basis by the traditionally defined transport industry, as well as providing an explicit measure of transport activity undertaken by non-transport industries in the economy. This is called in-house transport.

Total transport activity in the economy

Total transport activity in the economy showing examples of transport activities by the transport industry as well as non-transport industries. Transport activities undertaken by non-transport industries can utilise in-house transport or for-hire transport to reach their destination.

Total transport activity in the economy showing examples of transport activities by the transport industry as well as non-transport industries. Transport activities undertaken by non-transport industries can utilise in-house transport or for-hire transport to reach their destination. Examples of in-house transport in non-transport industries include: companies in the construction industry moving finished goods from a warehouse to a building site using their own trucks; companies in the mining industry transporting raw materials from mine to port using their own freight trains; commercial fishing operators (part of Division A: Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Industry) transporting product to a port using their own water vessels; and companies in the health services industry utilising their own aircraft to access rural patients. Non-transport industries can also utilise for-hire transport services directly from the transport industry to transport their product to destinations. Transport activities undertaken by the transport industry include transportation of passengers and freight by road, rail, water or air. These services are available for-hire to other industries.

Total transport activity (for-hire and in-house)

Total transport activity is defined as:

  • For-hire transport activity undertaken by businesses within the transport, postal and warehousing industry as defined in the national accounts, e.g. air passenger transport by commercial airlines, or transport of goods by freight transport businesses; and
  • In-house transport activity of businesses in non-transport industries, including:
    • ancillary transport activity which is not intended for market, and is consumed in the production of an industry’s primary output. An example of this activity is a retail business using their own truck to deliver goods from a warehouse to their retail outlet.
    • secondary production of transport activity for market where a fee is charged. For example, where that same retail business then uses their own truck to deliver the goods to the customer for a delivery fee.

Contribution of total transport activity to Gross Domestic Product

In 2020-21, total transport activity contributed $164.4b to the Australian economy, representing 7.9% of the Australian Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

  • For-hire transport activity, represented in the national accounts as the transport, postal and warehousing industry, contributed 4.2% ($86.8b) to GDP in 2020-21.
  • In-house transport activity, which is undefined in the national accounts, contributed a further 3.7% ($77.7b) to GDP in 2020-21.

(a) For-hire transport includes postal, courier pick-up and delivery services, transport support, and warehousing and storage services.
(b) In-house transport excludes postal, courier pick-up and delivery services, transport support, and warehousing and storage services.

The total transport share of GDP has decreased since 2011-12, with declines in both for-hire and in-house transport. In-house share of GDP experienced a sharp decline in 2019-20, followed by a recovery in 2020-21.

  • In-house transport grew by 41% in 2011-12 as the road transport fuel price increased. In-house transport fell by 21.4% in 2019-20, due to the drought conditions and COVID-19. The industries most impacted were agriculture, forestry and fishing industry and manufacturing.
  • In 2020-21, total transport GDP bounced back with an increase of 9.5% to $164.4b. In-house transport led the way with an increase of 23.9% driven by increases in in-house transport activity in the construction, agriculture, forestry and fishing, and retail trade industries. Over the same period for-hire transport GDP decreased by 0.8%.

(a) For-hire transport includes postal, courier pick-up and delivery services, transport support, and warehousing and storage services.
(b) In-house transport excludes postal, courier pick-up and delivery services, transport support, and warehousing and storage services.
(c) Source: Australian System of National Accounts, 2020-21 (cat. No. 5204.0) as published on 28 October 2022.

Transport output by mode

Road transport is considered the most accessible mode of transport as road infrastructure is readily available and extensive, and has lower capital investment costs in comparison with air or rail transport. The ATEA shows that road transport is the main activity of both for-hire and in-house transport and contributed 84.6% ($245.7b) of total transport output by mode in 2020-21.

(a) Both for-hire and in-house only includes transport output related to the 4 primary modes of transport (road, rail, water & air).

The main industries contributing to each mode of in-house transport are:

  • Road – agriculture, forestry and fishing, manufacturing and construction are the top 3 contributors and account for 40.4% of in-house road transport output.
  • Rail – mining accounts for 89.5% of in-house rail transport output.
  • Water - agriculture, forestry and fishing contributes almost half of in-house water transport output.
  • Air - public administration and safety accounts for 61.0% of in-house air transport output.

In-house transport responds to economic stimuli differently to for-hire transport. This is particularly apparent in the air transport industry response to COVID-19. Overall air transport output dropped 56.3% in 2020-21 to $12b, with in-house falling 13.3% while for-hire, which was heavily impacted by travel restrictions and border closures, fell 62.0%.

In-house transport output by industry

Total in-house transport output increased by 12.8% in 2020-21 to $184.3b.

The top 4 industries for in-house transport output in 2020-21:

  • Construction contributed $40.3b (21.8%) to total in-house transport output.
  • Agriculture, forestry and fishing contributed $17.8b (9.7%).
  • Manufacturing contributed $15.8b (8.6%).
  • Retail trade contributed $14.5b (7.9%).
  • The majority of in-house transport activity in the construction industry was road transport, which accounted for 99.8% of all in-house transport use in this industry.
  • Agriculture, forestry and fishing was the largest user of in-house water transport, which accounted for 11.7% of in-house transport use in this industry.
  • Public administration and safety industry, which includes Defence, was the largest user of in-house air transport which accounted for 14.5% of in-house transport use in this industry.
  • The mining industry was the largest user of in-house rail transport, which accounted for 16.5% of in-house transport use in this industry.

In-house transport intermediate inputs

Intermediate inputs consist of goods and services consumed as inputs to a production process. In-house transport intermediate inputs can be classed as:

  • Transport specific inputs, such as fuel or repairs and maintenance, which are specifically related to the production of transport activity; and
  • Other intermediate inputs, which are those goods or services consumed in producing in-house transport that are not specific to transport. Examples include office supplies and accounting services.

In 2020-21:

  • Repairs and maintenance accounted for 30.5% ($15.5b) of all in-house transport specific inputs. The biggest contributors were the construction industry ($4.1b) followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing ($1.6b) and, manufacturing ($1.4b).
  • Rent, leasing and hiring accounted for 28.8% ($14.6b) of all in-house transport specific inputs. Construction ($2.3b), retail trade ($2.1b), and rental, hiring and real estate services ($1.3b) were the largest contributors.
  • Fuel accounted for 24.4% ($12.4b) of all in-house transport specific inputs. The main contributors were the construction industry ($2.9b), agriculture, forestry and fishing ($1.5b) and, professional scientific and technical services ($1.1b). Automotive petroleum prices reached a record low in 2020-21, resulting in fuel accounting for its lowest share of transport specific input costs over the 11 year ATEA time series.

(a) Excludes other intermediate inputs not specific to transport.

In-house transport specific inputs by mode in 2020-21:

  • For in-house road transport, repairs and maintenance was the largest transport specific input, accounting for 30.6% ($14.9b) of the total, followed by rental, leasing and hiring (29.1%) and fuel (24.4%).
  • The largest transport specific input to in-house rail transport production was registration fees and transport vehicle insurance, which accounted for 48.5% ($0.15b). This was followed by fuel (24.1%) and repairs and maintenance (23.6%).
  • Rental, leasing and hiring was the largest transport specific input to in-house water transport, contributing 28.4% ($0.19b) of total transport specific inputs, followed by fuel (28.1%) and repairs and maintenance (26.2%).
  • For in-house air transport, repairs and maintenance was the largest transport specific input, contributing 27.6% ($0.27b), followed by fuel (25.3%) and registration fees and transport vehicle insurance (23.7%).

(a) Excludes other intermediate inputs not specific to transport. Registration fees include network access fees e.g. rail network access fees.

Transport related employment

Transport related employed persons’ refers to the total number of employed persons associated with the production of transport activity in the economy. The employed persons data align with the Labour Account Australia, which includes data for multiple job holders by industry.

In 2020-21, there were an estimated 1.2 million employed persons in transport related employment across the economy (including persons employed in transport, postal and warehousing for both for-hire and in-house transport).

Of these:

  • Approximately 631,000 persons were employed in for-hire transport, within the transport, postal and warehousing industry, representing 50.4% of total transport employed persons.
  • Persons employed through in-house transport, including in-house warehousing, were predominantly employed in wholesale trade industry (111,000), followed by the retail trade industry (103,000) and the other services industry (79,000).
  • 293,000 employed persons were in warehousing related occupations. Of these, 26,000 persons were employed in the warehousing & storage services (division I, sub-division 53), with the largest in-house employment in the wholesale trade industry (74,000), followed by the retail trade industry (68,000) and manufacturing industry (44,000).

(a) Employment data have been compiled by applying a transport occupation by industry ratio derived from the 2020-21 Census to Labour Account data. This approach captures employed persons whose occupations are intrinsic to the physical movement of goods or people from one location to another.
(b) includes employed persons related to the 4 primary modes of transport (road, rail, water & air) only.
(c) excludes warehousing & storage services (sub-division 53).
(d) includes employed persons related to warehousing and storage services only.
(e) includes warehousing & storage services (sub-division 53) only.

Changes to this release

This is the second release of experimental estimates from the Australian Transport Economic Account (ATEA). The first release on 30 October 2018 used existing ABS data sources, that were not designed to create an ATEA, as a proof of concept to show stakeholders the type of information a transport satellite account could provide. While methods were robust and in line with other international statistical agencies, it was acknowledged that a future ATEA would be improved and provide better support for policy needs if transport specific data was available for all industries. This ATEA release builds on the experience of the proof of concept and utilises data collected in the 2020-21 Transport Industry and Activity Survey (TIAS) that was specifically designed to meet the data needs of the ATEA. A new methodology has also been implemented for the employment estimates. The availability of the TIAS data and the new employment methodology mean that the estimates in this release are compiled on a completely different basis and should not be compared with the results published in 2018. For more information, see Methodology.

Data downloads

Australian Transport Economic Account, an experimental transport satellite account, 2010-11 to 2020-21

Data files
Download xlsx [145.21 KB]

Methodology

Australian Transport Economic Account: An Experimental Transport Satellite Account methodology, 2010-11 to 2020-21

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