Buying a transport business is two purchases: trucks that wear out, and contracts that can walk.

A transport business in Australia is priced on two things: the fleet at market value and the earnings its contracts produce. In our review of 14 transport businesses on public sale sites on 26 October 2026, one since sold, the six that stated earnings asked 2.3 to 4.8 times those earnings, with a median of about 3.3, and the fleet made up between 29% and almost all of the price where its value was given. Morgan Business Sales’ 2026 sector report puts contracted road freight with earnings under $1 million at 2.5 to 3.5 times normalised earnings and spot or owner-operated work at 2.0 to 2.5 times, with the fleet often priced on top. Vendors’ figures and earnings bases differ, so rebuild the earnings before you compare. General information, not a valuation.

A trucking business is valued two ways, and most negotiations use both. The first is a multiple of normalised earnings, after a market wage for the owner, with the fleet either inside the multiple or added on top at market value. The second is asset plus goodwill: the fleet at an appraised market value plus goodwill, which one 2026 advisory guide puts at typically six to twelve months of normalised profit, and at nothing for an owner-operator with no staff and no written contracts. Contract quality moves the number more than anything else: written multi-year contracts with the business, fuel recovery and a spread of customers support a higher figure, and verbal work for one customer a lower one. Ask the broker which method the asking price uses, then test it on both.

Yes, a transport company purchase in Australia is usually funded as three facilities that settle together rather than one loan. The fleet is funded as equipment finance against its appraised market value, the goodwill by a business loan sized on the cash flow left after the fleet repayments, and the debtor book by working capital or invoice finance; a depot, if you buy it, is a fourth loan, against commercial property. In written positions in September and October 2026, one specialist business bank wanted about 30% of the price from the buyer on a standalone business purchase and tested debt-service cover of at least 1.25 times, and a large business bank had no appetite for a buyer new to the industry outside professional services. The goodwill loan is usually where a deal falls short, so model it before you offer. Subject to lender assessment.

The deposit for a trucking business depends on how much of the price is trucks. The fleet can often be financed close to its appraised value: one lender’s September 2026 position required no deposit up to $500,000 on asset finance where no property is offered. The goodwill is the hard part: one specialist business bank wanted about 30% of the total price from the buyer on a standalone purchase (September 2026), and whatever is borrowed against the goodwill has to be carried by the cash flow left after the fleet repayments, at 1.25 times cover. In the worked example on this page, an eight-truck business at $1.9 million needs about $710,000 of the buyer’s money, 37% of the price, plus working capital for the debtor book. Run the funding check with the listing’s numbers. Subject to lender assessment.

You can buy a transport business without industry experience, but expect less gearing and more questions. A large business bank told us in October 2026 that it has no appetite for a new business purchase where the buyer is new to the industry, outside professional services. A specialist business bank weights the buyer’s skills heavily and asks for a resume and evidence of industry or similar operating experience before an indicative offer (October 2026), and may set lower gearing for first-time operators (September 2026). What helps: management experience in logistics or operations, a long paid handover from the vendor, a key manager or senior driver staying on, contracts that sit with the business rather than the owner, and more of your own money in the deal.

No, NHVAS accreditation does not transfer to a buyer. The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s business rules say an accreditation cannot be transferred between individuals or legal entities, and since the amended Heavy Vehicle National Law commenced on 1 August 2026 the NHVAS has stopped taking new applicants. A buyer that is not already accredited applies for the new Heavy Vehicle Accreditation scheme in its own name, with a safety management system scaled to the size of the operation; a buyer that is already accredited in the same modules can add the acquired vehicles to its own accreditation. Western Australia’s heavy vehicle accreditation is not transferable either. If the business relies on accredited fatigue hours or mass arrangements, put the application timetable into the contract, or ask your advisers about buying the shares of the company that holds it.

Registration transfers to the buyer, but on a deadline. In Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland the buyer has 14 days. In Victoria a company’s transfer is done in person at a VicRoads customer service centre, and a roadworthy certificate is generally needed; in New South Wales a vehicle over 4.5 tonnes is transferred at a Service NSW Centre; in Queensland a truck over 4.5 tonnes needs a current certificate of inspection, and a maintenance-scheme inspection exemption generally ends on transfer unless the vehicle joins your own accreditation. Duty is payable on each vehicle: in Victoria $8.40 for every $200 of market value on a used truck, so $8,400 on a $200,000 prime mover; in Queensland $3.50 per $100 for a heavy vehicle with five or six cylinders, so $7,000. Plan the transfers for settlement week.

Stamp duty on buying a transport business depends on the state and on what is in the sale. Queensland charges transfer duty on business assets, goodwill and plant included, on the greater of the price and the value, and vehicles in the agreement may earn a credit for vehicle duty already paid. New South Wales does not charge duty on goodwill; it charges duty where land or a lease is included, and vehicle duty when the trucks are transferred. Victoria does not charge duty on goodwill either, though plant and other goods sold with a depot in the same deal are assessed with the land, and it charges vehicle duty on transfer. A depot bought with the business attracts transfer duty: about $91,287 in New South Wales and $95,525 in Queensland on a $2 million property alone at 2026-27 rates, more if other assets are counted with it, while in Victoria an industrial or transport property pays duty one final time on its first qualifying sale from 1 July 2024 and moves to an annual property tax ten years later. Confirm it with your solicitor and accountant before you sign.

Buying the assets of a transport company gives you the trucks, the goodwill and whichever contracts can be assigned, and leaves most of the company’s history with the vendor. Buying the shares gives you the whole company: its accreditation and registrations stay in place because their owner has not changed, though a contract with a change-of-control clause can still end or need consent, and its history stays too, including any chain of responsibility breaches, unpaid driver entitlements, tax and disputes. An asset purchase means applying for accreditation, transferring every registration within 14 days and collecting customer consents; a share purchase avoids most of that but needs deeper due diligence and stronger warranties. Lenders fund both, with different security and documents. The choice belongs with your solicitor and accountant first, and we arrange the funding around the structure they recommend.

Chain of responsibility is the Heavy Vehicle National Law’s rule that every party that controls or influences a heavy vehicle task, including the business that employs the drivers and schedules the loads, must make its transport activities safe so far as is reasonably practicable. The duty cannot be delegated, it stays with a party even when work is subcontracted, and each director or executive officer carries a separate duty of due diligence from the day they take over. Maximum penalties for the most serious category are $4,230,550 for a corporation and $436,850 or five years’ imprisonment, or both, for an individual, as indexed from 1 July 2026, and since 1 August 2026 the duty also covers drivers’ fitness to drive. Ask for the business’s fatigue, maintenance and loading records before you buy.

Diesel prices hit a transport business directly and fast. Purchases, mostly diesel, are 21.6% of road freight revenue (IBISWorld, October 2026), so a fuel rise that the contracts do not pass on comes straight off profit. In 2026 the national average terminal gate price of diesel rose from 165.4 cents a litre on 27 February to a peak of 325.9 cents on 9 April, and on 26 October it stood at 264.9 cents in Melbourne. The Fair Work Commission’s fuel cost recovery order, in effect from 21 April 2026, required road transport chains to adjust rates for fuel; its obligations stopped when diesel fell below $2 a litre in June, and on 16 October the Commission proposed reviving them with monthly adjustments, a decision still pending at 26 October. Read every contract for a fuel or rise-and-fall clause before you price the business.

To fund a transport business purchase, lenders read the business and the buyer. For the business: three years of financials and tax returns with the add-backs itemised; twelve months of business bank statements and the tax portal; the fleet register with make, model, year, kilometres or hours, registration, finance owing and an appraised value; the customer list with each customer’s share of revenue and the contract behind it; the depot lease or title; accreditation, maintenance and incident records; and the insurance schedule with its claims history. For you: a statement of position, two years of personal tax returns, the deposit and where it comes from, a resume of your transport or operating experience, and a twelve-month plan. That pack is what our 24-hour answer is built on.

Used and older trucks can be financed, but their age and condition decide the term, the deposit and sometimes whether a lender will take them at all. Lenders lend against market value, so an appraisal of the fleet comes first, and each lender sets its own limits on a truck’s age at the start and at the end of the term, which is why the same prime mover can be a five-year deal with one lender and a shorter one with another. Private sales, and raising money against trucks you already own, are treated differently again: one lender reported raising 80% of market value against a transport business’s 15 unencumbered assets in August 2026. Send us the fleet list and we check it against current lender limits before you offer. Subject to lender assessment.

Subcontract work for a large carrier can be worth paying goodwill for, but only after four questions. Integrated logistics firms hold most of the larger contracts and subcontract to smaller operators, which have little ability to influence prices (IBISWorld, October 2026). So ask how much notice the carrier can give, whether the runs are allocated to the business or to the driver who does them, when the rate was last reviewed and whether fuel is recovered, and how much of the revenue depends on that one carrier. One current listing earns all its revenue from seven dedicated runs for one carrier; another has one customer at about 40%. Price that dependence, meet the carrier before you commit, and make settlement conditional on the runs continuing.

An owner-driver becomes a fleet owner one of two ways: growing a truck at a time, or buying an existing fleet business with its contracts. Growing is cheaper per truck but slow, and some truck manufacturers’ finance programs ask for two to three years of ABN history and a 20% deposit where you do not own property (published criteria, October 2026). Buying a fleet business brings contracts, drivers and history at once, and is funded as a business purchase: equipment finance on the trucks and a business loan on the goodwill. Your years as an owner-driver are the industry experience lenders ask to see, and a truck you own outright can help raise part of the deposit. Start with the rebuild on this page and the business’s customer list.