HomeNewsUncategorizedHVIA 2024-25 Year In Review

HVIA 2024-25 Year In Review

June 25, 2025 5 min read

This report provides a detailed review of HVIA’s activities, achievements and benefits delivered to our valued members during the last financial year.

ADVOCACY

Sustainability & Government Relations

  • Successfully obtained $100,000 in funding from the South Australian Government to develop sustainability guidance materials for the heavy vehicle sector.
  • Prepared and disseminated a Federal Election document to all sitting members of Parliament.

Skills, Training & Workforce Development

  • Partnering with The Industry School to establish the Automotive Academy – a pipeline bringing great young people into the industry.
  • Influenced WA TAFE secondary students course list to include vital manufacturing pathways.
  • Development of a data set offering insights into apprenticeship trends.

Technical & Regulatory

  • Secured the removal of VicRoads’ bridge assessment fee policy – saving industry over $1 million annually in unnecessary fees and furthering the adoption of high-productivity freight vehicles and trailers.
  • Progressed technical reforms in regulatory areas crucial to members, including braking, trailer wiring and powered trailers, thus providing essential regulatory pathways to market for new products and saving members thousands in unnecessary compliance costs.
  • Ameliorated the potential negative impacts of a new third-party heavy vehicle safety testing program, to ensure uptake of new vehicle models remains unhindered.

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

2025 Brisbane Truck Show

  • Produced three highly successful magazines aimed at promoting the event – including a 164-page Special Preview Magazine, a 228-page Official Show Program and, for the first time, a 132-page post-show Commemorative Magazine.
  • In-line with the strategy of taking much of the show’s marketing and communications in-house, in the 12 months leading up to the event HVIA produced hundreds of stories promoting the show, published across its social media, email and web platforms.
  • This strategy delivered unrivalled results, generating 3 million views, 43,500 content interactions and 4,500 new followers on Facebook alone in the peak show period of May 9-May 19. An additional 484,000 views, 19,800 content interactions and 2,000 new followers were added on Instagram; while on LinkedIn, the show registered 187,179 page impressions and 3,939 reactions.
  • Over the extended key promotional period commencing October 1, 2024, the show generated an incredible 9.9 million views, 82,900 content interactions and 7,300 new followers on Facebook; 566,800 views, 23,600 content interactions and 2,800 new followers on Instagram; and 356,573 page impressions, 6,763 interactions and 1,257 new followers on LinkedIn.

ROADBOSS

  • HVIA’s ROADBOSS Magazine continued to garner extremely positive feedback from both readers and corporate partners alike through 2024-25.
  • Now in its second year of publication, the coffee-table style magazine resigned most of its foundation corporate partners for a second year as well as welcoming a swag of new supporters in the period, including Volvo Group Australia, Freighter Group, Scania Australia, The Drake Group, Hino Australia and Here Technologies.
  • ROADBOSS’s world-class documentary-style videos also continued to attract massive audiences, with the latest instalment – an awesome 12-minute video capturing the story of Rob Waters and his W-Model Kenworth attempting to set the record for the world’s fastest truck on the salt flats of Lake Gairdener in South Australia – attracting a record 164,000 views in just its first month!

Industry News & Information

  • HVIA also continued to grow reach and engagement across its member news and information services through 2024-25.
  • Its weekly electronic newsletter, Talk the Torque, has become the industry benchmark for high-quality industry news and information of relevance not only to HVIA members but the wider heavy vehicle industry. Distributed weekly, Talk the Torque now reaches a record 4,200+ industry decision makers and achieves industry-high open rates of 35-40 per cent, underpinned by a focus on delivering quality news and information of direct relevant and value to members.
  • What’s more, HVIA continues to build a large and influential social media audience, with LinkedIn followers surpassing 9,500 in the period, up from just 8,000 a year ago.

EVENTS

HVIA National Awards

  • A record 270 people attended the prestigious 2024 HVIA National Awards Gala Dinner to celebrate the heavy vehicle industry’s great achievers and achievements over the previous 12 months.
  • Eight awards were presented, including:
    • Product Innovation Award (sponsored by Wurth Australia): SAF-HOLLAND Group’s TRAKr E-axle;
    • Safety Innovation Award (sponsored by NHVR): NTI’s ‘Spilt Milk’ dairy tanker rollover project;
    • Apprentice Technician of the Year Award (sponsored by NTI): Angus McDonald – Penske Australia & New Zealand (WA);
    • Apprentice Trailer & Body Builder of the Year (sponsored by NTI): Samantha Hall – The Drake Group (Qld);

HVIA Executive Club

  • The HVIA Executive Club brought industry leaders together in October at Fox Classic Car Museum in Melbourne with guest speaker Senator Jess Walsh.

Truck Week (Formerly Australian Heavy Vehicle Industry Week)

  • The Brisbane Truck Show cemented its status as Australia’s largest industry exhibition and the biggest truck show in the Southern Hemisphere, with the 2025 show attracting a record-breaking 54,790 attendees, smashing the previous high of 42,855 in 2023.
  • Truck Week 25 extended the show into a hugely successful week-long festival of all things trucking with a combination of old and new activations, including the Silverback Show ‘N’ Shine a National Championship at Little Stanley Street which showcased 28 of the country’s best custom trucks competing for the National Show N Shine Champion of Champions and People’s Choice Champion awards.
  • In a joint venture with Ace Boxing, Truck Week 25 presented the Premier Boxing Series at South Bank with two nights of fights in South Bank Piazza.
  • The Depot careers hub at TAFE Queensland’s South Bank Campus hosted nearly 1,000 students providing them with career options for the nearly 30 different careers within the heavy vehicle industry.
  • The Heritage Truck Show at Rocklea Showgrounds  and Heavy Equipment and Machinery Show at the Brisbane Showgrounds rounded out the Truck Week 25 activations.

TruckShowX

  • Planning is underway for TSX26 which will be held May 18-19 2026, in the Hunter Valley. Expressions of interest are now open.

MEMBER SERVICES

New Members

  • HVIA welcomed dozens of new HVIA Corporate Members from across Australia, taking total membership to a record 310+.
  • HVIA Membership is open to manufacturers and suppliers of heavy vehicles and their components, equipment and technology.

HVIA Partners

  • HVIA would like to again thank the ongoing support of our long-standing Principal Partners NTI, Wurth Australia and Caltex.
  • We welcomed GEOTAB and Truckline to the HVIA family as our new Major Partners.

Changes To State Committee Meetings

  • Feedback from a HVIA Member Survey led to a range of changes to in-person state meetings.
  • Beginning 2024, the new HVIA Member Forums include two online meetings and two in-person meetings held in QLD, NSW, VIC and WA.
  • Member Forums update HVIA members on current and regulatory issues, industry priorities and opportunities.
  • Record attendance of almost 120 members at the first round of Member Forums held across QLD, NSW, VIC and WA in February 2025.

TechAssist & EmployerAssist

  • HVIA utilised its contacts with regulators to assist dozens of members requiring technical and regulatory information, saving those members unnecessary hours of research and delays.
  • Its other member advisory service, EmployerAssist, assisted numerous members with workplace relations issues.

More Information: HVIA’s cost-effective membership delivers real value for your whole business

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