Transport and logistics: recover unpaid freight invoices

Our 2026 Australian Debt Collection Report shows transport, postal and warehousing is a relatively low-risk sector for per-business insolvency: 2.05 first-time external administration appointments per 1,000 businesses in FY24-25 — 0.6× the national average of 3.42. Across 249,289 operating transport businesses, that's 511 EXAD reports in the year. Transport is one of the largest business-population sectors in Australia, but the per-business failure rate is well below the all-industry mean.

Two transport entities appear in the report's Late Payer Index: LATAM Airlines at 184 days (95th-percentile payment time) and Hull 2227 Shipping at 165 days. The industry median 95th-percentile payment time across 167 large transport entities is 54 days — roughly mid-pack among the 19 ANZSIC divisions.

Why timing still matters

Transport debtors are statistically more likely to be solvent than debtors in hospitality or media, but freight is a working-capital business: every day you wait to enforce is a day of opportunity cost on already-deployed capital. The report's recovery-rate ladder (Section 8) shows that letters of demand resolve 55–70% of debts where internal reminders have failed — usually within 7–21 days. Acting at day 30 past due is materially better economically than waiting to day 90.