Transport insolvencies lower than last year and long-term average
A total of 369 transport, postal and warehousing businesses hit the wall in the 2018-19 financial year, keeping the yearly trend relatively flat but still positive, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) data shows.
Overall it represents 10 less than the 379 insolvencies recorded in 2017-18.
The result can be viewed as a positive against long-term trends, however, this being the second-lowest since ASIC insolvency reports started in 2004-05, and below the average of 452.
The lowest was in 2004-05 at 276, and peaked in 2011-12 at 607.
Transport, postal and warehousing remains the fifth-most vulnerable out of 24 industry categories, comprising 4.9 per cent of the 7,498 insolvencies recorded.
It follows other business and personal services (28.2 per cent), construction (21.4 per cent), accommodation and food services (15.5 per cent) and retail trade (8.2 per cent).
How the numbers stack up against last year, here
The highest causes of failure include inadequate cash flow or high cash use (187 cases), poor strategic management (179), poor financial control including lack of records (162) and trading losses (122).
The most-represented deficiency total was between $50,001 and $250,000 (119 of the 369), followed by $250,000–$500,000 (82), $500,000–$1 million (67), $1 million–$5 million (52), $0–$50,000 (42) and $5 million–$10 million (6), with the single worst case being over $10 million.
New South Wales businesses were involved in the most insolvencies in the sector (135), well ahead of Victoria (85), Queensland (80), Western Australia (32), South Australia (21), Tasmania (6), and the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory (5 each).
Encouragingly, noted criminal misconduct halved year-on-year from 53 to 28.
Insolvency statistics: External administrators’ reports (July 2018 to June 2019) is available here.