Australian businesses and consumers are a premium for express freight services that are frequently failing to meet delivery expectations, according to new data from freight management platform MachShip.
The company’s Freightability Report 2026, based on more than 100 million consignments across a network of over 500 carriers, found that 30% of same-day deliveries arrive late and 27% of next-day shipments miss their service commitments. By comparison, standard freight services recorded a lower failure rate of 19%.
The findings challenge the assumption that higher-cost express services provide greater reliability. According to the report, performance issues are linked to increasing pressure on carrier networks, particularly in urban areas.
“Same-day delivery times have increased 47% over the past five years. Carriers are under real pressure from urban congestion, driver availability and the sheer volume of demand – and that pressure is showing up in performance,” said Sam Rowse, CEO of MachShip.
He added that standard delivery services have improved over the same period: “What’s happened in the meantime is that standard services have actually gotten faster. Non-premium delivery times have improved by around 16 hours over the same period. The speed gap between express and standard is narrowing, but the price gap isn’t.”
The report attributes declining express performance to metro congestion, last-mile delivery complexity and demand volatility. In contrast, standard and next-day networks have benefited from route optimization and network consolidation.
Rowse said the data highlights the importance of reliability over speed in business-to-business supply chains. “In a B2B environment, most customers don’t want fast, they want reliability. A missed same-day window creates downstream costs: rescheduled labor, missed delivery windows, customer complaints.”
The report also identified rising costs linked to an ongoing fuel crisis. Carrier fuel levies increased from 16.6% to 29.8% in under 30 days – an 80% rise – resulting in an 11.3% increase in total freight costs.
“The fuel levy applied by carriers across our network has effectively doubled in under a month,” Rowse said. “For businesses moving freight daily, that’s translated to an 11% increase in total shipping costs almost overnight.”
Additional findings showed average on-time performance (DIFOT) across carriers at 78%, up from 67.9% in 2021, while leading operators continue to achieve rates in the high 90s. Parcel prices declined by 2%-4% in major cities, while full truckload pricing increased by around 12% year-on-year.
The report also found that Australian businesses use an average of 5.4 freight carriers, reflecting network complexity, and that around 6.5% of freight movements are currently managed using AI, with further adoption expected through 2026.
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