About Big Rigs

Big Rigs

Overview

Big Rigs, formally the Big Rigs National Road Transport Newspaper, is an Australian trade newspaper serving the road transport industry. Published in print on a fortnightly cycle and updated daily online, it covers trucking news, regulation, truck and product evaluations, operator stories and the working lives of the drivers who move Australian freight. The title describes itself on its own website as "Australia's No. 1 trucking publication and media source", and its LinkedIn company page bills it as "The Trusted Voice of the Transport Industry"; both are the publisher's own characterisations rather than independently audited rankings. What is verifiable is the title's longevity and reach: it has been published continuously since February 1992, is distributed free nationally to transport businesses, truck stops and roadhouses as well as to subscribers, and is owned by Melbourne-based B2B publisher Prime Creative Media.

History

The first edition of Big Rigs reached readers on 7 February 1992, according to the title's own 30th anniversary history published in February 2022. Its founding editor was Bruce Honeywill, a truck driver who stepped into the editor's chair at the last minute after the publishers' original appointee left within weeks of launch; Honeywill assembled the first 22-page issue in about a week. The newspaper was officially launched at a function at Albion Park Raceway in Brisbane, where the Queensland Transport Minister of the day, David Hamill, cut the cake. The founding brief, as Honeywill set it out in his first editorial, was "a newsy paper for truck operators, drivers and everyone with an interest in the transport industry in Queensland and northern New South Wales", with the first front page devoted to a national round-up of logbook laws and the fines imposed on drivers. Demand quickly outgrew the regional brief, and the anniversary history records that Big Rigs went national only a few months after launch.

Honeywill left shortly after the launch but returned to the editor's chair in 2016 after a 25-year break, by which time hand-made paste-up production had given way to digital publishing and the website had become central to the title. The paper later sat within News Corp Australia's regional publishing stable (its 2019 media guide was issued under the APN masthead). In June 2020, in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, News Corp axed Big Rigs along with dozens of other regional titles. After roughly five weeks in limbo, Prime Creative Media acquired the title; the relaunch issue appeared in September 2020, produced from the company's Melbourne base. Prime Creative Media's CEO, John Murphy, said in that relaunch issue that the company was "humbled to be able to build upon the great work of this publication", which he noted had served as a trusted source for the transport industry for almost three decades. James Graham, editor since 2018, led the title through the transition and its 30th birthday in February 2022. The paper's standing was noted in federal parliament in June 2021, when Western Australian senator Glenn Sterle told the Senate, "The best transport publication in this nation is Big Rigs."

Programming and Content

Big Rigs mixes hard industry news with the human side of trucking. Its news coverage concentrates on the issues that determine how Australian freight moves: heavy vehicle regulation and the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, chain of responsibility law, road upgrades and closures, industrial disputes, fuel and AdBlue supply, driver shortages and safety campaigns. In October 2026, for example, the site reported on transport operators pressing for a tougher crackdown on sham contracting after a roundtable at NSW Parliament House, on proposed biosecurity penalties affecting livestock carriers, and on a national project to map future electric truck charging needs. A long-running signature strand is its driver profiles: roving contributor Alf Wilson has spent decades interviewing truckies at roadhouses and rest areas, and his profiles of individual drivers, their trucks and their working lives appear on the site several times a week. The title also publishes truck tests and evaluations, product news, event coverage such as Brisbane Truck Show previews, health and wellbeing material aimed at drivers, opinion columns and a long-standing cartoon tradition; its 2020 relaunch issue featured a drawing by long-time cartoonist Ryan Lee-Taylor. During the pandemic border-closure period, editor James Graham noted that fast-moving rules often could not wait for the print cycle, so stories such as the late-2021 AdBlue shortage played out on the website with multiple posts a day.

Audience and Reach

Big Rigs is a free-distribution newspaper aimed at everyone in the road freight chain, from owner-drivers and fleet managers to dealerships, workshops, tyre centres, manufacturers and government departments. Its LinkedIn company page states a circulation of more than 26,000 copies nationally per issue, distributed to every state and territory through a network of drop-off points at transport hubs, truck stops and roadhouses, alongside a growing subscriber list; that figure is the publisher's own claim and is not an audited number. Earlier publisher material gives consistent orders of magnitude: the title's 2019 media guide claimed a print circulation of 52,046 per month (a publisher's claim dated November 2018, consistent with two issues of roughly 26,000) and 92,364 unique monthly website visitors measured in May 2017. Editor James Graham said in February 2022 that the title's Facebook posts alone then reached more than 2 million people a month. The title's LinkedIn page had just under 10,000 followers when checked in October 2026. The title's own history records that in 2011 it was named Australia's most-read road transport publication.

Digital Presence

The website bigrigs.com.au operates as a daily news service that extends the fortnightly print cycle, publishing news, features, driver profiles and road-upgrade alerts throughout the week; articles were being posted daily in October 2026. The site also carries truck-for-sale classified listings shared across Prime Creative Media's transport titles. Big Rigs maintains social channels on Facebook, X (as @bigrigsnews) and Instagram (as @bigrigsnewspaper), and distributes a regular email newsletter to subscribers. Digital growth has been a stated priority since the Prime Creative Media relaunch, with the publisher positioning the website and social channels as the breaking-news arm of a brand whose print edition continues on its fortnightly schedule.

Ownership and Organisation

Big Rigs is owned by Prime Creative Media, the Melbourne-based business-to-business publisher that acquired it in 2020 after News Corp Australia closed the title; Prime Creative Media's chief executive John Murphy fronted the September 2020 relaunch. The title's LinkedIn page lists its headquarters as South Melbourne, Victoria, and a small editorial team of around nine employees. James Graham has been editor since 2018. Before the Prime Creative Media era, the paper was published within News Corp's APN regional newspaper business, and it began life in 1992 under independent Queensland publishers. Image credits on current stories are attributed to Prime Creative Media, reflecting the shared production resources of the group.

Contact and Availability

Big Rigs is available free at truck stops, roadhouses, transport depots, dealerships and industry outlets across Australia, by subscription to the fortnightly print edition, and around the clock at bigrigs.com.au, where readers can also sign up for its email newsletter and follow its Facebook, X and Instagram channels. Enquiries about subscriptions, advertising and editorial contributions are handled through the contact options on the website. In line with WorldNM directory policy, no public business email address is recorded for this outlet.