If you have ever wondered whether $60 is a normal amount to pay for a trailer for the day, the short answer is: usually, yes. That is unless you need to move a car. Or hire a flat-top or speciality trailer.
For our first annual trailer hire price report, we analysed 20,713 completed hires from 898 trailer owners on Local Trailer Hire. The hires began between 1 October 2025 and 30 September 2026. This is a fixed snapshot, not a live pricing page. Prices and availability will change, but this report gives hirers and trailer owners a reference point for what people actually booked and paid during the year.
The short version
- 20,713 hires were completed during the reporting period.
- Three in four hires lasted one day.
- The median checkout total for a one-day hire was $59.90.
- The middle 50% of one-day hires cost between $47.92 and $74.11.
- Cage trailers accounted for 68.6% of completed hires.
- Car trailers had a median one-day checkout total of $119.80.
- Flat-top trailers had a median one-day checkout total of $166.76.
- Enclosed trailers were much more likely than other types to be hired for several days.
- Saturday was the most common pickup day.
- December was the busiest month of the year.
What did a one-day trailer hire cost in 2026?
Across all trailer types, the median checkout total for a one-day hire was $59.90.
That number needs context. A basic box trailer for a tip run and a heavy-duty flat-top for moving machinery are completely different beasts. Lumping them together and saying a trailer "costs $59.90" is like averaging the price of a Bunnings snag and a gourmet market sausage. The number doesn't tell you what you'll actually pay at the counter.
Trailer type made a considerable difference.
One-day trailer hire prices by type
| Trailer type | One-day hires | Median checkout total | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Box | 2,447 | $53.91 | $40.00–$65.89 |
| Cage | 10,861 | $59.90 | $47.92–$68.91 |
| Tipper | 1,726 | $59.90 | $47.92–$65.89 |
| Motorbike | 556 | $59.90 | $47.92–$65.89 |
| Enclosed | 264 | $65.89 | $59.90–$96.10 |
| Car | 1,158 | $119.80 | $107.82–$143.76 |
| Flat-top | 128 | $166.76 | $98.86–$179.70 |
The "middle 50%" excludes the cheapest quarter and most expensive quarter of hires. It gives a more realistic price range than simply quoting the lowest price we can find. Box, cage, tipper and motorbike trailers all clustered around $54 to $60 for a one-day hire. Enclosed trailers were slightly more expensive, with a median of $65.89.
Car trailers were in a different price bracket at $119.80, while flat-top trailers had the highest reliable one-day median at $166.76.
That is not particularly surprising. Larger specialist trailers cost more to buy and maintain, may have brakes, ramps or winches, and are designed to carry loads that should not be entrusted to the cheapest 6×4 box trailer you can find.
One result did surprise us: tipper trailers weren't noticeably more expensive than standard cage trailers. Both had a one-day median checkout total of $59.90, with very similar price ranges. While tipper trailers still deserve their own category because they do a different job, the data didn't back up the assumption that they sit in a higher price bracket.
One possible explanation is the range of tipper mechanisms represented. A basic manual tilt trailer may be priced much closer to a standard cage trailer than a heavy-duty electric hydraulic tipper. We did not have sufficiently consistent mechanism data to test that theory in this report.
Most trailer hires lasted one day
Across the 20,713 completed hires we analysed, 75.4% lasted just one day, while 24.6% ran longer. Looking at the overall numbers, though, hides a major split between trailer types. While most trailers are quick, single-day hires, enclosed trailers were a clear outlier—58% were booked for more than one day, with a median hire duration of two days. By comparison, multi-day bookings were far less common across every other category:
- Box trailers: 25.5% lasted longer than one day
- Cage trailers: 23.6%
- Tipper trailers: 18.8%
- Car trailers: 16.5%
We can't see the exact reason for each booking in the transaction data, but the pattern makes practical sense. Car trailers and tippers are usually hired for a single, defined task: move the vehicle, dump the soil, and bring the trailer back. Enclosed trailers, on the other hand, are far more likely to be used for house moves, events, or jobs where gear needs to stay locked up and protected from the weather over a few days. That's our interpretation rather than something the data proves, but a two-day median is too big a gap to ignore.
The cage trailer remains Australia's workhorse
Cage trailers dominated completed hires over the year, accounting for 14,216 bookings (68.6% of all hires). Box trailers came in a distant second with 3,285 hires (15.9%), followed by car trailers at 1,386 hires (6.7%). Even more telling is how demand stacked up against supply. Cage trailers punched well above their weight, capturing a noticeably larger share of bookings than their share of active listings:
- Cage trailers: 56.1% of active listings vs. 68.6% of hires
- Box trailers: 18.4% of listings vs. 15.9% of hires
- Car trailers: 10.4% of listings vs. 6.7% of hires
- Enclosed trailers: 6.0% of listings vs. 3.0% of hires
Of course, that doesn't guarantee every cage trailer will be booked out every weekend. Location, pricing, availability, owner responsiveness and listing quality all play a big role. What it suggests is strong demand relative to the active supply snapshot taken at the end of the reporting period, and it's easy to see why. A cage trailer handles green waste, whitegoods, furniture, moving boxes and the classic weekend tip run without any fuss. It is not glamorous, but neither is the load going into it. For anyone thinking about listing a trailer on the platform, a straightforward cage trailer remains the most practical and versatile place to start.
Apparently, Saturday at 8 am is trailer time
Saturday was the most common pickup day, with 4,871 hires beginning on a Saturday. That was 23.5% of all completed hires. The single most common pickup time was 8:00 am, when 1,942 hires began. So if you have ever spent Saturday morning attaching a trailer while wondering why you were not still in bed, you were in good company! The pattern was consistent across most major trailer types, although enclosed trailers were most commonly collected on Friday. That fits with their longer average hire duration: some customers may be collecting before a weekend move or multi-day job. Again, the data shows us what happened, not why. We are resisting the temptation to pretend it knows everyone's weekend plans.
December was the busiest month
December 2025 was the busiest month in the reporting period, with 1,966 completed hires. That surge could reflect summer clean-ups, pre-Christmas house moves, holiday projects, or people suddenly remembering how much stuff is sitting in the garage. The transaction data doesn't tell us which. Looking closer, different trailer types actually hit their highs at different times of the year:
- Cage trailers peaked in December
- Box trailers peaked in January
- Enclosed and flat-top trailers peaked in April
- Car trailers peaked in May
These differences are interesting, but since this is our first annual report, one busy month doesn't establish a seasonal trend. Maybe January is when everyone finally deals with the pile beside the shed and maybe May 2026 just happened to have an unusual number of cars that needed moving. One year of data isn't enough to prove it. We will need another year of data before confidently inventing a national trailer calendar. For now, the useful baseline is that overall demand peaked in December. Next year we will be able to see whether that pattern repeats.
Most eligible customers chose liability reduction
Trailer Shield is available on Premium listings. It protects the trailer owner against eligible accidental damage during the hire, while customers can choose a liability-reduction option that lowers the amount they may have to pay if something goes wrong. During the reporting period:
- 7,279 completed hires involved Premium listings.
- 5,198 of those hires included Trailer Shield liability reduction.
- That represents an uptake rate of 71.4% among eligible hires.
We think that is significant. When customers were given the option, more than seven in ten chose to reduce their potential liability. For owners, this shows that Trailer Shield is not merely a badge added to a listing. Customers actively use the protection options attached to Premium hires.
Do longer trailer hires cost less per day?
The median effective daily rate fell from $59.90 for a one-day hire to $52.00 for a three-day hire and $43.00 for a seven-day hire. The seven-day rate was 28% lower per day than the one-day rate.
If you expect to need a trailer for several days, check the listing's longer-hire pricing before booking. Many longer hires worked out cheaper per day, but rates are set by individual owners and vary between listings.
What this means if you are hiring a trailer
The main lesson is to compare the right kind of trailer, not trailers generally.
A $54 box trailer and a $120 car trailer are not alternatives for the same job. Start with the load, size, weight and features you need, then compare the full checkout totals of suitable trailers.
Based on this year's data:
- Box and cage trailers were generally the lowest-cost mainstream options.
- Enclosed trailers cost somewhat more and were commonly kept for longer.
- Car and flat-top trailers belonged in a higher price bracket.
- The cheapest advertised daily figure does not necessarily equal the final checkout total.
- On eligible Premium listings, liability reduction was a popular additional choice.
- Longer hires had a lower effective daily rate: the median fell from $59.90 for one day to $52.00 for three days and $43.00 for seven days.
The cheapest trailer is only a bargain if it can legally and safely carry what you need to move.
Methodology
This report covers 20,713 completed Local Trailer Hire bookings with scheduled pickup dates from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026. We included completed hires and excluded cancelled, declined and test transactions.
Prices in this report are checkout totals recorded for completed bookings. A checkout total may include customer fees and a liability-reduction option where selected. It is not necessarily the amount set or received by the trailer owner.
We report medians because a small number of expensive specialist trailers can distort an average. The "middle 50%" is the range between the 25th and 75th percentiles.
Trailer types follow Local Trailer Hire's marketplace categories. Tipper trailers were identified as a separate subtype for this report but are otherwise included within their marketplace search category. Tipper figures must therefore not be added to the category totals as though they are an additional, mutually exclusive category.
Active listing figures were measured on 30 September 2026. They are a current supply snapshot compared with hires completed across the preceding year. They should not be interpreted as a formal utilisation rate.
We omitted categories and duration groups where the number of completed hires was too small to produce a useful market-level figure.
Effective daily rates were calculated for each booking by dividing its checkout total by the number of billed 24-hour periods. The one-day, three-day and seven-day figures are the median effective daily rates for bookings of exactly those lengths.
Local Trailer Hire operates the marketplace whose data is analysed in this report. The findings describe activity on Local Trailer Hire and should not be treated as a complete measure of every trailer hired in Australia.
What we'll be watching next year
This first report gives us a baseline. Most hires were short, cage trailers remained the workhorse of the marketplace, and specialist trailers occupied very different price brackets. The more interesting question is what changes next. We'll repeat the analysis next year to see whether December remains the busiest month, whether enclosed trailers continue to be hired for longer, and whether multi-day daily rates move up or down.
Browse trailers near you or list your trailer on Local Trailer Hire.
About the author
Shauna McCormack is the Tech Lead at Local Trailer Hire. She works across the marketplace's product development, customer experience, data analysis and search content, which means she spends more time thinking about trailer bookings than she ever expected to.
This report was prepared using aggregated Local Trailer Hire marketplace data. No personal customer or owner information was included.
