How much can this truck legally carry?
Two plate numbers decide it. Put in GVM and tare and this gives you the legal payload, whether a car licence can drive it, and what happens to the payload the moment a trailer goes on the back.
Enter GVM and tare off the plate and the payload appears here. Both numbers are on the compliance plate or in the listing; if a listing has neither, that is worth asking the seller about before anything else.
Indicative only, from the numbers you typed. The plate on the vehicle and a weighbridge docket outrank anything a website computes, and axle group limits can bind before GVM does.
Reading the answer
Payload is a subtraction, tare is the catch
GVM is the most the truck may weigh; tare is what it weighs empty. The gap is everything you are allowed to add: driver, crew, fuel, body, crane, toolboxes, load. The mistake that costs buyers real money is using the tare from a bare cab chassis after a body has been fitted, because every kilogram of body came out of the payload first.
The 4.5 tonne line is a market boundary
A standard car (class C) licence covers vehicles up to 4.5 tonnes GVM; over that needs a Light Rigid licence or higher (Queensland licence classes, checked August 2026, and the equivalent applies in every state). The Heavy Vehicle National Law also applies from the same 4.5t GVM line. A 4.5t truck and a 4.6t truck are therefore different products for different buyers, which is why so many light trucks are sold in a 4.5t GVM variant.
GCM quietly caps the combination
GCM limits truck plus trailer as one number. Load the truck to GVM and the trailer allowance is GCM minus GVM, which is routinely less than the brochure towing figure. Run it the other way and a heavy trailer eats the truck's own payload. The calculator shows both directions rather than letting the two plate numbers be added as if they were independent.
Common questions
How do I work out a truck's payload?
Payload is GVM minus tare: the maximum the truck may weigh, minus what it weighs empty. Both numbers are on the compliance plate. A 26,000kg GVM truck with a 9,500kg tare can carry 16,500kg, and that has to include the driver, fuel, any body or crane fitted after weighing, and the load itself.
What can I drive on a car licence in Australia?
A standard car (class C) licence covers vehicles up to 4.5 tonnes GVM. Anything over 4.5t GVM needs a Light Rigid licence or higher, and is also where the Heavy Vehicle National Law starts applying. That is why 4.5t GVM variants of light trucks exist: they are the biggest truck a car licence can drive.
Is GCM the same as GVM plus towing capacity?
No, and this is the trap. GCM caps the whole combination, so a truck loaded to its full GVM usually cannot also tow the brochure's maximum trailer. The tool shows the real trailer allowance at full GVM, and how much payload survives once a given trailer is behind the truck.
Why does a listing's payload claim differ from GVM minus tare?
Because tare moves. A cab chassis is weighed bare; every body, crane, tailgate lift, toolbox and full tank fitted afterwards comes straight out of payload. A seller quoting the bare-chassis payload for a truck that now carries a service body is overstating what you can load by the weight of everything bolted on since.
Checking axle group weights rather than the total? Use the axle mass calculator for the post August 2026 group limits.
Know what it can carry? Find the truck.
Every truck listing here carries GVM, and prime movers carry GCM, so you can run this check before you enquire.
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