The Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has welcomed a Productivity Commission report which shows trucking companies may be paying too much to use the nation's roads.

The report is thorough, wide-ranging and delivers a new level of clarity on the issues of road and rail investment and pricing, ATA chief executive Stuart St Clair said.

Released on Wednesday, the draft report into road and rail freight pricing offers possible alternatives to the current trucking tax regime.

But Productivity Commission chairman Gary Banks on Wednesday warned against rushing change.

New technologies for monitoring road use are making it feasible to give more accurate signals to truck operators about the costs of them using roads ... but the costs of these pricing systems are not trivial and must be weighted against the benefits, Mr Banks said.

Mr St Clair said the trucking industry was happy to pay for its use of roads but only if the money went back into better roads.

Trucking more than pays its way in the Australian economy and we are willing to do so as long as the benefits are seen in improvements to the infrastructure we operate within, Mr St Clair said.

The ATA has made a substantial submission to the inquiry and will respond to the discussion draft.