A truck carrying letters on behalf of Australia Post has caught fire on the Hume Highway sending traffic into chaos on one of the key thoroughfares between Sydney and Melbourne for over two hours.

It took at least four Rural Fire Service trucks to extinguish the blaze which resulted in a large amount of letters being destroyed that were on their way from Sydney to Melbourne.

“Postal letters were sprawled out across the highway,” said Declan McCarthy who had to wait over two hours to pass through the fire scene.

An Australia Post spokeswoman said that the company was currently working through the information to advise customers of the impact. The truck is owned by a third-party contractor.

“Fortunately and most importantly, no one was injured in the incident,” she said in a statement.

The fire started after the truck appeared to crash into an embankment on the highway just south of Gundagai in south-west NSW.

It took fire crews almost two hours to get the blaze under control. The driver escaped before the truck was completely engulfed in flames.

By 5pm on Saturday the shell of the truck was still emitting smoke and a fuel leakage had kept the south-bound lane of the Hume Highway closed.

HAZMAT teams have been called in to clear the fuel off the road, a RFSNSW spokesman said.

Drivers are being told to expect delays.

“We expect that lane to remain closed for the next few hours,” the spokesman said.