Accredited official statistics

Domestic road freight statistics: April 2023 to March 2024, United Kingdom

Published 10 October 2024

About this release

This publication includes both accredited official statistics and official statistics. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. For more information, see the ‘about these statistics’ section.

This statistical release summarises the latest statistics on the domestic activity of GB-registered and Northern Ireland (NI) registered heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) operating in the UK between April 2023 and March 2024.

It also includes statistics on HGV driver vacancies in the UK. For more information about these statistics, see the ‘HGV driver vacancies’ section.

The information is derived from surveys of businesses that operate HGVs.

The previous more detailed annual release on domestic road freight for 2023 is also available, as well as previous quarterly releases.

Important note for users

Data before and after 2021 should not be compared.

Data collection for domestic road freight statistics moved from a paper to online survey midway through 2021. An investigation of the data concluded that the paper data up to quarter 2 (April to June) 2021 and online data since quarter 3 (July to September) 2021 should not be compared. A number of factors related to the online data collection were considered, alongside other external factors which may have influenced recent data changes.

A detailed explanation of the methodology change and the impact on the data can be found within the methodology note.

Definitions

HGV: a vehicle with a gross vehicle weight of more than 3.5 tonnes.The gross vehicle weight is the weight of the vehicle plus the maximum possible weight of goods that can be carried.

Quarter: a calendar year quarter. In this publication, quarter 1 refers to January to March, quarter 2 refers to April to June, quarter 3 refers to July to September, and quarter 4 refers to October to December.

Goods lifted: the weight of goods carried, measured in tonnes. This is a measure of the amount of goods transported around the UK by GB-registered HGVs.

Goods moved: the weight of goods carried, multiplied by the distance hauled, measured in tonne kilometres. This is a measure of the total activity of GB-registered HGVs, accounting for both the distance travelled by each vehicle and the weight of its load.

Headline figures

In the 12-month period ending March 2024, 1.57 billion tonnes of goods were lifted by GB-registered HGVs operating in the UK, a 2% decrease compared to the previous 12-month period ending March 2023.

Infographic 1: Total amount of domestic goods lifted, goods moved, and vehicle kilometres travelled by GB-registered HGVs in the 12-month period ending March 2024 (Table RFS0101)

Infographic 1 shows that in the 12-month period ending March 2024, GB-registered HGVs transporting freight within the UK:

• lifted 1.57 billion tonnes of goods, which is 2% lower than the previous 12-month period ending March 2023 (1.60 billion tonnes)

• moved 169 billion tonne kilometres of goods, which is 1% lower than the previous 12-month period ending March 2023 (171 billion tonne kilometres)

• travelled 19.4 billion kilometres, which is 1% higher than the previous 12-month period ending March 2023 (19.2 billion kilometres)

In quarter 1 2024, GB-registered HGVs transporting freight domestically lifted 390 million tonnes. This is an increase of 8% compared to the previous quarter (360 million tonnes in quarter 4 2023) and an increase of 4% compared to the quarter a year ago (374 million tonnes in quarter 1 2023). This could be due to lower activity following the Christmas period in the previous quarter and the quarter a year ago. Please see the note on timing below which explains that the timing of the Christmas period can affect comparisons between data from different quarters.

Trends

Domestic road freight has been broadly stable since the earliest comparable data in quarter 3 2021.

In 2022, GB-registered HGVs operating within the UK lifted domestically 1.64 billion tonnes of goods in the UK. The amount remained steady throughout the year, varying by no more than 3% per quarter.

In 2023, 1.55 billion tonnes of goods were lifted, which was 5% lower than in 2022.The amount of goods fluctuated more within the last 12 months, with a high of 411 million tonnes in quarter 3 and a low of 360 million tonnes in quarter 4.

The decrease in freight for 2023 was partly driven by the timing of the survey, explained below, which meant that the survey captured more of the Christmas periods in 2023 due to the day of the week on which Christmas fell in 2022 and 2023. However, the amount of goods lifted per week was lower on average in 2023 than in 2022, even with Christmas periods excluded. This means the estimates for 2023 domestic road freight statistics would still have decreased from the previous year, even without this timing factor.

Please see the note on timing below for more information about the methodology of the survey.

Notes on timing of the road freight survey

The domestic road freight haulage survey collects data a week at a time for each week in the year. Each week collected is assigned to a quarter based on the month in which the weeks starts. Usually, this means that each quarter has 13 weeks assigned.

Christmas periods in 2023: Due to the day of the week in which Christmas fell, data covering the period from 26 December 2022 to 1 January 2023 has been assigned to quarter 1 2023 and data from 25 December to 31 December 2023 has been assigned to quarter 4 2023. Given that road freight activity is typically lower in the period after Christmas, the inclusion of 2 Christmas periods in 2023 explains some, but not all, of the reduction for 2023.

Number of weeks in quarter 4 2023:  Because there are not precisely 13 weeks in every quarter, quarter 4 2023 had 14 weeks instead of the usual 13 weeks (this happens once in every 7 years). To ensure the figures were comparable with other quarters, a factor was applied to scale the statistics to the equivalent of the usual 13 weeks.

Road freight activity by Northern Ireland registered HGVs

Note

The domestic road freight haulage survey for Northern Ireland (NI) measures road freight activity within the UK by HGVs registered in Northern Ireland and is run in parallel to the domestic road freight haulage survey for GB-registered vehicles.

The sample sizes of the surveys are proportional to the numbers of HGVs in each country. Due to the smaller sample size for the NI survey, NI road freight estimates see more variation from quarter to quarter and further breakdowns of the data are often not possible to avoid disclosure.

Infographic 2: Road freight activity of NI-registered HGVs within the UK, in the 12-month period ending March 2024 (Table RFS0130)

Infographic 2 shows that in the 12-month period ending March 2024, within the UK, NI-registered HGVs transporting freight:

• lifted 53.7 million tonnes of goods, which is 7% more than in the previous 12-month period ending March 2023 (50.1 million tonnes)

• moved 5.6 billion tonne kilometres of goods, which is 17% more than in the previous 12-month period ending March 2023 (4.8 billion tonne kilometres)

Of the total amount of goods lifted by NI-registered vehicles within the UK, 75% was lifted completely within Northern Ireland in the 12-month period ending March 2024. This compares to 82% in the previous 12-month period ending March 2023.

HGV driver vacancies

Heavy Good Vehicles (HGVs) driver vacancies in the United Kingdom statistics: October 2021 to June 2024

These statistics include data about heavy goods vehicle (HGV) driver vacancies from quarter 4 2021 to quarter 2 2024.

This is collected as part of the domestic road haulage survey. These statistics are more up to date than our domestic road freight statistics, due to quicker processing time, because the survey responses require less validation than our main domestic road freight survey responses.

HGV businesses are asked about HGV driver vacancies, the impact of vacancies on deliveries, financial incentives and wage increases for their HGV drivers.

A more detailed release on HGV driver vacancies in the UK statistics and accompanying data tables are available.

HGV businesses were asked whether they had any HGV driver vacancies at the time of the survey.

Chart 1: HGV businesses on whether they had HGV driver vacancies, %, between quarter 4 2021 and quarter 2 2024 (Table RFS0301)

Chart 1 is a line chart which shows the proportion of HGV businesses reporting HGV driver vacancies has increased to 24% (500 out of 2,101 businesses) in quarter 2 2024, from 19% (430 out of 2,291 businesses) in quarter 1 2024.

While reported HGV driver vacancies have increased from the previous quarter, they remain lower than the 43% (888 out of 2,077 businesses) seen in quarter 4 2021, which data suggests was the peak of the HGV driver shortage.

Further sources of information

Other statistics related to freight and trade are available.

International road freight statistics

Road goods vehicles travelling to Europe

ONS UK trade statistical bulletins

Port freight annual statistics

Rail freight statistics

Aviation statistics

About these statistics

This publication is a compendium of both accredited official statistics and official statistics. The type of statistics presented is detailed in the table below.

Name of category of statistics	Label	Description
Domestic road freight statistics	Accredited Official Statistics	These official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in December 2016. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.
HGV driver vacancies in the UK statistics	Official statistics	These statistics are official statistics. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. More information about these statistics can be found in the statistical release.

Data source

Previously domestic road freight data was collected via paper surveys until 1 August 2021, when the method to collect data transitioned to an online survey.

This short statistical release provides the latest headline statistics on the amount of goods carried by GB and NI-registered HGVs and the distance they travelled. It will now also provide the latest statistics on HGV driver vacancies in the UK. This release is published each quarter.

A more detailed annual release on domestic road freight is also available for 2023. It covers the type of goods carried by GB-registered HGVs, as well as their of origin and destination, method of transportation, intermodal activity and empty running. It also covers the amount of goods carried by NI-registered HGVs.

A more detailed release on HGV driver vacancies in the UK is also available between October 2021 and March 2024. It covers HGV driver vacancies, the impact of vacancies on deliveries, financial incentives and wage increases for HGV drivers.

Accompanying data tables are available which give further detail on the key results presented in this statistical release.

Further information about the statistics and methodology in this report can be found in the road freight domestic and international statistics guidance.

Strengths and weaknesses of data

Domestic road freight data

The domestic road freight figures in this release are derived from a continuous survey sent to road freight businesses, the domestic road haulage survey. The survey provides information on the activity of UK-registered HGVs operating across the UK only.

These statistics exclude foreign-registered HGVs and vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 3.5 tonnes or less (light goods vehicles and vans).

The figures also exclude GB-registered HGVs when operating outside of the UK. For information on GB-registered HGVs making international trips please see the accompanying international road freight statistics.

This survey is based on a stratified sample of HGVs. Figures are weighted to be representative of the HGV population however, like any survey, the figures in this publication are estimates with potential sampling errors.

Guidance on the methods used to compile these statistics can be found in the road freight statistics notes and definitions. The sample size for the 12-months ending March 2024 was 8,430 vehicles and the response rate during this period was also 100%.

This release uses administrative data from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA). More information is available on the impact of this in the quality of these statistics.

HGV driver vacancies data

The HGV driver vacancies figures in this release are also collected as part of the domestic road haulage survey.

An additional section with questions on HGV driver vacancies was added in October 2021 in response to the shortage of HGV drivers. The estimates in this release are derived from this section. There are about 2,000 to 2,400 responses per quarter (Table RFS0309).

Respondents will vary significantly between businesses. The individual completing the survey could be an HGV driver, a business owner, or an administrative staff. Therefore, as they may not know all the business’ information, we have provided a ‘do not know’ option in the survey questions.

These statistics are timelier than our domestic road freight statistics, due to quicker processing time, as the survey responses require less validation than our main domestic road freight survey responses.

Data comparability and 2021 methodology change

Before quarter 3 2021, data was collected via paper questionnaires. At the start of quarter 3 2021, the survey forms transitioned from paper to online format. Here, the vehicle operator provides the same information as previously requested in the paper survey. The new online survey has been made more intuitive based on extensive user testing.

The structure has been streamlined and guidance provided for each relevant question to aid interpretation. This increases the likelihood of respondents providing information that more accurately reflects the vehicles true activity, therefore providing more accurate estimates of the overall HGV population.

Due to the methodology change, comparisons between paper (before quarter 3 2021) and online data should not be made. This means no long-term data trends are available for these statistics. More information regarding the methodology change can be found within the methodology note. Long term trends on the level of HGV traffic in Great Britain over time are available in DfT’s road traffic statistics.

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Road freight statistics

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