UK ROAD FREIGHT TRANSPORT MARKET

The UK Road Freight Transport Market is estimated to grow with a compounded annual growth rate of about xx% during the forecasted period of 2023-2028.  

The UK is currently facing recession backed by several factors like economic policies, inflation and shortage of labor among others. The economy is also experiencing post-Brexit effects in terms of restricted movement of goods, industrial activities, trade relations, etc. 

The UK economy is highly dependent on road haulage with almost 80% of its goods transported via roads. As reported by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the freight was transported to a total length of 144.20 billion-Tonnes km, showing a decrease of about 11.9% as compared to 2020.  

Although the industry is expected to grow during the forecast period, the growth is expected to be slow and diminishing. Brexit marked as one of the initial factors contributing to the hardships in the industry bringing in headwinds like reduced commercial activities between the EU and UK, immigration restrictions leading to severe labor shortage in the country, order delays and supply shortage and increased transit time between the EU and the UK. 

The Russian cuts on gas supply to the EU has also impacted the UK trucking industry. Although the country planned and was successful in reducing its dependence on the Russian import for oil and gas and announced the ban of Russian gas starting from January 2023; the impact relatively less as compared to other European countries but significant enough to spike the energy prices in the country. This led to an increase in the cost of freight in the UK. 

The road infrastructure in the country also needs an update with the increasing focus on green economy and carbon taxes. This is one of the positive developments in the country that the registration for light commercial vehicles relatively reduced during the year 2022, being replaced by the electric vehicles that will not only lead to the decline of CO2 emissions but also reduce the dependence of the country on oil and gas. 

The country is also looking forward to shifting on the multimodal mode of transportation, especially using rail for longer distances to further decrease the carbon emissions meanwhile reducing the pressure on the country’s roads. 

The highly fragmented and competitive market for the UK road freight transport market is heavily influenced by industrial production quantities, labor shortage and general economic growth. Dachser, DB Schenker, Deutsche Post DHL Group and DSV along with a mix of international and domestic players are some of the leading players in the market.