Understanding Road Transportation in the United Kingdom
Market Monday - Week 13 - Facts, figures and insights into road transportation in the United Kingdom
About this series
The transportation landscape in Europe represents one of the world's most sophisticated logistics networks, where many countries intersect in a complex web of trade routes and regulatory frameworks. This comprehensive series examines the key transport markets that drive Europe's logistics sector, offering data-driven insights and practical market intelligence.
Our analysis combines real-world data from the Transporeon platform with official statistics from Eurostat and the UK Office of National Statistics. Unless otherwise described, the information relates to full truckload transports but is typically applicable to other road transport segments as well.
The United Kingdom Road Transportation Market
The United Kingdom, the world's sixth-largest economy, maintains strong ties to European markets despite Brexit. Although it is an island nation with extensive maritime infrastructure, the UK heavily relies on road transportation for trade with Ireland and mainland Europe. Road freight is particularly crucial domestically, handling over 80% of local cargo movements.
In recent years, a combination of factors including Brexit-induced international trade declines, rising fuel and operational costs and labor shortages put significant pressure on local carriers and have led to high insolvency rates, especially for smaller companies.
Download the country overview in the highest available resolution including a description of all values:
Let's dive into details of how road transport market in the UK is different from all the other countries:
Demand characteristics
In 2023, heavy trucks in Great Britain travelled 16.9 billion miles, a 2.5% decrease from 2022. The total goods moved reached 167 billion tonne-kilometres, marking a 5% decrease from the previous year.
Our data shows a significant imbalance in UK international transport: inbound transport (75.9%) far exceeds outbound transport (24.1%). In 2024, the main inbound routes originated from Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland and France, while primary outbound routes led to Ireland, Germany, Belgium, and France.
Despite ongoing shift toward a service-dominated economy, road transport demand in the country remains strongly influenced by industrial activity, port operations, and population centers.
Due to these facts, South East England, including London, is the most significant area for transportation demand, due to its high population density and concentration of industries, as well as its role as a major center for trade and commerce.
Additionally, North West England, with cities like Manchester and Liverpool as well as the Midlands, with a regional center in Birmingham, are key areas with high transport demand.
Other important demand-generating regions include the Scottish Central Belt (with Glasgow and Edinburgh), South Wales (particularly around Cardiff) and Northern Ireland, which benefits from simplified customs procedures for trade with Ireland.
Cross-border shipments in the UK are heavily primarily focused on neighboring European countries. A large portion of transports is facilitated by ferries offering diverse routing options, complemented by the high capacity of the Eurotunnel shuttle system
Toll characteristics
The UK operates a time-based, government-controlled toll system applicable to heavy goods vehicles with 12+ tonnes gross weight on all main roads. As of January 2025, the usual rate is £576 per year, with charges based on the vehicle's total weight and emissions standard. There is no fixed schedule for toll rate adjustments as well as no currently known timeline to introduce tolls based on driven distance or CO2-emissions. Several examples of tolled per trip bridges and tunnels exist but they are generally very rare throughout the country.
Infrastructure characteristics
The UK's road infrastructure plays a crucial role in its transportation capabilities. The UK has a rather unusual road transport network, with only 3,864 kilometers of high-capacity motorway (19th place in density in Europe) accompanied by a vast network of lower-class main roads. Local motorway utilization level is ranked 3rd in Europe, being significantly higher than the European average.
While the UK benefits from well designed motorways, limitations such as congestion levels in urban areas and at key ports continue to rise, impacting the efficiency of freight movement. The supporting infrastructure, including truck stops and loading zones, is causing concern on availability and quality, as well as present need for significant investment in maintenance and upgrades to cope with motorway traffic volumes.
Another market affecting feature of the UK road infrastructure is ferries, enabling cargo to travel to Northern Ireland, minor islands and internationally. A plethora of ports offer ferry connections, with natural connections going to Ireland from the West Coast and to continental Europe from ports of South-Eastern England.
Capacity characteristics
Capacity within the UK's road transport market is defined by several factors. The UK registered 37,920 new heavy trucks in 2024, for an 8.7% decrease compared to 2023, a notably lower number than the 12% average decrease in Europe. The fluctuation of the rejection rate is low, indicating a stable capacity availability after Brexit turbulences.
The UK relies mostly on internal capacity to fulfill domestic demand, as the level of cabotage goods moved in the UK was less than 1% of all truck activity, with Polish, Irish and Romanian registered trucks taking the largest share of that small market. Average level of cabotage penetration in the UK is significantly below that of the EU, which makes it harder to fulfill extra demand during short peak periods and might become a strategic concern in future.
One of the possible solutions to the looming capacity problem might be increasing the share of intermodal road-rail-road capacity on the key north-south routes, but it comes with its own set of infrastructure issues to solve.
Rate characteristics
The grand picture for transport rates in the UK is significantly more influenced by trade imbalances than by market developments. Due to the significant prevalence of imported goods volumes over exports, international transport rates for transports going into the UK from mainland Europe are significantly higher. The discrepancy is sometimes reaching over 100% increase for inbound transports versus outbound. Domestically this effect is also visible, within transports to South West England or Scottish Highlands and islands. This is further confirmed by low average variation of spot rates at 5.5%, with major seasonal disturbances usually occurring during the end-year holiday season.
Conclusion
The UK's road transportation market is characterized by a high domestic focus, significant inbound transport activity and infrastructure attributes specifics. The existing motorway network is densely utilized, the country experiences an imbalance in trade flows and an ongoing decrease in transport activities, but without accompanying capacity increases, as truck registrations are declining, and driver shortage is significant. Considerable challenges related to maintenance and congestions also exist. So, while the current market still maintains a stable capacity environment with moderate rate variations, this might gradually change in coming years, as sustained and focused efforts are required to ensure the British road transportation sector can adequately support the broader economy.
For more detailed insights and updates, stay tuned for the upcoming editions of the "Understanding Road Transportation" series.
Oleksandr Kulish
Consultant