Leading road hauliers profit margin in the United Kingdom (UK) 2008-2018

The leading road hauliers in the United Kingdom (UK) have enjoyed a run of profitable years since 2008, achieving profit margins of between one and four percent during that time. The leading 100 road hauliers in the UK achieved a profit margin of two percent during 2018.

Importance of road freight to the UK

Road freight is particularly important to transport in the United Kingdom. In 2017, transport volume in the road freight sector amounted to approximately 156.1 billion tonne-kilometres, significantly more than the 17.39 billion net tonne-kilometers moved by rail. This is in part due to the fact that the United Kingdom has one of the highest population densities in Europe. France, for example, has a population density of 122.55 people per square kilometer as of 2017, Spain had a density of 93.1 people per square kilometer in the same year, and the Italian population density came in at 205.81 people per square kilometer.

Road freight to the EU

Transport of goods via road haulage is among the many areas the Brexit-watchers are likely to be observing keenly in the coming years. Although there has been a steady reduction in the amount of road freight transported to the EU-15 since the year 2000, the amount of freight transport since 2015 has increased slightly. 4.07 million tonnes were transported to the EU-15 by UK goods vehicles in 2018, 255,000 tonnes more than the amount moved in 2015.