In January, February, and March (Q1) 2024, a total of 44.7 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, compared with 41.8 million tonnes in Q1 2023.
The commodity group Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat represented over a quarter (28%) of all tonnes carried by road in Q1 2024.
In Q1 2024, the total distance covered by road freight transport was 528 million kilometres, up 20% compared with the same period in 2023.
| Road freight activity, Q1 2020-2024 | ||||||
| Q1 2020 | Q1 2021 | Q1 2022 | Q1 2023 | Q1 2024 | % change Q1 2023- Q1 2024 | |
| Tonne-km (million) | 2,873 | 2,852 | 3,048 | 3,082 | 3,452 | 12% |
| Tonnes carried (thousand) | 36,596 | 34,343 | 40,764 | 41,766 | 44,724 | 7% |
| Vehicle kilometres (million) | 405 | 417 | 468 | 441 | 528 | 20% |
| Laden journeys (thousand) | 3,254 | 3,242 | 3,539 | 3,612 | 4,207 | 16% |
Figure 1 shows that in Q1 2024, a total of 44,724 thousand tonnes of goods were transported by road. This represents an increase of 7% on the Q1 2023 total, a rise of 10% on the Q1 2022 total, and a growth of 22% when compared with Q1 2020.
Figure 2 shows that the commodity group Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat represented more than a quarter (28%) of all tonnes carried. This was the largest share among the categories of commodity groups in the survey with 12,457 tonnes carried.
Figure 3 shows that vehicles involved in the Delivery of Goods to Road Works or Building Sites carried 14,454 thousand tonnes in Q1 2024, which was the highest among all types of work carried out by goods vehicles.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (11 September 2024) published results from the Road Freight Transport Survey for Quarter 1 (Q1) 2024.
Commenting on the figures, Damien Lenihan, Statistician in the Transport Division, said: “The figures show that in January, February, and March (Q1) 2024, a total of 44.7 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, which represented an increase of 7% on the Q1 2023 total (See Table 1).
Activity measured as weight by distance, or tonne-kilometres (tkm), was 3,452 million tkm in Q1 2024, which rose by 12% when compared with 3,082 million tkm in Q1 2023.
The total distance covered by road freight transport in Q1 2024 was 528 million kilometres, up 20% compared with Q1 2023. The commodity groups that were contributing most to vehicle kilometres were Foodstuffs and Other Non-Metallic Mineral Products.”