In April, May, and June (Q2) 2024, a total of 42.9 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, compared with 45.7 million tonnes in Q2 2023.
The commodity group Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat represented over a quarter (29%) of all tonnes carried by road in Q2 2024.
In Q2 2024, the total distance covered by road freight transport was 469 million kilometres, up 4% compared with the same period in 2023.
| Road freight activity, Q2 2020-2024 | ||||||
| Q2 2020 | Q2 2021 | Q2 2022 | Q2 2023 | Q2 2024 | % change Q2 2023 - Q2 2024 | |
| Tonne-km (million) | 2,406 | 3,225 | 3,364 | 3,278 | 3,511 | 7% |
| Tonnes carried (thousand) | 30,034 | 39,974 | 40,875 | 45,703 | 42,931 | -6% |
| Vehicle kilometres (million) | 305 | 426 | 464 | 453 | 469 | 4% |
| Laden journeys (thousand) | 2,403 | 3,191 | 3,516 | 3,539 | 3,689 | 4% |
Figure 1 shows that in Q2 2024, a total of 42.9 million tonnes of goods were transported by road. This represents a decrease of 6% on the Q2 2023 total, and a rise of 5% on the Q2 2022 total.
Figure 2 shows that the commodity group Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat represented more than a quarter (27%) of all tonnes carried. This was the largest share among the categories of commodity groups in the survey with 11,532 thousand tonnes carried.
Figure 3 shows that vehicles involved in the Delivery of Goods to Road Works or Building Sites carried 15,704 thousand tonnes in Q2 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 (21 November 2024) published results from the Road Freight Transport Survey for Quarter 2 (Q2) 2024.
Commenting on the release, Damien Lenihan, Statistician in the Transport Division, said: “The figures show that in Q2 2024, a total of 42.9 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, which represented a decrease of 6% on the Q2 2023 total (See Table 1).
Activity measured as weight by distance, or tonne-kilometres (tkm), was 3,511 million tkm in Q2 2024, an increase of 7% when compared with Q2 2023 at 3,278 million tkm.
The total distance covered by road freight transport in Q2 2024 was 469 million kilometres, up 4% compared with Q2 2023. The commodity groups that were contributing most to vehicle kilometres were Foodstuffs, and the miscellaneous category Other Goods.”