Accredited official statistics

Overview of the road freight sector: 2024

Updated 9 July 2025

About this release

This release summarises the latest economic statistics about heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and the road freight industry. It is a compendium of different types of statistics from both the Department for Transport (DfT) and other government departments. For further information, please see the ‘about these statistics’ section.

Accompanying this release are statistics on international road freight, domestic road freight and HGV driver vacancies.

Overview of the road freight sector

Infographic 1: Overview of road freight in the wider economy in the United Kingdom (UK) and Great Britain (GB)

Infographic 1 shows that in 2024:

• UK GDP was £2.6 trillion, an increase of 1.1% from 2023 (£2.5 trillion) (Source: Office for National Statistics)

• the average price of diesel in the UK was 148 pence per litre, a decrease of 6% from 2023 (158 pence per litre), and continued decrease from the record high price of 178 pence per litre in 2022 (Source: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

• HGV traffic estimates in Great Britain were 16.6 billion vehicle miles, which was 2% lower than 2023 levels (16.9 billion vehicle miles) (Source: Department for Transport)

Infographic 1 also shows that in 2023 (this is the latest data available at the time of publishing):

• the road freight sector approximate gross value added (GVA) at basic prices was £16,871 million, a decrease of 5% from 2022 (£17,784 million), which represents 16% of the Transport and Storage sector GVA (Source: Office for National Statistics)

Road freight sector and the environment in the UK

Infographic 2: Overview of the road freight and environment in the UK

Infographic 2 shows that in 2023 (this is the latest data available at the time of publishing):

• the domestic transport sector was responsible for 111.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in the UK in 2023, a decrease of 1% from 2022 (113.1 million tonnes). This follows a period of reduced domestic travel in 2020 and 2021 due to coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions

• HGVs were responsible for 18.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in the UK in 2023, a decrease of 5% from 2022 (19.0 million tonnes)

• the domestic transport sector remained the largest emitting sector in the UK, accounting for 29% of all greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in 2023 (28% in 2022)

• of the domestic transport sector emissions, HGVs accounted for 16% and passenger cars accounted for 54%, remaining the largest emitting category

Source: Department for Transport

Road freight sector including heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers

Infographic 3: Overview of the road freight sector

Infographic 3 shows that in 2023 (this is the latest data available at the time of publishing):

• the number of enterprises in the road freight transport sector was 46,310 in the UK, a decrease of 17% from 2022 (55,732) (Source: Office for National Statistics)

Infographic 3 also shows that in 2024:

• the number of HGV drivers in the UK was 280,000, an increase of 3% from 2023 (271,800). Of which 98% were males and 2% were females, a similar proportion to 2023. (Source: Office for National Statistics)

• the median hourly pay for HGV drivers was £15.78, a 5% increase from 2023 (£14.97). This is 8% lower than the median hourly pay for all employees (£17.09) in 2024 (Source: Office for National Statistics)

• HGV drivers worked an average of 48 hours per week, the same as in 2023. This is 29% higher than the average for all employees (37.0 hours per week) (Source: Office for National Statistics)

• the number of licensed HGVs was 534 thousand, a decrease of 0.1% from 2023 (535 thousand) (Source: Department for Transport)

• the number of licenced HGVs which are zero emissions HGVs was 0.99 thousand, an increase of 34% from 2023 (0.74 thousand). Zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) do not emit any carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from their tailpipe including battery electric vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles (Source: Department for Transport)

About these statistics

This chapter of the publication is a compendium of Department for Transport and other government department statistics relating to road freight.

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Name of category of statistics	Description
Gross domestic product	Further information on measuring gross domestic product (GDP) can be found in the Guide to the UK National Accounts, and more quality and methodology information (QMI) is available in the Gross domestic product (GDP) QMI Source: Office for National Statistics
Gross value added	Annual Business Survey - Non-financial business economy, UK regional results: Sections A to S (standard industrial classification H49.41) Source: Office for National Statistics
Diesel prices	Monthly and annual prices of road fuels and petroleum products Source: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
HGV distance travelled	Road traffic estimates Source: Department for Transport Note: This is an estimate of the distance travelled by all heavy goods vehicles, not just road freight vehicles.
Emissions	Transport and environment statistics: 2023 Source: Department for Transport
Number of road freight sector enterprises	Annual Business Survey - Non-financial business economy, UK regional results: Sections A to S (standard industrial classification H49.41) Source: Office for National Statistics
Number of HGV drivers	Annual population survey - regional - occupation (SOC2020 code: 8211) by sex by employment type Source: Office for National Statistics
Median hourly pay	Annual Survey of hours and Earnings (ASHE), table 14.5a (SOC2020 code: 8211) Source: Office for National Statistics
Paid hours worked	Annual Survey of hours and Earnings (ASHE), table 14.9a (SOC2020 code: 8211) Source: Office for National Statistics
Number of licensed HGVs including zero emissions HGVs	Vehicles statistics Source: Department for Transport

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Contact us

Road freight statistics

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