National statistics

Road goods vehicles travelling to Europe: October 2020 to September 2021

Published 18 November 2021

We are providing this compact HTML format for our roll-on roll-off international freight statistics releases, and we would like to hear your comments. If you have any feedback on our use of this format, or any questions about this release, see contact details.

Main points

When comparing the 12-month period ending September 2021 to the previous 12-month period ending September 2020, we see:

• the total number of trips made by road goods vehicles travelling from Great Britain to Europe increased by 1% to 3.14 million
• the number of trips made by powered vehicles decreased by 4% from 2.11 million to 2.04 million
• the number of trips made by unaccompanied trailers increased by 10% from 1.01 million to 1.11 million

When comparing the 12-month period ending September 2021 to the 12-month period ending September 2019, we see:

• the total number of trips made by road goods vehicles travelling from Great Britain to Europe decreased by 8% to 3.14 million
• the number of trips made by powered vehicles decreased by 13% from 2.34 million to 2.04 million
• the number of trips made by unaccompanied trailers increased by 3% from 1.07 million to 1.11 million

Of the 2.04 million powered vehicles that travelled from Great Britain to Europe, in the 12-month period ending September 2021 compared to the 12-month ending September 2020, we see:

• the number of trips made by UK-registered vehicles decreased by 13% from 0.29 to 0.25 million
• the number of trips made by foreign-registered vehicles decreased by 2% from 1.78 to 1.75 million

Caution should be taken when comparing these data to previous time periods because previously announced timings of the UK leaving the EU and subsequent transition period, along with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, have caused higher levels of volatility in freight statistics over the past 2 years.

The graph below shows the total number of trips made by road goods vehicles travelling from Great Britain to Europe in each quarter since 2015.

The graph also shows the average number of trips made in the five-year period before the COVID-19 pandemic, calculated using data from 2015 to 2019, as well as the expected variance from this average. The number of trips falls within the expected variance (± 1 standard deviation) for most quarters however, there has been some wider variance (± 2 standard deviations of the average) in recent quarters. In the 12-month period ending September 2021, the level of activity of road goods vehicles travelling from Great Britain to Europe has fluctuated, coinciding with the implementation and subsequent easing of COVID-19 (coronavirus) restrictions, as well as the potential impact of the end of the EU exit transition period.

Further information about these statistics is available, including:

• data tables for roll-on roll-off international freight statistics
• notes and definitions for roll-on roll-off international freight statistics

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Contact details

Roll-on roll-off international freight statistics

Email roadfreight.stats@dft.gov.uk

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878