Road freight: 2025

Data is provided by the Department for Transport (DfT).

The 2024 road freight publication was paused while a consultation on proposed changes to Welsh Government statistics outputs took place. Following this review of our statistical outputs and consultation responses, this publication has been shortened. Accompanying StatsWales datasets have been paused whilst we continue to explore whether the DfT can publish the data directly. To access the underlying data and for further information on road freight statistics in Wales, please see Road freight: domestic and international statistics (DfT).

Please note, the DfT have postponed the publication of some of their 2025 statistics until later in 2026. This is to support essential work required to further develop the methodology following a digital infrastructure transition. This has affected our publication, where some statistics have been published up to 2025 (see Figure 1) and others published to 2024 (see Figure 2).

In 2025, 99.4 million tonnes (Mt) of goods were lifted in Wales by UK-registered HGVs, which is a 9% decrease from 109.0Mt in 2024. Of this total:

• 45.0Mt were carried by road within Wales, which is a 22% decrease on last year
• 27.7Mt entered Wales from the rest of the UK, which is a 1% decrease on last year
• 26.7Mt were carried from Wales to the rest of the UK, which is a 13% increase on last year
• the most common goods type lifted was ‘grouped goods’ (18%), which is where consignments contain a mixture of different commodities with no single main type of good; this was also the most common category in 2024 (16%)
• the second most common goods type was food products (14%); this was also the second category in 2024 (12%)

Figure 1: goods lifted by road within, to and from Wales by UK registered HGVs, 2025 [Note 1]

Image

Description of figure 1: a bar chart showing the weight of goods lifted by road within, to and from Wales by UK registered HGVs in 2025. Most goods are lifted within Wales while the fewest goods are lifted from Wales to the rest of the UK.

Note 1: Goods lifted is defined as the weight of goods carried, measured in tonnes. This is a measure of the total amount of goods transported within the UK by GB-registered HGVs.

Source: DfT road freight data

European Union (EU) Destinations

DfT has postponed publication of the 2025 International Road Freight statistics until later this year. As a result, Welsh data for 2025 are not yet available, and the statistics presented below relate to 2024. We will update this with 2025 data when it becomes available.

Goods transported between Wales and the EU in 2024

• 436,000 tonnes (0.44Mt) of goods were transported by road (Figure 2). 

Figure 2: road freight (by weight) carried by HGVs between Wales and EU, 2000 to 2024

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Description of figure 2: a line chart showing the trend in road freight (by weight) carried by HGVs between Wales and the EU from 2000 to 2024. It shows exports have exceeded imports for most of the series since 2000, while total road freight traffic between Wales and the EU declined around 2020.

Source: DfT Road Freight data

Goods moved

The weight of goods carried multiplied by the distance hauled, measured in tonne kilometres. This is a measure of the overall activity within the UK by GB-registered HGVs, accounting for both the distance travelled by each vehicle and the weight of its load.

Goods lifted

The weight of goods carried, measured in tonnes. This is a measure of the total amount of goods transported within the UK by GB-registered HGVs. Notes and definitions for Road Freight (DfT).

Transport statistics
Email: stats.transport@gov.wales 

Media: 0300 025 8099