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In January, February, and March (Q1) 2025, a total of 45.3 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, compared with 44.7 million tonnes in Q1 2024.
The commodity group Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat represented almost a quarter (24%) of all tonnes carried by road in Q1 2025.
In Q1 2025, the total distance covered by road freight transport was 599 million kilometres, up 13% compared with the same period in 2024.
| Road freight activity, Quarter 1 2021-2025 | ||||||
| Q1 2021 | Q1 2022 | Q1 2023 | Q1 2024 | Q1 2025 | % change Q1 2024 - Q1 2025 | |
| Tonne-km (million) | 2,852 | 3,048 | 3,082 | 3,452 | 3,939 | 14 |
| Tonnes carried (thousand) | 34,343 | 40,764 | 41,766 | 44,724 | 45,292 | 1 |
| Vehicle kilometres (million) | 417 | 468 | 441 | 528 | 599 | 13 |
| Laden journeys (thousand) | 3,242 | 3,539 | 3,612 | 4,207 | 4,549 | 8 |
Figure 1 shows that in Q1 2025, a total of 45,292 thousand tonnes of goods were transported by road. This represents an increase of 1% on the Q1 2024 total.
Figure 2 shows that the commodity group Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat represented almost a quarter (24%) of all tonnes carried. This was the largest share among the categories of commodity groups in the survey with 10,961 tonnes carried.
Figure 3 shows that vehicles involved in the Delivery of Goods to Road Works or Building Sites carried 15,757 thousand tonnes in Q1 2025, which at 35% of the total tonnes carried, 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 (28 August 2025) published results from the Road Freight Transport Survey for Quarter 1 (Q1) 2025.
Commenting on the figures, Damien Lenihan, Statistician in the Transport Division, said: “The figures show that in January, February, and March (Q1) 2025, a total of 45.3 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, an increase of 1% on the Q1 2024 total (See Table 1).
Activity measured as weight by distance, or tonne-kilometres (tkm), was 3,939 million tkm in Q1 2025, which rose by 14% when compared with 3,452 million tkm in Q1 2024.
The total distance covered by road freight transport in Q1 2025 was 599 million kilometres, up 13% compared with Q1 2024. The commodity groups that were contributing most to vehicle kilometres were Foodstuffs and Other Goods.”