Following a review of the Quarter 1 2025 Road Freight Transport release, published on 28 August 2025, significant issues were identified in the processing and compilation of the data.
As a result, on 05 February 2026 the data were revised. These revisions affect all content throughout the release, including tables, charts and accompanying text. Further details on the revisions are provided in the Information Note. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
In January, February, and March (Q1) 2025, a total of 44.7 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, comparable to that recorded in Q1 2024.
The commodity group Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat represented a quarter (25%) of all tonnes carried by road in Q1 2025.
In Q1 2025, the total distance travelled by road freight transport was 543 million kilometres, up 3% 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 | 3,866 | 12 |
| Tonnes carried (thousand) | 34,343 | 40,764 | 41,766 | 44,724 | 44,664 | 0 |
| Vehicle kilometres (million) | 417 | 468 | 441 | 528 | 543 | 3 |
| Laden journeys (thousand) | 3,242 | 3,539 | 3,612 | 4,207 | 4,182 | -1 |
Figure 1 shows that in Q1 2025, a total of 44,664,000 tonnes of goods were transported by road. This represents a 0% change on the Q1 2024 total, a rise of 7% on the Q1 2023 total, an increase of 10% on the 2022 total and a growth of 30% when compared with Q1 2021.
Figure 2 shows that the commodity group Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat accounted for 10,958,000 of all tonnes carried in Q1 2025. This was the largest share among the categories of commodity groups in the survey at 25%.
Figure 3 shows that vehicles involved in the Delivery of Goods to Road Works or Building Sites carried 16,607,000 tonnes in Q1 2025, which was the highest among all types of work carried out by goods vehicles.
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
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, Transport Statistician Damien Lenihan said, “The figures show that in January, February, and March (Q1) 2025, a total of 44.7 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, which is in line with the total recorded in Q1 2024 total (See Table 1).
Activity measured as weight by distance, or tonne-kilometres (tkm), was 3,866 million tkm in Q1 2025, an increase of 12% when compared with 3,452 million tkm in Q1 2024.
The total distance covered by road freight transport in Q1 2025 was 543 million kilometres. This is an increase of 3% from the 528 million kilometres recorded in Q1 2024. The commodity groups that contributed most to vehicle kilometres were Other goods and Foodstuffs.”