In January, February, and March (Q1) 2026, a total of 40.8 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, compared with 44.7 million tonnes in Q1 2025.
The commodity group Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat represented almost a quarter (22%) of all tonnes carried by road in Q1 2026.
Vehicles involved in the Delivery of Goods to Road Works or Building Sites carried 14.5 million tonnes in Q1 2026, which at 36% of the total tonnes carried, was the highest among all types of work carried out by goods vehicles.
In Q1 2026, the total distance covered by road freight transport vehicles was 491 million kilometres, down 10% compared with the same period in 2025.
| Road freight activity, Quarter 1 2022-2026 | ||||||
| Q1 2022 | Q1 2023 | Q1 2024 | Q1 2025 | Q1 2026 | % change Q1 2025 - Q1 2026 | |
| Tonne-km (million) | 3,048 | 3,082 | 3,452 | 3,866 | 3,811 | -1 |
| Tonnes carried (thousand) | 40,764 | 41,766 | 44,724 | 44,664 | 40,786 | -9 |
| Vehicle kilometres (million) | 468 | 441 | 528 | 543 | 491 | -10 |
| Laden journeys (thousand) | 3,539 | 3,612 | 4,207 | 4,182 | 3,798 | -9 |
Figure 1 shows that in Q1 2026, a total of 40.8 million tonnes of goods were transported by road. This represents a decrease of 9% on the Q1 2025 and Q1 2024 totals and a decrease of 2% on the Q1 2023 total.
Figure 2 shows that the commodity group Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat represented almost a quarter (22%) of all tonnes carried. This was the largest share among the categories of commodity groups in the survey with 9.1 tonnes carried.
Figure 3 shows that vehicles involved in the Delivery of Goods to Road Works or Building Sites carried 14.5 million tonnes in Q1 2026, which 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 (26 August 2026) published results from the Road Freight Transport Survey for Quarter 1 (Q1) 2026.
Commenting on the figures, Damien Lenihan, Statistician in the Transport Division, said: “The figures show that in January, February, and March (Q1) 2026, a total of 40.8 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, a decrease of 9% on the Q1 2025 total (See Table 1).
Activity measured as weight by distance, or tonne-kilometres (tkm), was 3,811 million tkm in Q1 2026, which dropped by 1% when compared with 3,866 million tkm in Q1 2025.
The total distance covered by road freight transport in Q1 2026 was 491 million kilometres, a drop of 10% when compared with Q1 2025. The commodity groups that contributed most to vehicle kilometres were Other goods and Foodstuffs.”