In Q2 2022, a total of 40.9 million tonnes of goods was transported by road. Up by 2% when compared with Q2 2021.
The commodity group Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat represented over a quarter (28%) of all tonnes carried in Q2 2022.
In Q2 2022, the total distance covered by road freight transport was 464 million kilometres.
| Road freight activity, Q2 2019-Q2 2022 | |||||
| Q2 2019 | Q2 2020 | Q2 2021 | Q2 2022 | % change Q2 2021 - Q2 2022 | |
| Tonne-km (million) | 3,136 | 2,406 | 3,225 | 3,364 | 4% |
| Tonnes carried (thousand) | 42,782 | 30,034 | 39,974 | 40,875 | 2% |
| Vehicle kilometres (million) | 450 | 305 | 426 | 464 | 9% |
| Laden journeys (thousand) | 3,966 | 2,403 | 3,191 | 3,516 | 10% |
Figure 1 shows that in Q2 2022, a total of 40.9 million tonnes of goods were transported by road. This represents an increase of 2% compared with Q2 2021.
Figure 2 shows that goods vehicles involved in the Delivery of Goods to Road Works or Building Sites carried 18,241 thousand tonnes in Q2 2022, which was the highest among all types of work carried out by goods vehicles.
Figure 3 shows that the commodity group 'Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat' represented over a quarter (28%) of all tonnes carried. This was the largest share among the categories of commodity groups in the survey.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (09 December 2022) published results from the Road Freight Transport Survey for Q2 2022.
Commenting on the annual figures, Dr. Nele van der Wielen, Statistician in the Transport Division, said: “The figures show an increase in the tonnes of goods transported by road. In Q2 2022, a total of 40.9 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, which represents an increase of 2% on the Q2 2021 total, but a decrease of 4% when compared with Q2 2019 (pre-COVID-19).
Activity measured as weight by distance, or tonne-kilometres (tkm), reached 3,364 million tkm in Q2 2022, an increase of 4% compared with Q2 2021.
The total distance covered by road freight transport in Q2 2022 was 464 million kilometres. The commodity groups that were contributing most to vehicle kilometres were Foodstuffs and the miscellaneous category Other Goods.
The largest amount of work undertaken by goods vehicles in Q2 2022 was the Delivery of Goods to Road Works or Building Sites at 18,241 thousand tonnes, followed by Delivery of Goods to Retail Outlets at 4,291 thousand tonnes.
The commodity group Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat represented over a quarter (28%) of all tonnes carried. This was the largest share among the categories of commodity groups in the survey, followed by Other Non-Metallic Mineral Products at 7,859 thousand tonnes.”