In July, August, and September (Q3) 2025, a total of 43.5 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, compared with 38.5 million tonnes in Q3 2024.
The commodity group Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat represented 27% of all tonnes carried by road in Q3 2025.
Vehicles involved in the Delivery of Goods to Road Works or Building Sites carried 16.8 million tonnes in Q3 2025, which at 39% of the total tonnes carried, was the highest among all types of work carried out by goods vehicles.
In Q3 2025, the total distance covered by road freight transport was 551 million kilometres, up 20% compared with the same period in 2024.
| Road freight activity, Quarter 3 2021-2025 | ||||||
| Q3 2021 | Q3 2022 | Q3 2023 | Q3 2024 | Q3 2025 | % change Q3 2024 - Q3 2025 | |
| Tonne-km (million) | 3,326 | 2,969 | 3,225 | 3,223 | 3,808 | 18 |
| Tonnes carried (thousand) | 43,184 | 43,366 | 40,639 | 38,507 | 43,541 | 13 |
| Vehicle kilometres (million) | 455 | 422 | 451 | 459 | 551 | 20 |
| Laden journeys (thousand) | 3,601 | 3,344 | 3,628 | 3,254 | 4,136 | 27 |
Figure 1 shows that in Q3 2025, a total of 43.5 million tonnes of goods were transported by road. This represents an increase of 13% on the Q3 2024 total and a rise of 7% on the Q3 2023 total.
Figure 2 shows that the commodity group Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat represented 27% of all tonnes carried. This was the largest share among the categories of commodity groups in the survey with 11.6 million tonnes carried.
Figure 3 shows that vehicles involved in the Delivery of Goods to Road Works or Building Sites carried 16.8 million tonnes in Q3 2025, which at 39% 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 (24 February 2026) published results from the Road Freight Transport Survey for Quarter 3 (Q3) 2025.
Commenting on the figures, Damien Lenihan, Statistician in the Transport Division, said: “The figures show that in July, August, and September (Q3) 2025, a total of 43.5 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, which represented an increase of 13% on the Q3 2024 total (See Table 1).
Activity measured as weight by distance, or tonne-kilometres (tkm), was 3,808 million tkm in Q3 2025, which rose by 18% when compared with 3,223 million tkm in Q3 2024.
The total distance covered by road freight transport in Q3 2025 was 551 million kilometres, up 20% compared with Q3 2024. The commodity groups that contributed most to vehicle kilometres were Foodstuffs and Other Goods.”