Your feedback can help us improve and enhance our services to the public. Tell us what matters to you in our online Customer Satisfaction Survey.
In 2024, a total of 165.2 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, the same figure recorded in 2023.
The commodity group Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat represented more than a quarter (26%) of all tonnes carried by road in 2024.
The total distance covered by road freight transport in 2024 was 1.9 billion kilometres, compared with 1.8 billion kilometres in 2023.
In October, November, and December (Q4) 2024, a total of 39.0 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, compared with 37.1 million tonnes carried in Q4 2023.
| Road freight activity, 2020-2024 | ||||||
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | % change 2023 - 2024 | |
| Tonne-km (million) | 11,383 | 12,485 | 12,384 | 12,596 | 13,575 | 8 |
| Tonnes carried (thousand) | 140,998 | 154,900 | 164,258 | 165,165 | 165,206 | 0 |
| Vehicle kilometres (million) | 1,488 | 1,685 | 1,788 | 1,823 | 1,896 | 4 |
| Laden journeys (thousand) | 11,775 | 13,092 | 13,814 | 14,759 | 14,636 | -1 |
Figure 1 shows that in 2024, a total of 165,206 thousand tonnes of goods were transported by road. This compares with 165,165 thousand tonnes in 2023, a rise of 1% on the 2022 total and a growth of 7% when compared with 2021.
The commodity groups that were contributing most to vehicle kilometres were Foodstuffs and the miscellaneous category Other Goods.
Goods vehicles involved in the Delivery of Goods to Road Works or Building Sites carried 57,801 thousand tonnes in 2024, which was the highest among all types of work carried out by goods vehicles.
Tell us what matters to you and help us improve our products and services.
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 (25 June 2025) published results from the Road Freight Transport Survey for Quarter 4 (Q4) and Year 2024.
Commenting on the annual figures, Damien Lenihan, Statistician in the Transport Division, said: “The figures show no change in the tonnes of goods transported by road from 2023 with a total of 165.2 million tonnes of goods also transported by road in 2024. This was an increase of 1% when compared with 2022 (See Table 1B).
Activity measured as weight by distance, or tonne-kilometres (tkm), reached 13.6 billion tkm in 2024, up 8% when compared with 2023.
The total distance covered by road freight transport in 2024 was 1.9 billion kilometres, compared with 1.8 billion kilometres in 2023. The commodity groups that were contributing most to vehicle kilometres were Foodstuffs and the miscellaneous category Other Goods (See Table 2).
There were 39.0 million tonnes of goods carried in Q4 2024, up 5% when compared with the same period in 2023.”