UK Haulage in 2025: Key Facts, Pressures and What Comes Next

The UK haulage industry has always been good at getting on with it. But 2025 has piled on the pressures — tighter margins, rising costs, regulatory shifts, and a driver workforce that's ageing faster than it can be replaced. Whether you're running a 50-truck fleet, managing a small owner-operator operation, or sitting behind the wheel yourself, it helps to know exactly where things stand. Here's a clear-eyed look at the state of UK road freight right now, and what's coming down the road.

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The Numbers: How UK Haulage Is Actually Performing

The UK road freight market remains enormous — estimated at around $53.9 billion in 2025, and closer to $110 billion when you include the wider logistics picture. The sector still moves roughly 85% of all goods across the country, which is why it gets called the backbone of the economy so often. It's a cliché, but it's true.

That said, the headline figures from the Department for Transport (DfT) tell a more sobering story:

• Goods lifted fell to approximately 1.53 billion tonnes — a 3% drop from 1.59 billion tonnes in 2024
• Goods moved came in at 162 billion tonne-kilometres, down 4% year-on-year

These aren't catastrophic numbers, but they do point to a market that's cooling. Consumer demand has softened, and businesses are being more cautious about stock and supply chain commitments.

The Empty Running Problem

One figure that should make every fleet manager wince: 31% of all HGV kilometres in 2025 were run empty. That's nearly a third of all road miles generating zero revenue. Empty running has been a persistent issue for years, and it remains one of the clearest signs that the industry still has room to improve how loads are planned and consolidated. If your fleet is regularly running empty in one direction, it's worth looking seriously at freight-matching tools or collaborative load-sharing arrangements.

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The Driver Shortage Isn't Going Away

After the crisis-level shortages of 2021 and 2022, things stabilised — but don't mistake stability for solved. The driver situation in 2025 is still a genuine long-term problem.

• Around 26% of HGV businesses reported vacancies in late 2025, up from 24% in 2024
• An estimated 55% of current HGV drivers are aged between 50 and 65
• The industry needs to recruit roughly 40,000 new drivers every year just to replace those retiring

To help, the government has extended its subsidised HGV Skills Bootcamps through to February 2026, which does offer a practical route into the industry for new entrants. If you're a fleet operator struggling to fill seats, it's worth checking whether your business can tap into these funded training programmes.

The demographic crunch is the bit that's harder to fix quickly. Training a new driver takes time and money, and retaining experienced drivers in a competitive market takes more still. Pay, working conditions, and the quality of facilities on the road all matter to drivers — and transport managers who overlook that tend to find out the hard way.

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Costs and Regulations: What's Changed in 2025

This is where things get particularly important to keep on top of.

Fuel Duty

The 5p fuel duty cut that's been in place is currently frozen until August 2026 — so no immediate change there. But the government has confirmed a reversal is coming in stages from September 2026, eventually returning duty to 2022 levels. It's not a crisis today, but it should be factored into your longer-term cost planning now, not later.

HGV Levy and VED

Both the HGV Road User Levy and Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) were uprated in line with the Retail Price Index in April 2025. To give you a concrete example: a 38-tonne Euro VI HGV now attracts an annual tax bill of approximately £597. Multiply that across a fleet and it adds up quickly.

Staying on Top of Compliance

With costs rising and margins thinning, the last thing any operator needs is an enforcement action or an unsatisfactory DVSA encounter that damages their operator licence standing. The DVSA Earned Recognition scheme — which assesses operators against published HGV operator audit standards — is increasingly something fleet operators should be aware of. Meeting those standards isn't just about avoiding penalties; it demonstrates to customers, insurers, and regulators that your operation is run properly.

Tools like TruckCheck are used by operators to stay on top of daily walkaround checks and defect reporting — the kind of bread-and-butter compliance activity that the DVSA audits directly.

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The Road to Zero Emissions (and What It Means Practically)

The government isn't letting up on decarbonisation targets, even if the timeline feels distant for some operators.

• New non-zero-emission HGVs under 26 tonnes are set to be phased out from 2035
• All remaining new non-zero-emission HGVs will follow by 2040
• Zero-emission HGVs are currently exempt from the HGV Road User Levy — a meaningful financial incentive for early adopters

The government's Modern Industrial Strategy, launched mid-2025, also committed £600 million to freight infrastructure and announced plans for a National Supply Chain Centre — which, if it delivers, could help coordinate the kind of freight efficiency improvements the industry badly needs.

For most smaller fleets, the switch to electric or hydrogen HGVs is still a future conversation rather than an immediate one. But the direction of travel is clear, and planning ahead — even if it's just understanding your options — puts you in a better position when the pressure to transition increases.

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What Comes Next

The second half of 2025 and into 2026 will test operators that are running lean. Labour costs are up, fuel duty relief is temporary, and the compliance bar isn't getting any lower. The businesses that are coping best tend to be those investing in better data — knowing their costs per mile, their defect rates, their driver hours — and those willing to consider consolidation or partnerships to stay competitive.

TruckCheck is designed to take some of the daily admin pressure off transport managers and drivers, making it easier to keep compliance records clean and auditable without drowning in paperwork.

If you want to see how it fits into your operation, try TruckCheck free or get in touch to see how it works.