Freight: Insolvency
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate has been made of the number of business insolvencies in the UK road haulage sector in each of the past 10 years.
Answered by Blair McDougall
Estimated numbers of companies with the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code 49410 (Freight transport by road) that entered insolvency in the UK in each calendar year between 2016 and 2025 are presented in the table below.
Calendar Year | 49410 – Freight transport by road |
2016 | 146 |
2017 [note 1] | 195 |
2018 [note 1] | 247 |
2019 | 285 |
2020 | 195 |
2021 | 265 |
2022 | 411 |
2023 | 503 |
2024 | 471 |
2025 | 401 |
Note 1: Numbers exclude bulk insolvencies, which occurred between April 2016 and early 2019 following changes to the IR35 rules and changes in VAT flat rate. If included, the number for 2017 would be 326 and the number for 2018 would be 256. For more details, see the Glossary in Company insolvencies, December 2025 - GOV.UK.
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