# Trucking and road freight facts 2026

- Canonical page: https://pipetidy.com/industry-facts/trucking-statistics
- Author: Hudson Paul, Cofounder and research editor, Pipetidy
- Published: 2026-09-21
- Last updated: 2026-09-22
- Sources last checked: 2026-09-22

## Direct answer

Trucking is a fragmented, relationship-intensive market: the United States has more than 170,000 truck-transportation employer establishments, UK-registered HGVs lifted 1.53 billion tonnes in 2025, and EU road freight reached 1,869 billion tonne-kilometres in 2024. Small carriers need disciplined quote, load, document, exception, and invoice follow-up.

## Headline facts

- **170,286** — U.S. truck-transportation employer establishments in 2023. ([U.S. Census Bureau, 2023](https://data.census.gov/profile?codeset=naics~484&q=))
- **1.53B t** — Goods lifted by GB-registered HGVs operating in the UK in 2025. ([UK Department for Transport, 2025](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/road-freight-statistics-2025))
- **1,869B tkm** — EU road-freight performance in 2024. ([Eurostat, 2024](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20250709-1))

## Regional context

### United States

All 50 states and the District of Columbia. The SBA counted 36.2 million U.S. small businesses in its 2025 profile release. More than 170,000 employer establishments and a much larger registered-carrier universe make trucking highly fragmented.

Source: [SBA Office of Advocacy, 2025](https://advocacy.sba.gov/2025/06/30/new-advocacy-report-shows-the-number-of-small-businesses-in-the-u-s-exceeds-36-million/)

### Southeast United States

Pipetidy's target states: Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia. These seven states contain about 5.49 million small businesses and roughly 8.8 million small-business employees. Ports, automotive manufacturing, distribution hubs, agriculture, and construction produce dense regional and long-haul account networks.

Source: [SBA state profiles, 2025](https://advocacy.sba.gov/2025/06/30/2025-small-business-profiles-for-the-states-territories-and-nation/)

### United Kingdom

England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The UK had about 114,000 VAT/PAYE-registered transport and storage businesses and 141,000 agriculture, forestry, and fishing businesses in 2025. GB-registered HGVs moved 1.53 billion tonnes in 2025 across 163 million journeys.

Source: [Office for National Statistics, 2025](https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/bulletins/ukbusinessactivitysizeandlocation/2025)

### Northern Europe

Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden for this factsheet series. Eurostat's structural business statistics cover detailed enterprise activity across EU and EFTA markets, including transport, storage, rental, repair, and trade. Export-oriented Nordic economies create cross-border load, ferry, customs, and customer-update workflows.

Source: [Eurostat structural business statistics](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/structural-business-statistics)

### Central Europe

Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary for this factsheet series. Central Europe contains several of the EU's largest freight and industrial markets; Germany and Poland together produced almost 35% of EU road-freight tonne-kilometres in 2024. Poland and Germany together accounted for nearly 35% of EU road-freight tonne-kilometres in 2024.

Source: [Eurostat road freight, 2025](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20250709-1)

### Australia & New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand, reported separately where official statistics differ. Australia had 261,109 transport, postal, and warehousing businesses in 2025-26; New Zealand transport, postal, and warehousing sales reached NZ$11.75 billion in the June 2026 quarter. Australia's transport, postal, and warehousing business count reached 261,109 in 2025-26; New Zealand sector sales were NZ$11.75 billion in one quarter.

Source: [ABS and Stats NZ, 2026](https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/business-indicators/counts-australian-businesses-including-entries-and-exits/latest-release)

## Methodology

Pipetidy Research selects primary government, statistical-agency, and publisher-original sources. Each figure retains its source period, geography, and classification; unlike measures are not combined into a synthetic global total.

## Limitations

Industry definitions differ by country and statistical system. Regional baselines describe the wider operating market and should not be read as a like-for-like market-size comparison or as evidence of Pipetidy customer outcomes.

## Suggested citation

Paul, Hudson. “Trucking and road freight facts 2026.” Pipetidy Research, P101 LLC. Updated 2026-09-22. https://pipetidy.com/industry-facts/trucking-statistics