5th October 2026
Britain's road haulage industry is under pressure, and the numbers provide some evidence that this is more than just a few individual companies getting into difficulty.
In 2025, 401 UK companies classified as freight transport by road entered insolvency.
That was down from the exceptionally high figure of 503 in 2023, but it was still substantially above the 285 recorded in 2019, before the pandemic.
So while the number of failures has fallen from its peak, the industry has not returned to the financial conditions it enjoyed before Covid.
And there are good reasons to be concerned that the pressure could build again.
From 285 failures to more than 500
The official figures tell an interesting story.
There were 285 road-freight insolvencies in 2019.
That fell to 195 in 2020, partly reflecting the extraordinary economic circumstances during the pandemic. But the numbers then rose sharply:
2021: 265
2022: 411
2023: 503
2024: 471
2025: 401
The 2025 figure therefore represents a fall from the 2023 peak, but it is still around 41% higher than in 2019.
That is perhaps a better indication of the industry's underlying problems than simply saying that haulage failures are rising.
They aren't currently rising every year.
Rather, the industry has experienced a much higher level of business failure since the pandemic.
Why is haulage such a difficult business?
The problem is that road haulage is a relatively low-margin business with very high operating costs.
A lorry has to be paid for whether it is moving or sitting in a yard.
There is the driver, insurance, finance, maintenance, tyres, road tax, compliance, depot costs and administration.
And then there is fuel.
For many operators, fuel represents roughly a third of their operating costs.
That makes haulage particularly vulnerable to sudden movements in diesel prices.
A haulier cannot necessarily pass every increase on to customers immediately.
A supermarket, manufacturer or wholesaler may have agreed a transport price months earlier.
The lorry operator can therefore find itself paying considerably more for diesel while receiving exactly the same amount for delivering the load.
That is not a comfortable position for a company operating on a very small profit margin.
The margin problem
The Road Haulage Association's cost survey has highlighted just how tight the economics have become.
Operating costs excluding fuel have continued to rise, while margins remain extremely thin.
The RHA has put typical industry margins at around 2%.
That figure is worth thinking about.
If a company turns over £5 million but makes only 2% on that turnover, its operating profit is roughly £100,000.
A relatively modest unexpected increase in costs can therefore wipe out a year's profit.
This helps explain why apparently successful haulage companies can suddenly find themselves in serious difficulty.
They may have plenty of work.
They may have modern lorries.
They may employ dozens of people.
But if the difference between revenue and costs is only a couple of percent, there isn't much room for things to go wrong.
Then came the fuel shock
This is where the present situation becomes particularly interesting.
Diesel prices have risen sharply during 2026, adding another major cost burden to an industry that was already operating on thin margins.
The Road Haulage Association reported that diesel rose from around 142p a litre in February to more than 190p by late April.
It estimated that this added roughly £300 a week to the fuel bill for an HGV.
For a large fleet, the numbers become substantial very quickly.
A company operating 20 trucks could potentially be facing an additional fuel cost running into thousands of pounds a month.
And unlike a household, a haulage company cannot simply decide to drive less.
Its entire business depends on putting vehicles on the road.
The danger of the squeeze
This creates a potentially uncomfortable chain reaction.
The haulier faces higher fuel costs.
It asks customers for higher rates.
The customer tries to resist because it is also facing higher costs.
The haulier then has to decide whether to accept the work at a lower margin or risk losing the customer.
If it accepts the work, its profit disappears.
If it refuses the work, the lorry may sit idle while finance, insurance and other costs continue.
Neither is attractive.
This is why the health of the haulage industry is important far beyond the companies themselves.
Britain depends on lorries
Britain is a heavily road-dependent economy.
Food reaches supermarkets by lorry.
Building materials reach construction sites by lorry.
Fuel reaches filling stations by road tanker.
Factories depend on components being delivered.
Online shopping depends on vans and trucks moving goods around the country.
Even goods arriving at Britain's ports ultimately need to be moved somewhere by road.
There is therefore a simple question that is rarely asked when discussing the cost of living:
Who pays when the cost of transporting everything rises?
Ultimately, it is likely to be reflected somewhere in the price of goods and services.
The supermarket problem
The relationship between haulage companies and the major supermarkets illustrates the problem.
Large retailers have enormous buying power.
They can negotiate fiercely with suppliers and transport companies because they operate at a scale that gives them considerable leverage.
That is good for keeping prices down for consumers.
But there is a danger if transport companies are squeezed too hard.
A haulage company cannot operate indefinitely without making enough money to replace its vehicles, pay its staff properly and maintain its fleet.
Eventually something has to give.
It may be investment.
It may be wages.
It may be the number of vehicles operated.
Or, in the worst cases, the company itself may fail.
It isn't just the big companies
It is tempting to think that the problem mainly affects small independent hauliers.
But the pressures are not confined to them.
The industry includes thousands of small and medium-sized businesses alongside much larger logistics companies.
The smaller operator may have only a handful of lorries and perhaps a few employees.
That can make it particularly vulnerable.
One major repair bill, a lost contract, several months of poor cash flow or a sudden increase in fuel prices can have a disproportionate effect.
The larger operator may have more financial resources, but it also has enormous fixed costs.
Neither is immune from the economics of the industry.
A warning sign from company finances
There is another statistic which perhaps deserves more attention.
Research into the sector has suggested that a significant proportion of haulage companies have financial characteristics that leave them vulnerable to insolvency or restructuring.
One analysis found 39% of haulage businesses surveyed were considered at serious risk of insolvency or major financial restructuring over the following three years.
That does not mean that 39% of Britain's hauliers will go bust.
It is a financial-risk assessment, not a forecast of actual failures.
But it does demonstrate the scale of the financial pressure facing parts of the industry.
Why this matters in Caithness
For somewhere like Caithness, the issue is particularly important.
We are a long way from many of the major distribution centres serving Scotland.
Almost everything that arrives here has to travel a considerable distance by road.
Food, building materials, machinery, fuel, household goods and many other products depend on the road transport network.
That means Caithness is particularly exposed to increases in transport costs.
If a lorry has to travel hundreds of miles to reach its destination, the cost of fuel, wages and vehicle time inevitably becomes part of the price.
There is also the question of reliability.
If fewer haulage companies are prepared to undertake long-distance journeys to remote areas, the cost of obtaining transport could rise further.
That is one reason why the financial health of Britain's haulage industry matters even to people who have never heard of most of the companies involved.
What happens if the pressure continues?
The obvious answer is that some companies will disappear.
Others may be bought by competitors.
Some operators may reduce the size of their fleets.
Others may concentrate on the most profitable contracts and abandon work that no longer pays.
The industry could therefore gradually become more concentrated.
That may bring some efficiencies.
But it could also reduce competition, particularly on less attractive routes.
And there is another consequence.
A haulage company that goes out of business doesn't just remove a name from Companies House.
It removes lorries, drivers, workshops and capacity from the transport system.
If enough capacity disappears, customers eventually have to pay more to secure the remaining transport.
The road transport paradox
There is something rather strange about the economics of haulage.
Everybody needs it.
Nobody particularly wants to pay more for it.
Supermarkets want cheap deliveries.
Manufacturers want cheap deliveries.
Construction companies want cheap deliveries.
Consumers want cheap goods.
But the people actually moving those goods need to pay for fuel, wages, insurance, maintenance and increasingly expensive vehicles.
At some point the numbers have to add up.
If they don't, the industry will eventually respond.
Are we heading for another wave of failures?
It would be premature to say that Britain is heading for another 2023-style wave of haulage insolvencies.
The official numbers actually show that failures fell in 2024 and again in 2025.
But that should not be confused with the industry being financially comfortable.
The number of failures remains well above the pre-pandemic level, margins are extremely thin and fuel prices have introduced another major source of uncertainty.
That combination deserves watching.
The industry doesn't need every company to fail for consumers to feel the consequences.
If enough operators become financially weaker, investment can be postponed, fleets can shrink and transport prices can rise.
And eventually those higher costs find their way into the price of almost everything we buy.
Britain's economic warning light
Perhaps the most useful way of looking at the haulage industry is as a kind of economic warning light.
Lorries don't just carry goods.
They carry an indication of what is happening underneath the economy.
If transport companies are struggling to make money despite being essential to virtually every part of the economy, it tells us something about the pressures businesses are facing.
And if diesel prices continue to rise while haulage margins remain around 2%, the arithmetic becomes increasingly uncomfortable.
Britain may therefore discover that the cost of keeping its economy moving is rising even before the goods themselves reach the shops.
The 400-plus insolvencies are not proof that Britain's road transport system is collapsing.
But they are a reminder that the system is operating with very little financial spare capacity.
And when an industry responsible for moving almost everything around the country starts running out of financial road, the consequences eventually reach all of us.
Scotland
Scotland does not appear to publish a regular headline figure for road-haulage insolvencies, making it difficult to say precisely how many Scottish hauliers have failed. However, the evidence from individual company liquidations and Scotland's wider corporate insolvency statistics points to significant pressure. The recent collapse of Aberdeenshire-based VG Mathers after 60 years in business, with all seven jobs lost, is a particularly vivid example. The company blamed rising fuel, insurance, maintenance and compliance costs.
That matters because Scotland's geography makes road transport particularly important. For companies operating long distances to and from the Highlands and Islands, fuel and vehicle costs can represent an even greater burden.
An Example
VG Mathers, the Aberdeenshire family haulage business which had operated for about 60 years, went into liquidation in September 2026, with all seven jobs lost. Its directors cited rising fuel, insurance, maintenance and compliance costs.