UK Road Haulage Insolvency Statistics

Insolvencies among road haulage and removals companies were broadly falling in the January to June 2026 period, with 184 cases compared with 220 during the same months of 2025, a fall of 16.4%. That contrasts with transportation and storage overall, where insolvencies fell 12.5% over the same period.

Road haulage and removals companies accounted for 54.9% of all transportation and storage company insolvencies in the January to June 2026 period (184 of 335 cases), down from 57.4% over the same months of 2025.

Road haulage insolvencies rose from 138 in 2016 to 282 in 2019. Recorded failures fell to 203 in 2020, when pandemic support and restrictions disrupted the normal insolvency cycle, before rising sharply to 417 in 2022 and a peak of 501 in 2023.

Insolvencies then fell to 472 in 2024 and 407 in 2025. The two-year fall is significant, but 2025 still recorded 125 more failures than 2019.

In the cases we see, a haulage company can be busy and still run out of cash. The warning signs show in the gap between work completed and money collected: fuel cards near their limit, VAT or PAYE funding the next week.

Vehicle repairs get deferred because there is no spare cash.

The immediate trigger may be a slow-paying customer, a failed engine or a fuel-price movement, but the underlying problem is usually that the margin and working-capital buffer were already too small to absorb it.

Directors should focus on cash generated per vehicle and per contract, not turnover alone: a route that keeps a truck moving but does not cover fuel, driver time, finance, maintenance and overhead is increasing the problem rather than solving it.

Most eligible HGVs renewing their Vehicle Excise Duty between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027 qualify for a temporary annual rate of £1. The government introduced the 12-month measure in recognition of the sector’s exposure to higher fuel costs.

This reduces one fixed fleet cost, but it does not remove the larger pressures from diesel, wages, finance, repairs and customer payment terms. It should be read as targeted relief, not evidence that the sector’s financial problems have been resolved, and it does not explain insolvencies registered before it takes effect.

Monthly road haulage insolvencies can move because of registration timing or a small number of related company failures, not necessarily because of a change in trading conditions that same month. Prefer the year-to-date or 12-month rolling total for the steadier read.

The count is a volume, not a failure rate. It is not adjusted for how many haulage companies are registered, so it cannot be read as a sector-wide risk of insolvency.

This is road freight and removals only (SIC 494). Storage, warehousing, postal and courier activities sit under separate SIC codes and are not included here.

Falling sector insolvencies do not make an individual cash-flow problem less urgent. If the company cannot meet fuel-card payments, payroll, VAT, vehicle finance or supplier bills as they fall due, the first question is whether its routes and contracts are viable before debt repayments and arrears.

Acting early gives directors more scope to renegotiate payment terms, dispose of underused vehicles, or approach HMRC about a Time to Pay arrangement.

It also leaves room to consider a formal rescue procedure such as a Company Voluntary Arrangement or administration.

Once fuel cards are withdrawn, vehicles are repossessed or a winding-up petition is issued, the available options narrow quickly, and creditors’ voluntary liquidation may then be the only realistic route left.