The UK road freight transport sector

The time has come for Brexit. After three and a half years of negotiations, the United Kingdom (UK) has left the European Union on 31 January 2020.
On this occasion, the CNR has published a new study dedicated to the British road freight transport (RFT) sector detailing the situation before Brexit.
The UK RFT activity is barely conducted internationally, weighing only 4% of the total activity of the sector.
The island situation of the country is impacting the activity of UK transport companies. Local hauliers have particularly high infrastructure costs, half of which are for tunnels and ferries. Taxes are also higher than in neighboring countries. However, the UK RFT sector distinguished itself from other sectors in Western Europe by the absence of a collective agreement and by low social contribution rates: apparent employer rate of 9.9%, allowing it to have a cost of an hour of driving lower than in neighboring countries.

The wait-and-see attitude induced by the uncertainty of Brexit and the unknown that follows is illustrated by the practices of renewal of heavy goods vehicles: it has been more than 3 years since vehicle replacement has often been postponed, which is not insignificant for an industrial vehicle. Sometimes, some have chosen to switch to short rental: 3 years. No less was needed.

This new study is supplemented by a summary in which there are elements of comparison with France.