Over 40 million tonnes of goods transported in the first three months of 2026, figures show

A total of 40.8 million tonnes of goods were transported by road in the first three months of 2026, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

This compares with 44.7 million tonnes in the same period of 2025, marking a slight decrease.

When it came to the sectors that carried the most goods, Quarry Products, Metal Ores & Peat represented a quarter of all tonnes carried by road in the first three months of 2026.

The delivery of goods to building sites or road works carried 14.5 million tonnes in the first three months of 2026, and this represented 36% of the total amount carried, being the highest among all types of work carried out by goods vehicles.

The CSO say that the total distance covered by road freight vehicles was 491 million km; this is down 10% compared with the same period in 2025.

Damien Lenihan, Statistician in the Transport Division of the CSO, said: “The figures show that in January, February, and March (Q1) 2026, a total of 40.8 million tonnes of goods were transported by road, a decrease of 9% on the Q1 2025 total. Activity measured as weight by distance, or tonne-kilometres (tkm), was 3,811 million tkm in Q1 2026, which dropped by 1% when compared with 3,866 million tkm in Q1 2025.

“The total distance covered by road freight transport in Q1 2026 was 491 million kilometres, a drop of 10% when compared with Q1 2025. The commodity groups that contributed most to vehicle kilometres were Other goods and Foodstuffs.”