The road haulage industry is a vital part of the UK's freight-transportation system, although it is a mature market and one that has little real growth potential. This is demonstrated by the fact that, in 2005, the volume of goods lifted by road by GB-registered goods vehicles weighing over 3.5 tonnes in Great Britain increased by 0.1% to 1.75 billion tonnes, while the volume of goods moved by road increased by 0.3%, to 152.7 billion tonne kilometres.
The market consists of three main sectors: own-account distribution, contract distribution and shared-user distribution. Contract distribution and shared-user distribution are collectively known as public haulage or `hire and reward' haulage. Contract distribution companies are often involved in the broader market for logistics or supply-chain management.
Advances in vehicle technology, such as improvements to fuel efficiency and the better reliability of new trucks, have contributed significantly to the developments made in the operational efficiency of the haulage companies. Also important has been the trend by the operators to develop strategies to improve the efficiency of their assets by, for example, improving vehicle utilisation through better planning of journeys.
Leading companies within the road haulage industry are under pressure from their customers to establish and develop global logistics networks. This demand has led to a spate of acquisitions and mergers among the leading companies, such as the acquisition of Exel PLC, the UK's leading freight-distribution company, by Germany-based Deutsche Post, and the merger between haulier ACR Logistics and Kuehne + Nagel, another Germany-based logistics operator.
Road freight activity has been improving slowly during the first half of 2006 and it is forecasted that the volume of freight moved in 2006 as a whole will show a slight increase on 2005. Continued economic growth thereafter and up to 2010 should help to maintain or possibly increase the volume of goods moved by road in Great Britain, although the scale of the increase is likely to be only minimal
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