Parcelhero: Transport & storage firms slam the brakes on price rises for September

Sept. 2, 2026 - PRLog -- New figures from the Office for National Statistics' (ONS) Business Insights and Conditions survey reveal a striking divergence in UK pricing intentions for September, with the transport & storage sector notably more cautious about raising prices than the manufacturing or wholesale & retail sectors.

According to the ONS data, only 9.7% of transport & storage sector businesses (including couriers, hauliers and warehousing firms) expect the prices of the goods or services they sell to increase in September – that's down from 15.8% in August and well below the all-sector average of 14.1%, says the international delivery expert Parcelhero.

Parcelhero's Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.L.T., says: 'That figure of 9.7% is the lowest reading the sector has posted since a mid-year spike in May, when 41.1% of transport firms expected rises, largely thought to reflect one-off cost pressures earlier in the year. Crucially, 60.2% of transport & storage firms say they are not considering raising prices at all in September, a sharp jump from 40.6% the previous month.

'Where transport firms are contemplating price rises, the two leading factors are transportation or haulage costs (24.3%) and energy prices (22.0%).

'That's a markedly different picture to the manufacturing and wholesale & retail sectors, where more businesses are actively weighing up price increases and for different reasons entirely. In manufacturing, 16.6% of businesses expect prices to rise in September. That's actually down from 22.9% in August, but the proportion not considering any price rise also fell, from 42.8% to 37.2% – meaning more manufacturers are weighing up an increase than the month before. Where they are, raw material prices (36.8%) and labour costs (31.2%) are by far the dominant drivers, well ahead of energy prices (23.3%) and transport costs (22.0%).

'For the wholesale & retail sector, 19.7% of businesses expect prices to rise in September, a slight uptick from 18.7% in August. Energy prices (25.6%) and transport or haulage costs (24.3%) are the leading factors behind any rises.

'One final area in which several transport & storage companies are investing money now for a longer-term gain is in the introduction of AI. Parcelhero's new report, "Putting the AI into supply chAIns", explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping logistics, warehousing, shipping, freight and the future of global trade. The full report is available at https://www.parcelhero.com/en-gb/resources/ebooks/putting-the-ai-into-supply-chains-industry-report