Between January and March of the current year, almost 45 million tonnes of cargo were moved via road, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO). This represents a surge of 2.9 million tonnes compared to the first quarter of the previous year. The volume has been consistently escalating since the first quarter of 2021, when 34.3 million tonnes were transported across the country.
Damien Lenihan, a data analyst in the CSO’s Transport Division, revealed that these latest statistics indicate a 7% growth compared to the same timeframe in the past year. The total volume moved in the first quarter this year also showed a 10% increase from the first three months of 2022 and a notable 22% jump from the first quarter of 2020.
Quarry materials, including metal ores and peat, contributed to the highest volume of road haulage, both domestically and internationally, accounting for 12.4 million tonnes. This represented approximately 28% of all road freight activity in the initial quarter. Food items came a close second, with almost 8 million tonnes.
Contrarily, coal and natural gas constituted the least quantity of transport activity in the year’s opening quarter, amassing only 35,000 tonnes. The main drive behind road freight activity during the initial three months of the year was the delivery of items for construction sites and roadworks, totalling 14.4 million tonnes. Livestock, on the other hand, was the lowest at 275,000 tonnes.
Overall, the distance travelled by road transport was 20% higher compared to the same span last year, totalling 528 million kilometres. The laden journeys or the volume carried by vehicles saw a 16% boost compared to the same quarter in 2023.
Mr Lenihan mentioned that road activity, calculated as weight by distance, also saw an uptick, reaching 3,452 million tonnes-per-kilometre in the first quarter of 2024, a 12% climb from the same quarter in 2023.
From a global perspective, the quarter saw a dip in the tonnage transported from the country to the UK, decreasing from 665,000 tonnes last year to 590,000 this year. However, the freight transported within the EU saw a rise, escalating from 44,000 tonnes last year to 78,000 tonnes this quarter.