Road freight operators are predicting an 80% drop in income for the lockdown period from March 26 to April 30.
This is according to this week’s results of a weekly survey conducted by the Road Freight Association (RFA) among its members.
The RFA said the figure had increased by 10% compared to last week where respondents indicated a 70% loss in income.
According to the survey, fewer than 30% of companies’ fleets are currently active. “Only vehicles transporting essential goods are on the road,” said the RFA’s chief executive, Gavin Kelly. In addition, 25% of trucking companies’ staff are working on site.
“Our survey shows a general picture of what is happening in the road freight industry – with some operators having totally closed down (as they do no essential cargo transport), while others are operating anywhere between a shutdown to roughly 80% of capacity,” said Kelly. “That means that some of them have no income to meet their financial commitments – salaries, operational maintenance, financial agreements and other costs related to operating a business.
Looking ahead, 28% of survey respondents said that they would become fully operational “immediately” after lockdown. A further 33% said it would take them two weeks, with another 10% indicating it would take them two weeks to one month.
“It is truly worrying that on the other side of this lockdown we will see fewer transport operators than we started with a month ago,” said Kelly.
