Survey

Almost a third of fleet operators’ trucks are parked up as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown, according to a survey carried out for MT by market researchers Fusion. Three quarters of operators have at least one vehicle laid up while 9% reported their entire fleet was off the road.

There have been a lot more losers than winners from the Covid-19 pandemic with 71% of operators saying volumes are down while only 17% have seen business increase. For 12% of respondents volumes remain static.

For those operators still running at least part of their fleet, vehicle utilisation is down in 57% of cases, up in 20% and the same in 23% of fleet operators. This has resulted in 68% of respondents saying profitability has fallen since the pandemic, while 12% have seen it increase and 20% said it is unchanged.

Half of respondents reported having to cut their workforce, with 9% taking on more people and 41% reporting no change.

Almost 80% of operators have had to furlough staff, and the survey found that around 30% of the workforce has been put on furlough.

  • The web-based survey of 127 transport operators was carried out between 15 May and 3 June 2020.

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