DHL leads the way in the Motor Transport Fleet 200

DHL has topped the inaugural Motor Transport Fleet 200, beating Royal Mail, Wincanton, XPO Logistics and Veolia in the first in an annual survey of the largest operators in the United Kingdom by the number of trucks they run.

The largest 200 operators by fleet size run some 100,191 vehicles over 3.5t GVW, and actually comprise of some 246 different O-licence holders, once different business divisions are accounted for.

DHL tops the rankings with 7,117 vehicles specified to various divisions (DHL Supply Chain; UK Mail; Tradeteam; DHL International (UK) – which trades as DHL Express – and Exel UK) and is part of an exclusive club of 10 operators with fleets in excess of 2,000 vehicles.

There are a further nine operators with fleets in excess of 1,000 vehicles.

That means that just 19 operators account for 12% of all HGVs in the UK registered for use (some 44,621 vehicles out of a total of 371,718).

Acquisition activity in recent years has shaped the very top of the Fleet 200; particularly DHL's acquisition of UK Mail, FedEx’s acquisition of TNT and Tesco Distribution’s acquisition of Booker Wholesale.

Motor Transport Fleet 200: Top 10

Splitting the industry between ‘hire and reward’ and ‘own-account’ becomes a little more complicated, as the traditional demarcation between Standard National and Standard International O-licence holders and Restricted O-licence holders has become blurred.

By our ranking hire and reward operators account for 50.3% of all vehicles specified on O-licences, run by 39.5% of all businesses in the Fleet 200; while 49.7% of all vehicles are run by own-account operators – which account for 60.5% of businesses in the Fleet 200.

The Fleet 200 is a sister piece of research to the Motor Transport Top 100. You can explore the Fleet 200 rankings via our interactive tables.