Growth for heavy transport companies

We identified 21 companies in the MT Fleet database which have a significant presence in the heavy transport market. There has been a 2.4% increase in the number of trucks operated by these companies, while the number of trailers increased by 4.3%.

Heavy transport tends to be reliant on the strength of the UK’s construction and heavy engineering sectors. While construction has seen little growth over the past couple of years, industry bodies have been forecasting modest growth this year and next. According to recruitment specialist Aaron Wallis, the engineering sector contributed £675bn in gross value added to the UK economy in 2023. It forecast that this would rise to £700bn this year and £750bn in 2030.

The most notable fleet growth came at WS Specialist Logistics, part of William Stobart’s rapidly expanding stable of haulage businesses. Set against that, there were modest declines at one or two operators, but for the most part fleets have remained remarkably stable over the past year.

Heavy transport is one of the most specialist areas of operation, covering movement of plant and machinery, abnormal and indivisible loads that require specialist equipment. This is a relatively small market and one or two well know names were too small to feature in the list this year. It should also be noted that for some of the companies, heavy transport is only a part of their business.

Fleet Data is Motor Transport’s listing of the UK’s largest third party and own account HGV fleet operators. Based on the weekly O-licence updates issued by the Office of the Traffic Commissioners, Fleet Data enables subscribers quickly to identify operators in each of the eight traffic areas based on the number of vehicles on the licence and type of operator.

Heavy transport companies ranked by truck fleet August 2025 to August 2026: