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Road haulage rates have risen only fractionally in the last two years, provisional figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have shown.

According to the ONS’s latest Services Producer Price Indices, which record changes in the prices received for particular business services in the UK, road freight transport rates at the end of Q3 were up 0.57% compared to those at the end of Q3 last year and just 0.38% above those at the end of Q3 2012.

Negligible though the increase in haulage rates has been in the last two years, it looks attractive next to those for storage and warehousing, which according to the ONS figures fell 0.65% in the same period.

By contrast, rates for commercial vehicle ferries rose 14.6% in the last two years, while UK post and parcels delivery rates rose 7.5%, and courier services rates rose 1.1%.

FTA research analyst Bruce Goodhart said flat haulage rates over the last two years were no surprise, given the drop-off in demand for transport since the recession. Sample rates taken from FTA's members in the first nine months of 2014 pointed to an overall haulage rate increase of just 1%, he pointed out.

Pressure from customers has been the biggest factor in suppressing rates, said Goodhart, though a combination of driver shortages brought about by Driver CPC and the gradual recovery in the economy could soon turn this around, he predicted.

“Now we’ve had seven quarters of sustained reasonable growth, I think things are swinging back in the other direction,” he said. “I think next year, if the growth continues in the UK economy and it’s still consumer-led, then we’re going to start seeing haulage rates go up,” he said.

In terms of costs, there is already evidence of above-inflation pay settlements for drivers as the driver shortage begins to bite, said Goodhart – FTA has recently seen some receiving rises of 2.3% or more, in fact. Such increases are largely being counterbalanced for now by drops in the bulk fuel price, however, which fell around 6% to just over 103p/litre in the year to 1 October and has continued to fall since as a result of a further decline in the price of oil, he said.

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