New figures from the Central Statistics Office show an increase in the amount of goods transported by road during the first three months of the year.
A total of 40.8 million tonnes of goods were transported by road in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 19% on the same time last year.
It also represented an increase of 11% when compared with 2019 and pre-Covid conditions.
Today's CSO figures show that activity measured as weight by distance, or tonne-kilometres (tkm), reached 3,048 million tkm in the first quarter, up 7% on the same time the previous year.
The total distance covered by road freight transport in 2021 was 468 million kilometres.
The CSO said the commodity groups that contributed most to vehicle kilometres were 'foodstuffs' and the miscellaneous category 'other goods'.
The largest amount of work undertaken by goods vehicles in the three months from January to March was the 'delivery of goods to road works or building sites' at 16.8 million tonnes.
This was followed by 'delivery of goods to retail outlets' at 5.366 million tonnes.
