Driving forward growth across the UK

We campaign all year round, and as the only dedicated trade association representing the interests of HGVs, LGVs and Coaches across all four parts of the United Kingdom, we’ll continue to engage with local, regional and devolved decision makers in the areas that impact our industry.

The road transport sector is key to maximising opportunities and growth for the entire UK economy and the constituent parts of it. We’ve consistently highlighted the importance of partnership, collaboration and clear lines of communication between industry and government at all levels as a key factor in delivering and driving success and our industry is uniquely placed to drive growth with the right support across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

As our new national Government beds in and pushes through its legislative agenda in the months ahead, it’s important to point out that our sector has and will continue to have a key part to play in shaping the UK economy in the years and decades to come. With devolution, key decisions that impact our members and our industry are made locally in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff too, and we’ll continue to play our part to ensure that our priorities are heard and the challenges facing the industry are addressed in the various corridors of power.

As an organisation, our policy aims are fully aligned across the UK, though with three distinctly different devolved parliaments at Stormont, Holyrood and the Senedd with different parties in charge; there’s a need for a more localised approach when tacking industry issues in different localities.

As an organisation, our policy aims are fully aligned across the UK, though with three distinctly different devolved parliaments at Stormont, Holyrood and the Senedd with different parties in charge; there’s a need for a more localised approach when tacking industry issues in different localities. 

We’ve been able to influence the 20mph speed limit debate in both Wales and Scotland in recent times. The Welsh administration changed back from the 20mph default to its previous 30mph position, and this persuaded the Scottish Government avoid the same mistakes Wales made in adoption. We continue to push for greater unity across the UK regarding HGV speed limits and we’re working with Transport Scotland and the Scottish Government to increase the limit from 40mph to 50 mph on A class roads in line with England and Wales. Soon, the same piece of work will be undertaken in Northern Ireland to match England and Wales.


As highlighted by the RHA extensively in the media last week, there’s a chronic shortage of safe and secure parking facilities and freight crime is on the rise. This problem is not unique to England and in both Scotland and Wales, there’s a significant shortage of parking spaces too. We’ve made it clear to the respective administrations in Scotland and Wales that the planned Freeport developments must have safe and secure parking for drivers at or around the facilities as a starting point.

In Wales, we congratulated the new Welsh First Minister, Eluned Morgan on her appointment and we also offer our congratulations to Ken Skates on taking a new broader role as the Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Transport and North Wales. We look forward to meeting with both to address issues facing our industry.

Our team regularly works with Governments in Holyrood, Stormont and the Senedd to ensure that decision makers understand the impact of congestion, diversions, bureaucracy and compliance to members.

In Northern Ireland (NI), we facilitate regular meetings between RHA members and HMRC and the Trader Support Service to try to ease the cost and bureaucracy attached to freight movements between Great Britain and NI. In the weeks and months ahead, we’ll continue to meet with the UK Government, the Northern Ireland Executive and the European Commission to address the outstanding issues of concern. It's critical that we continue to work to keep the supply chain resilient and protect the free circulation of goods throughout the UK. 

Regardless of where your business is within the UK, we need the roads to perform our duties and our message to government locally, regionally and nationally is the same: Investment in our roads is vital.

We’re ready to work with decision makers in Devolved Government and national Government to get that clarity and to support schemes and plans that improve routes, address skills gaps, improve connectivity and ensure the seamless flow of goods and coach passengers across the country without impediment. 

We’ll continue to work with each administration in the days, months, weeks and years ahead on our industry’s priorities to drive forward economic growth.