Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the proportion of trucks in the haulage industry that are idle as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.

The Government has made available £330bn of support through loans and guarantees to support UK businesses. Changes have been made to some of the schemes to ensure that more businesses, particularly those that are SMEs like many road haulage companies, can benefit from them.

The Department is in regular contact with representatives of the road haulage industry to understand the issues that the industry is experiencing as a result of COVID-19. The Department recognises that the sector is going through a challenging time.

Engagement with the industry suggests that delays in payment from customers is an issue for some hauliers.

Engagement with the industry also indicates that some road haulage trucks have been taken off the road. Whilst there are no current plans to introduce a financial support scheme for haulage businesses whose vehicles are idle during the COVID-19 outbreak, we continue to keep this under review.

The Government will continue to gather evidence on the impacts of COVID-19 to establish whether any further support for the sector is needed.