Brexit may not be the only speedbump for the UK Road Haulage industry

Corporate Road Solutions 24/7 (trading as Beau) has recently gone into administration. The Bathgate-based firm has cited reasons for the collapse as "increasingly challenging market conditions and cost pressures”.

Beyond Brexit uncertainty, the Road Haulage industry has been facing a catastrophic cocktail in recent months due to high cost of recruitment and driver shortage, as well as more strenuous regulatory demands.

With this in mind, Plimsoll, the UK’s leading market and company analysts, have produced a special study on the UK’s 2000 leading Road Haulage firms highlighting which companies are already in financial difficulty and least able to keep trading while they wait for the market to stabilise.

The new Plimsoll Analysis assesses each of the UK’s 2000 leading Road Haulage firms looking at their short- and long-term financial health, overall trend in performance, future durability and potential for acquisition. Based on the latest financial data for each company, this new analysis shows:

• 750 of the 2000 companies are already rated as Caution or Danger – the former suggests growing issues whereas the latter indicates immediate improvements are required

• 382 of the companies included are ripe for takeover – these companies are independently owned and with a large difference between current and future value. If the market is to consolidate in the short-term, Plimsoll considers these the most attractive targets

• 158 companies have lost more than a quarter of their value – As profit margins are increasingly under pressure, valuations have fallen again in the latest period

The Plimsoll Analysis provides an easy means of highlighting those companies ill prepared to ride out the current storm, those well placed to make a strategic acquisition or two and the players powering ahead in spite of it all.