The total number of goods vehicles travelling from Great Britain to the continent fell nine per cent for the year to March 2009, according to the latest figures from the Department for Transport.
Some 2.64 million goods vehicles travelled from Great Britain to mainland Europe during the year. Despite the year on year fall, the figure was still 95 per cent higher than in 1992.
Some 1.97 million were powered vehicles, down eight per cent, and 676,000 were unaccompanied trailers, down 11 per cent.
Much of the drop can be attributed to the first quarter of 2009 when the total number of goods vehicles travelling from Great Britain to the continent fell 19 per cent to 576,000.
Some 435,000 of these were powered vehicles, down 18 per cent on a year ago, and 141,000 were unaccompanied trailers, down 22 per cent.
Of the powered goods vehicles, 19 per cent (82,000) were UK-registered, the same percentage as in quarter one of 2008.
