Land transport and transport via pipelines
Activities
NACE division 49 · 10 activities| Activity | Registrations | Starters, 12 months | Bankruptcies, 12 months | FTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freight transport by road49410 | 12,333 | 984 | 308 | 52,102 |
| On-demand passenger transport by chauffeured vehicle49330 | 6,589 | 1,140 | 63 | 2,379 |
| Non-scheduled passenger transport by road49320 | 2,542 | 214 | 28 | 6,531 |
| Removal services49420 | 987 | 130 | 21 | 1,373 |
| Scheduled passenger transport by road49310 | 937 | 126 | 14 | 27,585 |
| Land transport and transport via pipelines49390 | 223 | 116 | 0 | - |
| Land transport and transport via pipelines49500 | 97 | 6 | 2 | 986 |
| Land transport and transport via pipelines49200 | 60 | 7 | 4 | 1,396 |
| Land transport and transport via pipelines49110 | 26 | 1 | 0 | 414 |
| Land transport and transport via pipelines49120 | 4 | 0 | 0 | - |
Filed accounts
NACE division 49 · financial year 2025 · 10,514 filed annual accounts| Per financial year | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median solvency | - | - | 36.9% | 38.6% | 38.6% | 38.8% | 38.2% | 38.5% |
| Median net result | - | - | €8,218 | €12,313 | €11,032 | €10,158 | €9,460 | €9,215 |
| Filed late | 46.7% | 53.6% | 50.7% | 51.2% | 50.1% | 50.0% | 49.0% | - |
Hold your customer's or competitor's figures against them in the Sector benchmark
Staff cost per FTE in NACE division 49
2,212 employers| Size | Median | Middle half | Employers |
|---|---|---|---|
| fewer than 10 FTE | €61,700 | €49,200 to €73,600 | 919 |
| 10 to 49 FTE | €61,000 | €51,400 to €70,000 | 1,009 |
| 50 to 249 FTE | €62,900 | €56,900 to €71,000 | 256 |
| 250 FTE or more | €71,600 | €62,300 to €79,200 | 28 |
Employers with the highest staff cost per FTE in this division All sectors by staff cost In the Analysis workbench
Bankruptcies
Bankruptcies per year in division 49
| Per year | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bankruptcies | 242 | 228 | 283 | 265 | 311 | 226 | 272 | 360 | 398 | 456 | 551 | 420 |
| Jobs lost | 658 | 661 | 706 | 666 | 753 | 648 | 888 | 1,046 | 1,483 | 1,434 | 1,925 | 1,484 |
2026 through September. Every bankruptcy, also of companies that have since left the register. Source: Statbel (Directorate-General Statistics), NACE classification of 2008.
Recent bankruptcies
| Date | Company |
|---|---|
| 04-11-2026 | Cortes Sanchez, Fabien
BE 0839.925.374 · sole trader · Liège |
| 04-11-2026 | CINAR GROUP
BE 1010.781.669 |
| 03-11-2026 | B en J Trans
BE 0730.804.928 |
| 03-11-2026 | Milan Trans
BE 0779.612.160 |
| 03-11-2026 | Seid, Seid
BE 1000.191.051 · sole trader · Ghent |
| 30-10-2026 | BUSINESS AB FRET
BE 0542.465.372 |
| 30-10-2026 | JD TRADING
BE 0647.639.801 |
| 30-10-2026 | ALFA TRANS
BE 0784.330.716 |
Running bankruptcies in the sector
NACE division 49Measured nationally: Of 108,606 bankruptcies of legal entities across Belgium, 49% were closed within five years for insufficient assets and 29% after liquidation, 3% were withdrawn. After five years, 20% were still open. Half had ended after 26 months (a quarter after 15, three quarters after 51 months).
This counts companies with this main activity in the register on 5 November 2026. The outcome itself is not measured by sector. The activity of a company that leaves the register after its bankruptcy is too often not kept to compare closed cases fairly.
Spread across the country
by region and province · 17,005 of 23,138 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat- Flanders
- Brussels
- Wallonia
- Abroad
This sector's balance sheets on the map, by municipality and down to the address
Largest employers
NACE division 49 · staff from the latest accounts- 1 MAATSCHAPPIJ VOOR HET INTERCOMMUNAAL VERVOER TE BRUSSELBrussels 10,278 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 2 Vlaamse Vervoermaatschappij - De LijnMechelen 7,637 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 3 OPERATEUR DE TRANSPORT DE WALLONIENamur 6,183 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 4 HENRI ESSERS EN ZONEN INTERNATIONAAL TRANSPORTGenk 932 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 5 FLUXYS BELGIUMBrussels 919 FTEfinancial year 2025
Joint committees
from the latest accounts of 3,613 companies- 140.03 Road transport and logistics for third parties 1,878
- 226 White-collar workers in international trade, transport and logistics 1,446
- 140 Transport and logistics 877
- 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 408
- 140.02 Taxis 197
- 124 Construction 119
- 140.01 Buses and coaches 111
- 140.05 Removals 75
Show the 12 others
- 140.04 Airport ground handling 47
- 201 Independent retail 43
- 112 Garages 37
- 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 32
- 127 Fuel trade 32
- 302 Hotels and catering 32
- 132 Technical farming and horticulture work 17
- 119 Food trade 16
- 330 Health institutions and services 15
- 121 Cleaning 14
- 144 Agriculture 12
- 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 9
Source: the annual accounts at the National Bank. One filing can name more than one committee.
70 of the 15,657 companies in NACE division 49 have a parent company abroad. Main parent countries: Netherlands (35), Luxembourg (15) and France (7). Together they employ 6,526 of the division's 92,795 FTE: 7.0%, against 14% for Belgium as a whole.
Subsidies in this sector
per register · legal entities with an enterprise number- Flemish subsidies €274.7m awarded
- Federal transfers 6.49bn amount as published
- Wallonia-Brussels Federation €70,602 paid
- EU budget €95.5m attributed share
- EU research €8.7m EU contribution
Insights on Land transport
Balance sheet and result. The median net result of €10,060 is below Belgium's €16,539. Liquidity of 1.30 is below Belgium's 1.66. Solvency of 37.3% is below Belgium's 46.1%.
Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 1.6% is above Belgium's 0.2%. In 12 months, 18.8 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. That is more than in 97% of the 87 other NACE divisions. By size, the median bankruptcy probability is 1.9% at under 10 FTE, 0.5% at 10 to 49 FTE, 0.5% at 50 to 249 FTE and 0.9% at 250 FTE or more.
Inflow and structure. Brussels holds 21.9% of the seats, against 12.5% in Belgium. 26.5% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. In 12 months, 11.6 of 100 companies started, against 8.8 in Belgium. That is more than in 87% of the 86 other NACE divisions.
Staff and filing. 49.0% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 25,949 of the 92,795 FTE: 28.0%.
Direction. Median solvency rose from 36.9% in financial year 2020 to 38.5% in financial year 2025. The median net result rose from €8,218 in financial year 2020 to €9,215 in financial year 2025. In 2025, Statbel counted 551 bankruptcies and 1,925 jobs lost, against 226 bankruptcies in 2020.
The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 05-11-2026 05:30.
Method and sources
Every company registered today counts under its main activities in the KBO. Establishment units do not count. Staff counts once, under the employer's first main activity, from its latest accounts and only where it fits the staff costs. The count follows the NACE 2025 classification, the version in which code 49 exists.
The bankruptcies over five years count only companies still registered today, because the activity of a company that left the register is not kept. So they are fewer than the bankruptcies of those years, and the figure is not a probability for the future. Over twelve months the count is nearly complete, because a bankrupt company stays registered while its bankruptcy runs. A company with more than one main activity counts in each of those sectors.
The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other NACE divisions rests on an overview of every division, counted again each night. Each division is counted in the version of the NACE classification in which it exists. A standing such as "more than in 80%" compares with the other divisions that have the figure. A division's bankruptcy probability is the median over its companies with a score. Belgium here counts the 1,275,887 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 699,448 registrations publish no activity.
Each median is the value of the middle company, computed over the annual accounts of financial year 2025, and is shown only from 30 accounts. A share (loss-making, negative equity) counts that year's accounts with that trait. Accounts are late when they are filed after the statutory deadline.