Freight transport by road
Filed accounts
NACE 49410 · financial year 2025 · 7,213 filed annual accounts| Per financial year | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median solvency | 35.8% | 36.0% | 36.0% | 36.7% | 37.2% | 37.8% |
| Median net result | €16,271 | €16,544 | €16,378 | €14,853 | €14,753 | €16,201 |
Hold your customer's or competitor's figures against them in the Sector benchmark
Bankruptcies
Recent bankruptcies
| Date | Company |
|---|---|
| 05-11-2026 | Asaf Transport
BE 0780.960.262 |
| 05-11-2026 | TRANSPORT VERELST
BE 0885.598.716 |
| 05-11-2026 | YAVO TRANS
BE 1022.024.860 |
| 05-11-2026 | Lotrans
BE 1023.796.693 |
| 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 |
| 30-10-2026 | BUSINESS AB FRET
BE 0542.465.372 |
Spread across the country
by region and province · 10,328 of 12,334 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat- Flanders
- Wallonia
- Brussels
- Abroad
The balance sheets of division 49 on the map, by municipality and down to the address
Largest employers
NACE 49410 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts- 1 HENRI ESSERS EN ZONEN INTERNATIONAAL TRANSPORTGenk 932 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 2 DHL GLOBAL FORWARDING (BELGIUM)Machelen (Brab.) 596 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 3 DPD (BELGIUM)Vilvoorde 577 FTEfinancial year 2024
- 4 Veolia Environmental Services BESint-Gillis (bij-Brussel) 525 FTEfinancial year 2025
- 5 DSV Road Real EstateAntwerp 512 FTEfinancial year 2024
Joint committees
from the latest accounts of 2,909 companies- 140.03 Road transport and logistics for third parties 1,848
- 226 White-collar workers in international trade, transport and logistics 1,357
- 140 Transport and logistics 672
- 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 146
- 124 Construction 116
- 140.04 Airport ground handling 45
- 127 Fuel trade 32
- 201 Independent retail 27
Show the 12 others
- 112 Garages 24
- 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 17
- 132 Technical farming and horticulture work 17
- 302 Hotels and catering 16
- 119 Food trade 15
- 140.05 Removals 11
- 144 Agriculture 9
- 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 8
- 121 Cleaning 8
- 341 Intermediation in banking and investment services 8
- 140.01 Buses and coaches 7
- 209 White-collar workers in metal manufacturing 7
Source: the annual accounts at the National Bank. One filing can name more than one committee.
Division 49: Land transport
Related activities
1 other activity| Activity | Registrations | Starters, 12 months | Bankruptcies, 12 months | FTE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Removal services49420 | 986 | 130 | 21 | 1,373 |
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.
Staff cost per FTE in NACE division 49
2,214 employers| Size | Median | Middle half | Employers |
|---|---|---|---|
| fewer than 10 FTE | €61,700 | €49,100 to €73,600 | 918 |
| 10 to 49 FTE | €61,000 | €51,300 to €69,900 | 1,012 |
| 50 to 249 FTE | €63,000 | €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
Running bankruptcies in the sector
NACE division 49Measured nationally: Of 108,562 bankruptcies of legal entities across Belgium, 49% were closed within five years for insufficient assets and 28% 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 6 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.
70 of the 15,645 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 92,768 FTE: 7.0%, against 14% for Belgium as a whole.
Subsidies in this sector
per register · legal entities with an enterprise number- Flemish subsidies €100.7m 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 Freight transport by road
Balance sheet and result. Liquidity of 1.35 is below Belgium's 1.66. Solvency of 37.8% is below Belgium's 46.1%. Return on equity of 13.3% is below Belgium's 15.9%.
Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 1.3% is above Belgium's 0.2%. In 12 months, 25.0 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. No NACE division counts more.
Inflow and structure. 16.3% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. Brussels holds 14.8% of the seats, against 12.5% in Belgium. This activity holds 53.3% of the registrations of Land transport.
Staff and filing. 43.5% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 3,143 of the 52,102 FTE: 6.0%.
Direction. Median solvency rose from 35.8% in financial year 2020 to 37.8% in financial year 2025.
The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 06-11-2026 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 49410 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 1,276,581 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 698,987 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. The direction per financial year follows the companies still registered today. Missing or 90 days late counts the companies with accounts missing today, or whose latest were filed more than 90 days after the deadline. The dossier follows the same rule.