About 180 Danish Transport Firms Folded in a Quarter
Over 90 days, about 180 transport firms entered bankruptcy or compulsory dissolution. That is 1.6% of the roughly 11,000 active land-transport companies in a single quarter. The rate for all businesses sits at about 0.4%, so the transport sector is closing down at nearly four times that pace.
The numbers
Hauliers and passenger transport carry almost all the cases. Road freight accounts for 77 bankruptcies and dissolutions, 1.7% of the roughly 4,500 active haulage firms. Chauffeured on-demand passenger transport adds 78 cases, 1.5% of just over 5,000 active firms. Removal companies have the highest rate at 3.5%, but only about 400 active firms, so 14 cases move the figure a long way.
| Trade | Insolvencies (90 days) | Share of active |
|---|---|---|
| Chauffeured on-demand passenger transport | 78 | 1.5% |
| Road freight | 77 | 1.7% |
| Removal companies | 14 | 3.5% |
| Taxi, no fixed schedule | 10 | 1.2% |
| Scheduled road passenger transport | 2 | 1.3% |
The cases spread evenly across the spring, with the most in May. Among the largest are the freight forwarder Maxby Spedition ApS in Copenhagen with 37 employees and the transport firm BookOne ApS in Rødovre with 22. The haulier Thomas B. Pedersen A/S in Odense went bankrupt in June.
What it means
Hauliers carry a new fixed cost. Since 1 January 2025, trucks over 12 tonnes have paid a kilometre-based road charge differentiated by CO2 emissions. The business group Dansk Erhverv called the charge a billion-kroner burden on the sector, and from 1 January 2027 it extends to trucks over 3.5 tonnes. On top of the charge come diesel prices, a shortage of drivers, and thin margins, where a single lost contract can topple a small firm.
Passenger transport looks like the wider sector: many small companies with one or a few vehicles and little equity. When fuel rises or a regular customer drops away, few have a buffer, and the company closes. The high rate among removal firms reflects a handful of cases in a small trade, but the direction is the same.
The sector also renews itself. Erhvervsstyrelsen registered 81 new transport firms in the last 30 days against about 60 insolvencies a month. Weak firms close and new ones open, but the margin is thinner than in construction. Statistics Denmark and the trade body ITD have repeatedly named transport as an exposed field, and the last quarter follows the pattern.
Explore the data on Virkly
- Road freight, nearly 4,500 active haulage firms
- Chauffeured on-demand passenger transport, just over 5,000 active firms
- Removal companies, about 400 active firms and the highest insolvency rate
- 360 construction firms insolvent in 90 days, the same pattern in the building trades
Method
The counts cover firms with a primary industry code in NACE division 49 (land transport) whose register status changed to bankruptcy or compulsory dissolution within 90 days. Rates compare against firms in normal operating status, both within each trade and across all businesses. Employee figures are each firm's most recently reported headcount. Deleted and anonymised records are excluded. Source: Danish Central Business Register (CVR), queried 19 June 2026.