RHA Future Forum 2026: The Practical Pressures Behind Road Haulage Digitalisation

We attended the RHA Future Forum 2026 to speak with hauliers, industry representatives and technology providers about the current priorities in UK road transport.

The conversations covered technology, payments, drivers, operating costs and day-to-day transport management. Three themes stood out.

Financial pressure remains immediate

Cost pressure was a recurring topic. Fuel remains a significant part of this. Earlier this year, the RHA reported that 84.6% of operators responding to its fuel survey were seeing reduced profit margins as a result of higher fuel costs, while only 10% said they could fully pass those costs to customers.

Payment terms add another constraint. The Commercial Payments Bill, introduced to Parliament in May 2026, proposes a maximum payment term of 60 days, mandatory interest on late payments and stronger powers for the Small Business Commissioner. The Government estimates that late payments cost the UK economy £11 billion per year.

For smaller carriers, the practical issue is straightforward: the transport has already been completed, fuel and drivers have been paid, but payment for the job may still be weeks away.

Technology can reduce operating costs and administration. It does not remove the underlying importance of cash flow.

The driver problem has not disappeared

Driver recruitment and retention also came up repeatedly.

The RHA currently estimates that the UK needs to recruit and train around 60,000 HGV drivers each year for the next five years. It has also highlighted retention, working conditions and the ageing workforce as structural challenges for the sector.

This is not primarily a software problem.

Better planning, communication and mobile tools can make parts of a driver's working day easier, but technology does not by itself solve recruitment, training, working conditions or retention.

It does, however, reinforce the need to consider the driver when transport processes are digitalised. Systems designed around transport offices alone leave an important part of the operation outside the process.

Digitalisation has to solve a practical problem

One useful conversation was with a carrier operating around 30 vehicles.

Part of its operation is supported by specialist pallet-network software. Other transport activity is still managed largely through email and telephone.

And it works.

This is an important point when discussing transport digitalisation. A process being manual does not automatically mean that it needs replacing.

The case for digitalisation becomes stronger when manual work starts creating a measurable constraint: repeated calls, duplicated data entry, paperwork, slow coordination, limited visibility or difficulty connecting with customers and their systems.

The objective should not be to introduce another system. It should be to remove a specific operational or commercial problem.

What we tested at the Forum

We also used the Forum to test four carrier problems that Phleetto is currently focused on:

• getting paid in 7 days rather than waiting 30–60 days;

• spending less time on paperwork, calls and coordination;

• working directly with shippers without intermediaries;

• managing transport operations from a phone.

These were recognised in our conversations as relevant day-to-day issues for carriers.

That does not mean every carrier has the same problems. Fleet size, customer mix, transport type and existing systems all matter.

It does provide further evidence that carrier digitalisation needs to address commercial outcomes as well as operational efficiency.

TMS, carrier management system or control tower?

Another interesting discussion was how platforms such as Phleetto should be categorised.

TMS remains the obvious broad category. “Carrier Management System” was suggested when looking at the platform from the shipper side, while “control tower” is another term increasingly used around transport visibility and coordination.

There is no particular need to force all transport technology into one category.

Modern platforms increasingly cross traditional boundaries between transport management, procurement, carrier management, communication, tracking and document handling.

For buyers, the more useful question is what operational process the system improves and how it connects with the systems already in place.

The main takeaway

The Forum reinforced a relatively simple point. Road haulage is discussing AI, automation, decarbonisation and increasingly sophisticated transport technology. At the same time, operators are dealing with much more immediate issues: fuel costs, cash flow, driver availability and everyday administrative workload.

Technology is useful where it reduces those pressures. Digitalisation for its own sake is not the objective.