The raw figures leave no doubt: 2025 was a disastrous year for Belgian road hauliers. But behind the spectacular figures are some sometimes surprising findings about the type profile of the companies declared bankrupt.
As in 2024, several Belgian transport companies have been declared bankrupt. Companies such as Group De Wolf, Transnam, Geleyte, Vebotrans / Taxi Marcel, Hansbeeks Snelvoer, Eurosped Belgium, Bongaerts Logistics, Transport Lerinckx Stefaan, Heyvaert & Co, Peethultra Transport, Supreme Transport or Dalga-Trans employed more than 20 people and had been part of the landscape for many years. The assets of some bankrupt companies were taken over by other carriers (K&A Koerier, Hansbeeks Snelvoer) and other companies made a restart (Transport De Vreese). But in general, the bankruptcy of former big names such as Bellekens has reinforced the general feeling that “things are going badly”. This is confirmed by Graydon’s statistics, which show a 19% increase in bankruptcies, although using a fairly broad definition that includes road transport, logistics services and courier services.
We therefore analyzed 406 cases of road transport companies and some surprising findings emerged:
- the average age of bankrupt companies is particularly low: only 8.3% of companies were older than 20 years, 9.8% older than 10 years, 35.7% older than 5 years and 46% younger than 5 years. If we compare these figures with the national averages calculated by Graydon (13.42%, 16.96%, 29.99% and 39.76% respectively), we can only conclude that transport companies last less long than the average. One in three companies was a micro-enterprise, with a turnover barely sufficient for a single vehicle.
- The geographical origin of the bankrupt companies does not correspond at all to the distribution of transport companies in Belgium: 28.5% of bankruptcies took place in the Brussels Capital Region, while this region only has 9.6% of all Belgian transport companies. It is well known that the Brussels Commercial Court hunts down dubious companies, but still… Moreover, 8.9% of bankruptcies took place in Flemish Brabant, where 11.3% of Belgian carriers are located. Other provinces are particularly underrepresented: only 4.2% of bankruptcies took place in West Flanders, while 17.7% of Belgian carriers have their headquarters there.
- 29.8% of bankrupt companies have never published a balance sheet or continued to operate for several years after the publication of their last balance sheet. That doesn’t mean they worked illegally…
- 11.3% of companies experienced rapid growth, followed by a (sometimes sudden) loss of profitability. For 12% of companies, the level of activity had remained more or less stable, but profitability had declined in recent financial years, resulting in a decline in equity.
- The names of certain notaries who drafted the articles of incorporation of companies that went bankrupt in 2025 are also disproportionately common.
