How MotorMoves Helps Save the Environment

Moving a car doesn't have to cost the earth. At MotorMoves, the way our marketplace works — shared multi-car transporters and filled return journeys — actively cuts CO2 on every single move.

Why It Matters: Transport and Global Warming

Transport is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, responsible for around a quarter of the country's total CO2. Every gram of CO2 released stays in the atmosphere for decades, trapping heat and driving global warming — the planet is already around 1.2°C warmer than pre-industrial times. The results are being felt at home: hotter UK summers, record 40°C heatwaves, more frequent flooding and rising sea levels. Cutting unnecessary road miles is one of the most practical ways any of us can help slow that trend.

The Maths: Multi-Car Transporters Cut CO2 Per Car

The average UK petrol or diesel car emits roughly 274g of CO2 per mile in real-world driving. A fully laden articulated transporter emits about 1,630g CO2e per mile (DEFRA 2025 conversion factors) — but carries up to 8 cars at once. That works out at just 204g per car per mile, a saving of around 70g of CO2 per car, every mile.

On a typical 200-mile UK delivery, each car on a full transporter saves roughly 14 kg of CO2 compared with being driven itself. A full load of eight cars saves over 110 kg of CO2 in a single journey — and takes seven extra vehicles off the road at the same time.

The National Picture: Yearly Savings Add Up

Scale that across the country and the numbers become huge. Around 7 million used cars change hands in the UK every year, and hundreds of thousands of vehicle movements take place between dealers, auctions, buyers and sellers. If just one million of those moves travel on full multi-car transporters instead of being driven — at an average of 200 miles each — the UK saves roughly 14,000 tonnes of CO2 every year. That's the same as taking around 8,000 cars off the road entirely, or the carbon absorbed by about 230,000 trees growing for a decade. The more moves that are shared, the bigger the national saving becomes.

Backloads: Turning Empty Miles Green

Government figures show 31% of all HGV miles in the UK are run empty — around 3.7 billion wasted miles a year. MotorMoves helps transporters fill those empty return legs with backload jobs, so your car travels on a lorry that was making the journey anyway. The extra emissions are close to zero, and every filled backload means one less wasted journey burning diesel for nothing.

Less Traffic, Cleaner Air

Fewer individual journeys mean less congestion, less fuel burned idling in queues, and cleaner air in our towns and cities.

"Transport, which accounts for more than one quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, is key to getting on track." — António Guterres, UN Secretary-General

Every quote you accept on MotorMoves is a small win for the environment.