Meaning & use
haulier
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountableBritish
A person or company whose business is transporting goods by road, usually in lorries.
Grammar: Can mean a company or an individual driver-owner.
Patterns
- a haulier for something
- hire a haulier
The company hired a haulier to move the furniture to the warehouse.
Long queues at the port have made life difficult for hauliers.
He works as a haulier and drives across Europe every week.
Word forms
| plural | hauliers |
|---|
Common combinations
- road haulier
- A road haulier delivered the machinery.
- haulage company
- He started his own haulage company.
- hire a haulier
- We had to hire a haulier because our van was too small.
- independent haulier
- Independent hauliers say fuel prices are hurting them.
- a haulier's lorry
- A haulier's lorry blocked the narrow road.
Synonyms and how they differ
- trucker
- Trucker is the American word and usually means the driver, whereas haulier can also mean the business.
- carrier
- Carrier is broader and can include air, sea or rail transport as well as road transport.
- shipper
- A shipper sends goods or arranges their transport, while a haulier does the road carrying.
- lorry driver
- A lorry driver is just the person driving, while a haulier may own the business.
Word family
Commonly confused: haulier or hauler?
haulier vs hauler
Hauler is the American spelling and also widely used for vehicles that carry loads, while haulier is the usual British form.
Practice
The company paid a ____ to transport the machines from the factory to the port.
Choose one answer.
A haulier is a business or person that transports goods by road. The other options name unrelated jobs.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “haulier”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.