This paper examines the factors that have influenced the energy intensity trend of the Spanish road freight transport of heavy goods vehicles over the period 1996-2012. This article aims to contribute to a better understanding of these factors and to inform the design of measures to improve energy efficiency in road freight transport. The paper uses both annual single-period and chained multi-period multiplicative LMDI-II decomposition analysis. The results suggest that the decrease in the energy intensity of Spanish road freight in the period is explained by the change in the real energy intensity index (lower energy consumption per tonne-kilometre transported), which is partially offset by the behaviour of the structural index (greater share in freight transport of those commodities the transportation of which is more energy intensive). The change in energy intensity is analysed in more depth by quantifying the contribution of each commodity through the attribution of changes in Divisia indices. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.