Competitiveness in EU road freight transport – 2006

The European road freight hire or reward industry accounted for 80% of Europe’s road freight traffic in 2006 (90% for journeys with an international element). The industry’s turnover, employment and tonne-kilometres have shown strong growth from 2000 to 2005 while the number of road freight enterprises was little changed over the same period. However, the entry of 12 Member States in 2004 and 2007 has created a strongly competitive environment. Annual average personnel costs for the EU-15 range from €16,000 to €43,000 in 2005. Except Cyprus, none of the Member States that joined the European Union in 2004 and 2007 reached €10,000. As to the age of the vehicles, vehicles 5 years old or less accounted for more than 60% of vehicle-kilometres recorded by hauliers in the EU-15, with the exceptions of Belgium, Greece and Portugal, while in the Members that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 new vehicles were not so frequent. The outcome of this has been the emergence of new highly effective competitors in European road freight transport. In 2006, Poland was the major actor of cross-trading, taking 17% of the total tonnes lifted, ahead of the Netherlands and Germany. The Czech Republic was in fourth place. In cabotage, similar trends are emerging but more slowly. While Germany retains its lead in this field, followed closely by the Netherlands and Luxembourg, it seems likely that Poland will have displaced Italy in fifth place, with its tonne-kilometres nearly doubling between 2005 and 2006.