trans.info — 2023-07-03
Land transportation
To be precise, in 2021, Polish-registered vehicles conducted 20,985 million tonne-kilometres of cabotage. Lithuania came in second place with 5,110 million tonne-kilometres, with Romania rounding up the top 3 on 4,083 million tonne-kilometres.
The data shows that Poland and Lithuania alone were responsible for over half of all cabotage in mainland Europe in 2021.
Polish hauliers also conducted more million tonne-kilometres than any other country when it comes to other forms of international transport. This includes both bilateral and cross-trade transport.
The only area where Poland was not ranked top dog was domestic transport, with Germany, Spain and France all recording more million tonne-kilometres of cabotage.
CNR’s report notes that since 2008, cross-trade has increased twofold, while cabotage has tripled. The major beneficiaries of the post-Covid recovery have been Eastern European RFT sectors, says CNR. “A handful of new Member States now dominate cross-trade and cabotage. There is growing market dominance in this respect: two national sectors out of 28 (those of Poland and Lithuania) now carry out more than half of all cross-trade and cabotage business in Europe. In purely economic terms, this level of market dominance is a cause for concern,” reads a fragment of CNR’s report.
The report nonetheless stresses that the impact of the revised 2022 Mobility Package provisions is yet to be seen in the data: “The significant increase in their costs since 2017, exacerbated by the introduction of measures in several Western European countries to tighten control over this international activity, as well as the shortage of drivers, does not seem to have weakened their overall position in the RFT market. Nevertheless, this assessment must be seen against the backdrop of a difficult period for European economies as a result of the pandemic. It should also be noted that the effects of the EU Mobility Package, whose provisions came fully into force in 2022, may yet have a further impact on the situation.”
It is also worth noting here the possible impact of Lithuanian haulage firms setting up entities in Poland with Polish registered trucks, thereby increasing Poland’s share of international road transport.