ECG — 2025-09-12
News from ECG
The Eastern Europe Regional Meeting took place in Prague, Czech Republic on 11 September, gathering close to 100 representatives from across the industry. Participants exchanged views on the pressing issues in road transport and Finished Vehicle Logistics (FVL) through expert presentations, market briefings, and interactive roundtable debates.
Market Update
Opening the meeting, Chairman, Krzysztof Szeligowski, Adampol, provided an overview of the current automotive market in Eastern Europe. In July, vehicle sales in the region rose by 3.7% to 389,895 units, though year-to-date figures declined 3.4%.
ACEA data for the first half of 2025 showed 796,224 new passenger car registrations across 12 Eastern EU countries, representing a modest 0.4% increase compared to the same period in 2024. However, performance varied widely between markets.
Lithuania posted the strongest growth with a 40.6% surge, followed by Latvia (+29.1%) and Croatia (+6.0%). Poland remained the region’s largest market, with 285,311 registrations (+3%). By contrast, Estonia (-39.5%) and Romania (-22.4%) recorded steep declines.
Across the broader European Union, registrations fell by 1.9% year-on-year, underscoring that Eastern Europe, despite its uneven performance, outpaced the EU average.
Driver Shortages Remain a Key Challenge
The roundtable discussions underlined persistent difficulties in the road transport sector, with driver shortages emerging as the most pressing issue. About 60% of participants reported problems in recruiting drivers, with the challenge particularly acute when hiring from non-EU countries. Several participants also noted that recruiting from more distant third countries involves significant training requirements, which add both time and costs.
Focus on eCMR
The second half of the meeting opened with a presentation from Toyota Motor Europe on the outlook and activities of its Kolin hub, focusing on digitalisation and sustainability.
This was followed by a session on eCMR (electronic consignment note) with contributions from Shippeo, TransFollow, and Škoda, and a subsequent debate on its implementation and benefits. Presenters highlighted that digitising consignment notes offers multiple advantages—cost reductions, environmental gains, enhanced transparency, streamlined data exchange, and even benefits for public authorities. They reminded attendees that eCMR will become mandatory from 2027, urging companies to prepare without delay.
A live survey revealed that while some companies have already implemented eCMR successfully, 60% of participants are not yet ready, indicating substantial work still lies ahead for the industry.
One of the issues raised on eCMR is that drivers might face the burden of juggling several different digital solutions, each requiring a separate app with its own logic and interface. While the current market is fragmented with many providers, some consolidation is expected. Importantly, all solutions are based on the UN CEFACT dataset, meaning they should be interoperable.
The discussion showed that while progress is underway, the path to achieving full eCMR compliance is still ongoing.
The programme concluded with the networking dinner.
The event was made possible through the support of ECG members and partners Helicar, Lohr and ZF.