Transporting goods quickly and efficiently across borders is crucial for
complementing national and international trade and overall economic development.
This includes road, rail, air, sea and inland waterways transport and in some
cases distribution through pipelines.
Road transport
Correlating with the size of the population, Luxembourg leads with the
highest tonne kilometres of road freight transport – around 17,000 tonne
kilometres per inhabitant as of 2011. Slovenia comes in second with a little
over half as much tonne kilometres. In both these cases, the bulk of road
freight transportation has been found to be international hauliers plying between EU Member States.
Challenges in international
haulage
EU’s primary concern in international road freight movement is delays
caused due to border control issues. The measure for waiting time in borders for
heavy vehicles can be hours if not days, depending on the traffic in key areas.
Creating effective routes out of landlocked developing countries too,
especially those that can supply or expedite the supply of fuel and other raw
materials, has been a difficult challenge to overcome as well.
Air transport
In 2011, around 14.5 million tonnes of air freight was carried both
nationally and internationally among the EU-27. Out of which, Germany was the
heaviest air carrier dealing with 4.3 million tonnes, followed by the United
Kingdom with 2.4 million tonnes.
Like the haulage companies,
the air freight industry too has been affected by rising fuel costs. In fact,
due to skyrocketing fuel prices, despite their speed of delivery many air
carriers face stiff competition from other modes of freight transport. Fuel
prices aside, the industry faces bigger challenges with rising security
concerns and changing inventory management policies.
In 2010, the performance by rail freight transportation among the EU-27
was estimated to be 389 billion tonne kilometres. These figures recorded an
increase of 7.9% in comparison with the previous year. Studies and analysis
claim that this rise in figure is a sign of the rail freight system recovering
from the economic crisis.
Industry experts worry that the rail freight industry is fairly stagnant
with its strategies and that it may not be prepared for future growth. Abandoned
freight wagons in many countries, poor service and the consequent unpredictable
transit times are all factors that delay progress in this sector.
Lack of competition to key players in the industry, as is in the international haulage sector, is also
said to affect rail freight services and charges. While an international haulage company offers better terms and delivery
schedules, the rail freight system still lacks the ability to encourage
smaller, private networks and beat the competition.
In 2010, maritime ports across the EU-27 recorded 3 641 million tonnes of
sea borne goods. Sea ports in Italy, Netherlands and the United Kingdom
accounted for 42.4% of this tonnage with the latter two Member States accounting
for more than 500 million tonnes each.
Challenges in the maritime
freight sector
Europe is among the densest port regions in the world. The industry has
witnessed tremendous growth especially in terms of the ever increasing size and
complexity of the fleet, value added services offered at ports, and shift of
energy requirements from oil to gas. These changes call for a lot of revisions
and developments in the industry’s future.
