Number 2 / Article 4 / 2019
Market Development in Freight Transport
Economic trends are expected to negatively affect growth in the freight transport sector. Factors include US import tariffs, higher oil prices, and a domestic consumer spending that probably won’t be going up much in 2020, as is the case for 2019.
The Dutch economy is currently doing well, which has a positive impact on transported freight volumes. The transportation sector is expected to be affected by slowdowns of both the Dutch and international economies in 2020.
In the short term, road transport companies will face various challenges. The price of oil is likely to remain high in the coming period. However, fuel prices can be capricious and difficult to predict. The developments on the labor market will also become increasingly relevant. The capacity issues due to the lack of drivers aren’t going away, for example. We project an average increase in the cost of domestic road transport of approximately 4.5% in 2020. As Pon Procurement compensates for wages and diesel in its transportation contracts, accounting for about 70% of the cost, but not for the remaining price increases (± 30%), we are counting on budgets going up by 3.25% in 2020.
The reports on the development of road transport prices should be available around the fall holidays. These will be provided for free this year by EVOFEDEX to members of this organization. Should you require access to data from these reports, please send an email to henk.heijnen@pon.com. We will be happy to share the requested information with you.
If you’d like to discuss the development of road transport prices, or to have us take a good look at the organization of your freight transport, you are also welcome to contact us.