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One year into the Corona pandemic: Road transport capacity & prices on the European spot market are normalising

General development

  • Compared to the previous month, road transport capacity fell by -8.9% in March 2021. The European spot market availability index now stands at 102.2 points.

  • Currently, there is significantly less road transport capacity available on the market than before the beginning of the Corona pandemic a year ago. The capacity index fell by -19.7% compared to March 2020.

  • Transport prices increased slightly by +0.7% compared to the previous month. The index now stands at 98.6 points. Compared to March 2020, prices went down by only -0.3%.

 

Brexit impact

  • Road transport capacity from France to the UK rose by +7.8% in March 2021, compared to the previous month. It now stands at 134.6 points.

  • Compared to March 2020, transport capacity rose by +7.8%. Rising capacity has been observed on this corridor since the beginning of the year. In December 2020, transport capacity reached a two-year-low of 58.8 points. The reason for these developments were the uncertainties caused by Brexit.

  • Prices on the corridor between France and the UK have been falling continuously since the beginning of the year. While reaching a two-year-high of 154.3 points in December 2020 due to the uncertainties related to Brexit, they now stand at 119.8 points. This corresponds to a decrease of -6.5% compared to the previous month. However, compared to March 2020, prices on the corridor between France and the UK still soared +21.2%.

 

Industry focus

  • In the European automotive sector, road transport capacity went down by -8.0% to 92.6 points in March 2021 compared to February 2021. This is -5.3% below the previous year’s level. Prices, on the other hand, have been relatively static since the beginning of the year. Compared to the previous month, in March 2021 there was a decrease of -0.6%, which corresponds to 92.1 points. In March 2020, they stood +2.0% higher.

  • Transport capacity in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods sector increased significantly. Compared to the previous month, it rose by +10.5% to 131,2 points. Prices in the industry have been falling since December 2020. They now stand at 83.0 points, which corresponds to a decrease of -3.8% compared to the previous month and even -7.4% less compared to March 2020.

  • In the chemicals and life science sector, the road transport capacity has shown little movement since the beginning of the year. In March 2021, the index increased slightly by +2.6% compared to the previous month. This corresponds to 113.6 points. Prices in the sector have been falling constantly since the beginning of the year and stand currently at 74.9 points, which corresponds to a decrease of -3.9% compared to the previous month and a decrease of -6.6% compared to March 2020.

 

This is the result of the most recent evaluation of the Transport Market Monitor (TMM). The online service is provided by Transporeon, Europe’s largest logistic platform in Europe. The analysis is based on road transportation data of more than 1.8 million freight loads on the spot market per year. The data was updated on April 7, 2021.

„We are observing an ongoing normalisation on the road transport market in Europe. Prices are at the previous year’s level and transport capacities have clearly recovered from the fluctuations caused by the Corona pandemic last spring. The effects of Brexit are also having less of an impact than before“, said Nikolay Pargov, Executive Director Freight Procurement & Audit at Transporeon.

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