There is no work and the cars are parked under the fence, entrepreneurs point out. The economic slowdown and tight labor market are affecting the transport sector.
The first half of 2023 brought a worsening economic situation, both compared to the previous year and compared to 2019.
Downturn
– Compared to last year, the demand for transport services is clearly lower, in some cases even 15-20 percent. – estimates Marcin Haładuda, sales director of transport exchange Trans.eu. The expert does not expect the situation to improve in the near future. At best it will stabilize at the current level, at worst we will record further declines.
According to calculations by freight exchange Timocon, an average of 46.3 percent was available on the spot market across Europe in the second quarter of 2023. fewer freight offers than in the same quarter last year. In Germany, the average drop in mentions was 59%.
Mobility Pack
The legal environment is not conducive to dealing with the delay. The result of the introduction of the EU mobility package has been a dramatic drop in the efficiency of workers: drivers, dispatchers, forwarders and planners.
– Trucks have to come to the base every eight weeks, and sometimes they do it more often, because companies (drivers) do not use private cars or buses to transport personnel – says Grzegorz Woelke from Logistico. Companies serve unprofitable destinations and lack foreign sales.
– An example is France, which has good import tariffs, but you will not find any outgoing cargo there. As a result, the monthly mileage by truck has fallen from 11.5-12 to 10-10.5 thousand over the past three years. km – the expert calculates.
Bankruptcies
The difficult situation translates into an increase in the number of bankruptcies. According to the Central Economic Information Center, 208 companies were declared bankrupt in the first half of this year, including seven from road freight transport – the same number as in the whole of 2022.
In the first six months of 2023, 2,367 bankruptcy and restructuring procedures were carried out, compared to 2,730 in 2022 and 1,051 in 2019. The year 2023 may end with losses for many companies.
Source: Do Rzeczy
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
