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Apr 20, 2020 at 3:23 PMThe freight market on Europe’s roads collapsed by around two-thirds in the first quarter of 2020, according to the freight barometer of the freight exchange Timocom. The year started promisingly, but the major collapse occurred in mid-March, coinciding with the onset of lockdowns in almost all European countries.
(Erkrath) The uncertainty surrounding the course of the Corona crisis led to a sharp increase in freight offers on the European transport market in March. “Many companies brought forward orders in anticipation of border closures and other restrictions due to Corona,” comments Tilman Fecke, Business Analyst at TIMOCOM, on the unusually high increase in freight offers that were posted on Europe’s leading freight exchange until mid-March.
Thus, TIMOCOM recorded a 16 percent increase in freight offers in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period last year; transports from EU countries to Italy rose by 26 percent, and to Poland even by 53 percent. Refrigerated vehicles were particularly in demand. At its peak, the demand for temperature-controlled transports was 50 percent above last year’s figures, reports the operator of the freight exchange.
Freight Volumes Dropped by More Than Two-Thirds in Mid-March
The turning point of the upward movement was marked by the Europe-wide lockdown starting in mid-March, which largely brought production operations to a standstill and, with the exception of the food retail sector, led to a collapse in delivery volumes. “Despite increasing transports in the food sector, freight volumes across Europe fell by more than two-thirds from mid to late March,” reports Fecke. “A comparable development has not occurred before Easter.” Normally, up to 750,000 freight and cargo space offers are posted daily on TIMOCOM.
Although transport companies are desperately searching for orders during the lockdown to utilize their trucks, the freight capacities placed on the market via TIMOCOM have decreased in the first quarter of this year. The number of available trucks in Q1 fell by three percent across Europe compared to the same quarter last year; in Germany, the number of vehicle offers even dropped by 15 percent. How does this fit together?
“We observe that transport companies are temporarily taking parts of their vehicle fleet off the market due to lack of utilization,” comments TIMOCOM company spokesman Gunnar Gburek. Thus, the exceptional situation the world is in these weeks is causing market distortions. Gburek remains optimistic: “Currently, slight upward trends in freight offers are emerging. However, how the transport industry will develop in light of the Corona pandemic will only become clear in the second quarter.”
With the Transport Barometer, the FreightTech company TIMOCOM has been analyzing the development of transport offers and demand of the freight exchange integrated into the Smart Logistics System since 2009. More than 130,000 users generate up to 750,000 international cargo space and freight offers daily in this way. The system helps over 43,000 TIMOCOM customers to achieve their logistical goals smartly, safely, and easily.
Graphic: Timocom
