Archive:Freight transport statistics
- Data from September 2009, most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
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The ability to move goods safely, quickly and cost-efficiently to market is important for international trade, national distributive trades, and economic development. This article presents the main European Union data on freight transport including transport by road, rail, air, maritime and inland waterways. Growth in freight transport across Europe largely reflects the growth in GDP in the various Member States.
Strains on infrastructure, demonstrated by congestion and delays, as well as the constraints of disparate standards, technical barriers, poor interoperability and governance can all impact on economic development.
Main statistical findings
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The volume of freight transported by road in the EU was a little over four times as high as the volume transported by rail in 2008. About two thirds of the volume of road freight transport by vehicles registered in the EU was national in 2008. However, this proportion varied greatly between Member States: national transport dominated in Cyprus (99.1 % of all road freight transport), the United Kingdom (93.6 % in 2007) and Finland (92.5 %), whereas its importance was much lower in Slovenia (16.2 %), Lithuania (12.5 %) and Luxembourg (6.6 %).
Across the whole of the EU, the volume of inland freight transport grew at a slightly faster pace than GDP during the ten-year period through until 2007. Relative to growth in GDP, Spain and Portugal recorded the most dramatic growth in their respective volumes of inland freight transport during this period, followed by Bulgaria, Lithuania, Ireland, Hungary and Slovenia. In contrast, there was sustained decoupling of transport growth from economic growth in a number of Member States, most notably Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland, Denmark and the United Kingdom.
Table 2 shows that Estonia and Latvia were the only Member States where a greater volume of freight was transported by rail than by road in 2008, while the Netherlands was the only Member State where a greater volume of freight was transported by inland waterways than by rail. Relative to the size of the population, the greatest volume of road freight transport was reported by Luxembourg, over 21 000 tonne-km per inhabitant, about two and a half times the next highest volume in Slovenia; in both cases, the majority of road freight was performed outside these countries, but by vehicles registered in them.
About 14 million tonnes of air freight (both national and international) was carried through airports within the EU. Airports in Germany dealt with 3.6 million tonnes of air freight in 2008, considerably more than in any other Member State. Some of the smaller Member States are relatively specialized in air freight, notably all of the Benelux countries, and in particular, Luxembourg.
Maritime ports in the EU handled 3 934 million tonnes of goods in 2007 (about 2.5 % higher than in 2006). Ports in the United Kingdom handled 582 million tonnes of goods in 2007, more than any other Member State and about 15 % of the EU total. Among the smaller Member States, the weight of goods handled in maritime ports was particularly high in Estonia, the Netherlands, Latvia, Finland, Belgium and Sweden.
Data sources and availability
The weight of goods transported by rail and inland waterways is the gross-gross weight of goods. This includes the total weight of the goods, all packaging, and tare-weight of the container, swap-body and pallets containing goods. In the case of rail transport, it also includes road goods vehicles carried by rail. The tare-weight is the weight of a transport unit before any cargo is loaded; when the tare-weight is excluded, the weight is the gross weight. The weight measured for sea and road freight transport is the gross weight.
Goods loaded are those goods placed on a road vehicle/railway vehicle/merchant ship and dispatched by road/rail/sea. Unlike for road and inland waterway transport, transhipments from one railway vehicle directly to another and change of tractor vehicle are not regarded as unloading/loading; however, if the goods are unloaded from one railway vehicle to another railway vehicle, this is considered as a break in the journey. Goods unloaded are those goods taken off a road vehicle/railway vehicle/merchant ship.
Road freight transport statistics are reported by Member States for vehicles registered in their country. On the basis of information on the reporting country, country of loading and country of unloading of a journey, five types of operations are derived:
- national transport;
- international transport – goods loaded in the reporting country;
- international transport – goods unloaded in the reporting country;
- international transport – cross-trade (transport between two countries by a vehicle registered in a third country);
- international transport – cabotage (transport inside one country by a vehicle registered in another country).
Rail freight data are provided to Eurostat in line with Regulation 91/2003, implemented from 2004 onwards. Whereas the quarterly data concern railway enterprises under detailed reporting (usually the larger enterprises[1]), annual data cover all enterprises. Rail freight data are not available for Malta and Cyprus as they do not have a railway infrastructure. Switzerland will provide railway statistics starting from 2008 as a reference year, while Iceland has no railways.
Maritime transport data are available for most of the period from 2001 onwards, although some Member States have provided data for the period since 1997. Maritime transport data are not transmitted to Eurostat by the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia as they have no maritime ports.
Air freight and mail transport statistics are broken down by freight and mail on board (arrivals, departures and total), freight and mail loaded and unloaded and all-freight and mail commercial air flights (arrivals, departures and total). The data are presented with monthly, quarterly and annual frequencies. Annual data are available for most of the 27 EU Member States for the period from 2003, with a majority also providing data for 2001 and 2002, while some Member States have provided data back to 1993.
The volume of inland freight transport is defined as the ratio between tonne-km (inland modes) and GDP (gross domestic product in constant (year 2000) EUR), and within this article the ratio is indexed on 2000. Rail and inland waterways transport are based on movements on national territory, regardless of the nationality of the vehicle or vessel. Road transport is based on all movements of vehicles registered in the reporting country.
Context
The EU has already taken a number of steps to improve freight transport throughout the EU, but the mid-term review of the 2001 White paper specified further actions. The package of measures being proposed by the European Commission lists a number of them.
- A freight transport logistics action plan: this covers, among other ideas, e-freight and intelligent transport systems, the promotion of interoperability across modes, single transport documents and the removal of regulatory obstacles.
- A rail network giving priority to freight (Towards a rail network giving priority to freight COM(2007) 608.); the ideas being proposed include:
- the creation of freight corridor structures to measure service quality;
- improvement of the infrastructure of existing freight corridors;
- the introduction of harmonized rules for the allocation of train paths;
- the development of priority rules in the case of traffic disturbance;
- the improvement of terminal and marshalling yard capacities.
- A ports policy with the ideas being proposed including several that might be grouped under ’modernization’ such as:
- the simplification of procedures for short-sea shipping;
- an e-maritime approach to administration and improved port equipment;
- the expansion of capacity whilst respecting the environment.
- A maritime and short-sea shipping policy (Commission Staff Working Document SEC(2007) 1367) with challenges including:
- reducing bureaucracy;
- improving promotion and marketing;
- ensuring the availability of suitable vessels;
- providing adequate training;
- the availability of good quality hinterland connections;
- establishing integrated information systems.
Further Eurostat information
Publications
Main tables
- Transport, volume and modal split (t_tran_hv)
- Railway transport (t_rail)
- Road transport (t_road)
- Inland waterways (t_iww)
- Maritime transport (t_mar)
- Air transport (t_avia)
Database
- Regional transport statistics (tran_r)
- Transport, volume and modal split (tran_hv)
- Railway transport (rail)
- Road transport (road)
- Inland waterways transport (iww)
- Oil pipeline transport (pipe)
- Maritime transport (mar)
- Air transport (avia)
Dedicated section
Other information
- Road freight transport methodology – volume 1: reference manual for the implementation of Council Regulation No 1172/98/EC on
statistics on the carriage of goods by road - Road freight transport methodology – volume 2: methodologies used in surveys of road freight transport in Member States and
Candidate Countries
External links
See also
Notes
- ↑ Countries may cover all railway undertakings operating on their national territory with detailed reporting only (irrespective of the undertaking’s transport performance). In this case, quarterly data are comparable with annual ones.