Freight transported in containers - statistics on unitisation

Data extracted in February 2026

Planned article update: February 2027

Highlights

In 2024, the share of container transport in total rail transport performance in the EU was estimated at 22.2%

In 2024, the share of container transport in total short sea shipping performed in EU ports was estimated at 19.6%

In 2024, the share of container transport in total inland waterway transport performance in the EU was estimated at 7.3%

In 2024, the share of container transport in total road transport performance in the EU was estimated at 5.3%

Containers transport by mode of transport, EU, 2014-2024 (% share of total freight transport, based on tonne-kilometres)

This article presents statistics on intermodal freight transport in the European Union (EU) and the EFTA countries. The statistics contain a set of indicators developed by Eurostat on goods transported in containers and other intermodal transport units (ITUs). Recent trends in the data clearly illustrate the importance and growing role of intermodal transport in Europe. The focus is on the increasing share of unitisation in different modes of transport, in other words the share of goods that are transported in containers and other intermodal transport units (ITUs), such as swap bodies, trailers and semi-trailers. The article also covers the modal shift potential of long-distance road transport of containers, in line with the strategy to shift 30% of transport over distances of 300 kilometres or more from road to transport modes with lower CO₂ emissions. These indicators study the share of such long distance transport in the total road transport of containers.

Unitisation of goods in the EU is growing

Intermodal transport is becoming an increasingly significant part of the logistics sector and freight unitisation is a pre-requisite for intermodality. ‘Freight unitisation’ is defined as the use of standardised packaging units that can easily be transferred from one mode of transport to another without handling the goods themselves. In simple terms, ‘unitisation’ describes how much of the total freight transport has been transported in containers.

The main types of standardised packaging units, called intermodal transport units (ITUs), are:

containers
swap bodies
trailers and semi-trailers

The use of ITUs reduces the need for cargo handling and so improves security, reduces damage and loss, and allows freight to be transported faster and more efficiently.

The share of unitisation in total freight transport has increased considerably in recent years. However, this growth in unitisation varies between the different modes of transport. Rail and maritime transport (deep sea shipping in particular, but also short sea shipping) have the highest shares of freight unitisation, both at EU level and in most EU countries. By contrast, for road transport the unitisation rate at EU level has slightly decreased over the last few years.

When comparing road, rail, maritime (deep sea shipping and short sea shipping) and inland waterways transport across all EU countries, rail transport had the highest unitisation rates in 14 EU countries. Deep sea shipping or short sea shipping had the highest unitisation rate in 12 EU countries (only 22 EU countries have a coastline). Due to data availability at national level, the unitisation rate for maritime transport is calculated based on tonnes of goods transported, whereas for the other transport modes it is based on tonne-kilometres.

Differing trends in road container transport across Europe

Over the period 2014-2024, the share of container transport in total road transport performance in the EU varied between 6.5% in 2014-2015, and 5.3% in 2024 (Figure 1).

In terms of billion tonne-kilometres, the road transport performance in the EU fluctuated between 92.9 billion tonne-kilometres in 2014 to 89.1 billion tonne-kilometres in 2024, reaching a peak of 105.3 billion tonne-kilometres in 2021 (Figure 2).

From 2014 to 2024, the volume of freight transport in containers by road decreased in 9 EU countries (Figure 3). In contrast, Austria, Lithuania, Cyprus and Croatia stand out with sharp increases in road transport of containers over this period (more than 100%).

In 12 EU countries, the tonne-kilometres for container transport by road fell in 2024 from the previous year. The largest decreases were recorded in Luxembourg (-58.4%), Estonia (-28.2%), Greece (-27.4%), Bulgaria (-21.7%) and Sweden (-18.9%). By contrast, the most noticeable growth was observed in Slovakia (+64.2%), followed by Latvia (+57.3%), Cyprus (+41.5%), Austria (+22.2%), Czechia (+16.3%), Poland (+15.4%) and Croatia (+13.5%). Germany, with almost 40 billion tonne-kilometres, was by far the EU country with the highest level of container transport. Between 2023 and 2024, this level decreased by 2.2%, but increased between 2014 and 2024 by 3.6%.

Among the EU countries, 9 had shares of freight unitisation in road transport higher than the estimated EU average in 2024 (5.3%). These were: Portugal (22.3%), Cyprus (19.0%), Germany (14.8%), the Netherlands (12.4%), Belgium (7.0%), Sweden (6.4%), Austria (6.0%), Czechia (5.5%) and Finland (5.4%). The EFTA countries Norway (12.9%) and Switzerland (7.3%) also had a unitisation rate for road higher than the EU average in 2024. Large containers made up the main part of road freight unitisation in most EU countries (Figure 4). Exceptions in 2024 were Czechia, Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia, where the largest part of container transport by road was carried out in other containers.

In Estonia, Cyprus, Portugal, Sweden and the EFTA country Norway, maritime transport plays an important role. Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands all have major container ports serving as entry points for goods to the EU (Antwerp-Bruges in Belgium, Hamburg and Bremen/Bremerhaven in Germany and Rotterdam in the Netherlands). The fact that containers arriving or departing by sea tend to be forwarded by road, in particular to and from the direct hinterland of the sea ports, might be one of the explanations for the high unitisation rates observed for road transport in these countries.

High unitisation rates in rail transport statistics

In 2024, the highest unitisation rates in rail transport were recorded in Greece (82.8%), Ireland (77.6%), Spain (71.1%), Italy and the Netherlands (both 47.4%), Germany and France (43.6%), Portugal (43.2%) and Luxembourg (42.0%) as well as in the EFTA countries Switzerland (65.0%) and Norway (63.2%) (Figure 5). The unitisation rate for rail freight covers not only containers and swap bodies but also accompanied road vehicles (with driver), and unaccompanied semi-trailers (without driver). There are no railways in Cyprus and Malta.

In most of the countries, the unitisation rate is substantially higher for rail than for road. In 2024, taking into account only containers, only Finland had a higher unitisation rate for road than for rail. It should be noted that containers and swap bodies are grouped together for rail, as the data are reported without distinction between them, whereas the road unitisation rate covers only containers. This comparison should thus be treated with some care.

Unitisation in inland waterway transport remained relatively stable in 2024

Only 17 countries have significant freight transport by inland waterways (navigable lakes, rivers and canals). In 2024, the unitisation rate in inland waterways was 8.7% at EU level, a slight decrease of 0.1 percentage points (pp) compared with 2023 (Figure 6). When comparing with 2014, there was a decrease of 0.5 pp. At country level, the highest unitisation rate was observed in the Netherlands (12.0%), followed by Germany (10.2%), France (8.6%) and Belgium (6.0%).

Between 2023 to 2024, the inland waterway unitisation rate decreased in Belgium by 1.2 pp and Romania by 0.4 pp. By contrast, the inland waterway unitisation rate increased in France by 0.7 pp, in the Netherlands by 0.2 pp. In Luxembourg and Germany, it slightly decreased (less than -0.1 pp). From 2014 to 2024, the increase in the inland waterway unitisation rate was highest in the Netherlands, by 0.5 pp, followed by Romania (0.4 pp), Luxembourg (0.2 pp) and Germany (0.1 pp). In Belgium and France, the unitisation rate fell by 7.2 pp and 0.3 pp, respectively, over the same period.

Unitisation rates in short sea shipping and deep sea shipping

The unitisation rates for maritime transport are calculated based on tonnes transported, as data on maritime tonnes-kilometres at country level are not available. Maritime transport is only relevant for the 22 EU countries that have a coastline. At EU level, goods transported in containers made up 17.9% of the transport volume (in tonnes) in short sea shipping in 2024 representing an increase of 2.4 pp compared with 2014 and an increase of 1.6 pp compared with 2023. The unitisation rate for maritime transport varies considerably between EU countries, and between short sea shipping and deep sea shipping. In Slovenia, goods transported in containers made up 40.3% of the transport volume in short sea shipping in 2024 (Figure 7). High shares of unitisation in short sea shipping were also recorded in Portugal (37.7%), Belgium (30.9%), Germany (29.0%), Spain (25.8%), Cyprus and Lithuania (both 23.9%), Greece (23.7%), Poland (23.6%), Italy (22.3%), Croatia (21.9%) and Ireland (20.1%). Several of these countries have major container ports serving as trans-shipment points for containers. In these countries, the high unitisation rates in short sea shipping reflect a large volume of feeder services to and from these hub ports. Compared with 2014, Croatia recorded the highest increase in the share of containers transport in short sea shipping, with +13.1 pp. Portugal followed with a growth of 11.4 pp. For the same period, 7 EU countries recorded a decrease: Belgium (-3.3 pp), Cyprus and Malta (each -1.9 pp), Greece (-1.7 pp), Denmark (-0.7 pp), Finland (-0.4 pp) and Sweden (-0.1 pp).

The EU countries with high unitisation rates in deep sea shipping are generally those with major container ports, handling high levels of intercontinental transport (Figure 8). In particular, these countries are Germany (54.7% in 2024) with the ports of Hamburg and Bremen/Bremerhaven, Belgium (52.2%) with the port of Antwerp-Bruges, Slovenia (47.3%) with the port of Koper, Greece (46.1%) with the port of Piraeus, Cyprus (45.6%) with the port of Lemesos which also serves as a trans-shipment point for containers in the Mediterranean, Portugal (39.7%) with the port of Sines and Spain (39.4%) with the ports of Valencia and Algeciras and Malta (35.3%) with the port of Marsaxlokk which serves as a trans-shipment point for containers in the Mediterranean. At EU level, goods transported in containers made up 33.3% of the transport volume (in tonnes) in deep sea shipping in 2024, representing a decrease of 1.0 pp compared with 2014 and an increase of 0.9 pp compared with 2023. In 2024, Slovenia recorded the highest increase in the share of containers transport in deep sea shipping compared with 2014, with +22.3 pp. Denmark followed with a growths of 13.2 pp. For the same reference period, 8 EU countries recorded a decrease; the highest were for Poland (-19.1 pp), Romania (-15.3 pp), Germany (-11.5 pp) and Italy (-9.9 pp). Between 2023 and 2024, Malta recorded a substantial fall by 17.9 pp. Over the same period, 9 other EU countries recorded a decrease (between -0.03 pp and -4.3 pp) while the remaining EU countries increased between 0.05 pp and 3.8 pp.

Trends in unitisation across modes

To enable comparison of unitisation rates across the different modes of transport, Eurostat has estimated unitisation rates for short sea shipping in terms of tonne-kilometres. For comparability, the data for rail and inland have also been estimated in gross weight, by subtracting the weight of containers typically used from the original gross-gross weight data. Deep sea shipping mainly concerns intercontinental transport and is thus not included in this comparison of transport within Europe.

The unitisation rates for short sea shipping and for rail transport were roughly at the same level between 2014 and 2017. Over the period 2017-2024, unitisation rates for rail transport were higher by more than 1.6 pp, to reach a difference of 5.9 pp in 2022, while it was 2.6 pp in 2024. The unitisation rate for rail freight was 16.7% in 2014 and fluctuated up and down over the years, reaching a peak of 22.2% in 2022 before falling to 21.3% in 2023 and reaching again the peak of 22.2% in 2024. For rail transport, to facilitate comparison with other modes, only containers and swap bodies are included. For short sea shipping, the unitisation rate decreased from 18.2% in 2014 to 15.7% in 2017 and rebounding to 17.6% in 2020. In 2021 and 2022, the unitisation rate fell again to 16.3% in 2022, rebounding again to 17.6% and 19.6% in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

The unitisation rates for freight transport by road and by inland waterways are substantially below the rates for short sea shipping and rail transport. For freight transport by inland waterways there were ups and downs between 2014 to 2020 and constantly fell between 2020 and 2024. The unitisation rate was 8.0% in 2014 and reached a peak of 8.9% in 2017. The rate almost constantly decreased until 2024 to 7.3%. Only 4 EU countries have significant inland waterways transport of containers. For road freight transport, the unitisation rate was estimated at 6.5% in 2014 and 2015 and has remained between 6.3% and 5.8% over the period 2019-2022. In 2020, the rate fell to below 6% for the first time, at 5.9%. Between 2021 and 2024, the rate constantly fell reaching a low point at 5.3%. The EU unitisation rates for each mode of transport in Figure 9 are Eurostat estimates, based on the data currently available from the EU countries.

Modal shift potential from road to rail and inland waterways

A key target of European transport policy is to achieve a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport by 2050 compared with 1990 levels. One of the strategies to achieve this is to shift 30% of transport over distances of 300 kilometres and longer from road to transport modes with lower CO₂ emissions, including shifting containers and other ITUs from road to rail and inland waterways.

The indicator ‘modal shift potential’ provides information on the share of container transport by road that is transported over distances of 300 kilometres or more. This container transport could be shifted to rail or inland waterways transport, thus contributing to the reduction of CO₂ from the transport sector. An overview of the development in the volumes of long-distance container transport by road from 2014 to 2024 is given in Table 1 and Figure 10 (in tonne-kilometres) as well as in Table 2 and Figure 11 (in tonnes).

Table showing modal shift potential of long-distance road transport of containers in the EU, individual EU countries, Norway and Switzerland in million tonne-kilometres for selected years between 2014 and 2024. For more details, please use the link to the source dataset code below the image. — Table 1: Modal shift potential of long-distance road transport of containers, in selected years, 2014-2024
*Source:* Eurostat, (tran_im_mosp)

Most long-distance container transport was carried out by German trucks. In 2024, they achieved 15.4 billion tonne-kilometres. Long-distance container transport by road decreased for Germany by 3.2% between 2023 and 2024. Far behind Germany followed Spain (3.8 billion tonne-kilometres), France (2.6 billion tonne-kilometres), Czechia and Portugal (each 1.9 billion tonne-kilometres), Lithuania (1.7 billion tonne-kilometres) and the Netherlands (1.3 billion tonne-kilometres).

Out of the 14 EU countries for which comparable data for both 2014 and 2024 are available, 9 recorded a reduction in long-distance container transport in terms of tonne-kilometres. Particularly strong decreases were observed for Luxembourg (-93.5% to 38 million tonne-kilometres), Romania (-82.7% to 269 million tonne-kilometres), Hungary (-61.2% to 277 million tonne-kilometres), the Netherlands (-43.4% to 1.3 billion tonne-kilometres), Belgium (-38.1% to 760 million tonne-kilometres) and Portugal (-29.0% to 1.9 billion tonne-kilometres). The countries where such long-distance container transport increased the most between 2014 to 2024 were Austria (+238.5% to 457 million tonne-kilometres), Lithuania (+162.4% to 1.7 billion tonne-kilometres), Slovenia (+68.1% to 696 million tonne-kilometres), Spain (+21.4% to 3.8 billion tonne-kilometres) and Slovakia (+16.9% to 754 million tonne-kilometres) (Table 1).

Among the EU countries for which data are available, the highest share of long-distance road transport of containers on total road freight transport of containers was recorded by Lithuania (78.8%) in 2024 followed by Slovenia (77.3%), Romania (71.4%), Bulgaria (67.5%), Slovakia (66.8%), France (54.9%) and Spain (53.0%) (Figure 10). The lowest shares were observed in the Netherlands (16.1%) and Sweden (24.0%). This share decreased in 8 of the 15 EU countries for which data are available for 2014 and 2024. The largest decrease was observed for Hungary (-21.3 pp), followed by Luxembourg (-20.9 pp), Czechia (-16.9 pp) and the Netherlands (-9.1 pp). The share also substantially decreased for the EFTA country Norway (-16.2 pp). Between 2023 and 2024, there was a large increase for Cyprus (+14.1 pp) whereas a substantial fall was recorded for Belgium (-10.0 pp).

Germany also dominated in terms of tonnes, with 34.2 million tonnes in 2024 (Table 2). All other EU countries were far behind, France and Spain being the closest with 7.2 and 6.4 million tonnes, respectively. Out of the 15 EU countries with data for both 2014 and 2024, 8 recorded a decrease in long-distance container transport in terms of tonnes over this period. Among the EU countries for which data are available, the highest share of long-distance road transport of containers on total road freight transport of containers, based on tonnes, was recorded by Romania (44.8%) in 2024, followed by Lithuania (36.4%), Bulgaria (32.8%) and Slovenia (30.6%) (Figure 11). The lowest shares were observed in Cyprus (1.3%), the Netherlands (2.5%), Sweden (4.0%), Portugal (4.4%) and Austria (5.0%). Between 2014 and 2024, this share decreased the most for Luxembourg (-6.2 pp) and Hungary (-5.5 pp) while it grew significantly for Lithuania (+10.1 pp) and Romania (+9.9 pp).

Source data for tables and graphs

Statistics on unitisation: tables and figures

Data sources

All figures presented in this article are available in the Eurostat online database. All data used are collected under the relevant EU legal acts for individual transport modes (road transport, rail transport, inland waterways transport and maritime transport).

Data coverage

Generally, the data cover all 27 EU countries and the two EFTA countries Norway and Switzerland.

However, please note the following for individual modes of transport:

Rail transport: Cyprus, Malta and Iceland have no railways, while Liechtenstein only has a 9.5 km railway line passing through it.
Inland waterways transport: 17 EU countries provide data on a mandatory or voluntary basis: Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), Czechia (CZ), Germany (DE), France (FR), Croatia (HR), Italy (IT), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Romania (RO), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE). Italy and Lithuania provide a reduced dataset.
Maritime (sea) transport: Czechia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia and Switzerland are landlocked countries and so have no maritime transport.

Definitions

Except for the definitions below, all definitions and concepts in this article are described in the Eurostat/ITF/UNECE Illustrated Glossary for Transport Statistics, fourth edition. This glossary can be found here on the Eurostat website:

Unitisation in freight transport: ‘Unitisation’ expresses the share of goods that are transported in intermodal transport units (ITUs), i.e. standardised transport units suitable for being transported by different modes of transport. ITUs comprise containers, swap bodies and other standardised (in terms of size) packaging, which can be moved with simple equipment (e.g. cranes). In the case of rail freight transport, ITU covers ‘containers and swap bodies, road vehicles (accompanied) and semi-trailers (unaccompanied)’, while for other modes of transport only ‘containers’ are covered. The unitisation shares in this article are calculated based on tonne-kilometres for all modes. The unitisation shares are calculated as the share of goods transported in ITUs in relation to the total goods transport of the respective mode of transport.

Unitisation indicators: Eurostat currently compiles a set of five indicators on the unitisation rate of the different modes of transport, i.e. transport in containers and other ‘intermodal transport units’ as a share of the total freight transport performance by the respective mode of transport. Common to these indicators is the fact that they use data already available from existing statistics and so do not create any additional response burden for the EU countries. These logistics indicators are:

freight unitisation as share of total road transport performance
freight unitisation as share of total rail transport performance
freight unitisation as share of total inland waterways transport performance
freight unitisation as share of total short sea shipping freight transport performance
freight unitisation as share of total deep sea shipping freight transport performance

Short sea shipping: Maritime transport of freight between ports within Europe, on the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, including ferry and feeder traffic.

Deep sea shipping: Maritime freight transport other than short sea shipping, including intercontinental sea transport.

Rail and inland waterway transport data are based on the gross-gross weight of the goods, including both the weight of packaging and of the ITU tare weight.

Maritime and road data are based on the gross weight of the goods, including packaging but without the ITU tare weight.

Symbols

':' not available
'-' not applicable or real zero
'0' less than half of the unit used and thus rounded to zero
Italics: estimated value

Context

This article is based on a set of unitisation indicators developed to improve the statistical coverage and analysis of intermodal freight transport in the EU. The data used to compute these indicators are collected under the relevant European legal acts on compilation of statistics for individual modes of transport.

The European Commission White Paper 'Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area — Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system' (2011) is a cornerstone of European transport policy. Key aims of the White Paper include the consumption of less energy and the use of cleaner energy in transport. It sets out the target of achieving a 60% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport by 2050 compared with 1990 levels. This has strongly increased the interest in and the need for statistics on the transport sector in Europe.

One important strategy to reduce energy consumption and CO₂ and GHG emissions of freight transport is to move freight from transport modes with high consumption and emissions to other modes of transport with higher energy efficiency and lower CO₂ and GHG emissions. Transporting goods in standardised containers and other ITUs, which can easily be moved from one mode of transport to another (e.g. from road to rail transport), makes it much easier to create efficient ‘intermodal transport chains’ with lower energy consumption and emissions. Intermodal transport also facilitates the establishment of efficient transport corridors.

Explore further

Database

Transport:

Multimodal data (tran)
- Intermodal transport — unitisation in freight transport (tran_im)
  - Unitisation in the different modes of transport (based on tkm for gross weight of goods) (tran_im_umod)
  - Unitisation in road freight transport (based on tkm for gross weight of goods) (tran_im_uroad)
  - Unitisation in rail freight transport (based on tkm for gross-gross weight of goods) (tran_im_urail)
  - Unitisation in inland waterways freight transport (based on tkm for gross-gross weight of goods) (tran_im_uiww)
  - Unitisation in maritime freight transport (based on tonnes for gross weight of goods) (tran_im_umar)
  - Modal shift potential of long-distance road freight of containers (based on tkm) (tran_im_mosp)
  - Modal shift potential of long-distance road freight of containers (based on tonnes) (tran_im_mospt)

Thematic section

Transport

Publications

Methodology

Intermodal transport - unitisation in freight transport (tran_im)

Legislation

Rail: Regulation (EU) No 2018/643 recast of Regulation (EU) No 2016/2032.

Road: Regulation (EU) No 70/2012 concerning statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road
Summaries of EU legislation: Rules for the compilation of statistics regarding goods carried by road
Inland waterways: Regulation (EU) No 2018/974 of the European Parliament and of the Council on statistics of goods transport by inland waterways
Maritime: Directive 2009/42/EC on statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea, and the amendments of this Directive by Commission Decision 2010/216/EU, Regulation (EU) No 1090/2010 and Commission Delegated Decision 2012/186/EU
Summaries of EU legislation: Statistical returns in respect of carriage of goods and passengers by sea