Transport costs are a crucial element of any spatial economic model. Surprisingly, good transport cost estimates at a detailed spatial level for the EU are not readily available. This paper addresses this issue by estimating a novel dataset of road freight transport costs for goods for the EU regions at the NUTS 2 level.

In the spirit of the generalized transport cost (GTC) concept, the composite cost related to distance and time for the optimal route of a representative truck is calculated. The approach allows calculating the average transport cost within the regions. The corresponding iceberg transport costs for each pair of European regions are reported, since this is the form of input required by many economic models. 

These data are used in the RHOMOLO model and are useful for analyses on regional, nationa, and European investments in transport infrastructures.