According to the expert, the situation of road freight carriers worsened in the first quarter

By: Trademagazin Date: 2023. 06. 02. 10:00

There was a turnaround in road transport in the first quarter of this year due to the decrease in consumption and investments after last year’s favorable year, said the president of the department at the online event of the logistics department of the Hungarian Economic Society on Thursday.

According to Ferenc Lajkó, 78 percent of domestic freight transport is by road. In Hungary, about 13,000 companies deal with road freight transport, their fleet consists of 90,000 vehicles, and they employ 3.3 percent of the Hungarian workforce. Road transport accounts for almost 5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and is a major export provider.

Last year, the costs of companies involved in the international transport of goods increased by 25.1 percent, and those of companies with domestic clients by 34.9 percent, mainly due to the increase in fuel and other prices. At the same time, there was enough goods to be transported for most of the year, and the economic upswing was accompanied by a small lack of capacity, so the transport companies were able to absorb the increase in costs almost completely, which has not happened in 30 years – the expert pointed out. As a consequence of this, the road transport sector had a good year considering 2022 as a whole – concluded Ferenc Lajkó.