Covid impact on transport study published

The outbreak of coronavirus in March 2020 has utterly changed the road freight transport landscape. Only transport professionals themselves can explain how they have dealt with this situation and describe what perspectives it holds for the coming months.

For this reason, the Alpega Group, the leading logistics software company offering modular solutions to cover all transportation needs, backed by 35 years of experience in the market, conducted a macro-survey where more than 1.200 logistics and transport companies across Europe participated through its freight exchanges, Teleroute and Wtransnet. From this survey a complete analysis has just been published.

The conclusions of this study show that the worst is over, and that the sector is moderately optimistic as it awaits future events before considering the crisis to be over.

At a time when challenges such as the recovery of the industry, digitalisation and Brexit are already on the agendas of many companies, professionals rate their degree of optimism about transport for the next few months at 6.2 out of 10.

While the majority of respondents acknowledge having experienced a significant reduction in transactions in 2020 compared to 2019, there are expectations for the sector’s recovery. An encouraging future can also be seen when talking about transport prices, where we find that a third of the responses even point to an increase in prices.

The pandemic has also highlighted the need to advance in the process of digitalisation of the transport companies. Digital tools have played a key role in recent months. The use of freight exchanges has increased, a trend that responds to the need to find alternative routes, as well as to find return loads from unusual destinations amidst growing demand for transport.

The coronavirus crisis has coincided with the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. As the study shows, this has caused a sceptical reaction among European hauliers. Excessive bureaucracy and lack of information are the main reasons given by the respondents for a possible reduction in the activity.

Road freight transport is a sector that did not stop during the most difficult moment of the crisis. This will continue even more strongly now that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

CLICK HERE to access the complete study.