{"id":704,"date":"2026-08-21T17:40:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milta.pro\/2026\/08\/21\/road-transport-in-europe-a-sector-on-the-brink-of-implosion\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T19:04:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T17:04:05","slug":"road-transport-in-europe-a-sector-on-the-brink-of-implosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milta.pro\/en\/road-transport-in-europe-a-sector-on-the-brink-of-implosion\/","title":{"rendered":"Road transport in Europe: a sector on the brink of implosion?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sector remains essential to the European economy. Yet bankruptcies are rising and margins are shrinking. Behind this contradiction lies, above all, a profitability crisis. <\/p>\n<\/div>

Road freight transport is not a dying sector. Quite the opposite, in fact. In 2024, more than 13.1 billion tonnes<\/strong> of goods were transported by road within the European Union. The activity totalled 1,869 billion tonne-kilometres<\/strong>, up 0.6% year-on-year, according to Eurostat<\/a>. Roads continue to supply Europe’s shops, factories and building sites every single day. <\/p>\n

And yet, carrier bankruptcies keep multiplying. Belgium, France, Germany, Poland: different markets, with different cost structures, yet showing the same symptom. The problem is therefore not the sector’s usefulness, nor even necessarily the work itself. It seems to lie elsewhere: in the ability to transport goods at a price that still allows a living to be made.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Belgium: 233, 277, 307\u2026 then 413 bankruptcies<\/h2><\/div>

Belgium offers one of the clearest illustrations of this deterioration. The number of bankruptcies in road transport rose from 233 in 2022<\/strong> to 277 in 2023<\/strong>, then 307 in 2024<\/strong>. In 2025, the Institut Transport routier & Logistique Belgique (ITLB) recorded 413<\/strong>, more than a third higher in a single year and the highest level since this sector statistic began, according to data relayed by Trans.info<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Bankruptcies, however, are only the most visible part of the problem. In its financial report published in December 2025, the UPTR draws on a BDO analysis of the 2024 accounts of more than 5,000 transport and logistics companies. The sector’s EBITDA margin fell below 8%<\/strong>, its lowest level in five years, while nearly 11% of companies<\/strong> now have negative equity, a record. Return on equity also declined, to 12%. <\/p>\n

These indicators suggest that bankruptcies are only the end result of a broader weakening. TLV speaks of a structural profitability crisis and stresses that the problem is not a lack of work, but the financial conditions under which services are carried out. Nearly 80% of Belgian bankruptcies in 2025<\/strong>, moreover, involved operators with fewer than six trucks or vans.<\/p>\n<\/div>

The heart of the problem: hauling at the right price<\/h2><\/div>

The carrier is caught between two opposing forces. On one side, competition and tenders keep strong pressure on rates. On the other, a large share of costs is difficult to compress: wages, fuel, tolls, financing, insurance and maintenance must all be covered before the company earns a single euro of profit. <\/p>\n

A study by the Comit\u00e9 national routier<\/a> focusing on the Belgian fleet gives a sense of the scale involved. Under 2021 economic conditions, the CNR estimated the full cost of a 40-tonne Belgian truck operating internationally at around \u20ac1.26 per kilometre<\/strong>. Between 2017 and 2021, this cost had already risen by 6.5%.<\/p>\n<\/div>