Road transport will have an 18% drop in world turnover

Global freight road transport companies expect an average decrease of 18% in turnover in 2020, for a total of 551,000 million euros, estimated the International Road Transport Union (IRU) .

The IRU is the global association for trucking professionals; groups and represents all the associations and federations of international road transport.

The organization defends the interests of coach and bus operators, taxis and carriers (both large fleets and small road transport operators), to ensure economic growth and development through sustainable mobility of people and goods around the world.

According to forecasts for all of 2020, the sector is significantly affected in the Middle East and North Africa (-22%), Asia (-21%) and Europe (-17 percent).

Meanwhile, road transport companies in Argentina, China and Iran face a fall of more than 30% year-on-year.

The indicator measures the estimated impact on the turnover of goods by road in fiscal year 2020 to April of that year, with a geographic coverage of the IRU member countries and information available to make the annual projection.

Passenger transport companies in Europe expect to lose 81 billion euros this year, or 57% of their annual revenue.

• Tourism services by coach (-82%) and intercity (-70%) are the most affected, followed by taxi companies (-60%) and urban bus services (-42 percent).
• Companies in Bulgaria, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom are facing a decrease of more than 70 percent.

Road transport and Covid-19

Both freight and passenger carriers reported that more restrictions than facilitation measures were put in place during peak periods of lockdown, which had an additional impact on the industry.

«Road transport services are critical to economies and communities around the world,» said IRU Secretary General Umberto de Pretto.

“These new findings are alarming. Every road transport operator that goes bankrupt will have an impact on the movement of people and goods, ”he added.

IRU has published a 10-point recovery plan, with financial and non-financial measures for governments and banks, to support struggling trucking operators, facilitate the movement of people and goods, and drive global recovery; but very little and, in some cases, nothing has happened since then.

«We have seen many governments adjust regulations and announce recovery packages, but the details for trucking operators are generally vague,» Pretto said.