Cabotage by the Numbers: A Data-Driven Analysis of Europe's Shifting Road Freight Capacity
The European road transport sector underwent a significant transformation with the implementation of the EU's Mobility Packages 1 & 2 in August 2020 and February 2022. These regulatory changes reshaped the transportation market, particularly affecting transport capacity and the use of cabotage (the right to transport goods between two points within the same country).
This article comprehensively analyzes the market's evolution since this transformation by combining publicly available European transportation data with proprietary insights into road freight capacity from the Transporeon platform.
During the last 10 years, Europe's market experienced significant cabotage increases, as visible in the following chart. Cabotage outpaced the transport performance in the category of national transport for hire and reward trucking. However, in 2018, 2021 and 2022, the overall market growth surpassed cabotage. High transportation demand and low available capacity have characterized these years. The chart below highlights that, particularly in 2021 and 2022, the cabotage trend stopped, likely due to the new regulations in force after the Mobility Package implementation.
In an earlier article, we analyzed the package's impact on the data. For a detailed explanation of why we associate these findings with the Mobility Package, please review that article here:
In this year-on-year comparison of cabotage - and total market performance, the colored areas indicate an increase (blue) or decrease (yellow) in cabotage share. The economic downturn, with its reduced transport performance, is also visible. In 2024, European cabotage rose above the market.
If we speak about Europe and national transport for hire & reward, we mean, in essence, the five top economies (Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland). In 2024, these countries account for 77% of all national transport for hire & reward ton-kilometres within the EU.
The following chart shows how these economies grew and reveals that Germany, for instance, became less dominant as other countries gained market share during the last 8 years.
In figures, Germany reported a minus of 7.4% (2017-2024) while all four companions were positive (PL +11.1 %, FR +18.7 %, ES +18.9 % and Italy +30.8 %). Regarding cabotage, however, Germany accounts for 60% of all cabotage transports in these countries and for 51% within the entire European Union, and this share remained constant or improved during this time. If we add France to Germany, this overall share increases to 76%. So most cabotage growth is directly attributable to Germany, which experienced a rise in cabotage share from 7.4% (2018) to 10.6% (2024).
Consequently, if we discuss cabotage development on a European level, we essentially discuss Germany and, to some extent, France, but the values of most other countries make no difference in the European cabotage figures.
Now that we know where cabotage is performed, the question arises: Who performs cabotage in Europe? Eurostat also provides figures to answer this question, and the following chart shows the Top 10 origin countries of carriers performing cabotage within the EU.
The analysis reveals that European cabotage has been predominantly driven by carriers from Poland and Lithuania, with a joint share of around 60% of total cabotage activities. It further confirms that cabotage transports decreased in 2022 for both. The difference between these countries is the development since then. While Lithuanian carriers increased their market share in 2023 and 2024, Polish carriers remained stable, with marginal increases in 2024. Compared to the cabotage performance peak in 2021, Lithuanian carriers grew their performance by 21.2% while Polish carriers reduced it by -7.6%. Further on, Czech, Belgian and Slovakian carriers expanded their cabotage performance since the peak, while all others declined.
Some might ask, "Why is this important?" or "What can I derive from all these facts and figures?"
We have synthesized these figures, insights, and conclusions to create a clear explanation of the country's capacity situation in 2025. The following table switches to the perspective from an individual country's viewpoint. Comparing transport performance changes directly with cabotage performance changes during the same period, the share of cabotage within that country helps to identify its importance to regional supply.