Fewer tenders in 2024, road tax uncertainty and our recommendations for you

Danish road tax could affect your freight costs in 2025. We've calculated what you can expect in surcharges.
André Lundberg

Posted

12. December 2024

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Published on 03/12/2024

Hello - and happy December.

 

Here's a (slightly delayed) infomail with an update on the autumn comparisons, why many are waiting until 2025, and our recommendations for you.

 

Let's dive into it.

Fewer comparisons in Q3/Q4 2024

The number of tenders has been significantly lower this year - in fact, we've seen a third fewer tenders than in autumn 2023.

What are the reasons? The reasons can be the following:

 

  • The lack of capacity in the market has made carriers less aggressive on price compared to last year.

  • The uncertainty surrounding the new Danish road tax has put many businesses on hold.

So far, only a few carriers have announced in writing what their road tax rate will be.

 

And most of these are just indications that are currently fluctuating between 6% and 14 %.

 

When the fluctuation of a tax can potentially be so large, it naturally creates uncertainty for many.

 

It's a significant unknown factor that can have a big % impact on the bottom line when choosing a carrier on National Transport, for example.

 

Therefore, many companies wait to compare rates until the final road tax rates are published by the different carriers.

Expectations for Q1 2025

We expect an increase in the number of comparisons in Q1.

 

Debt is not only due to the introduction of Danish Road Taxbut also other factors that may make it necessary to evaluate freight rates in the new year:

 

  • General announcements about freight regulations
  • Increase in ETS from 40% to 70%
  • Introduction of Climate surcharge per shipment with multiple carriers

Our recommendation

 

This fluctuation between 6% and 16% can have a significant impact on your total shipping costs.

What can you do now?

We will keep you updated and send you a new infomail as soon as more carriers have published their final road tax rates.

 

Until then, we recommend that you are aware of the many changes and external influences that make it even more important to compare carriers on the same basis - that is Compare apples with applesas I like to say.

 

There are a lot of parameters that come into play right now.

 

Remember to also include soft values like good service, relationships and IT setup in your considerations.

 

It's worth paying a little extra for, and we see that our customers are still happy to pay 4-7 % more for carriers that deliver high quality in these areas.

That's all for this time.

 

We'll get back to you before Christmas. Until then, don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions

Author picture

Sincerely yours

André Lundberg

CEO & Co-Founder

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