Table of contents
Posted on 25/04/2024
Here you get this month's infomail. This time we take a look at the following:
- Update on supply and demand in the freight market - mainly road transport
- The importance of the missing drivers in the EU
- Why you should get prices in the market right now
Let's dive in 🤿
Look forward to increasing freight rates
For the first time in a long time, we can see that freight rates are slowly starting to rise. Especially for road transport, courier and parcels.
This comes after we saw a 10-15% drop in freight rates in 2023. It can therefore be seen as a sign that we have hit the lowest rates and that freight costs will now start to rise again.
What's interesting is when we look at the freight rates from the end of 2023.
Although rates decreased with these 10-15%, carriers' costs for wages, labour increases and investment in new fleets only increased.
That's why it was the lack of volume in the market, which pushed prices down.
Capacity issues due to driver shortage
Looking at the national and international freight market, there is still a huge shortage of drivers.
Last year we heard figures that in EU shortage of over 150,000 drivers. This curve can only be expected to have increased since then.
Neither in Denmark nor in the EU do we have thousands of drivers standing by.
There is therefore no doubt that this shortcoming will drive up prices in the freight market when freight volumes start to increase again.
The capacity problems we saw a few years ago will therefore occur again. Mostly in road transport, but probably also in courier and parcel.
Check if your prices are competitive
With rising rates and driver shortages, it's even more important that companies now Secure the best prices on the market.
That way you become more Resilient to the price increases that are bound to occur 💪
I would therefore recommend that you go out and check if your prices are competitive by getting prices from other carriers in the market.
Competitive pricing doesn't mean you have to switch carriers
In 2023, we helped a number of our customers compare the prices they had obtained.
➡️ 8/10 stayed with their current carrier - but 10/10 made savings. So you don't have to switch carriers to get competitive rates.
Soft values like service and relationship are often the biggest contributors to staying with your current carrier - and for good reason. However that doesn't mean you can't still request new prices from them.
There is a wave of change happening in the freight market right now.
If you have any doubts about how this will affect you or what you need to pay special attention to, you are always welcome to contact me.
Otherwise, I can only recommend that you get prices in the market now so that you can be stronger in the coming years.
Sincerely yours
André Lundberg
CEO & Co-Founder