Road Freight Market in Italy Preparing to Bounce Back After Bad 2020

Italy’s road freight market is expected to grow back after a 7 percent decline in 2020 thanks to an increase in e-commerce sales, but factors like driver shortage, cargo theft, and COVID-19 restrictions remain a challenge, pushing the operational costs upwards.

Italy’s road freight transport market size accounts for 86 percent of the country's total freight market, followed by rail freight. Due to the pandemic, this industry was highly affected, resulting in a drop of 7 percent. However, that is expected to change in 2021 as F&B and FMCG sectors are now ready to amp their e-commerce presence, which would subsequently increase the demand for road freight for deliveries. Additionally, the industry is undergoing a revised operational cost as Italy is experiencing a steep fall in fuel prices. Due to the shortage of truck drivers, their wages are rising even more.

Fuel prices in Italy dropped drastically in Q2 2020 and are assumed to grow slightly in 2021. Fuel and driver wages are the highest price point contributors to the road freight industry. A hamper in the prices of fuel and a shortage of drivers increasing driver wage costs will highly impact the overall operational cost.

The road freight market share in Italy is higher by 11 percent compared to other regions in Europe. In contrast, the rail freight market is 5 percent lower than other areas of Europe, but this is improving due to the liberalization of the rail market.

The road freight transportation market continues to face challenges like truck hijacking, which increased by 174 percent in 2019, and a shortage of at least 15,000 drivers. New truck registrations fell by 23.5 percent in 2020, but enough trucks can still manage the demand. While the pandemic has left the road freight transportation services market in a financial crunch, Italy has exempted truck drivers from travel restrictions.

One major challenge with Italy’s road freight transport market has been there for a long time and still continues to be   'truck hijacking.’ However, truck hijacking is specific to various areas, not only in Italy but across Europe. Therefore, this challenge affects the whole road freight market in Europe. There are particular areas of Italy where road freight transportation is higher in capacity than other areas.

Road freight transportation Italy is highly dominant in Northern Italy, mainly in Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia Romagna. These areas contribute to about 50 percent of the road freight transportation services market in Italy.

Despite truck hijacking, an increase in driver wages cost, and a decline in a truck vehicle purchase, another challenge affecting Italy’s road freight transport market is high toll rates that again increase operational costs. The Ministry of Transportation has taken various steps to reduce the roads’ costs, but the toll rates remain high.

Overall, people in the business of road freight transportation Italy will be experiencing benefits from the declining fuel prices and an increase in e-commerce sales that have increased demand for road transportation. These benefits, along with the mentioned challenges, are expected to shape the future of Italy’s road freight transportation market. 

Key Findings

• The Italy road freight transport market declined by 7 percent in 2020 due to the pandemic-induced financial crunches. However, there is no restriction on-road truck transportation, and the Ministry of Transportation is constantly taking steps to reduce road costs.
• Challenges faced by people in Italy’s business and road freight market is truck hijacking.
• Other challenges faced in road freight transportation Italy are high toll costs and lack of drivers resulting in high driver wages.
• The decline in fuel prices is benefiting the operational costs for this market.
• The Italy road freight transport market is the highest in Europe, but rail transportation is coming up as a close competition.