Refrigerated Road Freight Services

Market Outlook on Refrigerated Road Freight Services

MARKET OVERVIEW

• In 2022, the reefer trucking rates have increased significantly due to an increase in diesel prices and demand. In 2023, the shippers will not get relief from high freight demand and soaring trucking rates.

• Tensions between Russia and Ukraine as well as global chip shortage will impact the transportation cost significantly in H2 2022

• Increasing Demand of e-commerce products, growing Reefer fleet, technical innovations such as E vehicles, Fleet Management Software and more are disrupting the competition space

Market Size and Growth

France’s road freight transportation volume is anticipated to grow in 2022 as the economy recovers from the effect of the pandemic and is trying to reach pre-pandemic levels. With the increasing demand from the strongly growing e-commerce sector and increase in industrial production, the freight volumes are expected to have a stable trend in the upcoming quarters.

• The road freight transportation market in France is highly competitive due to the presence of several vendors in the market, which could impact the profitability of vendors in current scenario

• The industry is highly fragmented with around 70 percent of the trucks owned by small and independent truckers and road transport is expect to grow in the next few years due to consistent growth from CPG and e-commerce industries

• Trucking demand in the country is not expected to see any sudden increase due to the overall slowdown but the demand for dry vans, reefers and other types of trucks from food and beverage industry is unlikely to go down due to consistent domestic demand from the sector

• The movement of food and beverages are considered to be the major demand-driven products transported in reefer trucks in France

• The large movements of pharmaceutical products are from city areas to airports and most of the raw materials are procured from China and other Asian countries

• Freight volumes have been growing on a steady pace and the impact of the subsequent waves of the pandemic was softened as the government was prepared to control the situations, and timely measures and policies granted relief to the truckers.

Supply & Demand Dynamics – Reefer Transportation 

Reefer truck capacity and demand are expected to be moderate to high in the next two years, and newer trucks are expected to enter the market. In France, CPG and retail companies are likely to engage with 3PLs because of the capability to organize different trucking contractors, large truck fleets, service coverage to remote areas and offer quality services compared to independent trucker operators.

• There is a shift in trucking demand from Western Europe to Eastern Europe as the manufacturers move towards Eastern countries due to very low operating cost. As a result of this shift, trucking supply is increasing whereas the demand also has started to surge in Eastern European countries

• The average age of trucks available in the market is less than 10 years. The CPG, retail, and F&B goods transportation in France is dominated by road transportation and transports by ~95 percent of the freight

• Heavy commercial truck registration recorded a marginal increase in 2022 when compared to 2021.

• Heavy commercial vehicle truck registrations in  2022 were on a positive side growth of 1 % when compared to the same last year.

• The registrations of alternate fuel/electric trucks saw positive growth of 19 percent in 2021 when compared to the previous year.

Market Trends – Reefer Transportation

Integrated delivery

• Major FMCG and F&B are now moving towards complete delivery solutions which includes transportation, storage, warehousing and distribution in France. Due to this, the handling of food and perishable products is improved

• Majority of shippers are now preferring cold chain third-party logistics (3PL) providers for their transportation and distribution processes

Driver Shortage

• There is an acute shortage of drivers in the France trucking industry including the reefer trucking sector

• The extent of driver shortage is estimated to be 50,000 truck drivers in the coming years and the migrant population would form major chunk of the drivers in the future

Carbon Emissions

• Shippers are tapping vendors with lower carbon footprints

• Refrigerated transport providers increasingly are choosing electric and other vehicles that run on renewable energy sources

GPS tracking

• The industry is moving toward the integration of GPS tracking to ensure that trucks operate on the designated route

• The head office would receive an alert in case of route deviation, unauthorized stop or if the door is opened at unauthorized location

Sensor Technologies

• Suppliers are making significant investments in IT infrastructure and sensors that provide minute-by-minute temperature report while the truck is on the road

• Other technologies employed in the logistics industry include spiral compressors to increase the efficiency of the refrigerant

Regulations

• The EU mandates the driving hours for truck drivers according to which daily driving time shall not exceed 9 hours

• The minimum wage law prevalent in France stipulates minimum wage to be paid for the drivers when the truck is travelling through these countries