EU road haulage grows
The European road freight transport market returned to growth in 2025, reaching €440.388 billion, and according to Ti Insight’s European Road Freight Transport 2026 report, its value is expected to rise by 1.6% in 2026 to €447.638 billion, before reaching €483.468 billion by 2030. The average annual growth rate forecast to 2030 is 1.9%, supported by manufacturing growth in central and eastern Europe, fleet decarbonisation and rising regulatory costs. Performance, however, varies by geographical area: Spain and Poland are growing at more than twice the pace of Germany, France and Italy. On the demand side, automotive and manufacturing are showing signs of recovery, while e-commerce continues to provide structural support for volumes. The abolition in the European Union of the de minimis customs exemption from July 2026 is nevertheless expected to reshape cross-border parcel flows, encouraging bulk sourcing models and order fulfilment within the Union. Operators are also facing rising costs for fuel, tolls, driver availability and regulatory compliance. According to Ti Insight, passing these higher costs on to customers is therefore the main lever for margins in 2026. In the first quarter of the year, contract rates increased, while spot market rates fell. Sector consolidation is also continuing, following the recovery in mergers and acquisitions recorded in 2025. The main transaction was DSV’s acquisition of DB Schenker, which more than doubled DSV’s road transport activities. CEVA Logistics also acquired Borusan Tedarik, while other smaller deals expanded operators’ networks. Artificial intelligence is also taking on a more operational role: 85% of the identified use cases are already active and no longer at the experimental stage. Investment is focused on route optimisation and real-time visibility, as well as work scheduling, driver assistance systems and voice assistants. Autonomous transport, by contrast, remains at a less advanced stage, held back by stricter regulatory and safety constraints.
Montenegro adopts eCMR
Montenegro has become the 42nd country to accede to eCMR and the third in the western Balkans in 2026, after Albania and North Macedonia. Accession creates the legal basis for using electronic consignment notes in international road transport operations, supporting the shift from paper-based to digital documentation. The United Nations CMR convention, which turns 70 in 2026, governs the world’s most widely used road transport document, with around 280 million international transactions each year. eCMR extends this system to the digital management of consignment notes, with the aim of reducing administrative requirements, eliminating paper documents, speeding up invoicing and improving transparency and operational efficiency along logistics chains. eCMR also supports compliance with eFTI, the new European framework for the digitalisation of freight transport information. At technical level, however, fragmentation among available solutions remains an issue. To address this, Iru and several industry operators have set up an expert group dedicated to interoperability. The group includes eCMR solution providers Fieldeas, Pionira and Transfollow, the security and digital services company In Groupe, and Fiata. Its objective is to enable hauliers, shippers, freight forwarders and authorities to exchange information between different eCMR systems.
E-TIR between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan
Uzbekistan has activated the national E-TIR application, extending the digitalisation of TIR road transport operations with neighbouring Tajikistan. The country’s first E-TIR operation was carried out with a shipment of bulk materials from Tajikistan. The launch followed training on the national E-TIR application conducted by Iru and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Unece, for the State Customs Committee of Uzbekistan. Representatives of the main TIR border crossings between Uzbekistan and neighbouring countries also took part. The application, developed by Unece, provides states with a ready-made solution to accelerate the adoption of E-TIR and enable paperless trade. Activation in Uzbekistan therefore broadens the digitalisation of the TIR system in Central Asia. Iru also met Unece, the customs authorities of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and the associations Abbat and Aircuz to prepare the next E-TIR operations between the three countries. According to Iru, by the beginning of 2026 Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan had already completed their first two E-TIR transport operations. The link with Uzbekistan therefore extends the operational use of digital transit in the region.
DP World expands in logistics in Antwerp
DP World will develop a new temperature-controlled logistics hub at the port of Antwerp, with an initial investment of €48 million and further infrastructure works that will bring its long-term commitment to around €100 million. The project will be developed with Montea and Maatschappij Linkerscheldeoever on an 83,000 sq m site adjacent to the Antwerp Gateway terminal. The facility will include more than 55,000 sq m of warehousing, mainly intended for temperature-controlled logistics for the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. Around half of the storage capacity will be reserved for perishable goods, including bananas and other fresh produce, with different temperature conditions depending on the cargo. The hub will also serve the chemical and technology sectors and will provide consolidation, deconsolidation and specialised handling activities. Its proximity to the terminal will make it possible to integrate maritime transport, port handling, warehousing and inland distribution. Direct links with road, rail and inland waterways will also support multimodal transport to Belgium and other European markets. The warehouse will be partially refrigerated and designed to obtain BREEAM Excellent certification. Work is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2027, with completion expected in the second quarter of 2028.
DKV Mobility invests in tolls
DKV Mobility will acquire a majority stake in Tolltickets, a certified provider of toll payment solutions based in Rosenheim, Germany, strengthening its business in the European electronic tolling market. The transaction will give the company access to Tolltickets’ EETS platform, dedicated to the European service that allows road tolls in several countries to be paid through a single on-board unit. The shares will be acquired from Kapsch TrafficCom, which will retain a minority stake, while Tolltickets will continue to operate as an independent company. Founded in 2007, Tolltickets has around 60 employees and offers on-board units and vignettes to access toll systems in 15 European countries through a single solution. The platform manages more than 100,000 vehicles and serves both professional and private customers. The transaction is also relevant for transport companies operating international journeys, thanks to the integration of access to different national tolling systems through EETS. Completion of the acquisition remains subject to approval by the competent authorities and is expected by the end of 2026.
