Small Q3 Price Drops Despite Higher Capacities, Says Transport Market Monitor

28th November 2018

Logistics BusinessSmall Q3 Price Drops Despite Higher Capacities, Says Transport Market Monitor

While road transport capacities in Europe – following dramatic shortages since autumn 2017 – again increased at double-digit rates in Q3, transport prices declined by only 2.8%. Those are the findings of the 37th edition of the Transport Market Monitor (TMM) by Transporeon and TIM CONSULT. This is despite the fact that significantly more capacity was observed in the market during the summer. Transport rates in Q3 2018 increased 3% over the same period last year.

Here are the key findings:

• In Q3 2018, with a capacity index of 81.2, available transport capacity increased by 15.8% compared to the previous quarter and by 20.4% compared to Q3 2017 (index 67.4).
• The price index decreased in Q3 2018 to 104.9, a drop of 2.8% compared to Q2 2018 and an increase of 3% compared to Q3 2017.
• The diesel index in Q3 2018 showed an increase of 4% compared to Q2 2018.

A closer look at the report shows that, since May, available capacity for road transports has recovered month by month. “Although this was in line with developments in 2017, there has been a much stronger increase in transport capacities since May 2018 compared to last year. As expected, growth was particularly visible in the holiday months of June, July, and August. In September, capacity fell back to the June level but by no means as substantially as in autumn 2017. This represents a significant difference compared to last year’s development,” explains Jan Rzehak, Director Business Consulting at Transporeon Group. Find out more here.