The Estonian road freight transport

After many years of operating as a bridge between the EU and Russia, the Estonian sector has come to terms with its small size, abandoning head-on competition with its neighbouring Lithuanian and Polish competitors. Instead, it has gradually shifted focus towards its domestic market, with a large part of its international activity centred on Sweden and Finland. 

Rampant inflation, which peaked at a record high of 25% in 2022, has also undermined companies' financial stability. Social costs are skyrocketing. To address this, the government has implemented an increase in non-contributory travel allowances to offset the rise. More broadly, the Estonian economy is increasingly turning towards Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon markets. By eliminating corporate income tax on undistributed profits, it is moving towards a fiscal liberalism open to the world.

Traditional industries such as transport or industry are losing ground to IT, transforming Estonia into Europe's new Silicon Valley. As for its road transport sector, its overall activity declined by one-third between its peak, reached in 2016, and 2022. The cost per kilometre of international road freight transport within the EU increased by 26% between 2019 and 2022, reaching 1.22€/km, on a par with the cost per kilometre in Spain.

The CNR invites you to discover this new study which provides all the details on the Estonian RFT.