The Lithuanian road freight transport sector- 2021

Lithuanian road freight transport (RFT) is mainly internationally-focused (i.e., 93% of the sector’s total activity). In the latest CNR European ranking, the Lithuanian sector ranks second behind the Polish sector in terms of international cross-trade. However, the Covid crisis in 2020-2021 and the consequences of the Mobility package appear to have had a negative impact on Lithuanian carriers. The annual mileage of a Lithuanian heavy goods vehicle is thus lower than in the last study, 132,300 km/year in 2021 compared to 150,000 km/year in 2017. Drivers with Lithuanian contracts working internationally thus appear to return home more often, on average once every two or three weeks. In 2017, trips were estimated at 24 days, on average. Overall, a driver working internationally travelled 115,000 kilometres in 2021, compared with 136,000 kilometres in 2017. Driver costs increased over the same period, from 23,014€/year in 2017 to 23,847€/year in 2021, an increase of 3.6% in 4 years. This is due to increases in the minimum wage and travel allowances. However, this increase has been offset by a sharp fall in employer contributions, from 32.60% to 3.03% since the last study in 2017. The burden has been partly transferred to employee contributions, which have risen from 9% to 19.5%.

In addition to these changes, it appears that certain cost items have increased over the four years in question. This is the case for tolls (+23.8%), the cost of vehicle ownership (+12.6%) as well as for maintenance and repairs (+11.9%). Conversely, the cost of tyres has fallen sharply since 2017 (down 45%), which can be explained by the fact that Lithuanian hauliers are particularly sensitive to this item.

Overall, in 2021, the total cost of a Lithuanian heavy goods vehicle operating on international routes is estimated to be 0.84€/km. 

CNR invites you to discover its new study which brings details on the Lithuanian RFT sector with operating conditions in 2021.