Road freight transportation (Russian market)

2023: The volume of the Russian large-tonnage freight transportation market for the year increased by 40% to 4.6 trillion rubles

In 2023, the turnover of the Russian market for the transportation of large-tonnage cargo reached 4.6 trillion rubles. For comparison, a year earlier, the volume of this industry was estimated at 3.3 trillion rubles. Thus, growth was recorded at 40%. This is stated in the materials of Kept, published on September 23, 2024.

The authors of the study consider the transportation of general, bulk, dust, bulk, oversized and other cargoes by tractors with semi-trailers such as tent/isothermal van/refrigerator, on-board trailers, tanks and other types of trailers with a capacity of more than 10-12 tons. Several factors are called contributing to the expansion of the market in question. This is the continued stabilization of macroeconomic indicators, the growth of retail trade, the development of e-commerce, as well as the adoption of government measures and the implementation of digital projects, including initiatives in the field of electronic document management and the creation of an electronic register of freight carriers.

The average monthly revenue per tractor in the Russian large-tonnage freight transportation market in 2023 amounted to about 583 thousand rubles against 469 thousand rubles a year earlier. At the same time, the tractor fleet increased on an annualized basis from 618 thousand to 679 thousand units. According to market participants, in 2023 there was an increase in tariff rates in a number of key areas by more than 20%, caused by economic recovery, restructuring of logistics routes, as well as an increase in cost.

The study says that in monetary terms, the market will grow by an average of 7.5% per year and may reach 6.9 trillion rubles by 2028. At the same time, the industry is characterized by a high level of competition and a low degree of consolidation. In addition, there is price dumping from individual players.^[1]

2022: Transport companies reach out to state for support over sanctions

The situation in the freight market is becoming tense due to the changed economic conditions. The cost of transportation has already increased by 10-12%, and the cost of servicing freight vehicles - by 60%. This became known on March 31, 2022 from a letter sent to the Presidential Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs Boris Titov from the community of top managers of logistics companies. Among the signatories of the document are PEK, GLT, Altica M, SPAK, as well as Dentro. Read more here.

2020

Market growth for the year by 10%

According to the ATI.SU Freight Exchange, the road freight market by the end of 2020 grew by almost 10% compared to 2019, despite the collapse during the spring lockdown in April-May 2020. The recovery began in July, with a clear positive trend observed throughout the second half of the year. This trend was almost unaffected by either the second wave of coronavirus or the restrictions imposed in the fall.

The number of transactions for the transportation of goods increased by 9.4% compared to 2019. According to the statistics of the ATI.SU Freight Exchange, according to the results of three quarters of 2020, the market showed growth, but much less significant (+ 5.5%). As for prices for services, they remained stable throughout the year.

In 2020, there was a noticeable increase in transportation in Russia in almost all major areas. Transportation from the Moscow region was especially confident in gaining momentum: for example, the number of applications for transportation within the Moscow region increased by 16% (up to 766 thousand), transportation to the Leningrad region - by 12% (up to 439 thousand), in the Krasnodar Territory - by 14%, in the Nizhny Novgorod region - by 17%, in Tatarstan - by 24%, in the Voronezh region - by 18%, in the Sverdlovsk region - by 20%. Thus, the role of the central region as a cargo hub continues to grow.

At the same time, ATI.SU noted positive dynamics within several leading regions of the country. Thus, the number of applications for transportation in the Krasnodar Territory increased by 16%, transportation within Tatarstan added 19%, the growth in the Chelyabinsk region was 14%. Transportation in the Leningrad region looks more modest (-5%), and the number of applications for transportation from the Leningrad to the Moscow region also decreased by 4%.

At the same time, if regional transportation is growing, then this cannot be said about routes within large cities, as well as between them. This trend looks logical in a pandemic, when many residents tried to spend as much time as possible outside the city. In particular, the number of applications for transportation in Moscow decreased by 6%, inside St. Petersburg - by 12%, and transportation from the Northern capital to Moscow sank by 13%. But the number of traffic from Novosibirsk to Kemerovo (+ 18%) and Omsk (+ 11%) has increased.

Also, at the end of 2020, the volume of transportation of the most popular categories of goods increased. The number of applications for the transportation of consumer goods increased by 15%, and food products - by 16%. It is also worth highlighting a significant increase in the transportation of household chemicals (by 32%), cars (by 42%), mushrooms (by 52%), ice cream (by 42%), toys (by 41%), grain (by 31%) and household appliances (by 46%). The decrease in volumes was recorded only in a small number of categories: for example, the fall was demonstrated by the categories "transportation of poultry" (by 30%) and "tobacco products" (by 22%).

Despite a difficult crisis year, which generally led to a recession in the economy, the freight industry eventually completed it, showing slight growth. Spring restrictions dealt a serious blow to the market, but by the summer everything had recovered, and autumn restrictions practically did not affect it. It should be noted that participants in the road freight market showed flexibility and the ability to quickly adapt to the conditions and build business processes in a different way. In general, the result of 2020 can be called the fact that the market embarked on the path of transformation: automation and the reduction of manual labor ceased to be just words that are pronounced at conferences, but became real practice, - comments Svyatoslav Wilde, manager of the ATI.SU Freight Exchange.

As of March, the transportation of temperature-sensitive goods in Russia is carried out by about 80-100 thousand "refs"

In March 2020, it became known that the number of REF-vans and semi-trailers-refrigerators determines. sales HO In 2019, about 10 thousand transport funds were registered marked REF - these are semi-trailers and vans. As of March 2020, a total Russia of about 80 000 - 100 000 refs are transported to. Of these, about 3-3.5 are semi-trailers, the rest are vans and "low-tonnage." Almost 50% of the market for refitted vans is this, and Gazelles this ratio has been maintained for the past 5 years. More. here

2017: The freight transportation market in Russia was estimated at 0.7 trillion rubles

In 2017, Russian trucks, the number of which reaches almost 6.5 million pieces, transported goods in the amount of 5.5 billion tons. The Zyfras, at first glance, are astronomical, but this is only at first glance. In fact, transport companies handle approximately 30% of all Russian cargo. The remaining 70% of the goods were delivered by their owners on their own^[2].

Experts say that the freight market is a tough customer market. It is the customer (owner of the cargo) who dictates the conditions. In addition, the cargo market is not transparent, it has many intermediaries, dispatchers, etc.

Regarding profitability, entrepreneurs believe that this is a profitable business. Of course, if certain conditions are met, for example, the entrepreneur is not credited and the number of cars purchased on lease does not exceed reasonable limits. In business, there are not rare cases when an entrepreneur does not always calculate his strength correctly, recruits a car and goes "negative."

• We rarely have any manufacturer at its side railway. In the overwhelming majority of cases - 99% - the cargo still needs to be taken to the railway. And most often, recently, road transport has been generally used to deliver from door to door: from the shipper to the consignee, "says Sergei Katyrin, president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia.

The road transportation market last year (2017) grew by 15% and exceeded 733 billion rubles. Most of the market is the full load segment, this is when the customer pays for the route or the entire car. A fifth of the market is prefabricated cargo. According to experts, this is the most growing segment: this year it is expected that its volume will exceed 180 billion rubles. Dangerous goods account for no more than 7% of the market.

Experts call the development of the so-called e-commerce the driver of the growth of the prefabricated cargo segment: the delivery of goods ordered (purchased) on the Internet. The volume of deliveries of goods from the Internet is growing by about 20-30 percent annually. Most of these cargoes are transported by truck. The railway is not engaged in collecting goods: it is too confused for them. But automobile entrepreneurs are eager to provide these transport services and even in pursuit of a client are ready to reduce the cost of transportation on ultra-long routes.

Also, the opening of traffic for trucks on the Crimean bridge was a landmark event for the industry. Freight traffic on the bridge increased by a third compared to the ferry crossing - up to 1000 trucks per day.

• There is already an absolutely reliable message that allows you to plan the supply of goods, components, build the economy and interaction of enterprises in a different way. This is a different construction of the economy in the Crimea itself, "says Sergey Katyrin.

So far, not all cargo can be transported on the Crimean bridge - dangerous ones are banned. However, the Russian Ministry of Transport promised that fuel trucks would go across the bridge by winter.

Today, 20 thousand transport companies and almost 2 million individual entrepreneurs operate in Russia, which often have only one truck in the garage. The national average is about 30 cars per firm. Entrepreneurs willingly use special mobile applications through which you can receive orders. Similar services have appeared recently. This is a kind of "uber for cargo transportation," with its help the developers are fighting with freight forwarders setting draconian tariffs.

Regarding commissions taken by freight forwarders (intermediaries), industry experts say that there are three months of excitement when the commission is minimal. It's November, December and the first half of January. The commission in these months is 5-7%. In the remaining 9 months of the year, intermediaries make money, according to entrepreneurs, on their clients, when the size of the commission can reach up to 40-50%. However, the average commission size is 20-25%.

Also from the economy of the industry - about the cost. Most, more than a third - about 35% - in the cost of cargo transportation is the driver's salary. A little less than a third is fuel. Depreciation is also included in the price - a tenth. Another 20% of the tariff is spent on repairing the truck. The profitability itself, the profit of the transport company is about 5%.

As in any business, cargo also has the so-called "gray" players who work exclusively for themselves, do not pay taxes, etc. According to experts, "gray" carriers "carry" about 500 billion rubles annually past the budget. In terms of volume, this is comparable to legal cargo business.

The challenges facing industry players are not limited to the high cost of intermediary services or the low level of profitability.

• I have mostly non-dimensional cargo transportation in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. But in the industry as a whole, I think everyone has the same problems as big cars, which is smaller. The problem is one of the main ones: finance and constant cost growth. First of all, of course, this is an increase in the cost of diesel fuel, a transport tax - I have about 30 thousand rubles per car. This amount goes to heavy trucks weighing more than 12 tons, - says Marcel Gabdulkhakov, head of a motor transport company from Bashkiria.

• They used to say that the transport tax would be canceled, and this cancellation would be compensated by an increase in the cost of fuel. However, fuel is becoming more expensive, and the tax has not gone anywhere. VAT has also increased since the new year. This means that imported parts, the price of which even without this took off to space, will become even more expensive. Here, of course, there is an option: to switch to domestic equipment. You can, of course, but there is one big "but": quality, says Marcel Gabdulkhakov.

• We have a proposal to prepare a law "On road freight transportation." Only those who are in the register will be able to become a carrier: registered as a logistics company, forwarder or cargo carrier. It seems to me that this is not only a whitewashing of the market, it is an increase in competition, a decrease in price, "says Sergey Katyrin.

2012

At the end of 2012, it was the road freight transportation that accounted for almost 70% of the country's total traffic. In physical terms, the road freight market grew by 2.9% to 5829 million tons (data from DISCOVERY Research Group).

However, due to the fact that road transport is most popular in terms of delivery of goods over short distances, their share in the country's total cargo turnover is very insignificant and is only 5%. In physical terms, the turnover of road transport in 2012 amounted to 248 billion t-km. against 223 billion t-km. in 2011.

2013

In 2013, more than 46 thousand enterprises offering road freight transportation services were registered in Russia. Among them there are both large companies that have already established themselves in the market and have a strong customer base, as well as small ones, whose share is more than 70%. Along with this, a new segment of medium-sized players can be distinguished on the market, which, with a competent organization of work, may well compete even with large market participants. The regional freight transportation segment is increasingly developing, which accounts for about 40% of the market.

Competition is also intensifying in the market for container shipments, as well as the transportation of perishable, food and other goods at distances up to 2000 km.

Experts believe that the road freight market has every chance for further successful development. Firstly, due to the construction of new and repair of existing roads. Secondly, due to the emergence of new types of trucks on the freight transport market, the creation of more profitable and effective conditions for the purchase of trucks for leasing or credit. Thirdly, due to increased competition, including a surge in the activity of foreign road carriers, the result of which should be the creation of optimal prices and an improvement in the quality of the services provided.

Notes