Freight: new fuel surcharges and an Arctic service

Fuel surcharges: diesel prices are rising faster than rates

The industry has been focused mainly on one topic in recent days: the sharp rise in diesel prices and whether rates will keep pace with costs. SAHB Consulting said on LinkedIn on 6 August: "European diesel prices have risen sharply in July. Germany has seen the biggest increase, from €1.73 per liter on 22 June to €2.19 on 27 July" — and added that the full impact of July's diesel increase will only feed through into contract rates in August, LinkedIn. This is confirmed by the latest IRU report: "Our quarterly European road freight rates report shows that contract and spot markets accelerated sharply in Q2 2026, breaking with the softer conditions seen through late 2025 and in Q1 2026", LinkedIn — contract rates rose by 7.9 points quarter on quarter, while spot rates jumped by as much as 14.6 points. In the comments under a related post about "cracking" supply chains, Marlin Shipping & Trading AG asks industry peers directly: "We are seeing this across every corridor right now, not just one lane. Clients are asking us to lock in capacity earlier and build in a fallback mode before committing to a route (...) Where are you seeing the most pressure right now, ocean, air or the last mile?", LinkedIn. On Wykop, user @uzior takes a longer-term view: "By 2030, electric trucks will become cheaper to operate than diesel for 70–90%..." — fuel surcharges are an immediate concern today, but in the background, debate continues over how long diesel will keep dictating transport costs.

Germany: low Rhine levels and rising road tolls add to the bill

The German market is being squeezed from two directions at once. Freight Forwarder Europe warned on LinkedIn (10 August): "Low Rhine Levels Put Further Pressure on European Transport - Record-low water levels on the Rhine, combined with rail works and limited trucking capacity, are creating additional pressure on freight transport across Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Reduced barge capacity and constrained alternatives could lead to higher costs and delays", LinkedIn. Low water levels on the Rhine mean that some barge loads have to be shifted to road transport anyway — and road transport is becoming more expensive due to Germany's increase in the CO2 surcharge on road tolls, as reported by trans.info. This combination — Rhine disruptions and higher road tolls — will be felt most by freight forwarders serving the DE-NL-CH corridor.

Felixstowe and the first regular Arctic service — the topic the entire industry is talking about

This is precisely the subject of today's blog article, and the community is just as engaged with it as the trade press. Erik Solheim described it on LinkedIn (14 August) as follows: "First regular northern sea route through the Arctic ice - caution is needed! (...) The container company Sea Legend will this week launch the first regular container shipping service through the Arctic between Ningbo on China's east coast and Felixstowe in the UK, sailing north of Russia. The voyage will cut the usual 40-day sailing time between the two ports by about half", LinkedIn. Independently, Fulvio Villa wrote about the same subject the day before: "A Chinese carrier has just launched the first regular container service along the Northern Sea Route, connecting East China to North Europe via the Arctic, bypassing Suez, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden (...) Arctic transits nearly doubled last summer versus the year before. Still marginal, but the trajectory is the story", LinkedIn — two independent posts about the same event in the same week are a strong signal that the topic is genuinely making the rounds in the industry. In the comments under Solheim's post, Pragya Thakur jokes: "Northern Russia arctic region for shipping 😲 this is something china can only imagine hopefully they couldn't freeze in free shipping lanes. #worldtraderoutes", LinkedIn, while Norwegian Bjørn Are Gaaserud Stødle adds a more sceptical comment (loosely translated: "how do you warn authoritarian regimes at all, and how big does an elephant have to be to get their attention"): "How do you actually warn (i) authoritarian regimes? How big do elephants have to be to get attention? This smells like trouble", LinkedIn. Under a video by the Atlas GeoPulse channel about the same route, commenter @AtlasGeoPulse asks directly: "As polar ice navigation expands, will the Northern Sea Route displace traditional Suez/Red Sea routes for time-sensitive cargo? Drop your analytical perspective below." The Spanish-speaking community under another video about the same event takes a more geopolitical view — @AlejandroGuerrero writes briefly: "Geography is negotiable. We are China's pawns" (loosely translated: "geography is negotiable, we are China's pawns"). As a reminder, Felixstowe has also been dealing with more down-to-earth problems for months: in April, CBI Global Freight Management warned its customers: "We are monitoring planned protest activity at the Port of Felixstowe between 15th-17th April 2026 (...) The protests, involving hauliers, farmers, and other road transport workers, are expected to take place around the A14 access routes to the port", LinkedIn.

Drivers: "PLN 10,000 take-home and no takers"

The driver shortage comes up in every discussion about rates. On Wykop, a post about earning PLN 10,000 take-home and the lack of people willing to enter the profession sparked a heated exchange: @piratestorm (58 votes) writes: "If there are no takers, maybe that's because things aren't so rosy after all?", while @kulorok (44 votes) adds: "Because today 10,000 is no longer worth sacrificing your entire private life for." @PfefferWerfer takes a more sober view: "There are plenty of qualified drivers, several times more than those employed in transport." A similar tone can be heard on LinkedIn under TEG.tech's post seeking Polish drivers in the UK — George Hamilton writes at length, but accurately: "Whilst it's agreed that hauliers cannot simply up the wages for drivers because of how the industry is and customers are always wanting a cheaper price making it a race to the bottom for operators (...) Bottom line is the salary for drivers does not match the responsibility and the commitment, so cannot really blame young people in the article who chose to chase easier money", LinkedIn. And when trans.info reported on Facebook that a Polish operator had ordered more than 100 semi-trailers for steel transport from Wielton, the comments all went in one direction — Filip Reizer quipped: "There are no drivers, transport doesn't pay — are these semi-trailers self-driving, or do they come with a turban or a flying carpet?", while Artur Bielecki summed it up briefly: "Well, now they only need to find 100 drivers for that steel..."

Poland: the A2 gets more expensive again, drivers threaten a blockade in the comments

On 14 August, trans.info reported on Facebook about another increase in the road toll on the A2 motorway, and emotions reached boiling point under that post. Dawid Andrzejak writes bluntly: "Block it for three days and we'll see what happens, and if that doesn't help, keep going until it does", while Arkadiusz Pawlik adds: "The most expensive motorway in Europe, and no standards whatsoever." In the broader regulatory context, this ties in with a Wykop post shared by @ObserwatorGospodarczy: "Regulations being created in Brussels are having an increasingly strong impact on the daily work of Polish carriers and freight forwarders" — rising road tolls and EU requirements are, for many carriers, two fronts in the same battle for margin.

Western Europe: Irish carriers undercut rates, the Netherlands tightens controls

trans.info also described the situation of Irish hauliers, some of whom "won't make it to Christmas" — and their peers had no illusions in the comments. Barry Murphy writes: "Peanuts hauliers will be parked up now, no under cutting ✂️✂️", while Ray Dooley adds bitterly: "Don't seem that way with plant there buying but they always crying about been nothing in it but they cut rates left right n centre." Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, a crackdown has begun on trucks violating a ban on entering one of the bridges — 1,600 vehicles a day were ignoring the ban. Vital Kokhanau points to the real problem: "Just inform several companies, who develop navigation apps, about this change. It's one of the most important roads in Niderland, and it's the crime to close it, instead of repair (...) all the navigation apps plan a route through this bridge." Under the same post, a user writing as Вектор Трансформ sums up drivers' frustration with the authorities: "But How to call ignorance from their side When you call them for help when someone steel the Load or Fuel (their reaction always is: Save Yourself). And almost every night without sleep, after 15H work."

Sentiment of the day

Industry sentiment is mixed, but consistent on one point: costs are rising faster than anyone can invoice them. Diesel and road tolls are combining into a single burden felt most acutely by drivers and small carriers, while the labour shortage means that even a rate of "10,000 take-home" no longer tempts anyone. At the same time, the Ningbo–Felixstowe Arctic service is arousing a mixture of curiosity and disbelief in the community — a rare case in which the road transport, freight forwarding and logistics industry is discussing geopolitics more than the rate per kilometre. In the background, anger is simmering over rising road tolls in Poland and the harsh realities of the Irish market, where "rate cutting" has become an everyday occurrence.

Sources unavailable today: trucker-forum.at, forotransportistas.es, foros24h.com, forum.soferdetir.ro, planet-truck.fr.