Rhine transport: surcharges from 20 August

Recent days in industry discussions — on LinkedIn, Facebook, Wykop and the German-language drivers’ forum trucker-forum.at — have revolved around four topics: the catastrophically low water level on the Rhine (the subject of today’s article on surcharges), rising freight rates driven by costs rather than demand, the dispute over hiring non-EU drivers, and the new tachograph obligation that some companies failed to prepare for. Below is a roundup of what the industry is saying in its own words.

The Rhine dries up Europe: the industry counts the losses

The water level at Kaub, a key Rhine measuring point, fell to record lows in August — the lowest in nearly 80 years. The Oil by S&P Global Energy profile summed it up on LinkedIn with hard figures: "The Rhine drops below 10 cm at Kaub, disrupting European oil logistics ▪️Water at Kaub falls to a record low of below 10 cm ▪️ARA-Basel freight surges to €276.67/mt from €35/mt ▪️Rhine crisis could cut 0.1-0.3 points from Germany's GDP: banks" (LinkedIn).

The scale of the phenomenon is captured by a post from Frans Jaap Consulting: "The Rhine is now carrying less water than at any point since 1947, and this time it's happening in the middle of summer. Barges can't sail fully loaded, ferries and cruises are being cancelled, and farmers in parts of the Netherlands face irrigation bans as ditches and streams run low" (LinkedIn).

For freight forwarders, however, the impact on the transport network is what matters most. As 4PL Central Station writes: "The situation on the Rhine has further intensified over the past days. Water levels on key sections of the Rhine have fallen to historic lows, significantly reducing inland vessel capacity and increasing pressure on European supply chains" (LinkedIn). This mechanism — shifting loads from barges to road and rail — is precisely what is behind today’s surcharges, effective from 20 August.

Freight rates: a market driven by costs, not demand

The IRU quarterly report on European road freight rates, cited on LinkedIn, leaves no doubt about the direction: "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" — contract rates rose to 148 points (+7.9% quarter on quarter, +15.2% year on year), while spot rates reached 146.8 points (+14.6% quarter on quarter) (LinkedIn).

Poland’s domestic market is accelerating even more strongly — an article from 40ton.net, shared on Wykop by u/JerzyNowicki78, states plainly: "the number of domestic PL–PL load offers published on TIMOCOM Road Freight Marketplace increased by 278% compared with the corresponding period of the previous year" (Wykop). The question commentators are asking themselves is whether this is genuine market growth or simply a larger number of offers that are difficult to book, amid a declining number of available vehicles across Europe.

A post from Corten shows the scale of the EU market itself: "Road freight transport across the EU reached 1,886 billion tonne-kilometres in 2025, an increase of 0.9% compared with the previous year.

The total volume of goods transported also rose to 13.3 billion tonnes, up 1.8% year-on-year.

Leading the way was Poland, accounting for over 20% of the EU's total road freight activity" (LinkedIn).

Drivers versus regulations: the dispute over foreign drivers and the new tachograph

On the ZMPD w Polsce Facebook profile, president Jan Buczek pulls no punches: "Blocking the ability to hire drivers from outside the EU is a serious problem for our companies — Jan Buczek, president of ZMPD, for Strefybiznesu.pl" (Facebook).

The same post, however, sparked a discussion in a completely different tone. User Uhtred Ragnarson responds sharply: "In Poland, we have 300,000 citizens holding qualifications to drive trucks and buses who are not working in the profession — not because they do not want to, but because the PO–PiS governments have been effectively targeting the largest professional group, namely drivers, for years. The regulations must finally be changed and the profession made more attractive; enough with burdening drivers with penalties under the current system! Change, and change alone, will save transport. Bringing in foreigners is a short-sighted and downright foolish solution that will do nothing for Poland or the labour market as a whole" (Facebook) — the comment received 11 reactions, more than the organisation’s post itself.

Meanwhile, the Austrian drivers’ forum trucker-forum.at is hosting a discussion about the EU obligation to install G2/V2-generation digital tachographs in light commercial vehicles over 2.5 tonnes, mandatory from 1 July 2026. Administrator Highwaycharly described the scope of the regulation as early as March: "affects all those companies that use light commercial vehicles with a maximum permissible gross weight of more than 2.5 tonnes in cross-border freight transport and cabotage operations" (trucker-forum.at). In an August summary, he returns with a bitter conclusion after the implementation deadline: "a good third had not fully completed the conversion by the deadline" — 15.6% of companies had not started the conversion at all, while 62.5% cited cost as the main barrier (trucker-forum.at).

Freight forwarding digitisation: more tools, but no less manual work

Another thread shared on Wykop by u/JerzyNowicki78 speaks directly to freight forwarders’ daily reality: "TMS, telematics, freight exchanges, monitoring, e-documents. There are more and more tools, but if data still has to be re-entered, the vehicle’s status confirmed by phone, and documents searched for across emails, the process is still manual" (Wykop). It neatly sums up the frustration that also appears in LinkedIn comments about "cost rather than demand" driving the market — the technology exists, but real processes still depend on phone calls and email.

Fires in Spain and France hit supply chains

Against the backdrop of the water crisis, trucker-forum.at draws attention to another front in August’s disruptions. Highwaycharly wrote on 4 August: "The severe fires in Spain and France have disrupted not only roads and railway lines" (trucker-forum.at) — going on to describe how DHL Freight and Kühne+Nagel reported delays in road and rail traffic around Madrid, Bordeaux and southern France, while the risk is greatest for second- and third-tier suppliers, whose visibility within the supply chain is weakest.

Sentiment of the day

The tone of industry discussions is cautious and, at times, embittered. The Rhine crisis and fires in southern Europe are compounding rising rates which, as the IRU report emphasises, are increasing mainly because of costs rather than genuine demand. In the background, a dispute is unfolding over who should drive the trucks: some voices on Facebook blame national regulations and low interest in the profession, opposing the opening of the market to non-EU drivers, while industry organisations themselves warn about barriers to hiring. Added to this is the fatigue caused by unfinished digitisation and the costly, delayed implementation of new tachographs. The overall picture is that the industry feels squeezed simultaneously by the weather, costs and regulations.

Sources unavailable today: forotransportistas.es, foros24h.com, forum.soferdetir.ro, planet-truck.fr (no fresh threads in the search results), YouTube (no relevant, recent videos in the last 7-day window for the queries checked).