Road freight rates rise as ports feel pressure from Asia

We checked what freight forwarders, carriers and logistics analysts had been saying to one another in recent days on LinkedIn, Reddit and a German-language carrier forum. The picture is consistent with today’s article: rising road tolls in the EU and pressure on Asian ports are not abstract figures from reports, but everyday realities the industry is discussing openly.

Road freight in Eurostat’s figures: Poland leads, but margins are not growing as fast as tonnage

Eurostat published fresh data for 2025 this week, and it quickly spread across industry LinkedIn. The statistical office’s own profile put it succinctly: "In 2025, the total volume of road freight transport in the EU reached 1 886 billion tonne-kilometres.🚚📦 Highest annual total road freight transport in: 🇵🇱 Poland (381.0 billion tonne-kilometres) 🇩🇪 Germany (277.4 billion) 🇪🇸 Spain (272.6 billion)" - Eurostat na LinkedIn, the post received 68 reactions.

Advisers from BEST STRATEGY ADVISORS broke the data down further, highlighting the structure of transport: "Most freight was transported nationally (62.2%), while international transport accounted for 24.4%, cross trade for 10.7% and cabotage for the remaining 2.7%", adding that "the largest volume of goods was transported between Germany and the Netherlands, 86.9 million tonnes. The flow between Germany and Poland came next with 68.4 million tonnes" - BEST STRATEGY ADVISORS na LinkedIn.

Vera N. of The Danube Desk offered an interesting counterpoint to the tonnage figures themselves, looking at the Polish market from the perspective of intermodal transport and warehousing: "Poland may be building something more valuable than logistics capacity: optionality", asking directly: "is Poland genuinely becoming more flexible as a logistics network, or are we simply building more capacity?" - Vera N. na LinkedIn.

Diesel rises again: carriers calculate what it really costs

On a German-language carrier forum, user Kipper-Spedition (Arndt) described the sharp increase in diesel prices in Germany: "The nationwide diesel price rose from around EUR 1.562 net per litre on 30 June to approximately EUR 1.790 to 1.798 net per litre", adding a recommendation for the industry: "Diesel surcharges must be adjusted" - Kipper-Spedition na forum-transportunternehmer.de.

At the same time, IRU (International Road Transport Union) focused on the staffing crisis in its August newsletter, also announcing a webinar on rates: "Plus, our European road freight rates webinar next week" - IRU na LinkedIn (28 reactions).

For comparison, the same discussion is taking place on the US-based r/FreightBrokers as here, only in a different currency - namely, that fuel and rates do not necessarily move in tandem. User BenefitShort7992 summed it up briefly: "Fuel went down and rates went up a few months ago. This supply and demand thing ya know" - u/BenefitShort7992 na r/FreightBrokers. It is the US market, but the mechanism - the divergence between fuel costs and the spot rate - is identical to that in Europe.

Asian ports under pressure: ocean freight rates fall, congestion remains

This is the thread most closely connected to today’s main topic. Drawing on Freightos’s weekly report, Yiqi Wang wrote: "Asia–Europe ocean rates are easing, but port pressure has not disappeared", giving specific figures: "Asia to North Europe: approximately USD 5,000 per FEU, around 14% below the July peak" and "Asia to the Mediterranean: approximately USD 6,000 per FEU, around 16% below the July peak". Referring to Maersk, Wang also noted that "terminal yard pressure remains elevated in parts of the region" - Yiqi Wang na LinkedIn.

Henry Waterfield went a step further, describing the effects of congestion at Chinese ports following Typhoon Dolphin: "Severe congestion at Asian ports is pushing major container carriers to reconsider Red Sea and Suez Canal routes as they look to free up vessel capacity", concluding bluntly on European rates: "Despite tightening capacity, European freight rates continue to soften. North Europe spot rates are currently around $4,300 to $4,900 per FEU, while Mediterranean rates are approximately $5,800 per FEU" - Henry Waterfield na LinkedIn (70 reactions, 2 comments).

For context, the day after this post, Upply published a recording of the webinar "Q2 2026 European Road Freight Benchmark" (Ti Insight x IRU x Upply) - precisely the one announced by IRU in the post quoted above.

Mobility Package and a water-starved Rhine: regulation and climate complicate routes

Freight forwarding company AMCO warned customers that new EU Mobility Package rules had just entered into force: "New EU Mobility Package rules are now in effect, extending tachograph, driving hours and rest requirements to light commercial vehicles between 2.5 and 3.5 tonnes operating internationally or under cabotage", adding that the company was "actively reviewing the most cost-effective ways to support customers while maintaining service reliability" - AMCO na LinkedIn.

There is also a factor discussed less often: low water levels on the Rhine. The Loadstar quoted an internal Kuehne+Nagel newsletter: "Record-low Rhine water levels, restricted rail capacity and limited road alternatives are increasing operational pressures on overland freight networks across Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland" - The Loadstar na LinkedIn. In other words, when barges cannot sail fully loaded, more freight still ends up on the roads, driving up road freight rates.

Sentiment of the day

The industry is not panicking, but it is alert: Eurostat data confirms that Poland transports the most freight in the EU, yet LinkedIn comments more often ask about "optionality" and flexibility than about volumes alone. Diesel and the Mobility Package are treated as costs to be managed, not catastrophes - but the carrier forum and industry posts alike are calling for fuel surcharges to be updated quickly. When it comes to ports, the mood is clearly mixed: ocean freight rates from Asia are easing, but none of the practitioners quoted here believes that congestion has actually disappeared - the pressure is shifting from price to delivery time.

Wykop and Polish driver forums (etransport.pl) produced no new, verifiable discussions about rates or regulations during this period - Hacker News and public Facebook pages/groups (including Obserwator Logistyczny, TSL Biznes and Kierowcy Zawodowi) returned only content unrelated to the day’s topic.