Transport: Rotterdam and Hungarian customs under pressure on 11 September
Industrial action in the Netherlands may disrupt reefer handling and rail connections from Rotterdam, while an evening outage in EU customs systems is scheduled in Hungary. At the same time, data from Switzerland shows growth in Alpine road freight, increasing pressure on truck availability on north–south routes.
Prepared by the CargoNice editorial team with AI support, based on the sources listed and CargoNice's own market data. Machine translation of the Polish original. Editorial policy · Read the Polish original
- 7,17 PLN/lOrlen diesel, 11 September
- 2 107,39 EUR/1000LEU diesel, 7 September
- 1,99 EUR/kmPoland→Germany spot rate
- 68%Rail across the Alps
Market today in figures (CargoNice data)
The Orlen diesel price is 7,17 PLN/l, according to the reading from 11 September 2026, up 0,12 PLN/l from the previous reading. The average diesel price in Poland was 1 982,04 EUR/1000L on 7 September 2026, while the EU average was 2 107,39 EUR/1000L on the same day. The spot rate on the Poland→Germany lane reached 1,99 EUR/km on 7 September 2026, a change of -0,18 EUR/km compared with the previous reading.
Higher fuel costs combined with a lower rate on the Poland→Germany lane reduce the margin for absorbing delays and additional kilometres in international haulage.
Rotterdam: risks for reefer and hinterland rail services
ECT Hutchison Ports has announced planned industrial action on 11 September 2026 across the Dutch metal and technical sector. The operator expects a significant impact on services involving refrigerated containers and recommends collecting such containers before Friday wherever possible.
Disruptions may also affect rail availability at ECT terminals and Hutchison Ports Europe Intermodal hinterland connections. This is important for import loads whose port collection and onward rail shipment are planned as one continuous operational process.
Carriers and terminal operators have not announced a complete suspension of services, but the notice clearly points to an increased risk of delays. Particular attention should be paid to container release deadlines, collection slots and confirmations that the unit has been positioned for rail transport.
Hungary: evening outage in EU customs systems
Hungary’s tax and customs administration, NAV, has announced technical work from 18:00 to 23:59, 10 September 2026. The outage covers EUCTP services, including INF-STP, eBTI-STP, REX-STP and PoUS-STP, as well as ICS2 STI-STP.
For operators handling import customs clearance, transit procedures and safety and security filings, this creates a risk that declarations or amendments may be submitted late. NAV states that significant failures of electronic administration may be taken into account when procedural deadlines are assessed, but this requires evidence of the technical problem to be retained.
Separately, the authority reported that disruptions to the EMCS system for the movement of excise goods, which began on 9 September 2026, still require a further notice confirming that the problem has been resolved. For excise shipments, operators should not assume that the system has automatically returned to full availability without confirmation.
Switzerland: road freight grows faster than rail across the Alps
The Swiss Federal Office of Transport reported that total Alpine transit freight increased in the first half of 2026 as economic and market conditions improved. Rail freight grew by 3,1%, but road transport grew faster.
As a result, rail’s share of freight transport across the Alps fell to 68%. The data indicates that rail did not absorb all the additional demand on north–south routes, while the share handled by road transport increased.
The authority also recorded an 8% decline in the number of loaded wagons in domestic single-wagonload traffic. This does not determine the availability of a specific service for an individual transport order, but it reinforces the need to check both road and rail options in parallel on Switzerland–Italy and DACH–Italy routes.
Source: Swiss Federal Office of Transport
Cyber resilience: new obligations for technology providers
From 11 September 2026, manufacturers of hardware and software containing digital elements must comply with the reporting obligations under the EU Cyber Resilience Act. These concern actively exploited vulnerabilities and serious security incidents.
The initial warning must be submitted within 24 hours of receiving information about the incident, followed by a complete report within 72 hours. Reports will be handled through the CRA Single Reporting Platform and forwarded to the relevant national CSIRT and ENISA.
For freight forwarding, the technology supply chain is crucial: TMS platforms, telematics, freight exchanges, on-board devices and document management tools. Full application of the broader CRA requirements is planned from 11 December 2027.
Source: European Commission | Source: ENISA
In brief
- German platform FRYTE Mobility has raised 3,5 mln EUR in seed funding; the company is developing route planning and charging reservations for electric trucks in Europe. For transport orders requiring electric tractor units, charging availability is becoming part of pricing and delivery-date reliability. Source: 4impact capital
Community voice: Rotterdam under pressure, rates rising, drivers still in short supply
What the industry says · last 24 h- LinkedIn (20 zapytań) · 134
- Facebook (grupy i strony TSL) · 50
- YouTube (3 zapytania) · 39
- Wykop.pl · 9
- Reddit (5 subreddittów) · 200
- trucker-forum.at / planet-truck.fr · 6
Rotterdam and Antwerp: the industry comments on port congestion
The port-related story that led the blog today is also generating discussion in freight forwarders' LinkedIn posts. Logistics company Freightbox UK wrote directly about a combination of problems: "Rotterdam is facing greater pressure. Low water levels on the Rhine have reduced available barge capacity, increasing demand for road and rail transport. Industrial action is also creating further potential disruption to terminal and inland operations." - Freightbox UK, 8 September.
British freight forwarder Ryan Lem warned his network that the coming days would be crucial: "The Port of Rotterdam is an important area to watch over the coming days as a combination of operational disruption, regional port pressure and inland logistics challenges could create further delays across the Northwest European supply chain... The coming 7–14 days will be important." - Ryan Lem, 6 September.
Analyst Sean Fang provided the details, reconstructing the timetable of strikes at North Sea ports: "🇩🇪 From September 2 at 22:00, Germany's ver.di launched a 48-hour warning strike across six major North Sea ports... 🇳🇱 As the German strike was coming to an end, Dutch unions FNV and CNV launched an 8-hour coordinated stoppage on September 4, affecting Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Zeeland... Reported pre-strike figures showed: 🇩🇪 Bremerhaven — vessel waiting time around 3.56 days, yard utilization 97%; Hamburg — waiting time around 2.04 days, yard utilization 78%." - Sean Fang, 7 September.
DSV (an office in Canada, although the message concerned the entire European network) advised customers to allow extra time: "Port workers in Rotterdam and Amsterdam are expected to stop work on 4 September 2026... allow an additional 7 to 10 days buffer on shipments moving to or from these locations until operations normalize." - Katie De Silva.
Dutch company Van der Helm added the terminal perspective: "Several terminals will temporarily suspend or limit truck handling, which may lead to delays and increased congestion before and after the strike." - Van der Helm.
The voice most interesting from a road transport perspective is that of Oliver Chiaramonte, who links low water levels on the Rhine with the driver shortage in Germany: "Historically low water levels on the Rhine have reduced barge capacity and increased transport costs... Germany has temporarily relaxed certain heavy goods vehicle restrictions to give road freight more room to respond. But there is an important limitation. Road transport cannot create unlimited capacity overnight. Germany is already facing a severe driver shortage..." - Oliver Chiaramonte, 1 September.
From the Hungarian side of the industry, the Trans.INFO Hungary news profile described some truck traffic in Antwerp being shifted to nighttime hours — and the comments under the post showed that drivers did not welcome the idea: "They are really screwing over the Belgians... What will happen to them now?" (literally, "they have really done the drivers over... what will happen to them now?") - wrote Pé Misu, while Héja Norbert added bitterly: "Let the serfs not sleep at night." Others asked directly whether anyone had consulted carriers: "Did you discuss this with the truck drivers as well?" - József Borbély, and "Of course. And what about the port??" - Zoltán Besenyei. Trans.INFO Hungary, 10 September.
EU customs: new authority, end of the "de minimis" exemption
The Council of the EU announced on LinkedIn the final approval of the customs union reform, which directly affects freight forwarders handling customs clearance: "Today, the Council gave its final green light to a landmark reform of the EU customs framework. The reform introduces: a new EU customs authority; a single EU customs data hub; enhanced simplifications for the most trusted traders; new measures to address the rise of e-commerce." - Council of the European Union, 3 September, 339 likes.
Swiss company Asendia explained the consequences for e-commerce and small consignments: "Following the removal of the €150 customs duty exemption on 1 July 2026, another significant change is now on the horizon: mandatory Product Identifiers (PIDs) for qualifying ecommerce imports into the European Union from 1 November 2026." - Asendia, 4 September.
The industry was silent on LinkedIn this week about Hungary and customs — searches in Hungarian and English ("Hungary border customs trucks", "Zollkontrollen LKW Ungarn") produced no fresh EU-related discussion. The activity surrounding the Balkan blockades described below came closest to the subject of borders.
Hungary and the Balkans: border blockades electrify drivers
The Trans.INFO Hungary profile warned: "Another truck blockade at the Balkan borders is coming within days!" Comments under the post were politically charged — Peti Kovács wrote: "They should close it forever, then they can go and pay their respects to Mladić." - Trans.INFO Hungary, 10 September.
Meanwhile, László Sándor summed up the news that Burgenland was abolishing road tolls for trucks but tightening transit rules sarcastically: "So we didn't shit in the well, just on the tally board 🤣" - Trans.INFO Hungary, 9 September.
Freight rates are bouncing off the bottom, but drivers are still in short supply
Polish industry voice Piotr Marynowski described a noticeable change in the trend on LinkedIn: "The situation in the European road transport market has changed noticeably in recent months. After a long period of strong cost pressure, the market is beginning to improve from the carriers' perspective. Freight rates have increased, particularly on the spot market, while the availability of trucks on many routes has become more limited... The shortage of professional drivers remains another important issue." - Piotr Marynowski, 2 September.
Transporeon data confirms this: "The European FTL market is experiencing one of its most volatile periods in recent memory. Demand is now at its highest level since the 2022 post-COVID peak, while capacity remains tight — pushing spot market premiums up more than 11% year-on-year and contract pricing up 10%." - Transporeon, 3 September.
Mariusz Literski of Lorenc Logistic Polska writes most emphatically about the staffing shortages: "Poland has more than 550,000 professional drivers, including around 370,000 working in international transport. Nearly 146,500 valid driver certificates are currently held by people from non-EU countries... Since the 2023 peak of around 162,500 valid certificates, the number of non-EU drivers has fallen by almost 10%." - Mariusz Literski, 4 September. In the comments, Paulina Woś-Godlewska added: "The lack of real dialogue between the administration and TSL sector is driving international transport into a corner... Third-country drivers wait months for their residence permits.", while German carrier Morten Svendsen retorted: "Just the same in Germany. Only that we are no 'number' in international transport as the polish companies."
Polish TSL industry: LNG tractor units, the DSV–Schenker merger and a first job in freight forwarding
On the Trans.INFO Poland profile, a report about testing LNG tractor units sparked considerable debate: "A Polish carrier took delivery of 50 LNG tractor units. The test showed a 31.5 percent lower cost per kilometre." Industry reactions were sceptical — Krzysztof Nosal: "31.5% blah blah blah. Why are the vehicles covered by a full service package 🤪 I guess we know why. After 5 years nobody who can count will buy this junk", Sławek Narloch: "zero resale value later", Andrzej Polej: "And daily torment for the driver — a break at the station every day ;)" and Adam Jeżyszek: "And soon there'll be crying." Trans.INFO Poland, 10 September.
On the occasion of a news item about rising German groupage costs, Lori Jimn summed it up briefly: "And that groupage is DHL 🤣🤣🤣" - Trans.INFO Poland, 10 September.
DSV's integration problems following its acquisition of Schenker were also discussed lively on LinkedIn — a post by industry observer Martijn Lofvers (Supply Chain Europe) collected 562 likes: "DSV struggles with integration of Schenker network... In some European countries, DSV is facing lower productivity, network issues and disappointing volume growth... In road transport alone, more than twenty different platforms need to be consolidated into a single modern TMS." - Martijn Lofvers, 7 September. Raoul Gelmers captured the mood accurately: "Schenker has always felt quite personal in the way they work with customers, while DSV seems much more driven by scale, standardisation, efficiency and price discipline... It is a bit like merging a red political party with a blue one."
From the perspective of people just entering the profession, viewer @prosiak7606 left an honest comment under a video from the Szkołaspedytora_pl channel about jobs for freight forwarders: "I completed a bachelor's degree in Logistics in July, specialising in Transport, freight forwarding and warehousing. I am currently looking for a job, but there isn't much choice in my area... I would like to work in the profession, but I am a little worried about whether I can handle the pressure. Most of the vacancies I have found are in international freight forwarding, and I am a little afraid to go into that as a complete beginner." - Szkołaspedytora_pl, 4 September.
Drivers on parking and bureaucracy
A quote from a DEKRA report on the shortage of parking spaces circulated in the Facebook group "Forum - czas pracy kierowcy TIRa": "🚛 An hour spent looking for parking... 43% of drivers say that finding a place for their overnight rest usually takes them 30–60 minutes... 🇩🇪 The situation is worst in Germany." - Forum - czas pracy kierowcy TIRa, 6 September.
On Wykop, user kubako briefly commented on the exemption of vans from the e-TOLL charge from 21 September: "well, that's logical" - wykop.pl, 7 September. A thread about Labour Inspectorate checks of B2B contracts for professional drivers ("B2B pathology - Labour Inspectorate starts checking professional drivers' contracts") had been circulating on Wykop since 6 September, but the comments loaded via JavaScript and could not be retrieved in full.
Reddit (r/logistics, r/supplychain, r/FreightBrokers, r/Truckers) and Hacker News were reviewed, but this week they were dominated by US-related topics (US–China tariffs and the logistics labour market in the US) — with no fresh discussions specifically related to the EU, so no quotes from these sources are included here.
Sentiment of the day
The industry is watching Rotterdam and Antwerp with concern, but without panic — freight forwarders view the strikes and low water levels on the Rhine as another seasonal problem to be managed with time buffers, not a catastrophe. The tone of discussions about rates is cautiously optimistic ("the market is improving"), while the driver issue — whether Hungarian blockades, nighttime work in Antwerp or the migration of non-EU drivers — generates the most emotion and sarcasm. Fatigue with bureaucracy persists in the background: from customs union reform and PIDs for e-commerce to e-TOLL and B2B contract checks.
Sources unavailable today: forum.soferdetir.ro (DNS error, subdomain not responding), forotransportistas.es and foros24h.com (forums technically active, but with no threads from 2026). trucker-forum.at and planet-truck.fr were working, but had no fresh threads about customs or Rotterdam.
Worth watching
Praca spedytora i dyspozytora – aktualne oferty na Pracuj.pl | Praca Spedytora #31
Szkołaspedytora_pl
Pokazuje realia rynku pracy dla początkujących spedytorów oczami samych widzów, co dobrze uzupełnia wątek niedoboru kadr w branży.
Quotes come from public discussions in the industry community. Original spelling has been preserved.