Five Countries Account For Two-Thirds Of EU Road Freight
Road freight transport across the European Union continued to grow in 2025, highlighting the dominant role of a handful of member states in the bloc’s logistics network. According to Eurostat, total road freight reached 1,886 billion tonne-kilometres, up 0.9% from a year earlier, while the volume of goods transported increased by 1.8% to 13.3 billion tonnes.
Poland Remains The Largest Freight Market
Poland retained its leading position with 381.0 billion tonne-kilometres, accounting for 20.2% of all EU road freight activity. Germany ranked second with 277.4 billion tonne-kilometres (14.7%), followed closely by Spain with 272.6 billion tonne-kilometres (14.5%).
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France and Italy completed the top five, recording 172.9 billion and 161.7 billion tonne-kilometres, respectively. Together, the five countries accounted for 67.1% of all road freight transport across the European Union.
Domestic Transport Continues To Dominate
National transport within individual member states remained the largest segment, representing 62.2% of all road freight measured in tonne-kilometres. Direct international transport accounted for 24.4%, while cross trade represented 10.7% and cabotage the remaining 2.7%.
Domestic transport recorded the strongest growth, rising 2.2% year on year. International transport increased by 0.3%, while cross trade and cabotage declined by 3.7% and 3.0%, respectively.
Germany Anchors Europe’s Cross-Border Freight Network
Measured by the weight of goods transported, the busiest cross-border corridor remained the route between Germany and the Netherlands, with 86.9 million tonnes moved during the year. Germany and Poland followed with 68.4 million tonnes, ahead of Belgium and France with 55.9 million tonnes.
Germany appeared as either the origin or destination in six of the EU’s ten busiest bilateral freight routes, underscoring its central role in Europe’s road freight network.
