Rail and Truck Freight Price Trend and Forecast

Rail and Truck Freight Regional Price Overview

Get the latest insights on price movement and trend analysis of Rail and Truck Freight in different regions across the world (Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa).

Rail and Truck Freight Price Trend for the First Half of 2023

Rail and Truck Freight prices continued their upward journey in the H1’23 as well. The prices surged as the United Kingdom’s plan to hike train prices by 5.9% came into action in March’23. The surge in prices was primarily to tackle the stir caused by high inflation.
 

Rail and Truck Freight Price Chart

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As the new supply chains and trade routes were established to support trade, the prices rose for the trucking industry as well. The Russian invasion of Ukraine completely shook the European economy; all major industrial sectors suffered because of it, and most markets suffered demand destruction as the prices got unreasonably high, especially the energy prices. So, the trucking fare was also inclined to counter that. As the markets started opening again, there were more requirements for transportation. Overall, the Rail and Truck Freight prices remained afloat.

Analyst Insight

According to Procurement Resource, the Rail and Truck Freight prices are expected to fluctuate in the upcoming months as the markets strive for normalization.
 

Rail and Truck Freight Price Trend for the Second Half of 2022

Rail and Truck Freight prices usually depend on the fuel, coal, and energy prices the most. But geopolitical situations like the Russia – Ukraine war also made a significant impact. During the second half of the year 2022, the Rail and Truck Freight rose consistently. Indian Railways hiked prices for almost all kinds of trains without any significant improvement in facilities or service. In the United Kingdom, too, the train fare was projected for an approximately 5% hike.

The trucking fares also rose and were reported to be higher than the pre-pandemic levels during the said time period. As most customer companies shifted to more contract-based arrangements, a rise in driver wages, insurance fees, fuel, and maintenance costs raised the truck operational costs by around 21% as compared to the same times in the previous year. The trucking companies saw around a 7% rise in investments as the profit margins improved.

Analyst Insight

According to Procurement Resource, the Rail and Truck Freight prices are expected to grow further given the current volatilities in the global economy.
 

Rail and Truck Freight Price Trend for the First Half of 2022

The global supply chain disruptions due to the Russia-Ukraine war has exacerbated the position of the transport sector. The surging oil prices, and the additional CO2 taxes levied to reduce the carbon footprints had a significant impact on the diesel and fuel prices of a country.

In the US the truck freight costs have increased by 28% Y-O-Y basis almost double since 2019 levels due to the shortages of truck drivers and high-cost inflation. The high shipping demand still outweighs the restricted capacity of truck freights. The price of fuel has risen over 70% in the US with no sign of stopping. The cost of input equipment has risen by 50%.

Hence, all these factors heavily influenced the prices of truck freight. Currently, the prices of rail freight are still cheaper than truck freight, but the rising costs threaten to soon wipe out this advantage.

Due to the quadrupling of electricity prices each slowdown, extra stoppages increase the input costs for rail freight. The 30-35% rise in electricity prices decreases the profit margins of operating freights by 22%.Hence, the price trend for rail and truck freight kept soaring throughout the said period.

Procurement Resource provides latest prices of Rail and Truck Freight. Each price database is tied to a user-friendly graphing tool dating back to 2014, which provides a range of functionalities: configuration of price series over user defined time period; comparison of product movements across countries; customisation of price currencies and unit; extraction of price data as excel files to be used offline.