More freight on EU roads: why tonnes do not tell the whole story

Eurostat data published on September 24 show that EU roads carried 13.29 billion tonnes of goods in 2025, up 1.8% from the previous year. This measures annual cargo weight, rather than changes in hauliers’ revenue or profit.

Why does distance matter? Equal weights of locally delivered construction materials and food crossing national borders can require very different vehicle capacity. Tonne-kilometres account for distance as well as weight. The two measures should therefore be read together: more tonnes travelling shorter distances do not necessarily produce a proportional increase in transport performance.

For a Hungarian logistics company, the EU total offers useful demand context without settling the price of a particular route. Return loads, empty mileage, fuel and road charges also matter. Growing volumes do not establish better margins unless costs are considered.

The next checks are transport performance in Hungary and important partner countries, alongside changes in journey distances. They can show how much of the expansion reaches Hungarian hauliers. An EU aggregate cannot establish a Hungarian growth rate.