Easter holidays bring bargain backloads on West to East routes, says sennder

According to digital freight forwarder sennder, the movement of drivers in and around the Easter holidays means that the cost of transport from Western Europe to Central Europe is lower than normal, with the reverse being true in the opposite direction.

The possibly of some bargain backloads is one of a number of observations sennder has made about the influence of the Easter holidays on the European road transport market.

When it comes to this year, sennder says that 2023’s peak is expected to be comparably lower due to the current challenging economic environment. This is despite the fact that the annual holiday normally sees an increase in volumes, particularly for fast-moving consumer goods.

“Spot rates are currently flat or still in decline, indicating that there is still plenty of space capacity, while transportation costs in general remained below 2022 levels on average across Europe in March,” added the well-known digital freight forwarder.

Interestingly, sennder has also noted how lorry driver demographics mean that the Easter holidays typically bring lower priced West to East backloads on different weeks.

The digital freight forwarder told trans.iNFO that Polish capacity, for instance, relies on catholic and orthodox drivers. Ahead of Easter, sennder has observed how Polish carriers backhaul trucks with Polish crew to homebase in the run-up to Good Friday. According to sennder, this means lower rates on these routes as well as higher carrier rates for deliveries on Polish outbound routes.

In addition, sennder told trans.iNFO that a similar pattern will be echoed a week later with orthodox drivers.

“Last year, in the week leading up to Easter, sennder saw an 8.7% WoW increase in freight rates on Polish inbound routes from Germany and a 3.1% WoW decrease on Polish outbound routes to Germany over the same period,” sennder told trans.iNFO.

Will we see this trend grow further this year due to the Mobility Package being fully implemented in more EU countries? In response to this question, a sennder representative said:

“For the Polish market, the biggest change resulting from the EU mobility package is the restriction of cabotage, the obligation for drivers to return to their home country every four weeks, and the adjustment of drivers’ wage costs, which leads to an increase of about 20-25% compared to previous years. While the regulations have a general impact on operations, we don’t anticipate a significant impact on the phenomenon of pre-Easter returns to Poland.”

Photo: Wolkenkratzer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons