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Czech haulage association paints bleak picture with German toll hike set to hit hard

Česmad Bohemia, the main haulage association of the Czech Republic, has forecast a grim outlook for its members following an investigation it conducted last week. Besides the imminent German road toll hike that will significantly increase costs, Česmad Bohemia says that Czech hauliers are facing unprecedentedly low numbers of orders in the next 6 months.

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The two issues above are the main negatives to come from Česmad Bohemia’s research, the organisation said in a statement issued on Friday.

It said that hauliers were expecting a “historic worst situation” when it comes to the number of orders for the next 6 months.

According to Česmad Bohemia’s survey, only around 20% of hauliers are optimistic about the next 6 months, which is 20% lower than summer 2023. “This means that we are not going to see a recovery in the economy for a long time,” said Česmad Bohemia.

The second major problem is negotiating rate rises with customers due to the massive impact of the imminent German road toll increase.

According to the Czech Haulage association, 40% of customers have not yet confirmed that they shall accept rate rises.

Commenting on the situation, Vojtěch Hromíř, Secretary General of the Association of Česmad Bohemia, said:

“According to our findings, road freight customers haven’t accepted that the Green Deal is beginning to affect them. Few expected that German road toll charges would practically double, especially when the audited increase in the Czech Republic from 1st March is 15%, and only 7.4% in Austria from January. No road operator can absorb even part of the German increase in the toll when the margin in this field is within just a few percent. In addition, carriers must also calculate higher charges for empty transit kilometers. An increase in road transport rates is inevitable, and not only importers will feel it, but our entire export-oriented economy.”