Hauliers with access to Slovenia and Czechia can now buy a cost advantage

The clearest freight example is Slovenia. TrasportoEuropa reports that Slovenia fixed the maximum diesel price at €1.528 per litre from 10 March after cutting excise duty, while self-service diesel on ordinary roads in Italy reached €2.072 per litre on 16 March. That left a gap of around 50 cents per litre, with peaks above 60 cents between stations only a few kilometres apart. For a truck taking 600 to 800 litres, the saving comes to roughly €240 to €400 per stop, and more for vehicles with dual tanks.

Czechia: “three times the traffic”

A similar situation is happening in Czechia, but from the German side. Seznam Zprávy reported on 10 March that traffic near some filling stations by the German border was almost at a standstill, with waits of 30 minutes or more, people filling many canisters, and queues so long they blocked access roads. At one Czech station, petrol was just under CZK 35 per litre and diesel was CZK 38, compared to about CZK 50 and CZK 54 at a nearby German station.

Other reports show the rush is even more intense at certain locations. Czech Radio said that one station near Domažlice saw traffic triple in a week. Expats.cz, quoting iRozhlas, reported that stations in western and north-western Bohemia are seeing more German drivers cross the border because fuel is still CZK 10–15 per litre cheaper than in Germany. Even with some variation between stations, it is clear that the price gap is big enough to change where people buy fuel and where traffic increases.

Germany is trying to slow price hikes but not close the gap

Germany has also moved to respond politically to the fuel surge. The federal cabinet has approved a measure to restrict how often filling stations can raise prices, with the economy ministry arguing that fuel prices often rise quickly when oil costs increase but fall only slowly when wholesale costs ease. Reuters reported earlier that Berlin was preparing to limit petrol stations to one price increase per day, alongside tougher antitrust oversight in the energy sector.

Why Slovenia is drawing trucks off higher-priced routes

For road freight, Slovenia is more than just a cheaper neighbour. Right now, it acts as a logistics “oasis.” Hauliers moving along the Italy–Slovenia–Croatia–Austria routes can still get regulated diesel at prices much lower than in nearby high-cost markets. TrasportoEuropa says this now includes not only Italian trucks but also Austrian and Croatian vehicles, since Slovenia is on major international freight routes and offers a lower regulated price.

The official Slovenian pricing system explains this. The government says the retail price for unleaded 95 and diesel is set using a method based on world market prices, the USD/EUR exchange rate, and 14-day averages. This formula does not remove all price swings, but it does create a government-set ceiling that can make Slovenia cheaper than its neighbours when excise and margin decisions work in its favour.

This advantage has become strong enough to cause supply problems. ANSA reported on 13 March that Slovenia would slowly release oil reserves after some border stations ran out of fuel. The agency said the main pressure came from foreign demand, especially from Austria. On the Italian side, the effect was smaller for petrol because subsidies in Friuli Venezia Giulia keep Italian petrol prices competitive near the border. Diesel is a different story, which is why this issue affects hauliers more than private drivers.

There are also rules and operational details to consider. TrasportoEuropa reports that Slovenian law allows only 10 extra litres of fuel in approved containers beyond what is in the vehicle’s tank, with fines up to €5,000 for breaking this rule. The same report says that in Italy, authorities have challenged vehicles with tanks larger than allowed because of excise-duty issues.