Road goods transport by foreign lorries, 2009

Polish lorries transported 910 500 tonnes of goods to, from and inside Norway during 2009, compared with 601 300 tonnes in 2008. This is a growth of 51.4 per cent. The Polish transporters have increased rapidly, and were third behind Sweden and Denmark in tonnage carried to, from and inside Norway in 2009.

A total of 12.8 million tonnes of goods were transported to and from Norway during 2009. Of this, lorries from other EEA countries carried 7.4 million tonnes, or 57.7 per cent. During the previous year, lorries from these countries transported 7.6 million tonnes of goods to or from Norway, which corresponds to 54.7 per cent.

One quarter of the transport performance with foreign lorries

The total transport performance; a term that covers both the transport distance and the tonnage carried, also fell in 2009. Norwegian and foreign lorries combined performed 24.4 billion tonne kilometres on journeys to, from and inside Norway in 2009, compared with 27 billion in 2008. The foreign lorries contributed with 6.1 billion tonne kilometres during 2009; 0.3 billion less than in 2008. Nevertheless, the foreigners’ share of the transport performance increased from 23.5 per cent in 2008 to 24.8 per cent in 2009.

Swedes and Germans are loosing shares

Swedish lorries accounted for almost 40 per cent of the tonnage carried and 22 per cent of the transport performance by foreign lorries to, from and in Norway in 2009. However, as is also the case for the Norwegian lorries, they are falling behind compared with other nationalities. The previous year, Swedish lorries had 46 per cent of the tonnage carried and almost 28 per cent of the transport performance. The German transporters also had a downturn in Norway from 2008 to 2009.

Little cabotage

The foreign lorries mainly transport between Norway and other countries. During 2009, 66.9 per cent of the imported and 47.9 per cent of the exported tonnes of goods were transported by vehicles from the other EEA countries. Domestic transports are mainly performed by Norwegian lorries. The so called cabotage, where a foreign transporter carries goods from one place in Norway to another place in Norway, amounted to only 0.1 per cent of the total domestic transport in 2009.

Tables:

• Table 1 Road goods transport by foreign lorries. Transport performances. 2000-2009