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»Give your hand to Ukraine«: A truck at the A2 motorway service station in Lehrte.
Many Ukrainian drivers working in the West have returned home because of the war.
Photo: Ole Spata / dpa
The Federal Association of Forwarding and Logistics (DSLV) fears bottlenecks in truck transport as a result of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
"Truck drivers from Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and Russia are hardly available for the European market," says an internal paper by the leading association of the forwarding and logistics industry, excerpts of which are available to SPIEGEL.
"The European freight capacities in road freight transport are [...] restricted by up to seven percent as a result."
The authors warn that the driver shortage that already exists across Europe will be exacerbated by the crisis.
“Before the war broke out, around 100,000 Ukrainian drivers were employed in Poland alone.
[...] If more Ukrainian, Russian, Belarusian and Eastern European truck drivers are withdrawn from the European road freight markets, this will lead to further bottlenecks in loading space.«
According to industry insiders, Polish trucking companies are increasingly hiring Polish drivers to replace Ukrainians who now have to or want to fight in the war.
These Polish drivers are then missing from their previous employers, such as German transport companies.
Supply »currently guaranteed«
The DSLV confirmed the authenticity of the paper to SPIEGEL.
Managing Director Frank Huster emphasized that Germany's supply of food and other important goods is currently guaranteed.
However, the transports would become more expensive - due to higher driver salaries and above all because of the sharp rise in fuel prices.
The association is also concerned about disruptions in rail freight and sea freight traffic between Europe and Asia.
The rail connection via Ukraine to the east has been interrupted, but not yet via Russia and Belarus.
"Further hindrances [...] on Russian territory can severely disrupt the procurement channels of European industrial companies and trading houses," the paper says.
In view of its own bottlenecks, sea traffic can no longer absorb these disruptions to trans-Eurasian rail freight traffic, the authors write: »In anticipation of possible EU sanctions (ban on entry for ships flying the Russian flag), the ports of Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp are already accepting ships coming from Russia or for Russia no longer designated containers, which further disrupts operational handling.«
And due to renewed corona lockdowns in China, the clearances in two large ports in the People's Republic have also come to a standstill.
The prices of goods rise with the transport costs
According to the internal DSLV paper, logistics and transport services for all modes of transport are currently becoming noticeably more expensive.
And: »The price development for logistics services is already having an effect on the price level of industrial and consumer goods.«
According to the paper, the effect of economic sanctions and the closure of production sites could theoretically lead to lower demand for transport and an adjustment to the lower supply.
However, this cannot be reliably predicted.
