The future of road transportation in the EU

Abstract

The two main targets of the European Union are to liberalize the road transportation market, and to decrease the emissions and pollution caused by the transportation industry. Besides these, the EU is working on improving the working conditions and the road safety in the road transportation sector. By 2030, the target is to finish the TEN-T network, which would provide intermodal connections between seaports, major manufacturing areas and important trade routes. Due to the EU targets the logistics and transportation sector faces many challenges. The transportation industry and the member states need to react to these targets and implement the EU measures and invest in infrastructure in order to reach the requirements set by the EU. The target of the thesis is to introduce the challenges the road transportation industry faces due to the EU legislation, what advantages EU brings to the transportation companies, what possibilities the new technologies bring to the freight industry, what are the possible effects of intermodality on road transportation. The main conclusion of the thesis is that member states must play an active role both in protecting national transport markets and in promoting the competitiveness of transport companies. In order to avoid confusions in regard to market liberalization the member states should strive for legal harmonization as soon as possible, and that besides the usage of new technologies, and widening the cooperation, road transport operators will need to find the market segments where they can still dominate the market.