The Chancellor was able to really calm things down Friedrich Merz the freight transporters did not when he visited a medium-sized transport and logistics company in the far northwest of Germany a few days ago: On the Chancellor’s visit to Akkermann Transporte – with 100 employees and 65 trucks – in Moormerland near Emden, the Federal Association of Freight Transport Logistics (BGL) reports on the statement of the board spokesman Dirk Engelhardt, who was also present: “The situation in the medium-sized transport industry is extremely tense. Our companies now need political ones Reliability.” Managing director Klaus Akkermann is quoted as saying that the Chancellor has experienced first-hand what road freight transport in Germany achieves and under what conditions. “We hope that today’s exchange will result in concrete steps.”
But what the Federal Chancellery published about Chancellor Merz’s visit seems almost like a cold shower: it’s not about the needs of the transport companies, who fear the drastic consequences of expensive diesel. During his visit, Merz made it clear “what an outstanding importance the maritime economy has for all of us,” according to the Federal Chancellery. It is about correctly classifying the strategic importance of ports and waterways. Not a word about the freight transport industry.
Expensive diesel creates losses
The mood there is still depressed or combative. Even with the reduction in taxes on gasoline and diesel, freight transport companies still have to worry about making losses from operating each individual truck. As the FAZ’s approximate calculations of companies in the freight transport industry showed before the Chancellor’s visit, any earnings prospects have turned bleak since February with the price increases for diesel fuel by around 35 percent.
According to their information, the industry achieved an average profit margin of two percent by February. The increase in diesel prices alone turned the calculation – with otherwise constant costs and constant revenue – into a loss margin of 5.1 percent. The now decided tax cut of 17 cents per liter (for the freight transporters who only pass on VAT, it is a 14 cent cost reduction) still leads to losses in the same calculation model. In the calculation, the loss margin is then 3.1 percent of income and thus sales.
One issue that freight transport companies have felt misunderstood for a long time is the importance of fuel for operational costs. For freight transporters whose trucks only travel around 100,000 kilometers a year, the fuel bill’s share of the total operational costs per truck was around 22 percent until February, around 28 percent in April, and is expected to be around 26 percent after the tax cut in May. The toll fees for the use of motorways and the most important federal roads also account for a further 17 to 18 percent. These tolls have recently been doubled through the introduction of CO2 taxes for the use of diesel engines.
Diesel and tolls account for up to 45 percent of the costs
Overall, in a truck that travels 100,000 kilometers per year, the expenses for fuel and tolls – which cannot be influenced by the freight transport company – account for a total of 40 to 45 percent of the operational costs, those for the vehicle only between 18 and 20 percent, and the wage costs for the drivers between 37 and 40 percent. For trucks traveling 200,000 kilometers per year, the fuel share of operational costs alone rose to 30 percent, plus toll fees with a share of 18 to 20 percent.
Christopher Schuldes, from the management of the transport company of the same name based in Alsbach-Sandwiese, 25 kilometers south of Darmstadt near the A 5, sees the situation as similar to the sample calculations for the entire industry. The company has 25 trucks and has 48 employees, reports Schuldes. “Our profit margin is around two percent. Nobody in the industry gets rich,” says Christopher Schuldes. “Therefore, if fuel costs rise, we won’t be able to lose any of our profit margins. If diesel prices rise, our existence will quickly be jeopardized.”
Little opportunity to compensate for fuel costs
There are few alternative options for saving costs to compensate for more expensive diesel. You could extend a leasing contract, possibly switch to a cheaper truck, but that doesn’t change much about the substance. Driving the vehicles for six or seven years instead of five years is of little use because the costs for maintenance and repairs would then usually rise significantly. Therefore, the trucks are usually changed after five years and the old ones are sold abroad.
Anyone who drives an electric truck can of course save half the toll fees. But there was a lack of fast charging options, and electric trucks cost twice or three times as much as diesel-powered ones.
For Schuldes, loan financing for the gaps in ongoing business is not a solution: “That would be the wrong approach,” says Schuldes. “If our work cannot cover the costs of the service, bridging the gaps with loans is the wrong approach. This endangers the existence of the company and the wages of the employees, and you don’t play with something like that.”
Fear of unfair competition with foreign trucks
Finally, there is also the question of how the market share of German transport companies on German roads and motorways is developing. After all, foreign competitors have many advantages here: their drivers do not work at the German minimum wage, and they can fill up cheaper across the border. “But those of the German transport companies who only drive domestic routes will not be able to access the cheap fuel in neighboring countries.” The freight rates are still barely adequate, “due to some players on the market,” says Schuldes. “But the transport service must also be valued in monetary terms.”
In the end, the cost burden must be passed on. There are some contracts for transport services in which changes in diesel prices are taken into account. But even those who receive compensation for higher fuel prices first have to wait six weeks or two months and finance this time.
“The political discussion recently has always been about commuters and less about freight transport. But if nothing is done, all consumers will ultimately be affected,” says Schuldes. The freight transporters would have to pass on an additional cost burden, and it would have to be taken into account that each yogurt cup would have to be transported several times because there were several trucks and warehouses in the background. “The question is, how do we get people to understand that we’re not the bad guys? Because we don’t earn anything from the price increases.”
