Cargo transportation sagged at the beginning of the year, but in September showed an increase of 20%

During the lockdown, order volumes fell sharply, but recovery began in June, and the industry began to grow in the third quarter.

The lockdown period was difficult for the road haulage market – orders fell sharply. However, recovery began in June, and in the third quarter, the industry won back all losses and started to grow. This is confirmed by the statistics of the ATI.SU Freight Transport Exchange.

According to the results of nine months, the road transportation market showed even slight growth compared to the same period last year. Thus, the number of requests for transporting goods increased by 5.5% compared to 2019, to almost 20 million. At the same time, the average cost of transportation remained at approximately the same level (about 39,000 rubles).

At the same time, during these months the market was in great fever. Thus, at the very beginning of the pandemic, the demand for transportation increased markedly, as both enterprises and consumers sought to stock up. In March, the number of orders on the exchange increased by 23%, amounting to almost 2.5 million. However, with the start of the lockdown, the trend reversed – in April, the number of orders dropped to 1.87 million (-18% compared to April 2019), and in May it fell to 1.75 million (-20%).

However, in June, with the abolition of most of the restrictions, transportation recovered to last year's level (2.24 million), and then began a tangible increase. In July and August, the number of requests exceeded 2.7 million (+ 16%), and in September it exceeded 2.9 million, while the growth compared to last year was 27%.

Other trends include a decrease in international import traffic caused by coronavirus restrictions and problems at the borders. According to the ATI.SU Freight Transport Exchange, almost all destinations were significantly affected, including the most popular ones, Belarus (-5%) and Kazakhstan (-27%). At the same time, there is no such regularity in export traffic: traffic to Kazakhstan and Ukraine increased somewhat, while to Belarus, on the contrary, fell.

If talking about transportation in Russia, then in the third quarter of this year there was a slight increase in almost all main directions. Only shipments from the Sverdlovsk region (-7%), as well as to Moscow (-7%) and St. Petersburg (-3%) sagged. The latter is quite understandable given the fact that under quarantine conditions, some residents of both capitals temporarily moved out of town. The Moscow region strongly keeps its leading positions: during this period, 2.5 million requests were received for transportation from the Moscow region (+ 18%) and 1.7 million for transportation to there (+ 4%).

In the transportation of certain categories of goods, there has generally been some growth, especially in the most popular categories. Thus, the number of requests for the transportation of consumer goods increased by 12%, and food products – by 14%. The leaders in terms of progress were the transportation of tank containers (more than twofold growth in requests), mushrooms (+ 79%), ice cream (+ 51%), cars (+ 43%), grain (+ 40%), and household appliances ( + 39%). We also note a significant (+ 20%) growth in traffic in the “home moving” category.

At the same time, in a number of categories of goods there was a decrease in traffic volumes. It affected, in particular, many materials for repair and construction (bricks, gas silicate blocks, cement, plywood, etc.). There was also a sharp decline in the transport of tobacco products (-35%).

“This spring was very difficult for the road freight industry: we are faced with a decrease in the volume of orders and transportation costs, a decrease in the number of open directions. But by June the situation began to stabilize. From the beginning of the third quarter, as our statistics show, growth has resumed. According to our estimates, the growth in the volume of orders in the main directions in the third quarter can be estimated at the level of 20%, this is compared to the same period in 2019", commented Svyatoslav Vilde, Manager of the ATI.SU Freight Transport Exchange.