THE EUROPEAN TRANSPORT LOGISTICS MARKET

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1 THE EUROPEAN TRANSPORT LOGISTICS MARKET Ing. Peter Majerčák, PhD. Žilinská univerzita v Žiline Fakulta prevádzky a ekonomiky dopravy a spojov Katedra ekonomiky peter.majercak@fpedas.utc.sk Transport is a key factor in modern economies. It is essential for the competitiveness and the growth of the economy of the European Community. Therefore the European Community puts great emphasis on a transport policy which enforces measures to overcome current problems as congestion and pollution by developing and implementing sustainable solutions. As demand for transport keeps increasing, the Community s answer cannot be just to build new infrastructure and open up markets. The transport system needs to be optimised to meet the demands of enlargement and sustainable development, as set out in the conclusions of the Gothenburg European Council. A modern transport system must be sustainable from an economic and social as well as an environmental point of view. Plans for the future of the transport sector must take account of its economic importance. The total expenditure runs to some 1,000 billion, which is more than 10 % of gross domestic product of the Community. The sector employs more than 10 million people. The common European transport policy is a main pillar for a healthy and growing European economy. This common transport policy has a long history which had to cope with huge difficulties. With the Treaty of Maastricht the political, institutional and budgetary foundations for transport policy were reinforced. Thus, the Commission s first White Paper on the future development of the common transport policy was published in December The guiding principle of the document was the opening-up of the transport market. Over the last 10 years, this objective has been generally achieved, except in the rail sector1. In detail the degree of liberalisation

2 between the different modes of transport varies a lot. Furthermore, the lack of harmonisation of the competitive conditions is still a current problem. Nowadays, the European transport logistics market is undergoing immense changes which are taken into account by the latest Commission s White Paper European Transport Policy for 2010: Time to decide. The importance of logistics is increasing dramatically. As it is said above the transport markets in Europe have been highly regulated till the 1990s. The liberalisation policy of the EU regarding the European transport and logistics markets is a cause for essential market changes. That means in detail the privatisation /transition in private-economic structures (limited companies) and opening of national partitioned markets for foreign competitors. Manufacturers are stronger focussing on their core activities and source out their logistics activities to logistics service providers. Further causes were the diffusion of new information and communication technologies and the individualisation of demand (justin-time-structures). With the EU East expansion the European transport market will grow into a new dimension. These aspects set the frame for the current status and the future developments in logistics. This means for logistics enterprises that their actions and future strategies have to orientate on these trends. The enterprises react to these changes with re- and new organisation/structuring of their business processes through co-operations, strategic alliances and above all with acquisitions. Especially larger companies are very active in improving their profile as logistics service providers. But also policy measures are initiated to accompany these economic changes. In general, with the revision of the current definition for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises which bases on guidelines set out in 1996, a boost for the competitiveness of these enterprises was given. A new definition was issued by the European Commission on 8th May In detail the new definition takes account of price and productivity increases. The financial ceilings are significantly raised so that it will be easier to categorize companies. The headcount thresholds remain unchanged. The changes on the thresholds focus on the maximum turnover and balance sheets

3 totals. The formal introduction of the new definition will take place on the 1st January Micro Enterprises Small Enterprises Medium-sized Enterprises No. of employees max. 10 less than 50 less than 250 Maximum turnover 2 milion 10 milion below 50 milion Balanced sheets totals 2 milion 10 milion not over 43 milion Road freight transport The dominating segment of the transport logistics market in Europe is road freight. It is a strongly splitted market with many protagonists. In Europe the predominant freight share still is transported by the manufacturers themselves. The road freight in Europe has a market volume of 140 billion through external services (outsourcing) and 160 billion through internal transport performances (companyowned fleet). This holds potential for further outsourcing processes. Although road transport is the most used mode of transport within Europe, the conditions for road freight operators are still very different in the several European countries. The following comments on tax burdens on commercial vehicles are for illustration. Tax burdens on commercial vehicles in Europe The taxation of commercial vehicles for ownership and operation is very different in the European countries. The annual fix expenditures can differ up to 3,000, depending on the size of the vehicle. Also the more important variable expenditures, depending on the fuel consumption, show a wide range. For heavy vehicles used in international goods traffic the mineral oil dues for equal mileage and equal mean average consumption can differ by more than 10,000 per year. This results in significantly different competitive conditions for international operation transport enterprises. The commercial motor transport means an important source of tax revenue in many countries. The commercial vehicles are fiscally treated differently in most countries according to particular vehicle classes. For the definition of these classes are

4 mainly used the gross vehicle weight, in some cases also other criteria as loading capacity, net load and unladen weight. On principle four different dues are imposed on commercial vehicles, which are: singular in connection with the purchase and the licence of vehicles (value added tax, licence tax, registration fees), cyclical on the ownership or the operation (vehicle licence tax, insurance tax), general depending on the use (mineral oil tax, value added tax) or to pay for the use of particular traffic routes (time- or distance-related toll). An overview of the dues on commercial vehicles gives the table in the appendix page 184. The amount of the registration fee is independent from the vehicle type in the most countries. It goes from 9 to 250 for lorries. The vehicle owner has to pay periodical taxes in all countries. The critical basis for assessment for the vehicle licence tax for lorries in all countries is the gross vehicle weight or the effective load. In addition to the vehicle licence tax an insurance tax and parafiscal dues are imposed on the liability insurance premiums. The dues on fuels are the national burdens which are directly connected with the use of vehicles. They consist of the mineral oil tax, miscellaneous dues on mineral oil and the value added tax. Mineral oil tax and value added tax are imposed in every researched county. The prices on petrol stations for diesel fuel (January 2003) ranged between 0.65 Euro/Litre (Greece, Luxembourg, Poland) and more than 1.10 Euro/Litre (Great Britain, The Netherlands). The share of the total dues had a scope of approx. 50% (Luxembourg, Hungary) to 77% (Great Britain). The huge differences in the consumer prices have their cause not only in the dues, because already the pure product prices vary for more than the half between the countries. Importance of the dues differences for the European competition The tax burden for commercial vehicles shows big differences between the researched countries. Although there is the possibility for countries which rank in a top position for the fix dues as well as for the variable dues to use the differences for diesel fuel in cross border transport, these discrepancies in national dues keep important.

5 Since 1992 there are unchanged excise tax minimum rates for fuels. The minimum rates for diesel amount to 245 per 100 litre and to 287 for petrol. The current excise tax rates (see appendix, page 185) differ significantly, but in all EU-member states they are clearly above this lower limit. Except for Great Britain diesel is lower-taxed in all countries and the rates are closer oriented on the EU minimum rate. So, because of its huge importance for the transport industry diesel fuel is furthered in nearly all researched countries. References: [1] CISKO, Š., et.al.: Ekonomické aspekty Inteligentného dopravného systému (dopravnej telematiky). Projekt VEGA 1/1239/04 [2] CISKO, Š., et.al.: Technológia a služby inteligentnej dopravy v podmienkach SR. Štátny výskumný projekt ŽU v Žiline, 2004