ABSTRACT
Road freight transportation represents between 2 per cent and 6 per cent of countries’ gross domestic product (GDP) and employment, depending on the structure of the transport networks and the geography. Studies show that road is the principal mode of freight transport for a large number of countries. In the European Union (EU-27) road accounted for 45.6 per cent of total freight transport during 2007 and the share has been steadily increasing. While road freight transport activity in the EU has increased at the annual rate of 3.4 per cent during 1995-2007, air freight transportation has increased at the annual rate of 3.7 per cent, maritime freight transportation by 2.7 per cent, and rail freight transportation by 1.3 per cent during the same period.1
