BAG toll data from the first half of 2021 shows that trucks from Poland, Lithuania and Romania covered more than 10% extra miles on Germany’s roads compared to the same period in 2020.
The largest increase in first half of 2021 was recorded by Polish commercial vehicles, whose mileage was 14% up compared to the same period last year. Romanian and Lithuanian trucks covered 12.4% more miles on German roads, while the increase for Czech HGVs was 9.5%.
Overall, the distance traveled by trucks with a gross vehicle weight of 7.5 tonnes was more than 20.8 billion kilometres, which is 6.5% more than in the first 6 months of 2020. It is the highest mileage recorded since 2005, which shows that road freight traffic in Germany is now comfortably above pre-coronavirus levels.
The mileage of German trucks increased too, albeit by a comparatively small 2.7%. Their share decreased from 59.8% in the first half of 2020 to 57.7%. Polish trucks now account for 17.2%, while Romanian, Lithuanian and Czech vehicles have between 3 and 3.4% each.
Photo credit: Pikist