Regional transport

What is regional transport?

As its name easily suggests, regional transport refers to transport activities carried out on a regional scale. It should be noted that when defining regional transport, the term “regional” is substantially different to what people usually consider as “regions” in France. As such, regional transport is conducted in zones that are much larger than standard administrative regions. Zones such as the North, South, East and West of France replace zones such as Normandy, Occitanie, Hauts-de-France or Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

In certain situations, regional transport can include the transport of goods and/or people to bordering countries. Regional transport stakeholders in the Hauts-de-France region for instance can therefore include the delivery of goods or transport of people to and from Belgium. Similarly, regional transport activities in the Occitanie region can expand to Andorra or Spain.

By definition, regional transport is intended to differ from national and international transport through its features, operating mode, environmental impact, etc. At the same time, it is not rare for national and/or international transport stakeholders to call upon specialists in regional transport for their continuous activity.

Regional transport, in its widest sense, encompasses various activities, such as:

The transport of goods via truck;
The conveyance of manufactured goods via rail;
Product delivery services;
Removal services;
Energy transport;
And many more.

Regional transport involves both public and private stakeholders.

Specificities of regional transport

Regional transport stands out from national and international transport thanks to the means of transport chosen. When conveying goods within a same geographical area, regional transport relies more on road and/or rail transport, whereas international transport relies on maritime and air transport. This specificity does not exclude resorting to air transport for a regional task from time to time.

Examples and practical applications

Regional transport is closely linked to the Regional Transport Schemes (RTS) instated following a joint ministerial decision, that define a transport action plan for each region. The main purpose of an RTS is to “make the use of existing networks and equipment more efficient, and to encourage complementarity between transport modes”.

In practice, companies established on the regional transport market offer their skills and infrastructures to economic stakeholders whose activity expands throughout the region in question. Their goal is to offer a transport solution adapted to the dispatch or delivery of goods within a restrained area.

Despite the increase in fuel prices, road transport is still the preferred means of transport for regional tasks. Over short distances, the other means of transport presents too may drawbacks (handling, transshipment for multimodal transport, etc.), meaning that companies prefer road transport to its alternatives. Nonetheless, regional road transport is a polluting activity, and is responsible for part of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. It may therefore be appropriate to push for alternative regional transport solutions.

Regulatory cornerstones

Transport Code, created via decree no. 2010-1307 from 28 October 2010, entered into forced on 1 December 2010