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Truck transport

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What is truck transport?

Truck transport refers to a type of land transport used to convey goods or people. Based on its features, truck transport differs from maritime transport, air transport and rail transport.

In a wider sense, truck transport can encompass travelling aboard private vehicles. In practice, truck transport generally refers to the transport of goods within a country or throughout the world. The term is most used in the world of logistics, concerning the shipment and delivery of products. In fact, in this specific situation, it is quite common to use the abbreviation RFT (Road Freight Transport).

Nowadays, truck transport is fully integrated in the supply chain, coming in addition to a much wider offer including transport, handling, storage, and possibly even packing and packaging. Companies can choose to either internalize this activity, or outsource it by calling upon a subcontracting transporter. The latter therefore stands as a service provider, entrusted with conveying goods from a point A to a point B on behalf of a third party, in exchange for compensation. For economic and productivity reasons, rare are the companies that do not call upon a stakeholder specialized in truck transport for dispatching their products.

Specificities of truck transport

Truck transport calls upon the skills of numerous professionals, perfectly qualified for their job and required to carry out various tasks, such as:

  • Loading and unloading;

  • Handling (mechanized or manual);

  • Transporting goods via road infrastructures.

Truck transport is governed by strict regulations, pertaining to both the truck drivers and the goods transported. One of the regulations stipulates the authorized driving time. Indeed, drivers are obliged to make regular breaks. This, added to high fuel costs, directly impacts the appeal of truck transport compared to its competitors (sea freight and rail freight particularly).

Examples and practical applications

Transporting goods via road implies drafting and signing a transport contract, agreed to by both parties (the exporter and the transporter). A CMR waybill must namely detail:

  • Loading and unloading addresses;

  • Delivery dates and deadlines;

  • Features associated with the goods;

  • Registration numbers for all vehicles used for truck transport;

  • etc.

There are several types of vehicles dedicated to road transport, each boasting features well-suited for conveying different kinds of goods (according to their weight, volume, etc.):

  • Trucks or carriers;

  • Road trains;

  • Semi-tractor trailers;

  • Long-length road transport vehicles;

  • etc.

Truck transport in figures

  • Truck transport represents 80% of all goods transported in France.

  • About 1/3 of trucks out on the road are in fact driving empty in France.

  • The turnover for truck transport is assessed at 53 billion euros.

  • Over 75% of goods transported by road are transported over distances smaller than 150 km. Trucks dedicated to road transport represent less than 7% of all road traffic.

(Source: https://www.e-tlf.com/dossiers-tlf/chiffres-cles/

https://www.salon-technotrans.com/le-transport-en-chiffres/)

Regulatory cornerstones

  • The Geneva Convention, known as CMR (Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road), signed on 19 May 1956 in Geneva and enforced in 1958

  • Law on the guidelines for internal transport dated 31 December 1982

  • Labor Code

  • French national collective convention on truck transport and auxiliary transport activities