5. European Union road haulage policy

5.1 Findings of the European Commission

In its White Paper on European transport policy for 2010, the European Commission makes the following key observations:

• road haulage's market share was 41% in 1990, 44% in 1998, and is set to rise to 47% in 2010 if no action is taken;

• the volume of tonne-kilometres in the EU-15 rose from around 460 billion in 1970 to around 1,300 billion in 1999;

• the volume of tonne-kilometres of international road haulage is set to increase by 50% by 2010 if nothing is done.

The European Commission also notes that the growth in medium- and long-distance road haulage is partly due to the persistence of practices...