The Deregulation of International Trucking in the European Union : Form and Effect

This paper examines how the deregulation of the international road transport industry in Western Europe has affected 1- the total quantity of cross-border road transport in the region; 2- the degree to which shippers outsource rather than integrate vertically their cross-border transport needs; and 3- the extent to which different countries participate in international road freight transport in Western Europe. Not surprisingly, we find that deregulation has had a large positive effect on the amount of international road transport net of the effect of the trade ties that grew over time among European Union countries. Moreover, consistent with the fact that the regulation disproportionately affected for-hire trucking, we find that deregulation has led shippers to shift toward more for-hire transport as opposed to own-account or private haulage. However, despite concerns voiced by member countries, we find no evidence that deregulation has disproportionately favored carriers of countries that were initially more (or less) intensively involved in international haulage