Freight transport continued with lower performances in October, but more people traveled by train and bus than a year ago

For the fourth consecutive month, freight transport recorded lower values ​​than the last year. Less goods than a year ago were transported by road, but mainly by rail. In passenger transport, the number of passengers and transport distances continued to grow, recording the highest values this year.

In October 2022, the total volume of freight transport reached 18.2 million tons of goods, which represented a year-on-year decrease by 11.5%. Lower volume of transported goods in the year-on-year comparison continued for the fourth consecutive month. In the long term, the current October performances were at the level of 90% of the values achieved in the corresponding pre-pandemic period (in October 2019). A significant component - road transport, which represented more than two-thirds of the transported tons of goods, decreased by 5.3% year-on-year. Rail transport was lower by 12.7%, year-on-year.

Starting with the data from April 2022, the Statistical Office of the SR adjusted the monthly outputs (tables) on road freight transport²⁾ in order to report freight transport parameters together for all enterprises, regardless of the main subject of business activity.

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In October 2022, taking into account also the transport distance, performances in freight transport reached 3.1 billion tonne kilometres (tkm), which was approximately at the level of the last year, but still below the values of the pre-pandemic year 2019.

In total, for the first ten months, a total of 1.4% less volume of goods was transported in freight transport compared with the same period last year. After taking into account transport distances, actual performances increased by 2% year-on-year.

Passenger transport was once again affected by road transport

In passenger transport, a significant year-on-year increase in the number of transported passengers continued for the first tenth month in a row. Their number increased by 15.5% year-on-year and reached more than 58 million people. The number of passengers on the railway reached a higher increase (21.1%), which, however, represents only a tenth of the number of passengers in transport.

Passenger transport performances, which also takes into account the length of the roads, reached 786 million passenger-kilometres in October 2022, compared to the last year, they were higher by almost 24%. The high year-on-year growth was influenced by an increase in transport distances, especially in rail transport.

In total, in the first ten months of 2022, the number of passengers travelled by passenger transport was by a third higher than a year ago, and after taking into account the transport distances, the number of passenger-kilometres was by almost a half higher.

Development of turnover, employment and wages in October 2022

Turnover³⁾ in transportation and storage was by 14.8% higher year-on-year in October. The result was due to a rise of the most important division - land transport and transport via pipeline, as well as the second largest division - warehouse and auxiliary activities.

Employment in transportation and storage increased by 2.6% in October 2022 year-on-year. Average nominal monthly wage in this section reached EUR 1,189 in October, which represented an increase of 8.4% compared to the last year. Real wage in the section (after inflation) declined by 5.7%.