Transportation & Warehousing in European Union: Market Size, Businesses & Forecast 2026

The Transportation & Warehousing industry in the European Union provides critical logistical infrastructure and operations across road, rail, air, and water networks to facilitate the movement and storage of goods and passengers. According to official data from Eurostat, the EU transportation and storage services sector generated a net turnover of €1.9 trillion in 2022 and accounted for €642.7 billion in total sector value added. The sector is steering toward an increased emphasis on cross-border physical integration, digital logistics platforms, and carbon reduction measures to meet strict regulatory targets.

Industry snapshot

Key public data points

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What does the Transportation & Warehousing in European Union industry cover?

The sector encompasses all activities involving the provision of passenger or freight transport, whether scheduled or not, by rail, pipeline, road, water, or air. It also incorporates support activities such as warehousing, terminal operations, cargo handling, and freight forwarding, alongside postal and courier activities. Enterprises are classified within this industry based on their principal economic activity generating the greatest value added.

• •Classified under Section H of the official European NACE Rev. 2 system.
• •Land transport and transport via pipelines represented the largest subsector, accounting for 40.0% of sectoral value added in 2022.
• •Warehousing and support activities for transportation formed the second-largest segment, securing 24.1% of sector employment in 2022.

Who operates in the industry and how is it structured?

The European market is highly fragmented but anchored by significant national contributions from major member states acting as geographic logisitics hubs. In 2022, there were approximately 1.4 million active enterprises operating within the EU's transportation and storage services sector. Industry employment is heavily concentrated in the land transport segment, which commands more than half of the total sector workforce.

• •The sector employed 10.4 million persons across the European Union in 2022.
• •Germany recorded the highest level of sectoral concentration, accounting for 22.1% of value added and 24.5% of employment in 2022.
• •France and Italy followed Germany, generating 14.4% and 11.3% of the sector's value added respectively in 2022.

What drives demand in the industry?

The demand for transportation and warehousing services is primarily dictated by industrial production outputs, cross-border manufacturing supply chains, and consumer retail behavior. The integration of pan-European digital commerce networks has elevated the necessity for modern automated fulfillment centers and efficient parcel routing systems. Macroeconomic business cycles heavily influence overall service turnover index performance.

• •Distributive trades, acting as a major client industry, generated €1,576 billion of value added in 2023.
• •Sector turnover experienced a negative trend between August 2022 and December 2023, contracting by more than 6% due to shifting post-pandemic demand patterns.
• •Cross-border connectivity and physical trade lane infrastructure projects directly dictate regional logistics volumes.

Who are the notable companies in the industry?

The competitive landscape features a distinct mixture of large multinational operators managing international networks alongside hundreds of thousands of localized micro-enterprises. Large organizations heavily leverage corporate scale to establish comprehensive regional multimodal networks and specialized storage configurations. Competition is intensifying around digital visibility capabilities and the capability to offer lower-emission freight solutions.

• •Deutsche Post AG (operating as DHL Group) is a dominant multinational actor providing global freight forwarding, express delivery, and supply chain warehousing.
• •DSV A/S stands out as a prominent European transport and logistics provider with a major footprint across EU road freight and contract logistics.
• •Kühne + Nagel International AG operates extensive contract logistics, seafreight, and airfreight management networks throughout the EU market.
• •A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S serves as a major integrated logistics and container shipping operator managing terminal and landside warehousing infrastructure across European ports.

What are the recent trends and outlook?

Digital transformation is reshaping warehousing activities through automated guided vehicles, predictive route planning software, and cloud-based warehouse management systems. Labor productivity remains a core operational metric, with certain support segments yielding efficiency levels comfortably above the baseline business economy averages. The industry outlook is tightly coupled with sustainability initiatives and green fleet transitions to mitigate carbon tax liabilities.

• •The apparent labor productivity of the EU transportation and storage services sector was recorded at €61,900 per person in 2022.
• •The sector achieved a gross operating rate of 14.8% in 2022, surpassing the overall business economy average of 11.8%.
• •Warehousing and support activities registered the highest wage-adjusted labor productivity within the subsectors at 166.5% in 2022.

How is the industry regulated?

The European logistics market is governed by rigorous regulatory frameworks that prescribe harmonized operating data requirements, environmental targets, and labor conditions. Regular administrative, business, and economic reporting structures ensure strict alignment with broader European Community statistics rules. Operational compliance mandates force companies to adjust reporting schedules and adopt standardized operational parameters across national borders.

• •Regulation (EU) No 2019/2152 (European Business Statistics Regulation) enforces a shift to monthly service turnover reporting frequencies since 2021.
• •Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 mandates the uniform application of economic classification standards for statistics collection across the European Economic Area.
• •Compliance burdens are heavily tied to emerging transport-related tax structures and national environmentally related tax revenues.

Government, statistical and trade sources used for this Claight analysis.

• Eurostat Businesses in the transportation and storage sector 2022 ·
• Eurostat Services turnover index overview 2024 ·
• Eurostat Structural business statistics overview 2025 ·
• Central Statistics Office NACE Rev. 2.1 Manual and Guidelines 2024