Almost 70% of carriers raised freight above average in the 2nd half, says survey

About 70% of road transport companies in Brazil managed to readjust their freight rates by almost 15%, above the average index for the sector in the last half of 2022 (5.4%), according to a survey by the industry association NTC&Logística.

According to the survey of 323 carriers, 69% of companies increased freight rates by 14.8%, while 28% of participants had to offer discounts of 6.6% on average. A minority of carriers maintained the amount charged.

In the previous survey, from August 2022, a larger portion of transport companies, 73%, had managed to readjust freight rates.

“NTC&Logística continues to monitor and suggest that companies do not stop charging and also pass on the correct cost of their services so that they can continue operating…”, said the president of NTC&Logística, Francisco Pelucio, in a note.

Even though the value of diesel fell by two digits in the second half, the transporter has other important costs, such as vehicle maintenance and labor – the three items account for almost 90% of expenses.

With a fall in the value of diesel, which accumulated a decrease of approximately 18% from August to December, more carriers were able to “partially” pass on fuel costs, at a rate of 81.6%, versus 74.5% in the previous survey, which measured a period of increasing expenses to fuel the vehicles.

Only 7.5% were able to pass through diesel costs completely, versus 11% in the previous survey.

Thus, the discrepancy between road freight and costs was 11.2%, versus 13.8% in the previous survey.

The index of companies that have delayed freight receivables was practically stable compared to the previous survey, at 77%, the survey pointed out.

“What worries us is the high rate of companies that are not receiving their freight, which makes it impossible for the company to grow, invest in equipment and new employees”, said Pelucio.