Thanks to its central location in the heart of Europe, Austria is an important transport hub between Western and Eastern Europe as well as between Northern and Southern Europe. This makes the Alpine republic an important transit country for freight traffic.

This is ensured by a well-developed transport network with almost 130,000 kilometers of roads, including almost 1,800 kilometers of toll freeways and a further 500 kilometers of expressways. The trend is rising, but not all Austrians like it. In 2021, 56 percent were of the opinion that the freeway and expressway network should not be expanded any further by 2050.

In 2022, more than 40,829 companies with around 226,000 employees were active in the transport industry in Austria. New start-ups show that the industry is flourishing: a whopping 2,329 were registered that year.

Well developed: the transport network in Austria. Photo: Adobe Stock

Road far ahead

Almost 600 million tons are transported on Austria’s roads every year, which is 84.5 percent of the total transport volume. Nevertheless, Österreichische Bundesbahn is the largest logistics service provider with an annual turnover of around 4.7 billion euros. It is followed by Gebrüder Weiss with over three billion and LKW Walter with a turnover of just under 2.8 billion.

Austria’s road freight transport performance in 2022 amounted to 56.16 billion tonne-kilometres, of which 20.32 billion were accounted for by transit traffic.

Export deficit

Overall, Austria exported goods worth around 194.1 billion euros and imported goods worth around 213.7 billion euros, with Germany being the most important trading partner. Austria mainly imported nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery, apparatus and mechanical equipment worth over 11 billion euros from its neighboring country, followed by motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts worth over 9 billion euros.

What have you transported from, through and to Austria? We look forward to your comments!