Road goods transport by Norwegian lorries, Q4 2009

A total of 66.5 million tonnes of goods were carried by Norwegian lorries during the 4th quarter of 2009. This is 7 per cent more than in the corresponding quarter in 2008, but not as much as in the same quarter in 2007.The transport performance in the 4th quarter of 2009 was the same as in the 4th quarter in 2008.

Rise in domestic transport

The transport within Norway has started to recover. The tonnage carried from one place in Norway to another during the 4th quarter of 2009 amounted to 65.1 million tonnes of goods, compared with 60.8 million tonnes in the 4th quarter of 2008. The distance covered increased from 432.1 million kilometres during the 4th quarter of 2008 to 447.5 million kilometres in the corresponding quarter in the following year. The domestic transport performance amounted to 4.2 billion tonne kilometres; 4 per cent more than in the 4th quarter of 2008.

International transport continued to fall in the 4th quarter of 2009. A total of 1.4 million tonnes of goods were transported by Norwegian lorries abroad; 7 per cent less than in the corresponding quarter in the previous year. The distance covered was 47.2 million kilometres, which is 15 per cent less than in the 4th quarter of 2008. The transport performance of 779 million tonne kilometres was 17 per cent lower than in the 4th quarter of 2008.

Shorter distances

On average, each tonne was transported 64.9 kilometres domestically. This is 1.8 kilometres less than in the 4th quarter of 2008. Goods transported abroad by Norwegian lorries had an average transport distance of 557.8 kilometres; 69 kilometres less than in the corresponding quarter in 2008.

More empty kilometres

During the 4th quarter of 2009, 118.8 million kilometres were covered with the lorry unloaded. This makes up 26.5 per cent of the total distance covered. Some kinds of transport do have a naturally high share of empty driving, such as the transport of filling compounds to construction sites, timber transports, transport of petroleum products to consumers, collection of milk from farms etc. The rate of empty kilometres was 0.9 percentage points higher than in the 4th quarter of 2008. Transport abroad had a rate of empty kilometres of 18.5 in the 4th quarter of 2009. This is 0.2 percentage points more than in the 4th quarter of 2008.

Fall during 2009

Even though the figures showed good progress in the 4th quarter of 2009, there was a fall in lorry transport during 2009 as a whole. The total transport performance amounted to 18.4 billion tonne kilometres during 2009, compared with 20.7 billion tonne kilometres during 2008. When viewing national transport separately, the transport performance in 2009 was 15.3 billion tonne kilometres, compared with 16.7 the previous year. Indeed, 2008 was a record year, but compared with 2005-2007 there was still a fall in transport performance in 2009.

Tables:

• Table 1 National and international transports for hire or reward and own account. Transport performances. Quarter
• Table 2 National transports for hire or reward and own account. Tonnage carried and transport performance, by commodity. Quarter. Million tonnes
• Table 3 International transports for hire or reward. Tonnage carried and transport performance, by commodity. Quarter
• Table 4 International transports for hire or reward and own account, to and from Norway. Tonnage carried and transport performance. Quarter
• Table 5 Comparisons with other Nordic countries. Tonnage carried. Million tonnes
• Table 6 Comparisons with other Nordic countries. Transport performance. Million tonne-kilometres