In 2024, Italy confirmed its third place in Europe in terms of maritime traffic volumes, with 12.9% of the total of transported goods that passes through an Italian port. The highlights the first bulletin of the Freight Insights Observatory, created by the National Center for Sustainable Mobility (MOST) with the Fondazione Centro Studi Economia della Logistica and of Infrastructure, which was presented yesterday in Rome at the Senate of the Republic.

The document highlights that the logistics and transport in Italy is a resilient sector, with exceptional ability to self-regulate and which has demonstrated to be able to react to the transformations on a global scale of the last years. In particular, the research shows how road transport of goods tends to be underestimated by official statistics of the European Union: according to Freight Insights, it is in fact between the 30.4 and 37.4 billion vehicles per kilometre, about twice as many compared to EU data. Italian motorways, the study specifies, continue to represent the backbone of trafficking: capillarity of the network allows companies to reach ports and railway terminals, although they remain important the differences between North and South with respect to congestion and multimodal accessibility. In Sicily and Calabria, in fact, the average time to reach the railway terminals exceeds 120 minutes.

The Observatory's survey on a sample of road haulage also confirms the liveliness of the sector, with growth in the turnover of medium-large companies, and identifies Ample room for improvement in terms of vehicle filling and optimisation of return journeys: the filling index of truck is in fact 80% for the outward journey and only 60% for the return. In this context, it emerges that the sustainability of transport does not depend only on the introduction of electric vehicles, but also through increasing efficiency.

In addition to the relevance of the maritime transport sector in the European context, the report also notes a growth in intermodal traffic at the expense of intermodal traffic traditional traffic: strong increase in traffic of containers (+9.7% in 2024 compared to 2019) and ro-ro, with an increase of +7,8%. On the other hand, bulk cargo is mainly suffering a sharp decline (-25.2% on 2018), compared to liquid bulk (-7.7%), demonstration of a trend that sees an increase in the transport of finished products compared to raw materials. On the whole the trend of overall maritime transport in Italy however, it shows a decrease of -3% on 2018.

Air transport also shows a strong liveliness, with cargo traffic (1,249,000 tons) which in 2024 is increased by 14.9% on the previous year, while for transport Railway the judgment is suspended given the lack of knowledge and the need to rethink the units of measurement for to be able to provide a timely overview of the sector.

"The report - commented Pasquale Russo, vice president of Confcommercio-Imprese per l'Italia and president of Conftrasporti-Confcommercio - confirms the far-sightedness of the choice to strengthen the sector's research tools through the Foundation and the partnership with the Most, which fills a gap of knowledge and analysis of dynamics. Goods always choose more the road, and in 2023 traffic increased on annual basis of 2.2%, despite network congestion leading to a lengthening of travel times to logistics hubs with average increase of 30 minutes for 10% of operators, with consequent negative impact on the development of intermodality. It is highlighted once again how short-sighted it was to have excluded the road transport from PNRR funds. It is, therefore, necessary that the government intervenes with an important policy of strengthening of road infrastructure".

"The data from the Motorways of the Sea and containers, which support the constant volumes handled in our airports, with a respective growth between 2024 and 2018 of +7,8% +9,7%. Our system remains central, considering that the 13% of the tons handled by sea in Europe pass through a our port. If it is true that the performance of the port are positive overall, within it the system suffers from an evident criticality given by the substantial non-use of some container ports (Taranto, Cagliari) and others near at the saturation level (Gioia Tauro, Naples, Genoa, Trieste)".

"In rail transport - observed the vice president of Confcommercio and president of Conftrasporto - we see two different dynamics: bad at the national level (in ten 34% of volumes have been lost, moving us away almost irreversible by European objectives), while, in conditions market with more attractive infrastructures developed, as in the international routes, the volumes are increased by about 60%. In the awareness that the construction sites in will give us back a much more effective network - he Russo noted - it is necessary to think about support measures traffic to start the modal shift process in Forecast of the end of the works. Finally, it is always high the alarm on the lack of workers in the transport sector and logistics, an emergency issue for 70% of European companies, and the investments of over two billion euros deserve reflection. dollars in artificial intelligence processes applied to transport'.