The European logistics market can be divided into three sections in terms of cost structures: the “low labour cost countries”, the “struggling economies” and the “mature and established markets”. Even though the “low labour cost countries” recorded distinct rises in wages and salaries (see figure 2-20), the differences from the high-wage countries are still severe. Administration costs are therefore significantly lower in these Central and Eastern European countries. Compared to wages, the other cost factors vary less from one another, with fuel costs in particular taking a relatively similar proportion in all Member States.
The development of individual cost factors in the “low labour cost countries” and the “mature and established markets” goes mostly in the same direction, even if the cost increase in less developed markets are much more pronounced. Therefore, in recent years there has been, in general, a convergence of cost structures and of the absolute logistics costs between the cheapest and most expensive markets.
However, the “struggling economies” have taken on a special role, where labour costs remained constant or even decreased. On the other hand, due to the difficulty in obtaining financing conditions, the cost of capital partially increased, which has led mainly to strongly disproportionate shares of this type of cost in asset-intensive logistics areas such as rail transport or warehousing. In total, logistics costs have only slightly increased in the “struggling economies” in recent years.
The relative comparison between the total costs of all Member States shows that, in particular, the mature logistics markets of Germany and the United Kingdom have been able to improve their competitiveness over the last six years. Capital costs also played a decisive role in this. Due to the low interest rates, the refinancing of vehicles and equipment can be realised much more cheaply in Germany and the United Kingdom than in neighbouring countries.