EU transport bankruptcies hit record high in Q2 2026
EU transport and storage bankruptcies hit a record index in Q2 2026, up 11.4% quarter on quarter as diesel and operating costs surged.
Logifie Team
Logistics Technology Experts
Bankruptcy declarations in the EU transport and storage sector rose 11.4% in the second quarter of 2026, the second-largest increase of any sector in the EU business economy, according to figures Eurostat published on 2026-08-17 . Across the whole EU business economy, bankruptcies rose 5.7% in the same quarter while new business registrations fell 0.5%. For anyone buying road freight capacity this autumn, that is a counterparty-risk number rather than an economics footnote.
What the Eurostat data shows about EU transport bankruptcies
Eurostat publishes a seasonally adjusted index rather than a case count, because national insolvency law differs too much across the EU for a comparable total to mean anything. On that index, transport and storage climbed from 233.0 in the first quarter of 2026 to 259.5 in the second, the highest reading since the series began in 2015 and roughly 21% above the second quarter of 2025, according to Trans.info's analysis of the Eurostat series .
Only education and social activities rose faster than transport bankruptcies in Q2 2026, at 21.1%, with financial services third at 6.8%. Bankruptcies fell in accommodation and food services, construction, and trade. Registrations of new EU transport and storage businesses also slipped about 1% in the quarter, so the sector shed companies faster than it replaced them.
Why are so many carriers failing now?
The driver is cost, not collapsing demand. European road freight operating costs rose almost 10% year on year in Q2 2026, with the French CNR long-haul index moving from 166.29 in February 2026 to 182.03 in April 2026, according to the Q2 2026 rate benchmark published by IRU, Upply, and Transport Intelligence on 2026-08-11 .
Diesel did most of the damage in Q2 2026. EU diesel averaged 1.94 EUR per litre across the quarter, 27% higher than a year earlier, and peaked at 2.19 EUR per litre in April 2026. Operators who cannot pass that through in weeks rather than quarters run out of working capital first. Current country-level pump prices are on the Logifie fuel price map .
Volumes gave EU carriers no cushion in Q2 2026. Road trade between major EU economies fell 1.6% year on year, and 13% of European truck driver positions remain unfilled, around 502,000 roles, per IRU . Allianz Trade had already forecast 2026 as the fifth consecutive year of rising global business insolvencies, with Western Europe up 3%.
Where the pressure is concentrated
National figures for Q2 2026 diverged sharply. Luxembourg (+168.7%), Greece (+54.5%), and Latvia (+43.1%) swung harder, but tiny case counts make those moves unreliable, so the figures below focus on larger markets. The Netherlands recorded a 30.4% quarterly rise in transport bankruptcy declarations, Romania 26.3%, Portugal 21.4%, Croatia 21.3%, and Czechia 19.3%, while France was almost flat at 0.4%. Slovakia fell 34.1%, Estonia 33.4%, and Slovenia 21.8%. Small markets swing hard on a handful of cases, so the extremes deserve caution.
The United Kingdom sits outside the Eurostat series and tells a milder story. The Insolvency Service recorded 1,931 company insolvencies of all kinds in England and Wales in July 2026, 5% below July 2025, and road freight and removal businesses accounted for 42 of them, up from 35 in June. The January to July 2026 total of 226 for that group was 13% below the 260 logged over the same months of 2025.
What to check before the Q4 peak
Carrier failure is an operational event before it is a financial one. A subcontractor that stops trading mid-transit strands the cargo, breaks the ETA, and pushes replacement capacity onto a spot market that was already running at 146.8 index points in Q2 2026.
Three checks are worth running this week. Re-verify operating licence and insurance validity on your top 10 subcontractors. Keep subcontracting chains short so liability stays traceable to a named party. Treat lengthening payment terms from a partner as an early warning rather than a negotiating win.
Logifie runs its own vetted carrier network across Europe and gives shippers shipment-level tracking with live ETA , so trouble upstream surfaces before it becomes a missed delivery. If you want a named backup carrier on your key lanes before the Q4 peak, request a quote .
