Do trucks leave Switzerland empty? The freight balance of Swiss regions

All seven Swiss regions score below 90 on Logifie's freight balance map, built from Eurostat 2024 and 2025 data: fewer international tonnes are loaded than unloaded. This is about freight tonnes, not trucks. Espace Mittelland (38), Ticino (41) and Ostschweiz (45) are very hard to leave, and steady.

How hard is it to find a load out of each Swiss region?

The number is international tonnes loaded per 100 tonnes unloaded in a region. Below 100, more freight arrives than leaves. Logifie's freight balance map takes Eurostat road freight tables for 2024 and 2025 (updated 2026-10-06) and removes domestic haulage by Swiss hauliers, so the value reflects cross-border and foreign-truck freight. Eurostat codes places to NUTS 3 for Switzerland, according to its road freight method notes (updated 2026-07-22), and the map groups them into the seven wider NUTS-2 regions below.

Confidence compares 2024 with 2025. Zürich and Région lémanique moved between the two years, so read those two values as indicative.

Adding up the seven regions gives about 53 tonnes loaded per 100 unloaded for Switzerland. That figure is Logifie's own arithmetic on the regional values, not an official statistic. Five of the 15 lowest regions among the 240 on the map are Swiss. Next door, Freiburg in Germany scores 145 and Lombardia in Italy scores 95.

Can a foreign truck reload inside Switzerland?

For domestic jobs, no: the Swiss market is protected from foreign hauliers. Cabotage means domestic transport carried out by a haulier registered in another country. The Swiss Federal Office of Transport (BAV) land transport agreement page (published 2025-07-29) states that the Swiss market remains protected from cabotage through foreign hauliers. Its example: a shipment from Zurich to Lausanne in a German lorry falls outside the land transport agreement.

That agreement is one of seven concluded with the EU in 1999 (Bilaterals I). BAV adds that Swiss hauliers gained EU market access and the possibility of carrying out cabotage between EU Member States.

The ban is context, not a proven cause. It means no foreign cabotage reloads inside Switzerland, but the data does not show that it explains the low values.

What does a low number mean for a truck delivering in Switzerland?

It means that over 2024 and 2025 more freight came into the region than went out, so a return load is harder to find than in a balanced region. It says nothing about empty kilometres, waiting days or rates, and it does not promise a load on any given day. Because the map counts tonnes, a region heavy in bulk goods can look easier to reload than its truck count suggests.

To check a specific place, use the freight balance map . Its page text is open to everyone. The interactive tool (map, search, route check, rankings and region table) opens with a 6-character access code from the Logifie TikTok videos, valid in the browser until it expires. This post gives the Swiss numbers without a code. For the cost side of a Swiss trip, read about Swiss heavy vehicle fee rates .

Frequently asked questions

Can a foreign truck do domestic transport inside Switzerland?

No. BAV says the Swiss market remains protected from cabotage through foreign hauliers. A Zurich to Lausanne shipment in a German truck is the agency's own example of what the agreement excludes.

Which Swiss region is hardest to leave with a load?

Espace Mittelland, with 38 tonnes loaded per 100 unloaded, steady between 2024 and 2025. Ticino (41) and Ostschweiz (45) follow, also steady.

Do trucks really return empty from Switzerland?

The data cannot say. It measures freight tonnes by region, not trips or whether a truck is loaded. It shows that in all seven regions more freight arrives than leaves, which makes a return load harder to find than in balanced regions.

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