industry data
Turkish Freight in Numbers: 7 Statistics That Explain the Market
Road carries 90.6% of domestic freight, roughly a third of trucks run back empty, and nearly half the rate goes on diesel. The sector drawn in official data.
By Yükbul Team 4 min read
Key takeaways
- Road handles 90.6% of domestic freight (ton-km) — rail, sea and air together don't reach 10%.
- Roughly three quarters of heavy commercial trucks are owned by individuals, not companies.
- Industry analysis puts Türkiye's empty-running rate at ~32%, against ~23% in Europe.
- Diesel accounts for 48.2% of the freight rate in Türkiye versus 25.1% in Europe — about double.
- With road effectively a monopoly, a driver's only real lever is cutting empty kilometres.
Everyone in haulage has a feeling about the industry: there's no freight, rates are low, diesel is killing us. This article sets the feelings aside and looks at the numbers — data published by official institutions and industry analysts.
The picture that emerges largely confirms what drivers feel. But it locates the cause somewhere other than where you'd expect.
1. Road carries almost everything: 90.6%
90.6% of domestic freight transport in Türkiye moves by road (2023, measured in ton-kilometres). Rail, sea and air share the remaining 10% between them.
That is markedly above European averages. The practical meaning: if the Turkish economy is moving, a truck is moving.
Good news for a driver — demand is structural. Bad news — competition in a sector this central is just as intense.
2. Rail isn't the alternative — the capacity sits unused
The "shift freight to rail" argument has run for years, but the data says otherwise.
Rail freight capacity utilisation fell from 75% in 2013 to 51% in 2021. Almost half of the existing capacity is idle.
Which means road's share is not going to fall meaningfully any time soon.
3. The fleet belongs to individuals, not companies
This is the most striking structural figure. Industry analysis counts roughly 550,000 trucks of 16 tonnes and above in commercial haulage in Türkiye. Of those:
- ~130,000 are owned by logistics firms or industrial shippers as own-account vehicles
- ~420,000 are in the hands of individuals
So roughly three quarters of the heavy commercial fleet is not corporate — it's individual.
TurkStat's "truck" count looks higher (3.3% of 28,740,492 vehicles in 2023, about 950,000) because it covers trucks of every tonnage. The 550,000 figure describes the heavy class doing long-haul commercial work. The two don't contradict each other; they count different things.
4. The owner is also the driver: over 90%
More than 90% of truck owners are also the vehicle's active driver.
That single statistic explains most of how the sector behaves. The person making the decision is behind the wheel. The one hunting for freight, negotiating, accepting a rate and then driving 600 km is the same person.
There is no separate office, no separate operations team to evaluate a load post. Which is why time is the sector's scarcest resource — ahead of money.
5. Empty returns: Türkiye ~32%, Europe ~23%
Analysis drawing on IRU (International Road Transport Union) figures puts empty running at roughly 32% in Türkiye and roughly 23% in Europe.
A nine-point gap sounds small. It isn't. Every trip that returns empty consumes fuel, tyres, depreciation and a day — and produces no revenue.
The arithmetic converts straight into profit: on a 600 km run you calculate the one-way fuel cost, then double it for the round trip. Without a backhaul, the same rate turns into a loss.
We covered how to cut empty returns in a separate article — this statistic is why that article matters.
6. Half the rate goes on diesel: 48.2%
In Türkiye, 48.2% of the transport rate is fuel. In Europe the same figure is 25.1%.
A Turkish haulier carries roughly double the fuel burden of a European counterpart doing the same job. Half the rate is burned before the trip is finished.
Out of the remaining half come tyres, maintenance, insurance, tax, instalments and the driver's own living. This is exactly why calculating your cost per kilometre is not optional.
7. The fleet is ageing: around 17 years
Industry analysis puts the average truck age in Türkiye at around 17.2 years.
An old fleet makes three things worse at once: fuel efficiency drops, breakdown and maintenance costs rise, and safety degrades. The same analysis notes that the use of retread tyres rose by over 20% in a single year — a signal of where cost pressure is pushing drivers.
What the picture adds up to
Put side by side, the figures tell a consistent story:
- Demand is structurally strong (90.6%) and won't shift to rail soon (51% capacity utilisation)
- Supply is fragmented and individual (420,000 individually owned vehicles, 90%+ owner-drivers)
- Costs are squeezed (48.2% of the rate on diesel, fleet around 17 years old)
Those three lead to one conclusion: a driver has very little leverage over price. You can't set the diesel price, you can't renew your fleet overnight, and you can't lift rates on your own.
But there is one line you do control: empty kilometres. Moving Türkiye's 32% empty-running rate toward Europe's 23% is the largest and fastest gain available to the sector — and it applies vehicle by vehicle.
What that takes isn't a new truck. It's seeing the right load in time.
A note on the data
The figures here come from two different kinds of source and shouldn't be conflated:
- Official statistics (modal shares, vehicle counts, rail capacity) — the Environmental Indicators publication of the Ministry of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, and TurkStat data, for 2023.
- Industry analysis (rate-to-diesel ratio, fleet structure, empty running, average age) — TIRPORT Insights' analysis based on Q3 2023 data, together with IRU figures. These are sector measurements, not official statistics.
Ratios move year to year; check the latest publication from each source before making decisions on them. All sources are listed below.
If you want to cut empty kilometres, the starting point is simple: seeing the posts that match your route and vehicle type in time. Yükbul reads the posts in WhatsApp freight groups for you and forwards the matches to your WhatsApp. First 7 days free.