Heavy-duty hydrogen transport has reached a pivotal stage. As Erwin Penfornis, Air Liquide’s Vice-President of Hydrogen Energy World Business Line, emphasises, the solutions already exist and are fully industrialised. The challenge now is creating the right economic conditions and deploying vehicles, fuel and infrastructure in unison to trigger full market activation.

The Upply x Ti x IRU European road freight rates report on Q3 2026 found that both benchmarks levelled off at record levels after sharp increases in the first half of the year. Contract rates rose to 148.9 index points, a modest 0.8-point increase quarter on quarter (QoQ) and 14.6 points higher year on year (YoY). Spot rates followed the same path, edging up 0.8 points QoQ to 147.6 index points, 12.9 points higher YoY. The driver was cost rather than demand: average diesel price reached a record

At the 10th TRT World Forum in Istanbul, IRU put the spotlight on the critical role of road transport in improving regional connectivity, trade and supply chain resilience.

The European Commission’s first-ever EU Sustainable Tourism Strategy marks an important milestone in establishing a common EU vision for a more competitive, sustainable, resilient and inclusive tourism sector.

European trucking capacity provider Egala has joined IRU as its newest member, bringing experience from a large international fleet and a strong focus on sustainability, digitalisation and workforce development.

IRU welcomes a major political shift in the European Parliament, where MEPs have challenged the European Commission’s approach to corporate fleet decarbonisation and backed more realistic CO₂ targets and greater technology neutrality for vans. The votes mark an important success for the commercial road transport sector and reinforce a clear message: decarbonisation cannot be achieved through purchasing mandates disconnected from market realities.

Battery-electric vehicle adoption remains concentrated among larger operators and on shorter routes. But large-scale deployment can also help create the conditions for others to follow, Amazon’s Andreas Marschner told us.