Industry Trends to Watch in 2025

The UK and EU transportation and logistics sectors are on the cusp of significant change in 2025. Technological advancements, a heightened focus on sustainability, and the need for greater resilience are transforming how businesses operate. To thrive, companies must proactively address these key trends:

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Addressing Driver Shortages:

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The logistics industry continues to grapple with ongoing driver shortages and a tight labor market, making efficient management more critical than ever. Optimizing the resources you have, like improving driver communication, managing absences, and overall planning efficiency, becomes even more important when staffing is limited.

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At Stratum, we’ve developed tools that help businesses make the most of their available resources, ensuring timely deliveries despite workforce constraints. Our driver app, InCabPro, keeps drivers and the office connected for improved efficiency and flexibility. Our Holiday Module allows you to plan ahead with confidence, coordinating days off effectively and never being left without the right driver for the job.

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Automation and smarter resource allocation alleviate pressure on existing staff, enabling companies to maintain operations without overburdening their workforce.

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Going Green: Sustainability and ESG Initiatives

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Understanding your Environmental Impact:

As fuel costs continue to fluctuate, technology solutions are being developed to monitor and optimize fuel usage. Our tyre management and dispatch systems, especially when integrated with telematics, can be a powerful tool to keep costs and emmissions down, track fuel consumption per route and vehicle, identify inefficient routes and vehicles requiring maintenance. By analyzing these trends, businesses can make informed decisions to optimize fuel usage and minimize overall expenditure.

When it comes to environmental regulations and new initiatives, we've found that from talking to transport companies - especially small/medium sized business - the biggest roadblock is getting the data for reports in the first place. Our TMS makes it simple to know your numbers with automated reports and a clear audit trail, so that you don't get taken by surprise by new reporting requirements.

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Decarbonizing Shipping:

The industry is transitioning towards electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles, alternative fuels like LNG and HVO, and other sustainable solutions to meet environmental regulations and reduce emissions.

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Regulatory Changes to Watch:

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Post-Brexit Border Controls: While the UK extended the waiver on safety and security certificates for EU goods, businesses must adapt to new import requirements. Digital freight documentation and cloud-based systems are becoming essential for streamlining customs processes and ensuring compliance with evolving regulations.

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Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM): The EU's CBAM, effective January 1, 2025, introduces carbon pricing for imports of carbon-intensive goods. Companies must prepare for stringent reporting requirements to ensure compliance. This aligns with broader sustainability goals, as businesses are increasingly adopting AI-driven carbon tracking tools to monitor and reduce emissions.

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Building Resilience in a Turbulent Landscape:

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Customer-Centric Approach:

With a turbulent market landscape marked by supply chain disruptions, increased competition, and rising consumer expectations, the bar for customer service is higher. Companies need to deliver consistent value and seamless experiences to maintain loyalty. Advanced customer relationship management (CRM) tools tailored for logistics are enhancing client engagement and retention. These tools allow for better tracking of client needs, ensuring adaptability in dynamic markets.

Our customer web portals enable seamless communication and transparency, allowing your clients to book and track their jobs effortlessly. Web portals give your customers a direct line into your transport operations. They're a self-service hub that allow your customers to view order status, documents and easily make new orders. This fosters stronger relationships and keeps happy customers coming back by streamlining communication and booking.

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Prioritizing Cybersecurity:

As supply chains become increasingly digitized and cyberattacks grow more frequent, robust cybersecurity measures are essential to protect sensitive data and keep your business running without interruption. The EU’s NIS2 Directive, which came into effect late last year, introduces tough cybersecurity requirements for transport and logistics companies. It mandates proactive risk management, incident reporting, and supply chain security to strengthen critical infrastructure resilience. You can read more about NIS2 in our recent blogpost on the topic here.

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Our solutions are designed with robust security features to make protecting sensitive data and ensuring compliance simple and automatic. Our security features like audit trails and logging, user management and access control, and our secure cloud hosting mean that Stratum keeps you NIS2 compliant. When it comes to securing your and your customers' data, our app for drivers, InCab, as well as our Customer Web Portals, allow for sharing sensitive data like PODs, WACs, and other customer info in a modern, seamless, and secure way.

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The Bottom Line: The Market is Growing.

The UK and EU logistics markets are poised for significant growth in 2025, driven by e-commerce expansion, technological advancements, and the focus on sustainability.

2025 presents a year of transformation for the transportation and logistics industry. By embracing automation, prioritizing sustainability, enhancing resilience, and adapting to regulatory changes, companies can navigate these trends successfully and thrive in a competitive market.

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