Shippers Won't Pay for Greener Trucks, IRU-Trimble Survey Finds

Seven in ten road freight operators in Western Europe — 70% — say their customers refuse to pay the extra cost of decarbonizing transport, according to the "2026 Green Compact" survey by the IRU, the world road transport organization, and supply chain software provider Trimble.

The figure barely moves across regions: 71% in Eastern Europe and 67% in Australia report the same refusal. That unwillingness collides with the price tag of going green. Decarbonization solutions look too expensive to 64% of Western European operators, 62% in Eastern Europe and 40% in Australia.

Put those two numbers together and you get what the researchers call a "cost wall": solutions cost more than margins can absorb, and shippers won't fund the difference. Operators have no reliable way to pass the cost on.

What changed since last year?

The barrier has shifted. In the 2025 survey, infrastructure — the lack of charging and refueling points — ranked first, with cost second. In 2026, cost tops the list in every region surveyed.

The reversal is sharpest on alternative fuels. Vehicle prices have now become the single biggest obstacle in both European regions. In Western Europe, 66% of operators cite the price of the trucks themselves, up from 49% a year earlier. In Eastern Europe, the jump is steeper: from 52% to 78%.

The underlying gap is stark. An electric truck costs two to three times as much as its diesel equivalent, the study found — far beyond what thin freight margins can absorb without help from customers who, as the survey shows, mostly decline to provide it.

Operators haven't stopped trying

Despite the cost wall, decarbonization efforts continue. Nine in ten Western European operators — 90% — take at least one measure to cut emissions. Eastern Europe follows at 87% and Australia at 55%.

But the effort concentrates on measures that pay for themselves. Routing optimization leads the list, used by 53% of Western European operators and 62% in Eastern Europe. Eco-driving training follows at 42% in both regions. In other words, fleets are picking the low-hanging fruit — the steps where fuel savings offset the investment — while capital-heavy moves like truck replacement stall on price.

What does this change for shippers and carriers?

For carriers, the commercial logic is unforgiving. They face rising regulatory and customer pressure to cut emissions, but the survey data shows the people asking for greener transport won't fund it. That pushes operators toward operational efficiency measures and away from fleet electrification, slowing the transition regardless of policy timelines.

For shippers and forwarders, the message cuts the other way. If decarbonized road freight is part of a sustainability commitment, someone has to close the two-to-three-times price gap on equipment. As long as 70% of customers refuse surcharges or premium rates, the greenest available option will remain routing software and driver training rather than electric trucks.

The pattern also hands an advantage to whoever moves first on willingness to pay: capacity in low-emission fleets will stay scarce while the cost wall stands, and cargo owners willing to fund it will have their pick of greener capacity ahead of competitors who are not.

Unless shippers' stance changes or vehicle prices fall sharply, expect road freight decarbonization to keep running on self-financing efficiency measures, with large-scale electrification waiting on the far side of the cost wall.