How trucking services have improved and may contribute to economic development: The case of East Africa

In East Africa, there have been numerous concerns over logistics efficiency. Among them, the regional integration of the trucking industry is perceived as a major problem. This paper utilizes a combination of unpublished data surveys and published data (mainly port data) to assess the extent of regional integration. Based on various types of data, several main messages can be drawn from the trucking industry: there has been a noticeable reduction in the price of long-distance trucking services along the Northern Corridor (the corridor from Mombasa, Kenya, to Uganda/Rwanda/Burundi/eastern DRC); the integration of trucking services is moving fast in East Africa (along the Northern Corridor), Rwanda having a three-quarters market share of foreign-owned trucks; trucking fleet characteristics and management have improved tremendously and are now comparable to those in South Africa; the facilitation of border clearance processes has played a major role in improving fleet productivity. Despite all these improvements, the performance of the Tanzanian fleet still lags behind, while benefiting from protection against foreign-owned fleets.