Logistics in Latvia has always been a priority area due to the country's geographical advantages as a gateway between Scandinavia, Central Europe and Eastern Europe. Ensuring good logistics and transport infrastructure is crucial for Latvia, as the country's roads are full of commercial vehicles from neighboring countries. This is also the reason why delivering goods to Latvia as part of market entry processes is an easy task.
Since 2004, when Latvia became a member state of the European Union, the country's borders with other member states are open and do not require mandatory customs controls for the transport of goods. An average of 30-35 million tons of cargo transits the country each year, including roads, railways, planes and waterways.
Streets There are more than a thousand roads in Latvia's road network, including state main, state regional and state local roads. Total road length in Latvia is 13181.616 km. Of these, 10 570.151 km are hard surface roads - all major roads and the largest roads belong to this category. 2611.465 km of roads are gravel roads - these are mostly local and some regional roads.
The State Main Roads are the largest roads connecting major cities, e.g. the road Riga - Ventspils. There are 15 national highways in Latvia, all of which connect the country's main commercial centers. The main cities connected by the state main road network are Riga (port/airport), Daugavpils (railway junction), Ventspils (port/airport) and Liepāja (port). The roads also connect larger cities of regional importance - Rezekne, Jelgava, Jēkabpils and others. 9 of the main state roads lead to the borders with other countries: Russia (1 road), Lithuania (4 roads), Estonia (3 roads) and Belarus (1 road).
There are a number of state highways with ring roads designed for larger cities to allow transit vehicles to move faster without having to navigate cities. These streets are:
Daugavpils ring road connecting Kalkūni and Tilti Rezekne ring road Ring road of Riga connecting Baltezers and Saulkalne Riga ring road connecting Salaspils and Babīte The state regional roads are major roads that usually connect larger cities and/or cities of regional importance, but may also connect cities with important nearby facilities such as: B. the P133 road that connects Riga and Riga Airport. Many of them also lead to the borders with neighboring countries, but the roads themselves are narrower than the state main roads, so large commercial vehicles do not usually use them.
The State Local Roads are all other roads not included in the other two categories. These are the smallest, often gravel roads, connecting smaller towns and villages to larger ones, smaller towns to other smaller towns, or providing an alternative route to state main and regional roads.
Railways Latvian Railways are under the supervision of Latvian Railways; (in Latvian: Latvijas dzelzceļš) - the state-owned company whose aim is to manage and control railway logistics in Latvia. The company has 6 subsidiaries:
AS 'LatRailNet' SIA "LDZ Apsardze" (Security) LDz infrastruktūra (Infrastructure) LDz freight (transport) LDz Ritošā sastāva serviss (maintenance) Latvian railways are the main commercial transport infrastructure, especially for domestic traffic. Of all modes of transportation, railroads carry the largest amount of freight - about 50 million tons of it every year. The railway connects Latvia with neighboring countries and also offers connections to the rest of Europe and East Asia as far as Japan and China. Latvian railways also connect all major cities and commercial centers such as Riga, Ventspils, Liepāja and Daugavpils.
Seaports Latvia has three major ports, all of which are ice-free (available for operation all year round) - the ports of Riga, Liepāja and Ventspils. There are also three smaller ports in Salacgriva, Lielupe, Engure, Mērsrags, Roja, Kolka and Pāvilosta.
Latvian ports are specially designed to attract business. All major ports are Special Economic Zones, which means they offer tax breaks on the most common taxes such as VAT or the excise duty on alcohol, tobacco, gas and oil, as well as other benefits and tax incentives.