About Fernfahrer

Fernfahrer

Fernfahrer is Germany's specialist magazine for long-distance truck drivers, published monthly by EuroTransportMedia of Stuttgart. First issued in 1981 as the FERNFAHRER-Zeitung, the magazine has served the driving profession for over four decades with vehicle tests, driving reports, reportage from the road, and coverage of technical innovations in the commercial-vehicle and transport sector — the driver's own press in an industry of management titles. With an actually distributed print run of 18,500 copies — about 3,200 of them abroad — it sees itself as the mouthpiece of drivers' concerns, giving the drivers themselves a voice in the industry's debates.

Overview

Fernfahrer appears monthly (the bibliographic record notes a four-weekly rhythm) and reaches the core of the road-freight world: long-distance drivers, hauliers (Spediteure), and the commercial-vehicle industry. The actually distributed print circulation is 18,500 copies, with roughly 3,200 copies going abroad — reflecting the international reality of long-haul trucking, where German drivers and German-registered trucks operate across Europe, from the Benelux ports to the Eastern European corridors. The magazine appears with various supplements and maintains a web presence and newsletter.

The editorial formula is driver-centric: vehicle tests and driving reports that evaluate trucks from the driver's seat, reportage from the professional everyday life of truck drivers, and reports on technical innovations and current developments in the commercial-vehicle and transport sector. In keeping with the magazine's self-understanding as the mouthpiece of drivers' concerns, the drivers themselves come to speak — their working conditions, their grievances, their pride in the profession. This participatory element distinguishes Fernfahrer from the management-oriented transport press: where other titles address the haulier's office, Fernfahrer addresses the cab.

History

The magazine first appeared in 1981 under the title FERNFAHRER-Zeitung; since 1983 it has carried the title Fernfahrer. The early 1980s were the heyday of the German long-distance driver as a folk figure — the "Kapitän der Landstraße" (captain of the highway), celebrated in song and story — and the magazine gave the profession its own press, a forum where drivers could recognize their own lives. Over the decades it documented the transformation of road freight: the liberalization of European trucking, the EU's driving-time regulations, the digital tachograph, the rise of Eastern European competition, and the chronic driver shortage that has made the "Fahrermangel" a household word.

The publisher is the Euro Transport Media Verlags- und Veranstaltungsgesellschaft mbH (EuroTransportMedia), founded in 1992 as a joint venture of the Dekra testing organization, Motor Presse Stuttgart, and the Mainz-based VF Verlagsgesellschaft, headquartered in Stuttgart. The joint-venture structure — a testing organization, a motoring publisher, and a transport publisher — reflects the magazine's position at the intersection of technology, mobility, and the transport business. The publishers are Oliver Trost and Bert Brandenburg; Trost is also listed as editor-in-chief, combining the commercial and editorial leadership of the transport-media house in one person. ETM publishes 14 specialist journals, special publications, and customer magazines, and operates the online portals eurotransport.de and firmenauto.de plus the eurotransportTV web channel — a full transport-media house whose print titles serve every segment of the industry. Sister print titles include trans aktuell (37,200 actually distributed copies, aimed at the transport management) and Werkstatt aktuell (43,200, aimed at the commercial-vehicle workshop) — with Fernfahrer completing the trio as the title for the drivers themselves.

Coverage and Content

The content centers on the truck and the driver. Vehicle tests and driving reports evaluate the latest long-haul tractors from the driver's perspective — cab comfort, handling, fuel consumption, the details that determine life on the road: the bed, the storage, the heating for the night at the rest stop. Technical innovation coverage follows the commercial-vehicle industry: new engine generations, driver-assistance systems, alternative drives, and the digitalization of the cab — the technologies that are reshaping the driver's workplace, from the analog dashboard of 1981 to the connected cockpit of today.

Reportage from the drivers' professional everyday life — the rest stops, the border crossings, the loading docks, the nights in the cab — gives the magazine its distinctive voice, while policy, law, and social issues cover the regulatory framework: driving and rest times, the minimum wage in transport, working conditions, the cabotage rules that govern international competition. The magazine's citation in official contexts (such as the BAG market monitoring reports, which have quoted Fernfahrer on driver wages and the 8-euro minimum-wage demand of 2010) testifies to its role as a source on the profession's economics — driver wages, working conditions, the driver shortage that has become the industry's defining crisis.

Between 2002 and 2004, the magazine carried the Autohof-Guide as a supplement — the truck-stop guide that belongs to the driver's essential equipment, mapping the rest stops, fuel stations, and services along the European corridors. The brand's apps extend the service into the digital age: the Fernfahrer Truck Stops App (around 165,000 downloads as of January 2022) and the Fernfahrer Reporter App (around 12,500 downloads), the latter turning readers into contributors — the participatory tradition of the drivers' magazine in app form.

Organization and Ownership

Fernfahrer is published by the Euro Transport Media Verlags- und Veranstaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Stuttgart — a joint venture of Dekra, Motor Presse Stuttgart, and VF Verlagsgesellschaft, founded in 1992. The publishers are Oliver Trost and Bert Brandenburg; Oliver Trost is listed as editor-in-chief. The ETM portfolio spans 14 specialist journals plus special and customer publications, the eurotransport.de and firmenauto.de portals, and eurotransportTV.

The magazine's economics combine subscriptions and newsstand sales to drivers and the industry with advertising from truck manufacturers, suppliers, and service providers — the commercial-vehicle industry's marketing channel to the driver's cab, where brand loyalty is forged over hundreds of thousands of kilometers. The eurotransport.de portal provides the digital advertising complement, and the apps create additional touchpoints with the driver audience. Circulation figures beyond the stated distribution and financial details are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

The magazine's digital home is the "Fahrer" section of eurotransport.de (eurotransport.de/fahrer/), the ETM portal that serves the entire transport and commercial-vehicle industry with daily news — IVW-audited at 1.22 million page impressions and 691,676 visits in the December 2021 monthly average, a reach that makes it one of the transport industry's leading digital platforms. The Fernfahrer brand extends through the newsletter and the two apps: the Truck Stops App, which helps drivers find truck stops across Europe — a practical tool with 165,000 downloads — and the Reporter App, which lets drivers contribute their own reports and photos, extending the magazine's participatory tradition into the smartphone era.

The eurotransportTV web channel adds video to the mix, with formats like the ETM practical tests that evaluate trucks in real-world operation — the Fehrenkötter test drives, the heavy-transport documentaries — bringing the magazine's test expertise to the screen. For a profession that lives on the road, the digital strategy is necessarily mobile-first: the information must reach the driver's smartphone in the cab, at the rest stop, at the loading dock, in the languages and formats that an international driver workforce uses. In an industry facing driver shortages, digitalization, and the transition to alternative drives — battery-electric long-haul trucks are moving from prototype to series production — Fernfahrer's combination of print authority, practical apps, and the drivers' own voice keeps it the profession's companion: the magazine that has ridden along since 1981, from the analog cab of the FERNFAHRER-Zeitung era to the connected cockpit of the electric age.