Les coopératives de transporteurs. Des coopératives d’artisans à la coopération de PME

<p>The first cooperative initiatives in transport services appeared in the 1960s, later than in the other sectors. The transition from a regulated economy to a more competitive market split the sector into small companies and big groups. While the number of members belonging to cooperatives of self-employed drivers remains limited, cooperatives of SMEs have provided a large number of members with the advantages of a national or international network. Cooperatives of self-employed drivers generate virtually all of the sales of their members, but in the cooperatives of SMEs the share of sales generated by the cooperative is marginal. The article compares the efficiency of these two models, which offer different degrees of member integration and independence.</p>