alt Hacker NewsIn the US there was a slight drop around that time, but not close to 25% in the eu. If it was due to businesses buying less physical media wouldn't it be sth seen in the US data in some year too?
https://www.bts.gov/us-tonne-kilometers-freight
(a bit easier in table form as the graph does not aggregate accross all means of transport).
I would note that the population increase 2008-present in the EU (340M to 350M) is much lower than the US (305M to 345M), which could account for a rather significant difference too. I don't think either of these is a "smoking gun" but they both seem pretty significant confounding factors.