Purpose The aim of this paper is to present a study on freight transport analysis models. The purpose is to identify different stakeholders’ perceptions of existing models, e.g., strengths and weaknesses, and of their requirements and views on future models. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a questionnaire and interviews with representatives of public authorities, consultancy companies, and universities in Sweden and Denmark. Findings The study shows that there is a need for freight analysis models for supporting the transport planning in public authorities, including impact assessment of actions and estimation of freight flows. The respondents work mainly with macro-level models, whose main strength is their large geographic scopes, which allow comparative studies on, e.g., the national level using one model. Weaknesses include poor quality, missing functionality, and inadequate user-friendliness. In order to achieve improved freight transport analysis, the respondents wish to include more detailed logistics aspects in their analyses, which could possibly be achieved by combining macro-level and agent-based models. Research limitations/implications The limitation of this study is that we only included Danish and Swedish respondents, who mainly work with macro-level models. Moreover, only one Danish person answered the questionnaire. However, the respondent group represent a wide knowledge on freight and passenger transport models, and the study concerns to a large extent model types, not only particular models. Therefore, we argue that our findings have a wider geographic applicability. Practical implications The outcome of our study might be used by researchers and public authorities in order to, e.g., guide the decision-making on future model development: the views of the model users and clients are important to consider in order to assure that the development and research efforts lead to fulfilling their needs. Original/value The presented work provides insight into the needs and attitudes of model users and clients involved in freight transport analysis. This knowledge is important, e.g., for researchers involved in model development. According to the best of our knowledge, there is no previous study like the one presented.