In the European market, Germany is famous for the production of cars, the Italians for the cuisine, and the Poles have taken over road transport. Transport companies from Poland have taken a leading position on European trade routes – they already carry out a quarter of the road transport of goods between Germany and France.
Transport work performed by companies registered in Poland makes this country the largest European market for road transport. In 2019, the Poles were ahead of Germany in this respect, and Polish companies annually carry out almost 360 billion tonne-kilometers of transportation – most of them within the country or from/to Poland, emphasizes the industry association Transport Logistics Polska (TLP). Growth over the past decade has taken place mainly due to foreign transportation, primarily of the cross-trade type, i.e. between other countries.
While transportation in Poland from 2010-2020 increased by an average of 4.2 percent. per year, then cross-trade and cabotage shipments grew at an average rate of 9.5 percent. Thus, over the past decade, Polish companies have become the dominant player in European international transport
says Ignacy Morawski, director of SpotData
In 2008, they transported 8 percent. of goods from Germany to France (in mass terms), and in 2020 it was already 25 percent, which made it possible to overtake, in particular, French companies.
According to the expert, a very large share of Polish companies is also in transportation from Germany to Belgium, Italy, the Czech Republic, and the UK, and on the route between the UK and Germany, almost half of the cargo is transported by vehicles registered in Poland. Such exact data is taken from the Road Transport in Poland 2021+ report compiled by SpotData and TLP.
“No other country plays a similar role in international shipping even to an approximate extent. The exchange of goods between the EU countries, as well as the export and import of the EU, falls on the shoulders of Polish transport companies. On international routes (both to/from Poland and elsewhere), Polish companies perform three times more traffic (230 billion tonne-kilometers) than companies from Germany, France, and Italy (72 billion tonne-kilometers),” says Maciej Wronski, director of TLP.
He also emphasizes that Poland’s revenue from the export of road transport services reaches 9.3 billion euros and is almost at the level of the total value of export sales of German, French and Italian companies (about 10 billion euros).
Polish carriers create the competitiveness of the EU economy
This means that, despite the difficult regulatory environment, such as the Mobility Package and attempts to limit the access of Polish companies to the European market, it can be said with a high degree of probability that the growth of the importance of Polish transport in the European economy cannot be stopped. It is already too important, and foreign competitors do not have enough resources and experience to successfully compete with Polish companies on a large scale.
Polish carriers play an important structural role in the European economy. They allow Western producers to save money, which, in turn, allows them to be more competitive in international markets. Within the framework of the common European market, individual countries and regions have begun to specialize in certain elements of the supply chain, which allows the entire European economy to build more efficiency. At present, the whole of Central Europe accounts for more than a quarter of transport services in the EU, although the share of these countries in the GDP of the EU does not exceed 10 percent. This value cannot be reduced anymore
emphasizes TLP.
The large share of exports
It is worth noting that the export of transport services plays an important macroeconomic role in Poland, due to its positive impact on the balance of payments (the balance of financial flows between the country and the world). Sales of transport services by Polish companies to Western firms account for 28 percent. of all Polish exports of services and about 6 percent. total national exports, counting together goods and services.
At the same time, Poland is recording a huge surplus in trade in transport services, reaching 8.9 billion euros (in 2020), which has increased by 6 billion euros over the decade. Thus, the transport services sector makes a significant contribution to the macroeconomic stability of our country. The positive impact on the operating balance is reflected in a lower need for external debt, increased financial confidence in the country, an upgrade in the rating, and lower debt service costs.
