Barriers to the use of logistics in the organization of international supply chains

The paper was presented at the Polish Logistics Congress “Logistics 2000 – Meeting the logistics challenges of the 21st century”. Poznań, June 1-2, 2000.

The growth of Poland’s economic exchange with Western and Eastern European countries has led to an increase in the intensity of international road transport. Logistics operators, both in Poland and other European countries, have firmly committed to road transport in order to meet customer requirements. This is primarily due to the fact that this mode of transport accounts for the largest share of trade and most fully implements door-to-door transport, which has practically become a challenge posed by customers to operators and road transport companies. However, the practical application of logistics in international transport encounters many barriers, which include, among others:
• transport infrastructure,
• warehouse network,
• border crossing infrastructure,
• administrative barriers.

To properly implement a logistics service in international transport, a logistics operator must have appropriate technical infrastructure at their disposal. This technical infrastructure, which includes a network of roads, warehouses, and an adequate number of border crossings with full technical equipment, must guarantee that the logistics service is fully implemented in accordance with customer requirements. This is an important statement, as these three elements must form a single whole within a given logistics system. The lack of one of these elements or its poor quality status causes the practical realization of customer needs in this system to be disrupted and fails to bring the expected economic results for all participants in the supply chain. This can be observed particularly in the example of Polish economic realities. Poland’s inadequate transport infrastructure, especially regarding transit roads in the East-West direction, as well as the entire national road network, significantly limits the capabilities of logistics operators. Practice shows that this is the case in many instances, especially concerning logistics operators from Western European countries who, when organizing cargo movement processes in the East-West direction and vice versa, increasingly use transport routes through the Czech Republic and Slovakia or through Scandinavian countries, bypassing Poland’s transit roads. Practical experience shows that delivery times via these routes are in many cases shorter and more reliable than through Polish territory. Furthermore, logistics operators face great difficulties in carrying out deliveries or collections within Poland due to axle load restrictions on many roads and bridges that are too low, which force detours and thus lead to increased costs. There is also an improper spatial structure of customs office locations, which forces an increase in the number of kilometers traveled, causing a rise in logistics costs. Such behavior by logistics operators is influenced not only by the poor state of transit roads but also by the long waiting times for vehicles at border crossings, both on the Polish-German border and the Polish-Belarusian, Polish-Russian, Polish-Lithuanian, and Polish-Ukrainian borders. This is a problem known for many years and quite significant when discussing the integration of the Polish transport system with the European transport system. Unfortunately, this problem has not yet been effectively solved and affects the entirety of the logistics processes being carried out.

It should be stated here that Polish transport policy has a rather interesting instrument consisting of informing domestic and foreign logistics operators every day about the waiting times for trucks for customs and border clearance at individual Polish border crossings. In practice, however, it turns out that this is a purely theoretical instrument, as reality is more complex, since time has a relative character. It is worth noting that in extreme cases, the waiting time at Polish border crossings for vehicles transporting cargo from Germany to Russia can reach up to 7 days. This causes evident financial losses for logistics operators, carriers, as well as recipients and senders of goods, who find it difficult to organize their business activities because they do not know when they will receive their ordered goods. It should also be noted that the waiting time for vehicles at border crossings is related not only to the insufficient number of these crossings but also to such factors as:
• complex customs clearance procedures,
• small number of customs office employees,
• insufficient knowledge of foreign languages by border services,
• poor equipment of customs offices with modern technical means, such as: computer equipment or communication tools.

These are shortcomings that significantly prolong customs clearance procedures and, consequently, cause vehicle downtime at borders.