The last few years have been very significant for the development of Polish road transport. Currently, we have over 1,300 km of motorways and just under 1,000 km of expressways in Poland. Almost 1,500 km of them have been put into service over the last 5 years. How has this affected the TSL industry?
– The situation in Poland after joining the European Union changed dynamically – in the first five years, Poland’s economic growth was twice as high as the EU average – says Grzegorz Lichocik, CEO of Dachser in Poland. – For logistics companies in our part of Europe, these were years of unprecedented activity – the growing demand for their services caused the dynamic development of the entire industry. The TSL (transport, forwarding, logistics) industry grew much faster than the entire economy, and most companies in the industry recorded double-digit sales growth. This was favored by the internal market and exports, which gained the most from joining the Union. Unfortunately, investments in transport infrastructure did not keep up with the growing needs.
Since 2007, Poland has been one of the largest road construction sites in the world. Everyone sees and feels this, mainly through the difficulties that ongoing investments cause in road traffic. Over the last 5 years, over 600 km of motorways and approx. 800 km of expressways have been built. A large part of these investments was accelerated by the organization of the EURO 2012 Championships in Poland.
– Transport infrastructure is to the entire economy what an efficient circulatory system is to a human – says Grzegorz Lichocik. – Using this terminology, we were a sluggish, barely breathing organism. The investments made so far have improved our figure a bit, but we are still far from being able to run to the 4th floor without getting out of breath. Investments in infrastructure enable the effective development of distribution networks and the shortening of transport execution time, all for the benefit of optimizing logistics process flows.
Real benefits from the opening of new roads can be seen in the implementation of the company’s connections, e.g., currently, Dachser drivers cover the section from Warsaw to Berlin up to 4 hours faster, which significantly streamlines work and improves the company’s efficiency.
– Additionally, our locations situated near new roads are gaining in importance, e.g., the branch in Stryków, located at the intersection of two motorways, which will probably soon become the main transshipment point for our fleet between Western Europe and the East – explains Lichocik. – However, we should not slow down; new roads are needed, also within cities. Goods will not reach recipients if we do not deliver them there. The problem is not trucks, but only the still inadequate infrastructure, which must be improved so that our economy can develop properly.