The National Debt Register (Krajowy Rejestr Długów) has published a report on the finances of the Polish transport sector. The situation is serious.
The report by the National Debt Register, “Polish transport is stuck in a traffic jam of payment arrears – the financial situation in the industry,” is an analytical compilation of data regarding the debt of companies offering road transport services. The publication includes information from the KRD database on the number of debtors and the value of their liabilities, broken down by province. Furthermore, the publication contains information on the main categories of creditors of transport companies and shows what types of entities are indebted to the surveyed group of enterprises. The report also contains historical data to 
present a broader trend in the development of debt in Polish transport.
The total debt of the transport industry recorded in the KRD amounts to as much as 664,144,592.32 PLN, which means an increase of 36% compared to February of last year. During this time, 4,000 new debtors representing this industry have also been added, and there are currently 20,928 of them. A symbol of the deepening crisis is the record debt of one company noted in the KRD. While a year ago it was 8 million PLN, the current “record holder” owes creditors over 44 million PLN. Moreover, there are several dozen companies in the KRD with debt exceeding 1 million PLN.
– The situation in the transport industry shows that it is sitting on a kind of ticking time bomb. Threats come from various directions, and the enormous success on the international stage that Polish companies have achieved over the last few years may unfortunately distort the real picture and the prospects for the development of the situation. We must realize that the situation is serious enough that a potential crisis of Polish carriers could also negatively affect other sectors of the economy. Shocks in transport can trigger a real domino effect – says Adam Łącki, President of the Management Board of the National Debt Register.
– Carriers are forced to deal with many problems at once. In addition to the above-average scale of payment arrears or the constantly insufficient number of employees, several others should be mentioned. It must be realized that transport services are burdened with the necessity of adapting to various regulations in force in individual markets. This causes additional costs, which, alongside insurance, leasing or loan installments, legal and accounting services, fuel, road tolls, and finally fleet maintenance, make it so that entrepreneurs often have real difficulties in breaking even. If one adds to this the normal problems in this industry with optimizing company operations and organizing driver routes – the so-called empty haulage phenomenon – the situation of many carriers indeed becomes very worrying – said Mirosław Sędłak, President of Rzetelna Firma.