The Government neither harm nor help (Rząd nie zaszkodził, ale i nie pomógł) - Puls Biznesu magazine

What is the best summary of the investment situation in the TSL market? Short: warm and sunny with occasional bad weather.

Last year was much better than expected. Take 15% growth of services sales on the TSL market – take train services. There were many factors for that, the economic growth being the most important, which actually was bigger than the “weather forecast” at nearly 6%.
Also the rise of both import and export and the abrupt growth of consumption in Q4 and the growing number of foreign investments helped the operators (...).

About us in our own words

2006 and the previous years did not bring any positive actions from the government.
- My impression is that goods transport is merely a way of fixing the budget by means of different ways, gladly used by every single cabinet. The segmentation of the market makes strong resistance against any new financial burdens difficult, says Andrzej Szymański, trade manager at Dartom.
In 2006 a change of regulations was introduced that eliminated the possibility of using self-employed drivers in companies; and self-employment was the most popular type of work status in the case of truck drivers. Self-employment guaranteed a higher income for drivers and lower costs for both the driver and the company. The change in regulations caused an increase of costs for the, already financially struggling, transport companies.
We don't expect 2007 to be any different, the government will probably create more new regulations that will further cause problems for business owners. Luckily, the market can defend itself, adds Andrzej Szymański.

The future of TSL

Andrzej Szymaski
Commercial Director, Dartom

2007 means further investment in transport companies as the demand is still bigger than supply and the prices of services have grown beyond the level we couldn't have imagined last year. However, we can see a much bigger growth of demand in import than in export from Poland.

The complete text is available in the Puls Biznesu magazine special, May 2007.