The end of Polish transit. Goods are starting to stay in the country

Is Poland still a transit country or is it starting to become a logistics hub and a safe base for the economy?

Today, Poland is less and less a transit country – and that’s a good thing. We, as the logistics industry, are also doing a lot to move away from this model. Transit itself is not particularly beneficial to us. We are no longer an economy based solely on transport. It is increasingly clear that more goods stay in Poland – they are processed here, “refined”, introduced to European trade, and only then are they sent further, sometimes after additional processing.

This is also starting to show in the data. Małaszewicze is a good example – out of ten trains entering the terminal, three or four end up in Poland. That’s a lot. This means that the goods are unloaded here, cleared through customs, and therefore generate value for the Polish economy and budget. This is a real qualitative change.

Poland is becoming an attractive place for this type of operations – it can be said that today we are an introduction to nearshoring processes. In this way, we regain some of the processing functions that were previously performed elsewhere.

And at what stage of this journey are we today – between being a transit country and a logistics center?

It depends on your perspective. If we look from the east, we have actually moved beyond the role of a transit country and are gradually becoming a place where goods are assembled, processed and adapted to European trade. In other words, loads increasingly often “stop” in Poland, something happens to them and only then they move on.

In turn, from the Western perspective, Poland has never been a classic transit country. Rather, we acted as a base for other economies – and in some sense we still do. The difference is that once we were mainly a low-cost manufacturing facility, today we are becoming a more advanced assembly, production and processing center.

High-quality work is still being done here, while in many Western European countries it is being abandoned in favor of automation – due to, among other things, labor shortages and rising labor costs.

Poland therefore remains an attractive location for logistics and production operations. Foreign analytical centers also draw attention to this, pointing out that the Szczecin-Poznań-Wrocław-Katowice belt is today one of the strongest logistics areas in Europe. This is where the largest e-commerce centers are concentrated – all the key entities operating in this market are present. This process is already happening and clearly shows the direction in which the Polish economy is heading.

What do foreign investors expect most from Poland today? Infrastructure, local partners or operational resilience?

First of all, they expect stability – predictable, safe operational processes, also in the area of ​​cybersecurity, and very high efficiency standards, i.e. KPIs. From our perspective, however, the ambition is broader. We want to “lift” Poland to a higher level in the value chain. It is no longer just about developing logistics itself, but about attracting production investments.

We are talking about the return of some production to Europe, i.e. the nearshoring trend. We want production centers to be created in Poland, and with them – added value and budget revenues in the form of taxes. This means moving away from the transit country model and building Poland’s position as a place where economic value is actually created.

How does digitalization change everyday decisions in logistics today and what needs to happen for it to become the standard in Poland and not the exception?

Today, it is no longer possible to run a large logistics company without digitalization. Without it, there is no scale or effectiveness. Digitization primarily means the integration of processes, their multiplication and constant contact with the customer. EDI systems are crucial, as they allow you to keep track of operations and have a common picture of the situation – both on the operator’s and the customer’s side.

In practice, today we operate on many parallel systems – separate for terminals, rail transport, sales and warehouses. Without their integration, as well as without the use of tools based on artificial intelligence, it is difficult to talk about an efficiently functioning enterprise. In a sense, without digitalization, a logistics company simply does not exist.

If you were to convince a European investor with one sentence that Poland is a good logistics partner, what would you say?

We will do it in the best way on the continent, on time, without any damage, at a favorable price and to the highest standard.