Polish transport In the face of the pandemic

The pandemic, that we have to face for the first time in such a global dimension has undoubtedly influenced activity of all companies and organizations. Each of them felt and still feels the effects of it. We all had to adapt to the new working conditions, functioning, specific contacts with people and many other aspects.

Our company has been cooperating with such important organizations for the transport market as the Association of International Road Transporters and the Chamber of Commerce for Public Transport almost from the beginning of its activity. Three months after the epidemiological emergency was announced, that unfortunately continues, we asked the representatives of both organizations how their activities changed during the pandemic and how they found themselves in this unusual situation.

Interview with Mr. Piotr Mikiel –Director of Transportation Department at ZMPD.

HOW DO POLISH CARRIES HANDLE WITH THE EFFECTS OF A PANDEMIC?

ZMPD as the biggest Polish Association in the transportation industry supported and is still supporting transportation development in our country and abroad. Merits ZMPD for the development of this important branch of the economy, as well as for the entire family of Polish road carriers are invaluable. Especially in this difficult period for all, the support of Polish carriers, who have undoubtedly suffered the effects of a pandemic is extremely important.

Director of Transportation Department at ZMPD shared with us the scale of ZMPD activities, as well as the analysis of the current situation in the Association.

Drabpol News: ZMPD is known for its activity in supporting international road carriers and organizing numerous industry meetings. What is the association's activity during the pandemic?

Piotr Mikiel: Our activities do not change significantly. We are still trying to monitor situation on the transportation market by informing road carriers about obstacles they may encounter when performing transport.

Thus, from our point of view and our business activity little has changed, except from the fact that in times of a pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus we did not organize regional industry meetings, because we simply could not do these. In the first phase of the pandemic, the conditions of transport in individual countries were changing as in a kaleidoscope. Now the situation is slowly returning to the preepidemic norm, individual countries are lifting the restrictions, but not all. We are still involved in public consultations of legal acts - national and Community ones.

We address the national authorities providing information on practical difficulties related to transport performance and postulates how to solve the problems that carriers constantly encounter when carrying out their transport activities.

We cooperate with associations from abroad and we exchange knowledge about the conditions of transport in our countries The difference is that there have been many more such contacts lately.

DN: Once again, in the course of the last few years, transportation industry has come under severe test. What do you think is the future of Polish road carriers in the ongoing pandemic and after its ceasing?

P.M.: Probably nobody these days, starting from doctors and ending with entrepreneurs, does not think that the coronavirus epidemic will end as soon as it began. As a result, we will have to deal with the effects of this pandemic for much longer. “This is also confirmed by international economic forecasts, which show that a return to the pre-pandemic economic situation in Europe may occur not earlier than in 12, maybe 18 months.

This can be observed on the market of transport services – there are approx. 20 – 30% less orders and in addition, carriers are reporting a decrease in freight prices for transport services. This means that transport companies need to prepare for a stronger tightening of the belt, that is reduction of investment expenditure, rolling stock optimization, and consequently reduction in employment.

We have a great deal of uncertainty as to how and when the resumption of production will take place in EU countries, how will the demand for specific consumer goods or services, including transport services, be shaped. It will depend on many factors, social - related to the labour market, economic - related to international trade, but also with fear that the situation with coronavirus infection may get worse again in Autumn. This in turn could cause another slowdown in the global economy.

DN: What is the scale of changes in supply chain due to the reintroduction of border controls?

P.M.: The reintroduction of controls at internal EU borders resulted in longer delivery times. It is worth noting that European Commission recommended that the restrictions introduced by individual Member States on the free movement of persons in connection with the coronavirus pandemic should not apply to the transport of goods. And so it happened, despite the fact that some countries temporarily introduced some restrictions, particularly those concerning (let me remind) moving only on certain roads, entering only through specific border crossings or setting the time for loading or unloading goods and even the time of transit through a given country.

The only country that introduced a ban on entry to its territory for carriers from other countries was Turkey. This caused a lot of tension, including reprisal on Turkish carriers in return.

DN: What news is coming from the associated road carriers? Are there positive signals from the market or maybe the market needs a lot more time to start returning to the state before pandemic?

P.M.: So far, the carriers more often report a problem related to prolonged payment periods for the rendered transport services, or difficulties in recovering outstanding freight charges. If we add the smaller number of transport orders and lower rates, the situation does not look good. We can observe an excess supply over demand in transport market. As a result, some road carriers often agree on carriage conditions, which should not be generally accepted for various reasons.

This, in turn, means that weconstantly hear more about intermediary companies which order transports and later do not intend to pay for them. Therefore, as ZMPD, we have taken a number of different initiatives aiming at limiting the activity of intermediary companies in the carriage of goods. We applied, among others, to the Ministry of Justice to introduce penalties for the so-called service fraud. Companies engaged in such practices must be effectively eliminated from the market.

DN: What actions to support Polish international carriers are planned in the nearest future by ZMPD?

P.M.: ZMPD has been supporting its members for years with information on the conditions of international transport in various countries Moreover, we take a number of lobbying activities aimed at working out the best solutions for Polish transport companies, both in Poland and abroad.

At the beginning of corovavirus pandemic we asked the government to launch support instruments for the transport industry, which the government then implemented through a series of laws aimed at alleviating the negative economic effects of a pandemic, called the Anti-crisis Shield. We have organized a number of webinars on possible support instruments for the road carriers. We monitor the situation on the transport services market and we will take appropriate actions depending on the needs.

Thank you for the conversation and we hope that the situation in Polish transport will quickly return to normal.

Interview with Ms. Dorota Kacprzyk - President of the Chamber of Commerce for Public Transport.

NEW CHALLENGES IN PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Also a domestic public transport, every day transporting millions of people throughout Poland, faced a huge challenge. Shortly after the pandemic was announced the number of transported passengers was limited to no more than half the number of seats. These restrictions have already been removed, but this does not mean that the communication industry sector is no longer feeling the effects of a pandemic. Ensuring the safety of passenger transport as well as the safety of drivers and all public transport employees became the most important challenge that the public transport had to face. Therefore, the introduction of new sanitary standards to minimize the risk of coronavirus infection has become a priority.

We asked about these standards, as well as about the current situation in the public transport sector Ms. Dorota Kacprzyk - President of the Chamber of Commerce for Public Transport.

Drabpol News: What is your opinion on the future of public transport companies, as well as your sales forecasts for OEM sector and other companies from the widely understood public transport sector in the ongoing pandemic and after its ceasing?

Dorota Kacprzyk: I am far from demonising the effects of a pandemic in the urban public transport sector. Indeed, since March, ticket revenues have dropped dramatically, but the outflow of passengers from public transport was caused more by the so-called "lockdown” - closing workplaces, schools or transition to remote work and an obligation to stay at home rather than by passengers' fear of using public transport.

We observed a noticeable return of passengers yet during the increase in the incidence, and closely related to the stages of loosening restrictions by the government. We began to struggle with the lack of rolling stock to handle returning passengers in the situation of such strict transport limits imposed by the government.

Obviously, the period of social isolation influenced the economic situation of public transport companies, OEM sector and other around-system companies. In many cities, there was a significant reduction in transport performance, and as a result in remuneration. These companies with their fixed costs and unplanned additional costs of disinfection, got into difficulty.

In my opinion, if companies from our branch entered the pandemic period in a generally good condition, they will be able, in a short period of time, to make up for the level of services or the level of sales from before the pandemic. I must admit that IGKM is still struggling to obtain financial support from public funds, because for now we consider the level of this support insufficient.

D.N.: IGKM is well know from organizing numerous industry meetings, which are important points in many company calendars. How did the Chamber find its place in the new reality?

D.K.: The activity of the Chamber is largely based on the organization of trade fairs, congress meetings, industry committees and various trainings. Of course, during the pandemic, we were forced to suspend our business and cancel all meetings scheduled for the first half of the year, and to move some of them to a later date. Due to the difficult time and many problems our members had to face, we did not consider implementing solutions used by others, like organization of teleconferences and paid webinars.

Ms. Dorota Kacprzyk - President of the Chamber of Commerce for Public Transport.

Public transport companies, with the help of service companies from our sector, responded promptly and ideally to the epidemic situation. Each company has introduced safety procedures to protect employees, drivers and passengers without any recommendations or top-down imposed rules.

In that time, we directed our efforts to our statutory work, which is a large part of our tasks - we did not idle at that time. We represented the interests of our industry on an ongoing basis, mainly through contact with ministries regarding the provisions of laws and regulations regarding the urban public transport sector. I will say immodestly that we have successfully won several important solutions. We hope that soon we will be able to return to personal meetings with members.

D. N.: A huge drop in the number public transport passengers is behind us. Now, we can observe a slow return to “normality”, but how do public transport companies plan to get back the trust of potential passengers?

D.K.: How will urban mobility look like after the pandemic? A lot of statistical research and studies on the potential permanent outflow of passengers from public transport have already been created. But I am optimistic, in the peak of the pandemic there was a lack of places in vehicles, this is the best proof that passengers are not afraid of public transport. Of course some of them may not have any alternative, but in my opinion we all have a tendency to forget what was bad quickly.

Public transport must be aware that a more efficient transport offer, well planned timetables, care for travel quality, punctuality, quality of vehicles and their equipment will be needed, all in combination with care for the environment. We can't loose the trend that can be observed within the last 3-5 years, which increases the importance of public transport as an element of raising the comfort of life in the city, fighting traffic jams and smog. And privately, I hope that the cleanness procedures introduced due to the pandemic will stay with us forever.

D.N.: What signals are coming from public transport companies regarding actions taken for the safety of passengers, as well as employees, and in particular drivers?

D.K.: Public transport companies, with the help of service companies from our sector, responded promptly and ideally to the epidemic situation. Each company has introduced safety procedures to protect employees, drivers and passengers without any recommendations or top-down imposed rules. The door release buttons were turned off, driver buffer zones were organized, and new standards for cleaning and disinfecting vehicles were introduced over time. I hope that such care for cleanness and hygiene by constantly searching for new technologies, such as vehicle ozonisation, coating with special viral- and bactericidal coatings, the use of antivirus handrails, non-contact hand disinfectors inside vehicles, will stay with us for a long time. After all, all these technologies were already known before the pandemic.

Thank you for the interview, and we wish all public transport companies in the country safe transport.