Material Economy and Logistics 12/2022

The article presents the subject matter of safety in road traffic in Poland in the aspects selected by the authors. The research objective of the study was to identify, analyse and evaluate road safety in Poland. A review of the literature, i.e. books and scientific articles, as well as analysis of statistical data from the Polish Border Guard Headquarters in Warsaw, the National Police Headquarters in Warsaw and the Central Statistical Office were used to examine the problem matter. The status of road safety depends on numerous factors: the article analyses road accidents that occurred in specific months, days of the week and times of the day and considers alcohol intoxication of road users. The authors emphasize that one of the most essential problems that Poland faces today is low level of road safety. This may be for two reasons. First of all, there is an increase in the number of passenger cars, trucks, and tractor units. Secondly, the pace of road infrastructure improvement is insufficient.

 The world crisis caused by the pandemic exerted significant impact on the global supply chain operations. They were subjected to numerous unprecedented disturbances which then significantly intensified as a result of the unexpected, dynamic recovery of the global container transport market. The aim of the article is to attempt a multifaceted initial assessment of the scale and widespread results of the destabilization of markets and global logistics supply chains, as well as to determine its impact on the global economy, along with an indication of the possible short- and medium-term consequences of this state for selected entities operating in global supply chains. The main hypotheses which were verified during the study were as followed: (1) the COVID-19 crisis impacted the global commodity and shipping markets with unprecedented and unknown so far force, (2) the global container shipping sector experienced historical boom during the period from October 2020 to March 2022 and was in fact a real financial beneficiary of the last crisis. The methods of economic and statistical analysis and among them the factors analysis (FA) have been used as the main analytical tool to carry out the set research goals and to verify the hypotheses. The results of this study indicate the need for greater control of the global container shipping alliances by antitrust authorities as well as for deeper structural reconstruction of the existed global logistics supply chains.

The article constitutes the second part of the study which aim is to present changes in supply chain management before the COVID-19 pandemic and in the first months of this pandemic as well as to assess the influence of these changes on building a competitive advantage on the example of the selected Polish production, trade and service enterprises. It attempts to carry out an in-depth analysis of the most important, in the opinion of the author, aspects of changes in supply chain management of the selected Polish production, trade and service enterprises in 2018–2020 and to assess the influence of these changes on the process of building a competitive advantage of the surveyed companies.

The development infrastructure is essential to the country's development, and in particular has a significant impact on transportation. Likewise, transportation infrastructure is a key component of economic development at all levels. It promotes personal well-being and economic growth. It also plays a key role in the development of transportation services being a determinant of performance from the transportation sector. The purpose of the article is to present the impact of road infrastructure development and the economic situation on the performance of selected transportation companies. A total of more than 100 entrepreneurs operating in the transport services sector, who had been in the market for a period from one year to more than 21 years, participated in the study. A diagnostic survey was conducted and the results were developed through the use of statistical methods, including selected non-parametric tests (Mann–Whitney U, Kruskal– –Wallis H) and a correlation study. This allowed verification of the opinions of company representatives as to the quality of road infrastructure and its impact on the development of the industry over the years.