Poland : reforming the road freight industry

This study explores options for the restructuring and the privatization of PKS, Poland's main state-owned enterprise for road transport of passengers and general freight. In the discussion of privatization, the focus of the study is on the road freight haulage operations of PKS and not on its passenger operations by bus. Privatization of road haulage, in conformity with the stated purposes of Poland's program of systemic reform, is intended to raise the productivity of resources employed in transport and to assist thereby in the recovery of the economy and of employment. The key to this outcome is the creation of a competitive environment and, equally, the introduction of management by, or under the control of, owners with a clear right to the net income from the business. The process of privatization must therefore allow wide scope for the development of commercially alert and market-oriented management. If privatization of road haulage is to serve those ends and also confo...