Transport company profitability in Poland: how to improve margins and manage costs

Transport company profitability in Poland is less and less dependent only on whether a business has a full transport schedule. In practice, what matters much more today is the quality of cost management, the way services are priced and settled, the organisation of internal processes, and the ability to respond quickly to regulatory changes. This is particularly important in Poland, where road transport plays a dominant role in freight transport. According to Statistics Poland (GUS), in 2024, in commercial road transport, enterprises classified under Section H “Transport and storage” accounted for 74.8% of freight transport by tonnes and 88.0% of transport performance measured in tonne-kilometres.

For the owner of a transport company, the key question is no longer only: how many orders do we carry out? The more important question is: on which orders do we actually earn money? If a company does not have proper control over fuel costs, road tolls, drivers’ working time, VAT settlements and receivables, it may maintain high turnover while gradually losing margin. This is why transport company profitability is increasingly connected not only with operations, but also with management accounting, payroll and tax advisory.

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Why transport margins may be lower than turnover suggests

In the transport, forwarding and logistics sector (TSL), there is often an apparent paradox: the company grows, carries out more transport orders, expands its fleet or hires more drivers, but its net result does not improve proportionally. The reason is usually not one single issue, but several overlapping areas.

The most common problems include:

• incomplete control over costs assigned to routes and vehicles,
• overly general accounting of operating expenses,
• errors in pricing transport services,
• delayed or non-optimal VAT settlements,
• irregularities in drivers’ payroll and working time settlements,
• lack of current management reports,
• disorganised document flow between operations, administration and accounting.

This is why transport company profitability in Poland should be analysed more broadly than only through the lens of revenue and costs at company level. A well-managed business needs to know which routes, vehicles, contracts and cooperation models actually build profit, and which merely increase turnover without an adequate margin.

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Costs that most often reduce transport company profitability in Poland

Fuel and road tolls

Fuel remains one of the most obvious costs in transport, but it is not always analysed correctly. The problem arises when a company sees the total fuel cost but cannot connect it with a specific route, customer or type of transport. The same applies to road tolls.

In 2026, changes in the Polish e-TOLL system are particularly important. From 1 February 2026, the network of toll roads was expanded and electronic toll rates were changed for heavy goods vehicles and buses. The new rules apply to motor vehicles, vehicle combinations with a permissible gross vehicle weight of more than 3.5 tonnes, and buses.

If a company does not regularly update route calculations and customer offers, higher road toll costs may gradually reduce margins, even if the number of transport orders remains stable.

Leasing, maintenance, spare parts and insurance

The second major cost group includes expenses related to fleet maintenance. In practice, these include:

• vehicle leasing or rental,
• repairs and inspections,
• spare parts,
• tyres,
• insurance,
• depreciation of transport assets.

A common mistake is recording these costs only collectively. From a management perspective, this is not enough. A transport company should know not only how much the fleet costs in total, but also which vehicles generate above-average expenses and whether those expenses are operationally justified.

Drivers’ labour costs

Another area that directly affects profitability is labour cost. This does not mean only basic salary, but the entire driver settlement model: allowances, night work, standby time, working time, documentation, contribution bases and compliance with the rules applicable to international road transport.

This is particularly important because from 2 February 2022, the rules for determining the contribution base for drivers performing business duties in international road transport changed. In practice, transport companies require a more specialised payroll approach than businesses operating in less complex sectors.

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How to improve transport company profitability in practice

1. Assign costs to routes, vehicles and customers

One of the most important steps is to stop looking at costs only at company-wide level. Profitability should be measured closer to operations. A good practice is to assign key costs to:

• a specific vehicle,
• a driver,
• a type of transport,
• a customer,
• a route or group of routes.

This allows the business owner to see more quickly whether the problem lies in incorrect service pricing, excessive operating costs of selected vehicles, or the way work is organised.

2. Update pricing calculations regularly

In transport, it is not enough to set rates and use them for many months without review. If labour, fuel, road toll or maintenance costs increase, while the price list is not updated accordingly, the margin decreases automatically.

This is why transport companies should analyse:

• cost per kilometre,
• cost per order,
• cost per driver working hour,
• cost of toll road use,
• profitability of transport operations under different fleet utilisation models.

3. Ensure current management reporting

In practice, it is difficult to improve profitability if the owner or management board receives financial data late or in an overly general form. In many companies, the problem is not a lack of data, but the fact that operational, HR and accounting data are not connected.

This is why a working model in which accounting goes beyond statutory reporting and also supports management reporting and cost analysis can bring significant value. This approach is supported, among others, by accounting services for transport companies in Poland, where the focus is not only on formal compliance but also on the financial perspective of transport operations.

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VAT and taxes can directly affect transport margins

VAT on transport services

In transport companies, profitability is strongly linked to the correctness of VAT settlements. The key issues include correctly determining the place of supply, the contractor’s status and the required documentation. In cross-border transport services, an incorrect classification may lead to invoice corrections, disputes with contractors or additional tax payments.

From a business perspective, this is not only about compliance with Polish tax law. Incorrect VAT settlement may also disrupt cash flow and reduce the margin on a contract that initially seemed profitable.

Foreign VAT refunds

For many transport companies, recovering foreign VAT on expenses incurred in other EU countries is also a real way to improve financial results. This applies in particular to fuel, road tolls and selected maintenance services. This is not a secondary issue, but an element of liquidity management. If a company regularly incurs such costs and does not recover VAT, it effectively accepts a higher cost of doing business than necessary.

Taxation model and net result

For sole proprietors and smaller transport companies in Poland, the form of taxation may also have a significant impact. A high level of operating costs may mean that a solution which was beneficial at the beginning of the business becomes less advantageous as the company grows and expands its fleet.

Therefore, the decision to choose lump-sum taxation, flat-rate personal income tax or taxation under the progressive tax scale should result from an analysis of:

• tax-deductible costs,
• revenue structure,
• planned investments,
• employment model,
• domestic and international activity.

In such situations, tax advisory in Poland can be particularly useful in assessing whether the current settlement model still supports the company’s profitability.

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Transport company profitability, payroll and HR in Poland

In many transport companies, improving margins starts not with sales, but with organising HR and payroll processes. This is where hidden costs often appear: payroll calculation errors, inconsistencies in documentation, inefficient work organisation and lack of integration between tachograph data and payroll lists.

Well-organised payroll in transport should include not only salary calculation, but also:

• verification of working time,
• consistency of HR and operational data,
• timely settlements,
• control of contribution bases,
• preparation of documentation for inspections.

In this context, payroll Poland is a natural form of support for the TSL sector, especially where a company wants to reduce the risk of errors and relieve internal administrative resources.

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Regulatory obligations also affect financial performance

Transport company profitability does not depend only on rates and direct costs. Formal and regulatory obligations also have an impact, as they affect work organisation and adjustment costs. This is particularly visible in two areas.

The first area is tachographs. From 1 July 2026, the obligation to use tachographs will also apply to vehicles and vehicle combinations with a permissible gross vehicle weight of more than 2.5 tonnes and up to 3.5 tonnes if they perform international carriage of goods or cabotage operations. In addition, EU deadlines apply for replacing certain older tachograph types. This means investment, maintenance and organisational costs that should be included in business planning.

The second area is the National e-Invoicing System (KSeF). For transport companies in Poland, KSeF is not only a technical change, but also a need to organise invoicing processes, document circulation and data flow between operations and accounting.

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When standard accounting is no longer enough

In transport, the problem is rarely the complete absence of accounting. The real issue is rather that standard accounting services do not always keep pace with the realities of this sector. A transport company usually needs more than simply correct bookkeeping.

Most often, it also needs:

• cost and profitability analysis,
• support in drivers’ settlements,
• order in operational documentation,
• assistance with VAT and foreign settlements,
• efficient data flow between departments.

This is why companies from the TSL sector often use a more specialised cooperation model combining accounting in Poland, payroll and tax advisory in Poland. getsix® supports companies in accounting and finance, HR, payroll and tax advisory, while offering dedicated industry solutions for the transport sector.

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What to do first if your transport company’s margin is falling

If an entrepreneur wants to improve transport company profitability in Poland, a good starting point is to organise five areas.

1. Verify the pricing of transport services

The company should check whether its rates still reflect current fuel, labour, e-TOLL and fleet maintenance costs.

2. Assign costs to specific operations

Without this, it is difficult to determine which contracts are actually profitable.

3. Review the driver settlement model

This applies both to payroll and working time records, as well as the consistency of data with documentation.

4. Check VAT and foreign VAT settlements

This is an area where errors affect both financial results and liquidity.

5. Implement management reporting

A transport company needs data that shows not only the accounting result, but also operational performance and margins on transport orders.

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Transport company profitability in Poland is no longer only the result of the number of orders. Increasingly, it is determined by details: the quality of cost calculations, the method of settling drivers, correct VAT treatment, foreign VAT recovery, document organisation and the speed of response to regulatory changes. In an industry operating under pressure from time, costs and obligations, the companies that gain an advantage are those able to connect operations with finance and accounting. If a transport company wants to improve its margin, it usually does not need one cosmetic change, but a more structured model of cost management, settlements and data flow. This is when accounting for transport companies, payroll and tax advisory in Poland stop being merely administrative functions and begin to directly support business performanc

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If you have any further questions or require additional information, please contact your business relationship person or use the enquiry form on the HLB Poland website.

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