Poland: Securing logistics

Logistics

Poland, a country located in the central part of Europe with access to the sea (it has more than 30 seaports, four of which are of strategic importance) and lowlands, is a convenient place to carry on business based on logistics and transport.

Here are some facts about the logistics business in Poland:

• the growth rate of the Port of Gdansk (operated by the Singaporean company PSA International) has exceeded 100 per cent over the last ten years, the best result in Europe,
• Poland has almost 20,000 km of railway lines, which makes it the leader in Central and Eastern Europe,
• Poland is ranked fourth in Europe in terms of tonnage of freight transported by road in 2021 (11.6% of total cargo transported in the European Union, which is almost 16 billion tonnes),
•  total warehouse space in Poland is approximately 27.8 million sq. m (the largest inCentral and Eastern Europe), which makes the largest global developers of logistics and warehouse facilities, including the Panattoni Group and CTP Poland, conduct their business in Poland, 
• logistics companies such as the Raben Group, DSV Group and DB Schenker operate in    Poland.

Businesses can use the forwarding, storage and supply contracts regulated by the Polish Civil Code or arrange their legal relationships relatively freely under the freedom of contract principle in Polish civil law.

The functioning of the EU internal market freedoms in Poland and the legal protection they provide significantly facilitate the development of logistics. Poland is also a party to numerous international agreements in the field of logistics and transport, such as:

• the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (CMR), done at Geneva on 19 May 1956,
• the Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF), done at Berne on 9 May 1980,
• the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, done at Montreal on 28 May 1999,
• the Budapest Convention on the Contract for the Carriage of Goods by Inland Waterways (CMNI), done at Budapest on 22 June 2001.

All this significantly affects the legal security of the logistics, transport and forwarding business in Poland.