Diagnosis of the Economic Condition of International Road Freight Transport Companies in 2009–2024

Sustainability is increasingly viewed as a crucial element shaping contemporary transport policies and operational strategies. This article presents a comprehensive economic evaluation of Polish international road freight carriers in 2024 compared with the results from previous years. It introduces an original and innovative method for assessing the economic condition of transport companies, based on real-time operational data and an integrated demand–supply diagnosis of the road freight market, which also supports macroeconomic forecasting. The study covers carriers operating in Eastern and European Union (EU) markets and spans an exceptionally long period (2009–2024), enabling the identification of long-term trends across four business cycles. Unlike existing research, which typically analyses isolated profitability or efficiency indicators, the proposed method offers a universal and contextual framework linking economic outcomes with detailed company characteristics. It provides a structured assessment of cost components across eight categories and reveals relationships between economic performance and factors such as transport directions, fleet utilisation, company size, diversification strategies, and region of origin. The analysis includes a comparison of two carrier groups, statistical profiling of companies, and average vehicle kilometre costs by company size and transport direction. This contextual analysis, including a comparison between the Polish and Lithuanian markets, strengthens the credibility of the results by situating them within a broader comparative framework and supporting a more accurate interpretation of the observed patterns. The pilot nature of this cross contextual approach constitutes an additional contribution of the study, providing a basis for future comparative research on the functioning of transport enterprises across the EU and the Eastern markets. In addition, the assessment incorporates a pilot comparative study of external factors influencing the transport market, conducted among Polish and Lithuanian companies. This multifaceted and internationally unprecedented approach strengthens the interpretability of the results and offers a robust foundation for strategic decision-making and organisational adaptation in an increasingly competitive and uncertain transport market.