Vulnerability and resilience of the road transport industry in Poland to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis

The research aims to examine the vulnerability and resilience of road transport enterprises in Poland to a crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In theory, we refer to the Schumpeterian perspective of creative destruction. In the empirical analysis, survey data on 500 transport companies randomly selected from the database were used. We estimated partial proportional odds models to show the factors responsible for the enterprises' vulnerability and resilience to unforeseen shock. The perspective refers to the total sample size and the division into two subgroups: micro and small and medium enterprises. To justify the results, we calculated a set of statistical indicators and tests. These models enable separating enterprises according to the vulnerability level. Transport enterprises occurred significantly vulnerable to the COVID-19 crisis, particularly the demand shock. The only factor that influenced resilience was the decrease in fuel prices, which allowed a cost reduction. The crisis showed that government aid was helpful in the short run, particularly for micro and small enterprises. The medium-sized enterprises were more resilient than micro and small ones. We formulated several recommendations to help transport enterprises to adjust in the medium term.