Tuesday, 29 September 2026
Poland’s transport and logistics industry is preparing for another demanding end-of-year trading period as Black Friday and Christmas concentrate growing e-commerce volumes into a relatively short delivery window. The pressure is increasingly extending beyond parcel handling capacity to transport planning, warehouse operations and the ability of operators to respond to disruptions without adding unnecessary costs.
The scale of the underlying market has increased substantially. Poland handled almost 1.4 billion courier parcels in 2025, according to the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE), representing an increase of 14.3% compared with the previous year. Recent logistics industry reporting also indicates that more than one-fifth of annual parcel volumes can fall within the pre-Christmas period, illustrating the concentration of demand facing distribution networks towards the end of the year. (UKE)
Last year’s peak provides an indication of the volumes operators may have to accommodate. InPost processed a record 220.2 million parcels in Poland during the fourth quarter of 2025, 5% more than a year earlier. Across its European network, the company handled 417.6 million parcels during the quarter and exceeded 15 million shipments on its busiest day. Poczta Polska separately reported an almost 10% year-on-year increase in parcel volumes around Black Friday and the period immediately afterwards. (InPost)
Higher volumes are only one part of the operational challenge. E-commerce logistics increasingly involves interconnected delivery schedules, returns, changes of collection points, rerouting and integration between different IT systems. A delay affecting one vehicle can consequently influence later deliveries, driver availability and fleet utilisation, while transferring an assignment to another vehicle can increase mileage or interfere with other planned work.
This is increasing interest in technology capable of analysing transport operations while they are taking place. Aleet, a Polish transport technology company, has developed a digital model of fleet operations combining information about vehicles, drivers, routes, assignments, working hours and costs. The company says the system can compare alternative responses to operational disruption and estimate how individual decisions could affect subsequent deliveries and expenditure across the fleet.
The underlying digital-twin concept is already established beyond the individual company. Research into logistics and supply-chain applications describes digital twins as virtual models connected with operational information that can be used to examine scenarios and support planning and decision-making. Their effectiveness in individual businesses, however, depends on factors including data quality, system integration and the accuracy of the models being used. Aleet’s specific performance and cost-saving claims should therefore be considered company estimates rather than independently established results.
Cost control is particularly relevant for Polish transport companies in 2026. Industry research reported by Trans.info indicates that fuel has been the most frequently cited source of increasing costs among surveyed carriers this year, while more than half reported deteriorating liquidity. Under those conditions, additional mileage, vehicle downtime or inefficient fleet allocation during the busiest delivery periods can have greater consequences for operators already working with pressured margins.
The approaching shopping season therefore represents more than a test of how many parcels Poland’s logistics infrastructure can process. As e-commerce volumes grow and delivery networks become more interconnected, the ability to use existing warehouses, vehicles, sorting infrastructure and drivers efficiently is becoming increasingly important. The 2026 peak will provide another test of whether investment in data-driven planning can help logistics operators absorb higher volumes without a corresponding increase in operational inefficiency.
