International Road Transport Firms’ Financial Indicators

The international movement of cargo by road in Central European land-locked countries is a very important consideration for their economies. On one hand, these activities represent a source of revenue for many firms and, for governments, an income stream through taxes. On the other hand, these activities represent negative external effects, such as congestion and infrastructure overuse. There is a definite close bond between international trade development and the business of transport, as goods need to be moved across national boundaries into foreign markets. The goal of this study is to explore the assumption that the economic situation of transportation firms in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria would be similar. We chose these countries because of their similar market size, and we compared these on the basis of specific financial indicators during the period between 2012 and 2019. Our hypothesis was that the financial indicators of companies and their values would be similar across these countries. We tested our hypothesis using three indicators, namely return on assets, return on sales, and asset turnover ratio, using the statistical analysis ANOVA. The total number of active international road freight transport firms in the target countries was 1,759, of which we analyzed approximately 75%. The findings revealed there are differences in economic performance in each of these countries, and that further research about the economic situation of firms and the overall market in these nations is needed, using different approaches.