The impact of the development of personnel costs on the profitability indicators of road freight transport companies in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The paper's main objective is to investigate the effects of personnel cost growth between 2014 and 2019 on the profitability of selected large road freight transport companies based on the collection of publicly available data of these transport companies. The first sub-objective of the paper is to conduct the necessary data collection from the financial statements of road freight transport companies with more than 250 workers. The second sub-objective of the paper is to define financial ratios and to assess the impact of personnel cost growth on the profitability of these enterprises. The third sub-objective is to determine the development of selected financial ratios over the period 2014 to 2019 and to evaluate the impact of personnel cost growth on the development of these ratios for selected transport companies. As a result of the fulfilment of these goals, we identified that an increase in personnel cost led in chosen transport companies in the years 2015 - 2016 to a significant decrease in labour productivity in the form of sales per employee and decreased profit. In the years 2017 - 2018, the year-on-year increase in personnel cost slowed down with impact to improved labour productivity and improved profit. In 2019 although another increase in personnel cost occurred, the situation changed, and labour productivity and profit increased. Analysis of these data showed that an increase of labour productivity in the form of sales per employee and profit increase in 2018 and 2019 was done thanks to the increasing price of transportation that covered higher personnel costs.