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Over the last 30 years, the competition in road transport has increased significantly. For a transport company to maintain its position in the road freight transport market, the knowledge of the accurate costs arising from the transportation process is an important tool in the current competitive struggle. Carriers quantify the transportation costs in the process of price creation using the routes utilization coefficient, also taking into account routes with an empty vehicle. The value is usually set as a constant in the range from 0 to 1. The purpose of this paper is to show that it is more appropriate and economically feasible to consider this as a variable which depends on the direction as well as on the time of the transportation. In this analysis, a twofactor ANOVA model was applied to actual data of transport offers to Slovakia from 18 different countries recorded on a daily basis in a period of one year. The analysis shows that the direction of transportation is a significant factor in the offer, and therefore it is appropriate to include this factor in the price creation. The results of this analysis are in practice directly applicable to modify the calculation procedures and thus gain a competitive advantage for the transport operator in calculating the transportation price. Using this methodology, the carrier can determine the price more accurately and achieve greater price competitiveness in road transport in the common EU market.

In 1956, an important step was taken in international road freight transport. The CMR Convention, the main purpose of which was to unify the rules for the international transport of goods and thereby promote the development of international trade, was concluded. From a practical point of view, this is of great importance to both carriers and transporters. Similarly, this Convention also incorporates the most important document for the carriage of goods, i.e. the consignment note CMR. Since the adoption of the CMR Convention, the method of calculating the carrier liability has changed with the adoption of the Protocol to the CMR Convention. The Protocol changed the system for calculating liability from one based on the gold franc to a system based on special drawing rights. This protocol has not only changed the unit of constraint, but has also reduced the value of liability limitation for carriers. However, the protocol, which introduced a change in the carrier liability system, has not been accepted by all states. This disparity causes differences in liability and also in the competitiveness of carriers. The aim of this paper is to identify the impact of the adoption of the Protocol on the competitiveness of the carrier in each state which is party to the agreement.