Transport is key for our economy and society, as good transport infrastructure helps to improve the mobility of citizens and the flow of goods. The European Union intends to maintain support for the development of transport infrastructure in the individual Member States. The aim of this study was to use correlation analysis to compare selected parameters of the road and railway infrastructure of Japan and selected EU countries. The significance of the correlations between various parameters characterizing the transport infrastructure of Japan and selected EU countries was tested. Correlation analysis is not typical in transport-oriented research. Several studies have employed such analysis; however, the majority of them have focused on passenger transport and correlations concerning the behavior of the customers of this mode of transport. The aim of this study was to answer the following research question: is there any correlation between transport performance and infrastructure or investment in infrastructure in relation to the mentioned countries, and, if so, is there a connection between the selected countries where this correlation occurs? Greater investment can also be expected in the construction of high-speed railways, given the decisions of some EU Member States not to resume national air transport where there is good railway infrastructure, even after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ISO 9001 standard is the most widespread standard in the world that sets requirements for a quality management system. Thousands of companies around the world have implemented the quality management system according to ISO 9001, and there are many reasons why they decided to implement this management system in their companies. The main goal of this paper is to determine the impact of the introduction of a quality management system according to the ISO 9001 standard on the performance of a selected sample of transport companies after its successful implementation as a strategic step to achieve better competitiveness. The impact of the introduction of the quality management system on the performance of a selected sample of 17 transport companies was investigated through the use of financial analysis, regression, and correlation analysis tools. The first significant finding was that the selected investigated indicators, such as profitability of assets, profitability of sales, size of the transport company, and age of the transport company in the selected transport companies, showed a significant positive difference in their average values in the period after obtaining ISO 9001 certification when compared to the period without certification. Further investigation of the financial situation in transport companies that already had a quality management system in place according to the ISO 9001 standard revealed that all the values of the selected indicators acquired positive values in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, which could also be due to the fact that transport companies kept their customers.

This article deals with the minimum requirements for quality management at Periodical Technical Inspection Stations (PTIS) for road vehicles in the Slovak Republic, as well as in selected countries of the European Union. Specifically, it contains research performed at all of the PTIS in the Slovak Republic with a focus on the established quality management system and the number of employees of companies operating these PTIS, as well as similar research in selected countries of the European Union. Based on the research results, the article contains an assessment of the influence of the implemented quality management system on the operation of PTIS. The analysis of the results showed that 86.7% of PTIs have an established system to meet the minimum requirements for quality management through a documented procedure (internal regulation), and 13.3% of the PTI have the certified quality management system according to the STN EN ISO/IEC 9001 standard. Unfortunately, no PTI in the Slovak Republic has the fulfilment of quality management requirements according to the standard STN EN ISO/IEC 17020.

Road transport safety, apart from environmental protection, is one of the most important tasks for the contemporary world. Annually, about 50 million people are injured in road accidents around the world, of which nearly 1.5 million die as a result. Transport safety consists of many activities and includes various initiatives, including legal changes, training, preventive actions, building safe road infrastructure, and the production of safe vehicles and control systems. This article deals with the issue of performing roadside technical inspections in the Slovak Republic. Specifically, it analyses the results of these roadside technical inspections in individual counties of the Slovak Republic and examines their possible impact on transport and logistics systems in these counties. The correlation analysis showed that the number of checks under the technical roadside inspections is weakly related to the number of logistics centres, but the number of such inspections is moderate in relation to the number of failed vehicles (correlation coefficient = 0.44079). In addition, due to the age of the vehicles, the number of serious and dangerous faults found on them during maintenance inspection increases.