Urban transport services can be provided both by operators owned by local authorities and private operators, provided there is a separation of organisational and operational tasks. The aim of the article is to analyse the operational and economic aspects of the privatisation of transport services in urban transport on the example of the Municipal Transportation Board in Gdynia (ZKM). The article presents the premises for the privatisation of services in Gdynia, the organisation and management of urban transport services which encourages privatisation, ZKM's role acting as an organiser of urban transport which subcontracts private operators, open tender for services as a basis for subcontracting private operators by ZKM, as well as the competition between operators of ZKM network. Under certain conditions, the hiring of private operators instead of municipal operators to provide transport services with a similar standard of service has clear economic benefits.