diff --git a/contribs/freight/src/main/java/org/matsim/contrib/freight/carrier/CarrierPlanXmlWriterV2_1.java b/contribs/freight/src/main/java/org/matsim/contrib/freight/carrier/CarrierPlanXmlWriterV2_1.java
index 16147505d7d..17a432df487 100644
--- a/contribs/freight/src/main/java/org/matsim/contrib/freight/carrier/CarrierPlanXmlWriterV2_1.java
+++ b/contribs/freight/src/main/java/org/matsim/contrib/freight/carrier/CarrierPlanXmlWriterV2_1.java
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@
 import org.matsim.vehicles.VehicleType;
 
 import java.io.BufferedWriter;
+import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.*;
 
@@ -77,11 +78,11 @@ public void putAttributeConverters( final Map<Class<?>, AttributeConverter<?>> c
 	}
 
 	/**
-	 * Writes carriers and their plans into a xml-file.
+	 * This now writes out the carriers file.
 	 *
-	 * @param filename should be the target xml-file
+	 * @param filename should be the target xml-file including the path to it.
 	 */
-	public void write(String filename) {
+	private void writeCarrierPlan(String filename) {
 		logger.info("write carrier plans");
 		try {
 			openFile(filename);
@@ -105,6 +106,37 @@ public void write(String filename) {
 		}
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Writes carriers and their plans into a xml-file.
+	 * When using this, the directory, where the file goes to must be present.
+	 *
+	 * @deprecated Please use the method write(String filename, boolean createDirectory, String directoryPath) instead. KMT oct'23
+	 * @param filename should be the target xml-file
+	 */
+	@Deprecated(since = "oct'23")
+	public void write(String filename) {
+		write(filename, false);
+	}
+
+	public void write(String filename, boolean createDirectory) {
+		File file = new File(filename);
+		String directoryPath = file.getParent();
+
+		if (createDirectory) {
+			if (!directoryPath.isEmpty()) {
+				File dir = new File(directoryPath);
+				if (!dir.mkdir()) {
+					if (dir.exists()) {
+						logger.info("directory " + directoryPath + " exist already.");
+					} else {
+						logger.warn("Failed to create directory: " + directoryPath);
+					}
+				}
+			}
+		}
+		writeCarrierPlan(filename);
+	}
+
 	private void writeRootElement() throws UncheckedIOException, IOException {
 		List<Tuple<String, String>> atts = new ArrayList<>();
 		atts.add(createTuple(XMLNS, MatsimXmlWriter.MATSIM_NAMESPACE));