Road
Transportation

When to choose road transportation?

The enormous advantage of truck shipping is the wide variety of routes available to reach the delivery point (often door-to-door), allowing greater flexibility when having to alter the route initially chosen due to external causes, such as an accident or a hold-up due to road maintenance
It can provide a very cost-effective means of cartage, loading and unloading.

It even sometimes happens that road freight transportation is the only possible way of shipping goods to and from areas which are not covered by air, waterways, or rail transport.
Road transportation offers a variety of choices, i.e. LTL (Less than a Truck Load), FTL (Full Truck Load).

It’s a reliable and flexible transportation option. In addition, it is one of the safest options since it does not require the transloading of the goods, being able to provide a direct route from origin to destination.

Problems that may arise

Unlike inland road transport, this service has longer delivery dates and requires more document preparation before starting the journey.
There are risks and disadvantages when using freight transport by road, including:

• long distances overland can take more time
• there can be traffic delays and breakdowns
• there is the risk of goods being damaged, especially over long distances in countries with poor road maintenance
• toll charges are high in some countries
• some countries have different road and traffic regulations, as an example the vehicle may be prohibited from moving during weekends.

Approximate range of rates, what they depend on

You can either use your own vehicles, or a 3rd party carrier. If you operate your own vehicles, you will need to consider operating licences, fuel costs, health and safety regulations, driver training, road tax and insurance.

Within Europe, most transportation is performed by truck, the latest EU figure puts this at 73%, and is commonly referred to as regular road transportation. This type of service is, in most cases, door-to-door and will therefore always include pick-up and delivery. However, if you are transporting a larger amount of goods (the equivalent of three pallets or more), you are likely to avoid costs for points three and six in the transport process (handling of the goods), as your goods will be collected and delivered directly with a large export truck without any transloading. The term ‘export truck’ refers to the truck that runs between the warehouse at origin and the warehouse at destination, from where the goods will be delivered with a different, usually a smaller, truck. The same goes for collection.

For road transportation within Europe, a quote will typically include the freight from point A to point B. What is typically not included is anything else than the above-mentioned. For example, if you need a truck with a tail-lift to facilitate loading and unloading the goods, you want to arrange pickup or delivery at two or more different addresses, you need collection or delivery at a specific time, or if you need an especially fast transport, then it will cost extra. The movement of hazardous ADR cargo will also cost more.

How to calculate the final cost

Using Agora Freight calculator, with just a few clicks, you can calculate transport costs. In contrast to classic forwarding agencies, you receive your truck freight costs immediately. How does it work? Thanks to our clever algorithms, worldwide agency network, API integrations and a simply designed interface, we can give you real-time prices. The freight costs for truck transports can thus be calculated easily worldwide. In no time at all, you can use the shipping calculator at Agora Freight to calculate your transport costs by truck for goods on a pallet or FTL shipment. Try it out right now!

Real quotations from our system:

Freight transport by road is a popular mode of transport between Europe, Russia and CIS countries as well as for inter-European movements.

Digital freight forwarder Agora Freight offers you an easy and convenient way to calculate and book road freight transport online.

Fill in the basic cargo parameters as well as the loading and destination points and receive available routes, transit times and prices online.

You can also add customs clearance service and insurance.

Having chosen a suitable road delivery option, you can immediately book transportation in just one click directly on the system. If the booking is made during working hours, then in 15 minutes a personal manager will contact you to confirm the details of the order and arrange road freight transport.

Agora Freight is a digital freight forwarder whose liabilities are underwritten by a leading international insurance company in the field of logistics.