Freight forwarding Venice – transport to and from the Czech Republic

Where a truck can and cannot go

The municipality of Venice has around 250,000 residents, but only about 48,000 still live in the historic centre. Most homes, businesses and warehouses are on the mainland in Mestre and Marghera. No street in the old city takes lorries: the Ponte della Libertà road bridge ends at Piazzale Roma and the Tronchetto island, and beyond that everything moves by water. Supplies for shops, hotels and restaurants are transferred to cargo boats and finish their journey on handcarts over bridges and paving. If your consignee is in the centre, the truck unloads at a mainland transfer point and a local boat service, with its own schedule and cost, completes the delivery. Businesses in Mestre, Marghera or around the airport are served at a normal dock.

Porto Marghera and Fusina

Built from the 1920s on the mainland facing the islands, Porto Marghera now covers about 2,500 hectares with more than 1,200 companies. Its terminals handle containers, steel and ferrous products, agri-food commodities, chemicals and project cargo, and most are rail-connected. The port sits where two European core corridors meet: the Baltic–Adriatic axis running north through Austria and the Czech Republic, and the Mediterranean axis along the Po plain. A shipyard builds cruise ships, and the former oil refinery has been converted to produce biofuels.

At Fusina, south of Marghera, a ro-ro terminal receives ferries with daily sailings from Greece. Unaccompanied trailers carrying olive oil, cheese, peaches or aluminium profiles are discharged here and continue by road over the Alps, a shorter option than driving through the Balkans. We collect such trailers and bring them to Czech consignees.

Goods from the Venetian hinterland

• Murano art glass: chandeliers, vases and interior pieces, fragile and valuable,
• prosecco from the UNESCO-listed hills between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene in Treviso province,
• eyewear and frames from the Belluno district, reached from Mestre on the A27,
• steel products, chemicals and raw materials handled at Marghera,
• overseas containers and Greek ferry cargo.

Czech exporters supply the region with machinery, car parts, plastics, paper, building glass and timber. For loads from the Padua area, see freight forwarding Padua.

Routes over the Alps

From Prague the usual route runs via Linz and Salzburg on the Tauern motorway (A10) to Villach, crosses at Tarvisio and follows the Italian A23 and A4 past Udine, approximately 800 km in total. From Brno the shorter way leads via Vienna and the Austrian A2, about 730–750 km. The Passante di Mestre bypass carries through traffic around the city, and the A57 links it to Marghera. A full truck usually reaches the Czech Republic on the second working day; groupage pallets take 3–5 working days.

The Tauern motorway carries a special tunnel toll on top of the standard Austrian truck toll. Austria restricts heavy trucks at night and at weekends, and Italy bans vehicles over 7.5 t on Sundays, public holidays and some summer Saturdays.

Practical points

• Murano glass travels in rigid crates, ideally by express van or closed box truck without reloading.
• Wine needs an excise accompanying document and, in summer, a temperature-controlled trailer.
• Hazardous chemicals from Marghera go as ADR transport; send UN numbers and safety data sheets.
• For Fusina pickups we need the vessel, arrival date and trailer number; for Marghera, the terminal, container or booking number and time slot.

Italy is in the EU, so a CMR note and invoice or delivery note suffice. Get a price in the calculator.