Freight forwarding The Hague – transport to and from Czechia

A city of ministries and courts

The Hague is the third-largest city in the Netherlands, with roughly 550,000 residents. It hosts the government, parliament, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, and most jobs are in public administration, international organisations and services. There is little heavy industry; the one notable producing activity is fishing at Scheveningen, the seaside district with its own harbour.

What matters for freight is the surroundings. To the south-west lies Westland, one of the densest greenhouse areas in Europe, and the port of Rotterdam begins less than 30 km away. Deliveries into The Hague are therefore mostly goods for shops, offices, hotels and households rather than raw materials for factories.

Greenhouse produce, flowers and fish

Westland growers produce tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, cut flowers and potted plants under glass. Honselersdijk hosts the main site of the largest Dutch flower auction, where flowers sold in the morning are dispatched across Europe the same day. For Czech flower and vegetable wholesalers it is one of the key sourcing points.

• Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, each with its own set temperature.
• Cut flowers, loaded on the day of purchase and kept cool.
• Potted and house plants on shelved horticultural trolleys.
• Fresh fish and herring from Scheveningen, kept just above freezing.
• Consumer goods and groceries from warehouses between The Hague, Delft and Rotterdam.

Dutch horticulture ships plants on standardised metal trolleys with shelves. They roll in over a dock or a tail lift and cannot be stacked, so tell us the number of trolleys rather than pallets; it determines the vehicle and the loading method.

Route and timing

The A12, which runs in a cutting right into the city centre, heads via Utrecht and Arnhem to the German border at Emmerich. From there the truck crosses the Ruhr, passes Cologne, Frankfurt and Nuremberg and enters Czechia at Rozvadov. The alternative goes via Hanover and Leipzig to Dresden and down the D8 to Prague. Both are around 1,000 km to Prague and 1,200 km to Brno. A single driver needs two days, a double-manned truck under a day and a half, which is the usual choice for flowers and fresh vegetables.

The Netherlands has no general weekend truck ban, but Germany does: on Sundays and public holidays and, in July and August, on Saturdays on selected motorways. Chilled foodstuffs are exempt in Germany. Tolls are charged per kilometre in Germany and in Czechia.

Zero-emission zone in the centre and by the sea

The Hague has a zero-emission zone for trucks and vans covering the centre inside the city ring and parts of the coastal districts. Diesel trucks below Euro 6 may not enter; newer Euro 6 vehicles have transition periods depending on age and body type, and electric vehicles are allowed. Scheveningen harbour sits outside the zone but within a low-emission zone for diesel vehicles.

For deliveries to shops, hotels or embassies in the centre we check in advance whether the vehicle may enter, and smaller consignments are transferred to a suitable van. Warehouses on the edge of the city and in Westland are not affected.

Options at a glance

A few pallets of consumer goods travel by pallet groupage, four to six working days to Prague. A full load of vegetables or flowers goes in a reefer, often double-manned, and arrives in one to two working days. Samples and urgent parts go by express van, usually by the next day. Containers landed in Rotterdam can be collected straight from the terminal; see our Rotterdam page. For a price, try the calculator.

For auction purchases, send us the loading number, the time the goods will be ready and, for vegetables, the required temperature.