Freight forwarding Hradec Králové – road transport, import and export

Between Prague and the Polish border

Hradec Králové sits in north-east Bohemia, roughly 115 km from Prague along the D11 motorway, and much closer to Poland than to the capital. Route I/33 runs through Jaroměř and Náchod to the Náchod/Kudowa-Słone border crossing, from where Polish road 8 continues via Kłodzko to Wrocław, about 170 km in total. The D11 currently ends at Jaroměř; its extension past Trutnov to the Královec/Lubawka crossing is under construction. On the Polish side, the S3 expressway already reaches the border and runs north via Legnica towards Szczecin and the Baltic coast.

Eastwards, the D35 motorway is being extended section by section from Opatovice nad Labem towards Vysoké Mýto, Litomyšl and eventually Mohelnice, where it joins the finished stretch to Olomouc. Shipments to Moravia and Slovakia are gradually moving off the old two-lane roads.

What the region makes and buys

The Hradec Králové Region is more industrial than its mountain-resort image suggests:

• Cars and parts: a large car plant in the Rychnov nad Kněžnou district and a ring of suppliers producing plastic mouldings, wiring and metal parts.
• Musical instruments: Hradec has a long tradition of building grand and upright pianos.
• Textiles: the foothills of the Giant Mountains around Trutnov, Náchod and Dvůr Králové have spun, woven and printed fabric for generations.
• Stone and farming: sandstone from the Hořice area, sugar beet and grain from the Elbe lowlands.

Inbound flows are mostly steel and aluminium, plastic granulate, electronic components, yarn and fabric, and consumer goods for retail warehouses. Outbound freight heads mainly to Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Austria and Italy. For western Europe, trucks normally go via Prague and then the D8 through Krásný Les or the D5 through Rozvadov; for Austria and Italy, via the D11 and D1 through Brno.

Choosing the right vehicle

Automotive parts are light, bulky and strictly timed, so they usually travel as regular full truckloads, or by express van when a line is waiting. A piano is the opposite problem: heavy, sensitive to shocks, humidity and frost, and it must stay upright. We book carriers with air suspension, enough straps and a box or curtain-sided body, and agree a load plan in advance. Sandstone blocks reach the weight limit long before the deck is full, so we need the exact weight of each piece. Smaller lots of textiles or retail goods are usually cheapest as groupage pallets.

Winter in the mountains

The northern crossings at Harrachov and Královec climb into the Giant Mountains foothills. Between November and March, snow and steep gradients slow fully loaded trucks, so we plan an extra half day of buffer and confirm that access roads to factories in the Trutnov area or the Eagle Mountains are cleared. At Náchod, the route to the border runs through the town centre, where queues form at rush hour.

Transit times at a glance

Prague and Wrocław are both same-day destinations for a direct truck. Szczecin, roughly 500 km away, is one working day. Bavaria and the Rhineland take one to two working days, northern Italy two. Within the EU, an invoice and a CMR consignment note are enough; customs documents are needed only for non-EU destinations such as the UK or Switzerland. Groupage pallets usually need one day more than a direct truck, but you pay only for the space your goods occupy. Heavy trucks are banned from Czech roads on Sunday afternoons and public holidays, and in summer also on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings, so we plan pick-ups around these windows. For a quick estimate, use our price calculator; our dispatch team usually sends a firm quote within 30 minutes on weekdays.