Freight forwarding Mulhouse – transport to and from Czechia

A short lane by French standards

From southern Alsace, trucks cross the Rhine at Ottmarsheim, join the German A5 and run via Karlsruhe, Heilbronn and Nuremberg to the Waidhaus/Rozvadov border. Prague is roughly 750–800 km away and Brno about 1,000 km. For a single driver that is about one and a half working days: a morning pickup in Mulhouse usually reaches Prague the next morning. A double-manned truck or an express van can do it the same day. Because the lane is short, even a part load can justify a dedicated vehicle when time matters, while regular small volumes travel well by pallet groupage.

What the Mulhouse area supplies

In the 19th century Mulhouse was a major European textile centre, known especially for printed fabrics and nicknamed the "French Manchester". Engineering and chemicals grew out of that base. For Czech importers the key sectors today are:

• automotive – a large car plant in the urban area and its suppliers of plastic and metal components,
• chemicals along the Rhine, including intermediates for plastics and synthetic fibres, often ADR-regulated,
• technical and printed textiles,
• machinery, tooling and production-line parts,
• Alsace wine from the vineyards at the foot of the Vosges.

North of the city, potash was mined until the early 2000s; several former mine sites are now industrial and logistics zones.

Choosing the right option

Urgent car parts, samples and line-down spares go best by express van, same day or overnight. Smaller lots of textiles, machine parts or wine travel by groupage in 2–4 working days. Production components and full orders justify a full truck, usually delivered the next working day, and chemical intermediates go in ADR-equipped vehicles on the same timetable. Industrial zones lie mainly along the A35 and A36 motorways and towards the Rhine, so collections rarely need to cross the city centre.

Switzerland, the airport and the Rhine port

Basel is only about 30 km away, and suppliers sometimes give a warehouse on one side of the border when the goods are on the other. It matters: Swiss goods are not EU goods. A pickup in Switzerland needs an export declaration, EU import clearance and an EORI number for the importer. The same care applies at the tri-national airport, which sits on French soil but has both a French and a Swiss customs sector. Confirm the exact pickup location and customs status before booking.

Mulhouse has port facilities on the Rhine and the Rhine–Rhône canal, served by container barges from Rotterdam and Antwerp. If your overseas cargo has been barged here, we can transload it and truck it to the Czech Republic as a full load or groupage. For most Czech importers, though, direct pickup in Rotterdam is the more common route.

Czech exports to Alsace

Westbound we deliver components for the car plant and its suppliers, sheet metal, castings and forgings, plastics, glass and packaging. The short lane makes just-in-time deliveries feasible, but automotive slots are strict, so we need the exact unloading window and receiving rules.

Practical notes

• Alsace has two extra public holidays compared with the rest of France: Good Friday and 26 December. Many warehouses close.
• French weekend truck bans run from Saturday 22:00 to Sunday 22:00 plus national holidays; Germany bans trucks on Sundays, holidays and summer Saturdays.
• For car parts, tell us about returnable crates or metal racks that travel back.
• Within the EU no duty applies; a CMR note and invoice or delivery note are enough. Tolls are included in our freight calculator.