Freight forwarding Ostrava – road transport, import and export

Steel city on a triple border

Ostrava grew on coal and iron. Coal mining has been winding down, but steelmaking, metalworking and engineering still define the regional economy, alongside automotive production and energy equipment. The city lies at the meeting point of three countries: the Polish border is right on its outskirts and Slovakia is less than an hour away. Many trucks leaving the region therefore head north and east rather than towards Prague.

Roads out of the region

• Poland: the D1 runs via Bohumín to the border at Věřňovice/Gorzyczki and joins the Polish A1 to Katowice (about 100 km). Kraków is about 170 km, Warsaw about 380 km.
• Slovakia: via Třinec and Jablunkov on road I/11 to the Mosty u Jablunkova/Svrčinovec crossing and on towards Žilina (about 100 km).
• Cieszyn area: the D48 to Český Těšín and the crossing into Poland at Chotěbuz.
• Rest of Czechia and the west: the D1 to Brno (about 170 km) and Prague (about 370 km), then on to Germany or Austria.

With 600–700 km per driver per day, most of Central Europe is within two working days. See also our Ostrava – Kraków route and transport to Poland.

Shipping steel and heavy goods

Sheet, coils, bars, tubes, wire, rolled sections, steel structures, castings and forgings are typical loads from the region. They need the right equipment and preparation:

• steel coils travel on trailers with a coil well and must be secured precisely,
• long bars and profiles are craned in from above or loaded from the side, so a curtain-sider with a sliding roof is needed,
• axle load distribution matters as much as total weight,
• steelworks and heavy-industry sites often have their own access rules, weighbridges and safety briefings for drivers.

Tell us the piece dimensions, weights and loading method, and we will book a carrier with suitable equipment.

Automotive, machinery and imports

A car plant operates near Frýdek-Místek and a cluster of component suppliers surrounds it. Just-in-time supply chains run in fixed delivery windows, so full trucks or express vans are the usual choice. The region also produces machinery for energy and mining, coke-based chemicals and plastic products.

Inbound flows include raw materials and semi-finished products for steelworks and machine shops from Poland and Slovakia, automotive components from Germany, Poland and Hungary, plus consumer goods and food. Single pallets from Polish or Slovak suppliers are best moved by pallet groupage.

Airport and rail

Leoš Janáček Airport at Mošnov handles cargo and has a large industrial zone next to it. Ostrava and Bohumín are key rail junctions on the line to Poland, and container traffic passes through the region; trucks cover the leg between terminal and customer.

Before loading

Ask the shipper to confirm the exact address and gate number, dispatch opening hours, the loading method (dock, crane or forklift) and the weight of each piece. At large industrial sites the driver usually needs a reference or order number to get past the gatehouse, so include it with your booking.

Practical points

Poland bans heavy trucks on public holidays and summer weekends; Slovakia on Sundays, holidays and summer Saturdays. Both use electronic motorway tolls. Watch for national holidays that differ from Czech ones – a Polish or Slovak holiday can delay unloading on a normal Czech working day. Within the EU a CMR note and an invoice or delivery note are sufficient; hazardous chemicals travel under ADR with specialised carriers. Get a price in the calculator; dispatch is open Monday to Friday, 8:00–18:00.