Freight forwarding Rouen – transport to and from the Czech Republic

A seaport 120 km inland

Although Rouen sits about 120 km up the Seine from the English Channel, ocean-going ships berth at its quays. It is Western Europe's leading grain export port: port silos in and around the city, with roughly a million tonnes of storage between them, load wheat and barley for North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Since 2021 Rouen has been managed together with Le Havre and the Paris river ports as a single port authority.

To let ships reach the city centre, the Seine is crossed by a lift bridge that was the tallest of its kind in the world when it opened in 2008. The cathedral spire, at 151 m, is the tallest church spire in France. About 118,000 people live in the city itself and some 700,000 in the wider metropolitan area.

Freight from Normandy for Czech customers

France grows more fibre flax than any other country, and much of it comes from Normandy, including the Pays de Caux plateau north-west of Rouen. After harvest the stems are retted in the field and then scutched to separate the fibre. Most spinning has long happened in Asia, but new spinning mills are opening in Normandy, which gives Czech weavers and technical textile makers a shorter supply chain.

• Flax fibre in bales and linen yarn, which need a clean, dry, closed trailer.
• Cheese, including Neufchâtel from the Pays de Bray with its protected designation of origin, and other dairy products in reefers.
• Cider and calvados, both subject to excise duty.
• Chemical and petrochemical products from plants along the Seine, some of them ADR dangerous goods.
• Consumer goods from distribution warehouses around the city.

Eastbound to Rouen we carry Czech machinery, car parts, glass, building materials and beer. For hazardous chemicals we provide an equipped vehicle and an ADR-certified driver; see our ADR transport page.

Two routes to Czechia

The northern route runs on the A28 and A29 to Amiens, then past Valenciennes into Belgium, by Mons and Liège to Aachen and Cologne, and on German motorways via Frankfurt and Nuremberg to Rozvadov. The southern route crosses Picardy to Reims, follows the A4 to Metz and Saarbrücken and the A6 to Rozvadov, the same way freight from Le Havre travels, as described on our Le Havre page. Either way it is about 1,200 km to Prague and 1,400 km to Brno, two driving days for one driver, so a full load usually arrives on the third working day.

French motorways charge at toll plazas, Belgium and Germany by distance. In France trucks over 7.5 t may not run from Saturday 22:00 to Sunday 22:00 or on public holidays; Germany bans them on Sundays and holidays and on summer Saturdays on selected motorways. Any vehicle over 3.5 t in France must carry blind-spot warning stickers on its sides and rear.

Collecting in the port and in the old town

Port warehouses stretch along both banks downstream of the centre. Expect a gate check and time slots, and register the order number and driver's name in advance. Goods that arrived by sea from outside the EU must be cleared through customs before the warehouse will release them.

The historic right-bank centre is a maze of narrow streets lined with half-timbered houses, and an articulated truck cannot get in. Deliveries to shops and restaurants there go by a smaller truck or a van, which we book as an express shipment.

Choosing the right option

A few bales of flax or pallets of cheese and cider travel by pallet groupage, five to seven working days to Czechia. A full load of fibre or chemicals is best sent as a dedicated truck that is not transshipped on the way. Chilled goods are combined with other refrigerated loads from Normandy.

Before booking, find out the exact address, whether the warehouse lies inside the port zone, its opening hours and the loading method. For chemicals we need the safety data sheet and UN number, and for cider and calvados the excise status.