Freight forwarding Le Havre – from the port to the Czech Republic

A deep-sea gateway, 1,250 km from Prague

Le Havre sits on the Seine estuary in Normandy and is France's biggest container port. Czech buyers end up here when their supplier or distributor routes overseas goods through France, or when the vessel simply calls here rather than at Hamburg or Rotterdam. The cargo is usually what you would expect from deep-sea trade: consumer goods, electronics, furniture, textiles, toys, components and raw materials from Asia, plus goods from the Americas that have already passed through a French warehouse.

The port area is also an industrial zone in its own right. The estuary hosts a large petrochemical and chemical complex producing plastic granulate, lubricants and additives, many of them dangerous goods under ADR, and commercial vehicles and their parts are built nearby. Along the Seine towards Rouen there are distribution warehouses serving northern France and Paris.

Keep the box or transload?

The first decision is how the goods travel east. Hauling the sea container itself on a chassis is possible, but over this distance it rarely pays off, because the empty box has to go back to the port. Most of our Le Havre jobs are therefore devanned at a port warehouse and reloaded onto a standard curtainsider, or split into smaller consignments.

• Container on chassis – only when the goods must not be handled again and the consignee can unload a container; about 2–3 working days plus the return leg.
• Transload to a full truck – a full container of palletised or stackable goods; about 2–3 working days from loading.
• Groupage – part of a container or a few pallets; usually 4–6 working days.
• Express van – samples and urgent parts collected at the port; usually 1–2 days.

If cartons are floor-loaded in the container, tell us in advance: they normally need palletising before a road leg, and we will book a warehouse that can do it. Smaller shares travel by pallet groupage, full containers as a full truckload.

Customs: clear in France or move under T1

Non-EU goods arriving in Le Havre must be declared to customs. They can be released for free circulation in France and then travel to the Czech Republic as an ordinary intra-EU shipment with a CMR note, or they can move under T1 transit and be cleared at a Czech customs office. With T1 the load must not be split on the way and the carrier has to handle the transit document. The importer and their customs broker choose the route, as it also affects VAT; we just need to know before collection so we can assign a suitable carrier.

Keep an eye on free time at the terminal. Once it runs out, storage and demurrage charges start, so send us the enquiry as soon as the vessel's arrival is confirmed.

Route and timing

Trucks from Le Havre do not cross Paris. They head through Picardy towards Reims, follow the A4 past Metz to the German border at Saarbrücken and continue on the A6 via Mannheim and Nuremberg to the Waidhaus/Rozvadov crossing. Prague is roughly 1,250 km away, Brno about 1,450 km. A single driver covers 600–700 km a day, so a full load typically arrives in 2–3 working days.

France bans trucks over 7.5 t from Saturday 22:00 to Sunday 22:00 and on public holidays; Germany bans them on Sundays, holidays and on summer Saturdays. Tolls are charged at French motorway plazas and per kilometre in Germany, all included in the figure our freight calculator shows.

Czech exports through Le Havre

In the other direction we deliver Czech machinery, glass, components and materials to Le Havre for stuffing into containers and onward shipping overseas. Here the vessel cut-off is what matters, so we plan collection in the Czech Republic with at least a day in hand.

Information we need

• container number, bill of lading or release, and the vessel discharge date,
• warehouse or terminal address and whether a time slot must be booked,
• customs route (French clearance or T1) and the broker's contact,
• pallet or carton count, weight and dimensions; for chemicals the safety data sheet and UN numbers.