Freight to Poland

A close neighbour with industry near the border

Much of Poland's manufacturing sits within a few hours of the Czech border – in Upper Silesia, Lower Silesia and the Opole region. That makes imports from Poland into the Czech Republic fast, and a truck loaded in Katowice in the morning can often unload in Moravia the same day.

Crossings and motorways

• Věřňovice / Gorzyczki – the Czech D1 meets the Polish A1 towards Katowice, Łódź and Gdańsk.
• Český Těšín / Cieszyn – towards Bielsko-Biała and on to Kraków via the S1 and S52.
• Náchod / Kudowa-Słone – from Hradec Králové to Kłodzko and the S8 to Wrocław and Warsaw.
• Harrachov / Jakuszyce, Hrádek nad Nisou / Porajów, Královec / Lubawka – links between northern Bohemia and Lower Silesia, with mountain sections to allow for in winter.

For Wrocław, Poznań and Szczecin, freight from Prague or western Bohemia may also run through Germany on the A4. See the Prague – Warsaw route for the main east-west lane.

What the Czech Republic imports from Poland

• Upper Silesia – steel, metal products, automotive parts, coke and building materials.
• Lower Silesia – household appliances, electronics, copper products and car components.
• Lesser Poland – food, confectionery, pharmaceuticals and printed matter.
• Greater Poland – furniture, meat and poultry, cosmetics and e-commerce stock.
• Łódź and Masovia – textiles, white goods and goods from large distribution centres.
• Pomerania – port cargo from Gdańsk and Gdynia, fish and timber.

Czech exports to Poland are mainly engineering products, car parts, chemicals, glass, beer and food.

Transit times

Silesia and the Opole region are typically reached the same or next working day by full truckload. Kraków, Łódź and Poznań take one to two working days, Warsaw and Lublin two, and the Baltic coast two, occasionally three. Pallet groupage adds roughly a day for cross-docking, while an express van reaches Silesia within hours. For Kraków and southern Poland the Ostrava – Kraków route is worth a look.

Bans, tolls and clean transport zones

Trucks over 12 tonnes may not drive on Polish public holidays and the evening before them. During the summer holidays the ban extends to Friday evenings, Saturday mornings and Sundays. Polish and Czech holidays only partly overlap, so we check both calendars around every holiday.

Tolls are collected electronically through e-TOLL on motorways, expressways and some national roads, with a few motorway sections run by private operators. Warsaw and Kraków operate clean transport zones restricting older vehicles, and we assign compliant trucks for deliveries there.

Loading and documents

Large Polish plants and distribution centres use fixed time slots, and some require the truck's registration number in advance. Please confirm the address, opening hours, pallet count and dimensions, weight, pallet exchange and whether loading is by dock or from the side. Within the EU no customs clearance is needed: a CMR note plus invoice or delivery note suffices, with temperature records for food, ADR papers for dangerous goods and waste shipment documents for scrap metal. Get an indicative price in the calculator.