Freight forwarding Trieste – transport to and from the Czech Republic

Containers, trailers and coffee

For Czech importers Trieste matters for three flows. First, it is Italy's main port for scheduled ro-ro lines to Turkey: trailers loaded with clothing, textiles, automotive parts, household appliances, dried fruit and nuts arrive by ship and continue by tractor unit or rail. Second, container services bring consumer goods, electronics, furniture and production materials from Asia and the Mediterranean. Third, Trieste is one of the Mediterranean's main coffee ports, with many roasters in the area, so green coffee in bags and roasted coffee travel on pallets to Czech roasters and wholesalers. Friuli adds furniture, machinery and wine, and the shipyards of nearby Monfalcone steel structures and components.

By tonnage Trieste is among Italy's largest ports, mostly thanks to its oil terminal: a pipeline across the Alps to Bavaria connects with the pipeline to Kralupy nad Vltavou, supplying much of the crude for Czech refineries. Trieste is also on the Baltic–Adriatic rail corridor through Břeclav and Ostrava, and containers from the port reach the Ostrava region by rail.

Customs for overseas and Turkish cargo

Trieste became a free port in 1719, and its free-zone regime, based on the 1947 peace treaty, still lets non-EU goods be stored and processed duty-free until they leave the port. Goods from outside the EU must be cleared either in Italy, after which they move as an ordinary EU shipment, or under T1 transit with clearance at a Czech customs office. Turkey has a customs union with the EU for industrial goods, but a customs declaration is still required, together with an A.TR movement certificate. Customs paperwork is prepared by a customs broker; we arrange the transport both after clearance and in transit. Exports by sea need an export declaration. More on how we organise such moves on our international freight forwarding page.

Port collection tips

• A 20′ or 40′ container is collected by a tractor with a container chassis and delivered to the consignee; we need the release from the shipping line and must watch the free days at the terminal.
• A Turkish ro-ro trailer is picked up in the port by our tractor unit once customs is settled.
• For heavy containers we need the cargo weight in advance: a box loaded to the maximum allowed at sea can exceed the permitted road weight of the combination.
• Coffee readily absorbs odours, so it only goes into a clean, dry trailer that has not carried smelly cargo.
• If the consignee cannot unload a full container, the goods can be transloaded in Trieste into a trailer or split into pallets for pallet groupage.

A route without high Alpine passes

Unlike freight from western Italy, Trieste traffic does not use the Brenner. The shortest way to Moravia runs through Slovenia (Ljubljana, Maribor) and Graz to Vienna and Brno, or alternatively via Tarvisio and Villach. Prague is reached via Graz, the Pyhrn motorway to Linz and the Dolní Dvořiště crossing via České Budějovice.

• Brno: roughly 600 km; a full truck usually unloads the next working day.
• Prague: roughly 670 km, also usually the next working day.
• Groupage: usually three to four working days.

Italy and Slovenia ban heavy trucks on Sundays, public holidays and some summer Saturdays, Austria at weekends and at night. Tolls are electronic in Slovenia and Austria and paid at toll plazas in Italy. In autumn and winter the bora wind gusts above 100 km/h in Trieste and can temporarily restrict high-sided and empty vehicles. Get a quote in the calculator.