Freight forwarding Tilburg – transport to and from the Czech Republic

A former wool town that now runs on warehouses

Tilburg was the wool capital of the Netherlands until the textile mills closed in the 1960s. Transport and distribution took their place and are today the city's leading sector; the Tilburg–Waalwijk area is consistently ranked among the top Dutch logistics locations. Most of the large sheds stand north of the Wilhelmina Canal and along the A58 motorway.

That matters when you book a collection: goods "from Tilburg" are often not made there at all. They sit in a European stock-holding warehouse that supplies the whole continent, and our job is to get them from that warehouse to your site in Czechia or Slovakia.

Typical pickups in Tilburg and the surrounding area

• palletised stock from European distribution centres: consumer electronics, apparel, sporting goods, toiletries and e-commerce orders;
• leather, footwear and leather goods from Waalwijk and the villages of the Langstraat, a centuries-old shoemaking belt about 20 km north;
• parts for the automotive sector, since electric cars for the European market have been assembled and distributed in Tilburg since 2013;
• chemical raw materials, fragrance ingredients and imaging materials, some of which travel as ADR loads;
• Asian container cargo that reached Tilburg by rail or inland barge.

Into Brabant we carry Czech glass and porcelain, furniture, metal and plastic components, hand tools and long-life food that local warehouses redistribute across the Benelux countries.

When the container arrives by rail or barge

Tilburg operates its own rail terminal and a barge terminal on the Wilhelmina Canal with regular sailings to Rotterdam and Antwerp. In 2016 the first direct freight train from Chengdu in China arrived here, putting the city on the map of Asia–Europe rail freight. For an importer this means the box does not have to be collected at the seaport: we can pick it up inland in Tilburg, either stripping it at a local warehouse and loading a standard trailer, or hauling the full container on a chassis. We need the release reference, the customs status and the terminal's opening hours. Goods not yet cleared in the EU can move under a transit document and be cleared in the Czech Republic.

Route and transit time

Tilburg has a single motorway, the A58, linking it with Breda and Eindhoven. Trucks leave via Eindhoven, take the A67 to Venlo and cross into Germany, then continue on the A3 past Cologne and Frankfurt towards Nuremberg and the Waidhaus/Rozvadov crossing. Prague is approximately 920 km away and Brno about 1,100 km. A single driver covers 600–700 km a day, so a full load collected in Tilburg is usually delivered in Prague on the second working day.

The Netherlands has no nationwide weekend truck ban, but Germany bans vehicles over 7.5 t on Sundays and public holidays, and German distance-based toll is already included in our quote. Smaller orders go by pallet groupage in roughly 3–5 working days; urgent spare parts or samples can travel by express van, typically arriving the next day.

Before you book

• Large distribution centres only load against a booked slot and an order reference. Without both, the driver may wait until the next day.
• Check whether a dock is available; smaller workshops in the Langstraat often load from the side.
• If you want e-commerce returns brought back on the same truck, tell us in advance so we can plan the return leg.
• Paperwork within the EU: CMR consignment note plus invoice or delivery note; for uncleared Asian containers also the customs documents.

Regular weekly pickups from one warehouse work best as a fixed line. For a one-off shipment use our online calculator; our dispatch team usually replies within 30 minutes during office hours (Mon–Fri, 8:00–18:00).