Prague – Vienna road freight: importing goods from Vienna

Vienna is roughly 330 km by road from Prague, one of the shortest international lanes out of the Czech capital. A full truck loaded in Vienna in the morning can usually unload in Prague the same evening, or first thing the next working day. We arrange the transport through vetted contract carriers, from a few pallets to a full trailer.

What typically moves from Vienna to the Czech Republic

Most of the work on this lane runs into the Czech Republic rather than out of it. Warehouses on the southern edge of Vienna and along the motorways towards the airport regularly ship:

• electrical equipment, switchgear and components for the energy sector,
• pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, often temperature-controlled,
• food, beverages and wine from Lower Austria,
• paper, packaging and printed matter,
• machinery, spare parts and measuring instruments,
• retail stock from regional distribution centres serving Central Europe.

In the other direction, Czech shippers send car parts, glass, building materials, furniture and consumer goods to Austria.

Vienna also works well for combined pickups. A smaller consignment from Lower Austria or the Linz area can join the same vehicle if both warehouses' time slots allow it. For wine and food in summer we recommend a refrigerated truck: even a short trip in a hot trailer can spoil the goods, and a claim from your customer costs more than choosing the right vehicle.

Route and transit time

Carriers normally take the D1 motorway to Brno, then the D52 to the Mikulov–Drasenhofen border and the Austrian A5 into Vienna. A shorter alternative leaves the D1 at Jihlava and crosses at Hatě–Kleinhaugsdorf near Znojmo, but it uses single-carriageway roads through villages, so the real time saving is small. Pure driving time is around five hours.

Full loads and express vans are delivered within one working day. Groupage pallets travel through a cross-dock and usually take two to three working days.

Collecting in Vienna

Large warehouses cluster in the south of the city and in neighbouring municipalities along the A2 and A21, with more logistics space near Schwechat airport and at the Danube port. The port also works as a container terminal, so goods that reached Vienna by barge or rail can be picked up there.

Most large sites work with booked time slots, and a truck without one can wait for hours. Smaller premises inside the city often have no loading dock; in that case we book a vehicle with a tail lift, or a curtain-sider that can be loaded from the side. For deliveries into the inner districts a smaller vehicle is usually the better choice.

Austrian rules that affect your delivery date

Trucks over 7.5 tonnes may not run in Austria from Saturday 15:00 to Sunday 22:00 or on Austrian public holidays, which only partly match Czech ones. Motorways carry a distance-based electronic toll, and several sections have lower night-time speed limits for noise reasons. There are no customs formalities, as both countries are in the EU.

Paperwork is simple: a CMR consignment note plus an invoice or delivery note, and a temperature log for pharmaceuticals or food.

Before you book

Ask your Austrian supplier to confirm the exact loading address and gate, opening hours and whether a slot booking is required, dock or tail lift, number and size of pallets, whether they can be stacked, total weight, and the reference under which the goods will be released. With that information the price calculator gives you a figure straight away. For a few pallets see pallet transport; for other Austrian destinations see transport to Austria.

Our dispatch desk works Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 18:00, and usually sends a non-binding offer within 30 minutes.