Packaging is a high-volume, low-density freight. A trailer fills up long before it reaches its weight limit, which makes the Incoterm and the load plan matter more than they would for dense goods.
The three terms we quote
EXW — Ex Works
You collect from our dispatch point in Poland. You arrange the vehicle, you carry the cost and the risk from the moment the goods are made available.
Use it when you have your own transport, a consolidator in Poland, or a groupage contract that beats what we can arrange.
Watch for the loading itself: under EXW 2020 the seller is not obliged to load the vehicle. We do load, and we say so on the quotation, but if you are comparing our EXW price to another supplier’s, check whether theirs includes it.
FCA — Free Carrier
We deliver the goods, cleared for export, to a carrier you nominate — usually at our premises. Risk passes when the goods are loaded onto your carrier’s vehicle.
Use it when you have a nominated carrier but want the export formalities and loading handled at our end. For most buyers arranging their own transport, FCA is the better choice than EXW because the risk transfer point is unambiguous.
DAP — Delivered at Place
We deliver to your address. We arrange and pay the freight and carry the risk until the goods are ready for unloading at your gate. You unload. Import duties, if any, are yours — inside the EU there are none.
Use it when you want one number to compare against your current landed cost. This is what most buyers should ask for on a first order, because it is the only term where our price and your current supplier’s price mean the same thing.
What we do not quote
DDP. Inside the EU it is functionally identical to DAP, so quoting it adds nothing. Outside the EU it makes us the importer of record in a jurisdiction we are not established in, which is a liability we will not take on quietly.
CIF and FOB. These are sea-freight terms. Using them for a road shipment from Poland to Germany is a common error in tender documents; if your template demands one, tell us and we will map it to the correct road equivalent in writing rather than signing something that does not describe what happens.
Load planning
| Vehicle | Euro pallets | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 13.6 m curtainsider | 33 | full load, DE / NL / Nordics |
| 13.6 m, double-stacked | up to 66 | light goods, sacks and film |
| 7.2 m rigid | 18 | part-load, short haul |
| 40 ft container | 25 | overseas, rare for this trade |
| 20 ft container | 11 | overseas |
Thirty-three euro pallets is the practical maximum on a standard European trailer. Sacks and film are light enough to double-stack, which is why a mixed load of sacks, film and pallets often ships at close to full trailer economics even when the weight is modest.
Our truck and pallet load calculator runs the same arithmetic we use when quoting, so you can check a configuration before asking for a price.
Transit times from Poland
| Destination | Full load | Part load |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 2–3 days | 3–5 days |
| Netherlands, Belgium | 2–4 days | 4–6 days |
| Denmark | 3–4 days | 5–7 days |
| Sweden, Norway | 5–7 days | 7–10 days |
| France | 3–5 days | 5–8 days |
Part-loads wait for a vehicle going the same way, which is where the extra days come from. If a date is firm, say so at enquiry stage and we will quote a dedicated vehicle instead.
Documents
Every shipment travels with a commercial invoice, a packing list showing every line against its pallet, and a CMR. Orders in PPWR scope also carry their Declaration of Conformity pack and a packaging weight breakdown by material for your EPR return.
Intra-EU shipments need no customs declaration. For deliveries outside the EU we issue the export declaration and, where the destination requires it, an EUR.1 movement certificate or a statement on origin.
Note: ISPM 15 heat treatment applies to wooden packaging leaving the EU, not to intra-EU movements. If you re-export goods on our pallets to a third country, order ISPM 15 treated pallets from the start — retro-treating a loaded pallet is not practical.