Bulk haulage by road across Spain, France and Europe

What bulk haulage is

We talk about bulk haulage when the goods travel loose, with no packaging: they are tipped or pushed into the trailer and unloaded the same way. It is the most efficient way to move large quantities of a uniform product, because it saves pallets, sacks and hours of handling.

At Transcosur bulk is where the company began. Ever since we started offering logistics services, our main focus has been bulk freight, and on that base we built a fleet of walking floor and tipper trailers that now runs all over Europe.

Goods we move in bulk

• Grain and cereals, conventional and organic.
• Citrus fruit and other farm products loaded loose.
• Biomass: forestry wood chip, pruning waste and other solid fuels.
• Industrial products with high volume and low weight.
• Scrap, metals and non-hazardous waste, with their own scrap tipper service.

Each product has its quirks. Grain needs a clean, sealed trailer; wood chip, plenty of volume; waste, the paperwork its transfer requires. Before allocating a lorry we ask what it is, how much it weighs and where it is loaded and unloaded.

Walking floor or tipper

We handle bulk with two types of trailer, and choosing the right one is what makes unloading quick and safe.

Feature	Walking floor	Tipper
How it unloads	The floor moves and pushes the load backwards	The body rises and the load slides out by gravity
Headroom needed	The trailer’s own height	Much more, with the body raised
Where it fits	Buildings, loading bays, uneven ground	Open yards and hoppers with firm ground
Products	Light, bulky, not free-flowing	Dense and free-flowing

The walking floor trailer is our signature trailer. Because it does not raise the body, it can unload inside a building or on a slope with no risk of overturning, and it empties the trailer completely.

The tipper unloads dense, free-flowing products faster, as long as there is clear headroom and firm, level ground.

What we need to know to quote for bulk haulage

A well-priced bulk job starts with four details. With them we choose the trailer and give you a price that does not change on arrival:

• The product and, if you know it, its density or how many tonnes there are. The same trailer reaches its weight limit sooner with grain than with wood chip, which fills by volume.
• How it is loaded: by loading shovel, conveyor, hopper or silo. This determines the height and type of opening required.
• How it is unloaded: inside a building, in an open yard, into a pit or a hopper. This is what decides between walking floor and tipper.
• Dates, and whether it is a one-off load or a route repeated every week or every season.

Cleaning and product changes

In bulk the trailer is in direct contact with the goods, so what was carried before matters. When a lorry switches from one product to a very different one, for example from waste or scrap to a farm product, we take that into account when allocating the job. For organic grain we also follow the cleaning and segregation a certified product requires. At our base in Fuente Palmera we have a wash bay for the fleet.

How we handle a bulk haulage job

1. You tell us about the load: product, approximate quantity, collection and delivery points, and dates.
2. We choose the trailer that suits the product and the facilities at destination.
3. We plan the route and, if there is a return leg, we try to match it with another load.
4. We track the lorry by GPS throughout the journey.
5. We confirm delivery with the transport documents.

Spain, France and the rest of Europe

We have regular customers and routes in Spain and France, and from there we reach other European countries. For bulk that is a clear advantage: the more regular routes there are, the easier it is to match outbound and return loads and offer availability.

If your load starts or ends in France, see also our page on road freight between Spain and France.