Road freight Spain France: loads in both directions

Road freight Spain France: our main route

If one route defines Transcosur outside Spain, it is France. Road freight between Spain and France is, together with our domestic work, the core of what we do: we have customers in both countries and regular routes that repeat on a steady basis. We load in Spain to deliver in France, and we load in France to deliver in Spain.

We work from Fuente Palmera (Córdoba), with our own fleet, and the same traffic office plans domestic and international journeys, with the lorries GPS tracked from start to finish.

What we carry between Spain and France

These are the services we can run between the two countries:

• Agricultural and industrial bulk in walking floor and tipper trailers, our speciality. We explain it on our bulk haulage page.
• Organic grain, with the trailer cleaning a certified product requires.
• Biomass, wood chip and forestry waste in high-volume trailers. More detail on biomass haulage.
• Scrap, aluminium and other metals, in a scrap tipper or a walking floor depending on the material.
• Palletised freight and groupage in curtainsiders.
• Live plants in refrigerated trailers, a service we run both in Spain and abroad.

In both directions: why it matters

In international haulage, price and availability depend heavily on the return leg. A lorry that goes up to France and has to come back empty makes the journey far more expensive. That is why regular routes are an advantage for the customer: the more regular the loads in each direction, the easier it is to match outbound and return, and the steadier the service.

If you are a shipper in France who needs to send goods into Spain, that is exactly the journey we are looking for for our lorries heading home. And if you load in Spain for France, the same applies the other way round.

The walking floor trailer helps a lot here: as well as bulk it can carry pallets, so a lorry heading south with wood chip can head back north with other goods.

How road freight between Spain and France works

International road haulage within the European Union does not go through customs, but it has its own rules. These are the ones that affect day-to-day work most:

The CMR consignment note

The goods travel with the international consignment note, known as the CMR after the convention that governs it. It is signed by the sender at loading, by the haulier, and by the consignee on receipt, and it is proof of the contract of carriage and of the condition the load was delivered in. If there is any issue on unloading, such as a damaged pallet or a quantity discrepancy, it is noted on the CMR there and then. If the product requires it, the documents specific to those goods are added.

Driving and rest times

Drivers comply with the EU rules on driving and rest times, monitored by the tachograph. On a long journey that determines where the lorry stops and when it arrives, and we factor it in when planning.

Traffic restrictions

France restricts lorries over 7.5 tonnes at weekends, from Saturday night to Sunday night, and on public holidays, with exceptions for some goods. Spain also has restrictions on specific dates and roads. So the loading date is not a detail: a day’s difference can bring delivery forward or push it back.

Border crossings

Most freight traffic between the two countries crosses at the two ends of the Pyrenees: La Jonquera, on the Mediterranean side, and Irún, on the Bay of Biscay side. We choose one or the other depending on the origin and destination of the load. For destinations in south-east France La Jonquera is the logical choice; for western France, Irún.

Your load, tracked at all times

All our lorries are GPS tracked. The traffic office knows where every load is, in Spain and in France, and can tell you where your goods are on the journey without having to call the driver.

We work under a quality management system certified to UNE-EN ISO 9001:2015 for road freight transport services.

If your company is outside Spain

You can write to us in English or French and we will reply in the same language. For a shipper abroad that avoids misunderstandings over addresses, loading times and paperwork, which is where problems usually arise in international haulage.

What we need to know to quote

• Goods: what they are, how they travel (in bulk, on pallets, on trolleys) and approximate weight or volume.
• Origin and destination, with town and postcode.
• How it is loaded and unloaded: loading bay, forklift, shovel, pit or inside a building.
• Dates, and whether it is a one-off journey or a route that will repeat.

With that we tell you which trailer suits your load and send you a price and availability.