What you actually pay for, what makes the price jump, and the details you need to give to get a quote worth having.
It is the question that stalls more deals than any other, and the one that gets answered worst: «so what will it cost me to get it here?». Almost nobody gives a number, because the number depends on things the seller does not always know and the buyer does not always ask. This guide explains what that cost is made of, what drives it up, and what information a haulier needs before they can quote seriously.
Moving a machine is not the same as hiring a truck. A normal job has up to six separate cost lines, and the truck is usually not the biggest:
A quote that only covers the third line is not a quote: it is half the story.
For full truckload road freight, the European market in 2026 sits at roughly EUR 1.45 to 1.58 per kilometre for a standard articulated trailer, within a wide band of EUR 0.50 to 2.00 depending on the route, the season and whether the truck returns empty. On that order of magnitude, a full truck from Spain to Germany — around 1,800 km — comes to roughly EUR 2,600 to 2,900 for transport alone.
Three things move that figure more than people expect: diesel, which in 2026 has hovered around EUR 1.96 per litre and accounts for over 30 % of operating cost; tolls, which now exceed a quarter of the cost in Switzerland and a fifth in Austria and Hungary; and empty running, which affects more than 20 % of all vehicle-kilometres in the EU and which somebody ends up paying for.
In the European Union a movement counts as «normal» as long as it stays under 2.55 metres wide, 4 metres high including the trailer, and 40 tonnes gross. Go over any one of those three and it stops being a truck and becomes abnormal transport, with permits country by country, approved routes and, often, escort vehicles.
Height is what catches everybody out. A flatbed trailer already takes up close to a metre, so from about three metres of machine you need to start checking. It is worth asking for the height even before the weight.
If the machine is palletised or fits in part of a trailer, groupage — sharing the truck with other loads — runs 30 % to 50 % cheaper than hiring the whole vehicle. You pay for it in two ways: time, because the truck makes more stops, and handling, because the machine is loaded and unloaded more often.
For delicate, poorly crated or high-value equipment, a full truck usually pays for itself even at a higher price: fewer hands, fewer transfers, less risk.
Once the limits are exceeded, the cost does not creep up, it multiplies. Between permits for each country crossed, route surveys, possible escorts and time restrictions — many countries ban night or weekend running — it is common to pay two to four times a standard rate.
What changes most, though, is the timeline. Permits are applied for weeks in advance. If the deal has a real deadline, abnormal transport has to be raised before signing, not after.
Two identical machines can cost twice as much to move depending on where they sit. What matters: whether the truck reaches the door or the load has to be transferred, whether there is a dock or a crane has to be brought in, whether the machine is at ground level or on a first floor, whether the floor takes the weight of a loaded forklift, whether a door has to come off, and whether there is room to manoeuvre at the other end.
A mobile crane is paid for by the half-day even if it works for twenty minutes. Two cranes, one at each end, can cost more than the truck on a short route.
Plenty of equipment does not travel in one piece. Fluids have to be drained, axes locked, peripherals removed, cabling labelled and, on complete lines, every module numbered so it can be put back together. That labour can be done by the seller, the buyer or a third party, but somebody pays for it, and it is worth putting in writing who.
The same applies at destination: levelling, electrical connection at the right voltage and frequency, compressed air, extraction, and a start-up with somebody who knows the machine. On CNC equipment, commissioning usually calls for a technician from the manufacturer or an authorised service partner.
A haulier's liability is capped by international convention at an amount per kilo that, for machinery, almost never covers the real value. An eight-tonne machine bought for EUR 40,000 can end up covered for a fraction of that unless specific cargo insurance is taken out.
Cargo insurance is contracted separately, usually costs between 0.2 % and 0.8 % of the declared value, and the value to declare is the replacement value — what it would take to source an equivalent machine and get it producing — not what was paid for it.
In used machinery, three terms cover almost every deal:
Whichever applies, put two things in the contract: who loads, and at what moment the risk passes.
A serious haulier will not price a job without these details. Gathering them up front saves a week of emails:
These are indications, not quotes. They are useful for telling whether an offer sits in the expected range or something is off.
MAKINTER does not carry freight and is not a customs agent. What it does do is stop transport being an unknown: we ask the seller for real dimensions and weight, photographs of the access and the loading conditions before the asset goes live, and we put the buyer in touch with hauliers who work with industrial machinery. The aim is simple: nobody should discover the cost of transport after the price has been agreed.
This guide is general information and does not replace a firm quotation or technical, legal or customs advice on a specific transaction. The figures are 2026 market orders of magnitude and vary by route, season and availability.