Door-to-door transport

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Find an ideal partner for your door-to-door transport at Freightfinders. Low prices, many useful services, as well as experienced freight forwarders ensure the smooth transport of your goods.
Learn more about door-to-door shipping, its benefits, and what to look out for, in this article.

Freightfinders’ door-to-door shipping- Your advantages:

✓ Cheap quotes for a professional transport organisation

✓ Receive the same prices as with the forwarding companies themselves

✓ EU promoted network of experienced freight forwarders

✓ Full Service: customs, loading, load restraint, insurance, packaging

Please use our freight calculator to find favourable prices for your door-to-door transport

What is door-to-door transport? – Transport chain of a door-to-door delivery

The transport chain of a door-to-door transport combines several transport routes and means of transport into a so-called “intermodal transport”. Thus, in addition to the main run, there will also be a pre-carriage and an on-carriage which allows a door-to-door transport and an optimised transport chain.
The individual steps of a door-to-door transport chain are as follows:

• Pre-carriage: With the pre-carriage of a door-to-door transport, the goods are picked up from the warehouse, the production facility or the like, and taken to a handling point by the door-to-door shipping company. This is usually done by truck, as only few have a direct rail connection, port or airport.
• Main run: The main run is the actual transport. The shipping is done via the means of transport ship, train, truck or plane. Here it depends which is the better option financially and in regards of timing. The door-to-door shipping companies will then execute the main transport.
• On-carriage: At the port of departure or terminal, the goods are handled again and transported to the "door" of the buyer.

This smooth transport chain of a door-to-door delivery becomes a relaxed transport through a good organisation and optimised timing by the door-to-door shipping companies. This makes it not only easier for you to transport your goods, but often also cheaper.

Advantages of door-to-door shipping

The door-to-door transport offers many advantages. It is a very flexible type of transport in most aspects, because one has the choice of several transport units as well as means of transport. This also leads to a time flexibility. Another advantage is the cost savings – especially for long-distance transport. Since a door-to-door transport allows you to combine different modes of transport, you can always opt for the cheapest option in the main run instead of staying with only one means of transport throughout the transport. If you carry your goods yourself to the port, as it is the case with a port-to-port transport, then you can save even more.
Moreover, in the case of a door-to-door transport, you can also take advantage of the individual advantages of the means of transport and thus also bypass certain obstacles, such as the exemptions for driving bans.
The biggest argument for a door-to-door transport is, however, that all freight forwarders are geared to each other. This means that you can enjoy an uncomplicated transport, where all processes are organised by professionals. If you also pay attention to suitable Incoterms, you can optimise your transport even further in terms of cost and organisation.

Further types of transport

If the door-to-door transport does not fit your needs, you can also opt for other options:

• Port-to-port
• Door-to-port
• Port-to-door

Door-to-door Incoterms

Find out here which Incoterms are particularly worthwhile in a door-to-door cargo shipping and who and at what time, bears what risks and costs. (These are mainly Incoterms, in which the pre-carriage, main run and on-carriage are mostly taken care of by one party. If you are interested in further Incoterms, please read our article with a summary of all Incoterms.)

• EXW: This Incoterm is suitable for a door-to-door distribution, as the seller only has to provide the buyer with their goods. The buyer is therefore responsible for the costs and insurance of the pre-carriage, main run and on-carriage.
• FCA: Here, a place is determined in advance where the goods are made available. However, since this may also be the seller's warehouse or manufacturing plant, this Incoterm could also be used in shipping door-to-door cargo. From this place, the buyer assumes the risk and cost of transport.
• DAP: In the case of the Incoterm DAP, the place to which the goods are delivered is determined before the conclusion of the contract. Since this may also be the buyer's warehouse, this Incoterm could also be used in door-to-door transports. Until the time of delivery, the seller bears all risks and costs.
• DDP: The Incoterms DDP and DAP are very similar. The only difference is that here the seller also bears the customs costs for importing and exporting the goods for the door-to-door freight.