Not every wholesale order fills a truck. A first trial order, a top-up of fast lines or a new product test is often two, five or ten pallets. That is where groupage comes in: your pallets travel on a shared trailer with other shippers’ goods, and you pay only for the space you use. Done well, it lets you buy from a Polish wholesaler in small volumes at a sensible landed cost. Done badly, it is slow, expensive per case and hard on the cartons.
| Option | Typical size | How it moves | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groupage (LTL) | 1–6 pallets | Collected, consolidated at a hub or cross-dock, trunked, then delivered by a local vehicle. | Cheapest for small volumes; slower and handled several times. |
| Part load (PTL) | roughly 6–20 pallets | Shares a trailer with one or two other loads, often without a hub. | Fewer handlings, but priced close to a truck once it grows. |
| Full truckload (FTL) | up to 33 EUR pallets | One trailer, loaded once, driven direct. | Lowest cost per case and fastest; you pay for the whole trailer. |
The bands are typical, not fixed — carriers set their own breakpoints. The useful habit is to ask for a groupage price and a full-truck price whenever an order sits in between; our guide to pallet and truckload maths shows how quickly the cost per case changes as a trailer fills.
Groupage is rarely priced per kilo alone. Expect one or more of these:
The single biggest lever is stackability. A pallet that cannot have anything put on top of it is usually charged as if it took the full height of the trailer. Drinks in glass, tall pallets and loads with crushable top layers are the usual culprits.
Groupage pallets are forklifted on and off more than once. Ask for tight stretch-wrapping, corner boards on tall or heavy pallets, a top sheet, and a label on at least two sides showing consignee and pallet count. Check pallets on arrival and note any damage on the CMR before the driver leaves — see CMR damage claims for how to do it properly, and cargo insurance for road freight for why carrier liability alone is limited.
Because pallets wait for a trunk departure and are sorted at hubs, groupage typically takes a few days longer than a direct truck on the same route. Plan stock cover accordingly, and tell the carrier about your receiving conditions: dock or no dock, tail-lift needed, opening hours, and whether you need a booked slot. Temperature-sensitive goods are a special case — ambient groupage is not suitable for them; see temperature-controlled transport.
The Incoterm decides who books and pays for the groupage leg. Small buyers often prefer delivered terms (such as DAP) so the seller arranges the freight; buyers with their own forwarder may prefer to collect. Within the EU, a groupage consignment travels with the commercial invoice, packing list and CMR. Outside the EU each consignment still needs its own export declaration, even when it shares a trailer.
Tell us the lines, the approximate number of pallets, the delivery address and your receiving conditions. We will confirm in writing how the order can be built and shipped, and if a slightly larger order would move you into a cheaper freight band, we will say so. Our payment terms are the same for every order size: telegraphic transfer in EUR or USD, a 20–50% deposit and the balance before release.
Related reading: pallet and truckload maths, how minimum order quantities are calculated, and CMR damage claims.
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