Do you need customs clearance to ship to Switzerland?

Yes. Switzerland is outside the EU customs union, so every shipment needs an export declaration on the EU side and an import declaration into Switzerland, typically under a T1 transit document.

What is the LSVA and does it apply to every truck?

The LSVA is Switzerland's distance-based heavy vehicle fee, applied to all trucks over 3.5 tonnes based on kilometres driven, weight and emissions class. It applies to foreign and Swiss-registered vehicles alike.

Can trucks drive through Switzerland at night or on Sundays?

No. Switzerland enforces a nationwide truck driving ban from 22:00 to 05:00 every night and a full ban on Sundays and public holidays.

Can a foreign truck deliver to two different Swiss cities on the same trip?

No, cabotage is banned for foreign-registered vehicles, so a truck can bring international freight in but can't pick up and drop off cargo between two points inside Switzerland.

Why is the Gotthard route often congested?

The Gotthard road tunnel is a single tube shared by both directions, with truck entry metered by traffic lights to around 2–3 trucks a minute; queues of 10–20+ km build up on peak weekends and holidays.

Road Freight

Road Freight to Switzerland: FTL, LTL and Customs-Cleared Transport

Cargo Logistic Solutions runs road freight to and from Switzerland out of our offices in Poland, Germany, Spain and the UK. Switzerland sits inside Schengen but outside the EU customs union, so a Swiss shipment carries genuine customs paperwork, closer to our Turkey page than to Portugal or Slovenia, on top of Switzerland's own driving bans, weight limits and heavy-vehicle fee. We quote the route including the customs work, insure the cargo, and give you a personal logistics manager who tracks the truck the whole way. You pay for the A→B leg only.

What do we ship to and from Switzerland?

Basel is Switzerland's pharmaceutical capital, home to two of the world's largest generic and branded drug makers, so a steady stream of pharmaceutical freight moves through there with strict handling and documentation needs. The rest of the country runs on precision manufacturing and machinery, which travels as standard industrial equipment cargo on a tarpaulin trailer. Retail goods and machinery components make up most of what moves the other way, into the EU.

Get a quote in 15 minutes. Send loading and delivery points plus the pallet count. We reply with the format, transit and a rate.

How long does road freight to Switzerland take?

Route	Distance (approx.)	Typical transit
Berlin → Zurich	~845 km	1–2 days
London → Zurich	~1,020 km (Channel crossing)	2 days
Warsaw → Zurich	~1,380 km	2–3 days
Madrid → Zurich	~1,600 km	2–3 days

These figures assume standard EU driving-time rules, but Switzerland adds its own scheduling constraint: a nationwide truck driving ban from 22:00 to 05:00 every night, plus a full ban on Sundays and public holidays. A truck that reaches the Swiss border on a Saturday evening may simply have to wait until Monday morning. We build that into the schedule rather than promise a date that assumes the ban doesn't exist.

Which vehicle fits your shipment to Switzerland?

Tarpaulin truck (curtainsider) - the standard choice for a full FTL load of machinery, pharma pallets or industrial goods, up to 92 m³ and 24 t. Switzerland caps trucks at 40 tonnes, the same as the EU standard, so no special vehicle is needed for weight.
LTL / groupage - for smaller consignments consolidated with other Switzerland-bound freight, which keeps the cost per pallet down on shorter lanes like Berlin-Zurich.

What do you need to know about Swiss customs and tolls?

Switzerland isn't in the EU, so every shipment needs a customs declaration in both directions, an export customs clearance on the EU side and import customs clearance into Switzerland, usually with the freight moving under a T1 transit document until it's cleared. On top of that, every truck over 3.5 tonnes pays Switzerland's LSVA, a distance-based heavy vehicle fee calculated by an onboard unit tracking kilometres driven, weight and emissions class, it's separate from any EU toll and applies regardless of nationality. Foreign-registered trucks also can't pick up and drop off cargo within Switzerland itself (cabotage is banned) - international freight only.

What affects the price of road freight to Switzerland?

Distance and origin, a Berlin-Zurich run costs a fraction of a Warsaw-Zurich one.
LSVA charges, the Swiss heavy vehicle fee is calculated per kilometre driven inside the country, on top of any EU tolls en route.
Customs documentation, export/import clearance and a T1 transit document add processing time and cost that an EU-to-EU shipment doesn't have.
Scheduling around the driving ban, a route that would otherwise arrive on a Sunday needs to be timed to avoid a full day's delay.
Load size, full truckload (ldm/m³/t) versus a groupage rate per pallet.
Cargo type, pharmaceutical shipments often carry extra documentation and handling requirements.

Regular shipments to Switzerland?

If you're shipping the same lane every week, pharma out of Basel, machinery into Zurich or Geneva, a contract rate is worth setting up: a fixed price, a guaranteed truck, and a manager who already has your customs paperwork template ready and knows how to schedule around the Sunday ban.

Request a route quote and we'll come back with pricing and the next available slot the same day.