We improve Flex to bring you Express Groupage transport

Since the founding year in 1998 HTG Express has been specialised in providing the best possible dedicated express transport service throughout Europe: an ideal service for time-critical shipments with high goods value and/or delicate cargo commodities. However, in 2017 we detected new needs and opportunities within the market – so we started offering a shared vehicle service for express road freight shipping. It had more flexibility in collection and delivery time.

Although with certain limitations in capacity, it was a reasonable SPOT road transport alternative for cross-border transporting. It covered the requests of those customers for whom our Express Premium service was more than they needed. Now, 6 years later, we have upgraded and relaunched our flexible express transport service offer.

The origin of an intermediate solution

In our first two decades working in express transports of general industrial cargo we learned that there was a wide spectrum of needs in the companies we have business relations with. Both our sales force and our operations department saw a real difference between traditional road freight services and the real possibilities of the current state of the market.

If you work with logistics companies on a regular base, you will already know that there are two main types of road transports by category rate/transit time: dedicated express and groupage LTL. Of course, there are many other solutions available, however let’s look into what the main difference is between those two and what advantages you may draw from each.

As the name suggests, those who need an express service like our Premium Express are looking for very fast, high-quality solutions and a personalised service level. It is often used to avoid supply chain disruption and production downtime. In addition, it always includes the fact of dedicating the full loading space of a vehicle to one transport order.

Conventional groupage, on the other hand, involves shipping goods internationally or domestically in a truck with various cargo and loading orders grouped together, which is rather slower in transit generally. Globally, it requires advance planning and better stowage to avoid any incidences.

In addition to their delivery time, the two services differ in price – with groupage being more cost economic. The price is also influenced by a dedicated service, adaptability to request types and detailed shipment tracking by default – in which our Express Premium provides a high service standard according to our customers.

However, after years in the field we realised that there were situations which did not require the urgency of the Express Premium service (e.g. delivery within 24 hours) but neither the potential lack of information flow or rather slow delivery times of a groupage solution.

So, we decided to offer an intermediate, alternative transport solution with the usual HTG Express advantages. The service Express Flex was born – a way of sharing vehicles in road transport with door to door delivery (within 72 hours for shipments over 700 km) in a more cost-friendly way.

Improving flexible transport

With time and the experience of thousands of yearly shipments, we have decided to go one step further with a simple goal: To better meet the needs of our customers by offering an alternative road transport logistics solution for SPOT requests.

Introducing Express Groupage, the evolution of our flexible road transport service.

Now you can send your industrial cargo up to 750 kg* as long as you have more than a +500 km distance between origin and destination. We offer a cross-border road transport solution between European nearly all countries without customs obligation. In selected countries this service applies at national level.

For example, if you are rather flexible in loading and unloading time, you can send us requests to load two pallets of about 300kg between two points in Germany and Spain, 1.200 km distance. Instead of delivery in around 21 hours with Express Premium, you would have them at their destination in about 48 hours. In this example you could look into saving of up to 50% off the dedicated express option cost with our Express Premium service. What are your thoughts on this?

Contact us to learn more about the Express Groupage service.

*Total kgs, subsequent calculation based on volumetric kgs.