Short answer: In NRW a direct drive with a transporter costs a much higher price per kilometre in town than regionally or over long distance, because providing the vehicle dominates short trips. The table below shows the median per vehicle class and distance band – calculated from our rate card, not estimated.
There are plenty of transport price tables. Almost all of them are ranges from industry gut feeling. This index is different: every quarter we query our own booking platform for the same 35 routes and the same four vehicle classes and publish the results unchanged – with date, rate card version and raw data.
| Vehicle class | In town (≤ 10 km) | Regional (10–120 km) | Long distance (> 120 km) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compact van | €4.39/km · €17.90–€26.49 · 31 routes | €1.30/km · €54.66–€111.09 · 2 routes | €1.06/km · €207.63–€590.09 · 2 routes |
| Transporter | €6.14/km · €25.68–€35.49 · 31 routes | €1.55/km · €66.48–€128.55 · 2 routes | €1.19/km · €234.75–€655.45 · 2 routes |
| Sprinter L2 | €7.37/km · €31.20–€41.99 · 31 routes | €1.76/km · €75.80–€143.51 · 2 routes | €1.31/km · €259.36–€718.31 · 2 routes |
| Box truck | €21.00/km · €96.72–€112.98 · 31 routes | €3.55/km · €163.69–€265.26 · 2 routes | €2.14/km · €439.04–€1,127.46 · 2 routes |
How to read the table
- Median price per kilometre: the route's from-price divided by its distance. In town it is high because call-out and provision are spread over a few kilometres; from about 100 km it drops markedly.
- Range: cheapest and most expensive from-price in the band. In-town values come from 30 cities in NRW (one typical route each); regional and long-distance values from Cologne → Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Frankfurt and Berlin.
- From-price: direct drive with driver, without carrying help, express or waiting time. The binding price for a concrete route is in the transport cost calculator.
Method
- The routes are fixed: five reference routes from Cologne (4 km to 572 km) and the canonical inner-city route of every city on our city pages.
- The vehicle classes are the bookable catalogue classes compact van, transporter, Sprinter L2 and 3.5 t box truck.
- Every cell is a real instant price of the platform on the reference date, recorded with distance and rate card version. Routes outside the service area are omitted rather than estimated.
- The index is refreshed at the end of each quarter. Older editions stay available unchanged under their quarter name; the file without a quarter always shows the current edition.
Using the data
The CSV is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Suggested citation: "Maxmove transport price index 2026-Q3, maxmove.com, retrieved [date]". Columns and their order stay stable in later editions; new columns are only appended. Questions about the method go through our press page.
The vehicle facts behind the classes – load area, payload, pallet slots – are in the Maxmove transport reference 2026.
