Pickup and delivery in a single run: your shipment travels straight from sender to recipient – pickup in Cologne and across NRW, same-day if you need it. Get an instant price and book online.
A credible direct delivery has no universal per-kilometre rate. Total cost depends on collection and delivery route, vehicle class, availability, time window, loading work, tolls and possible surcharges; short runs usually look more expensive per kilometre than long ones. Maxmove therefore calculates a binding total from the actual order details before booking instead of advertising a misleading flat rate.
| Factor | Example | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Route | Pickup, delivery, intermediate stops | Driving time and distance |
| Vehicle | Car, Caddy, Sprinter, truck | Capacity and operating cost |
| Order | Time window, loading help, tolls | Dispatch and surcharges |
Compare the full offered price for identical addresses, dimensions, weights and time windows. A standalone per-kilometre figure can omit positioning, minimum charges, loading time or tolls, so it is not reliable on its own.
Reviewed by Max Valjan, Founder of Maxmove · Last updated:
Your shipment is never reloaded or combined with other cargo – the vehicle drives exclusively for you.
Short-notice pickup, usually in under 45 minutes. Ideal for urgent documents, spare parts, and sensitive goods.
Enter origin and destination, see the binding price, book – from city runs in Cologne to long-distance drives from NRW.
Recurring direct drives, API integration, and consolidated invoicing – logistics that grows with your company.
As a guide for direct drives in Germany, expect these per-kilometre prices – depending on vehicle class, route, and time window. The instant price in the calculator is binding: enter the route, see the price, book.
| Vehicle class | Guide price per km | Example 100 km |
|---|---|---|
| Compact van (up to approx. 600 kg) | €0.90–1.30 | €90–130 |
| Mid-size van (up to approx. 1 t) | €1.00–1.50 | €100–150 |
| Sprinter (up to approx. 1.2 t / 4 pallets) | €1.20–1.70 | €120–170 |
| 3.5 t box truck (up to 8 pallets) | €1.40–1.90 | €140–190 |
A minimum price applies to short runs; from around 200 km the per-kilometre price drops noticeably. Surcharges come from tight time windows, extra stops, or weekend runs – the instant price factors everything in before booking.
A test part moving between two plants, a delivery tied to a fixed appointment – the jobs along the Rheinschiene repeat themselves. Here are three situations our customers book a direct drive for between Cologne, Leverkusen and Düsseldorf.
Around the Ford plant in Niehl and the suppliers in northern Cologne, plant traffic is routine: fixtures, test parts and rework travel back and forth between the shop floor and the supplier. When one part is missing, groupage no longer helps – the line stops. We put a vehicle exclusively on your job: nothing is reloaded, and the shipment goes straight to the gate you name on the order. You can see where the driver is live on the map.
A notary signing in Düsseldorf, a tender meeting at the town hall, a handover in a customer's fixed slot – none of these move just because a shipment is still sitting in a depot. If it arrives late, no tracing request will save it – the appointment is gone. A direct drive runs straight through, with no transshipment and no other cargo on board, and hands over to the person or reception desk you specify. The handover is documented with digital proof of delivery: photo, signature and timestamp.
Cologne, Leverkusen and Düsseldorf form the densest economic axis in NRW: the Chempark, head offices, agencies and workshops sit close together, and the A3 and A57 back up regularly. Send that courier run through a groupage route and you lose the time twice – first in the depot, then in traffic. We drive the leg as a single direct delivery, one vehicle working only your job, collecting and delivering at the addresses you enter. The cost is shown as an instant price before you book.
Frequently booked in:KölnDüsseldorfLeverkusen
Compare payload, pallet spaces and load area for your direct delivery, from a car to a 3.5-tonne box truck.
| Vehicle | Maks. masa | Palety europejskie | Maks. wymiary ładunku | Price | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CarZmieści się np. Moving boxes, small furniture, classifieds pickups | 100 kg | – | 100 × 70 × 50 cm | from €79.86Base fare €18.90 | Book |
| Small VanZmieści się np. Washing machine, armchair, moving boxes | 400 kg | 1–2 | 160 × 120 × 120 cm | from €94.05Base fare €29.90 | Book |
| VanZmieści się np. Sofa, 1–2 room move, moving boxes | 900 kg | 2–3 | 270 × 160 × 130 cm | from €112.95Base fare €44.90 | Book |
| Large VanZmieści się np. Wardrobe, 2–3 room move, bulky furniture | 1000 kg | 3–4 | 330 × 180 × 170 cm | from €130.05Base fare €54.90 | Book |
| 3.5t Box LorryZmieści się np. Retail goods, tail lift, large furniture | 1200 kg | 6–8 | 430 × 210 × 210 cm | from €211.24Base fare €129 | Book |
| 7.5t LorryZmieści się np. Full house move, bulky retail goods, site material | 3000 kg | 12–15 | 610 × 245 × 240 cm | from €366.72Base fare €249 | Book |
Published examples for Köln → Düsseldorf, weekdays at 10:00 (Berlin time). The binding price for your addresses is shown before booking.
Bigger, open-bed or heavier than 3 t? On request as a special run
How a direct drive differs from courier, express and groupage, what German commercial law says about liability and when an exclusive run pays off.
The terms are often mixed up, but they describe different processes. The market studies of the courier, express and parcel industry draw the lines like this:
Courier: the shipment is accompanied at all times, in person or electronically, and taken by the same service straight to the recipient, with no fixed weight limit.
Express: the shipment passes through transshipment centres but has a fixed, often guaranteed delivery time, typically overnight.
Parcel: standardised shipments with tight size and weight limits, sorted in automated networks.
Groupage: pallets and larger packages from several shippers, collected, cross-docked at a depot and delivered in bundles.
The direct drive is the courier model for everything from an envelope to a pallet: one vehicle, one job, no transshipment and no one else's freight on board. In freight forwarding, a whole lorry running for a single customer is called a full load – the principle is the same, only the vehicle is bigger.
Maxmove runs every booking as a direct drive, from cargo bike to 3.5 t box truck. The logistics glossary explains how groupage and co-loading differ from it.
A direct drive costs more than a space in consolidated freight, because the vehicle runs only for you. It pays off as soon as a delay or damage would cost more than that difference. Typical cases:
Downtime: a spare part, a tool or a test fixture is missing in production or the workshop. Often a single hour of downtime costs more than the whole run.
Fixed appointment: installation, trade fair build-up, a notary appointment, a delivery slot at a warehouse dock. If the shipment arrives late, the slot is gone.
Fragile or awkward goods: glass, electronics, samples, art, non-stackable pallets. Every cross-dock is an extra damage risk.
Short distance, lots of volume: several pallets or a full van within one region. Here the price advantage of consolidated freight hardly matters.
Important for your calculation: under German law a carrier is liable for delay up to three times the freight charge at most (Section 431(3) of the German Commercial Code, HGB). Consequential losses such as a stopped production line are usually nowhere near covered. If time matters, you secure it through your choice of transport, not through compensation. The transport cost calculator shows what your route costs.
Anyone who carries goods by road on a commercial basis is a carrier within the meaning of Section 407 HGB. The carrier is liable for loss and damage from acceptance to delivery (Section 425 HGB), without the sender having to prove fault. The carrier is only released for circumstances that even the utmost care could not have prevented, or on the grounds in Section 427 HGB, such as inadequate packaging or loading by the sender.
The amount is capped: at most 8.33 Special Drawing Rights (SDR) of the International Monetary Fund per kilogram of gross weight (Section 431 HGB), converted into euros at the rate on the day of acceptance. In their terms and conditions carriers may set a figure between 2 and 40 SDR if they point this out; towards consumers they may not deviate to the consumer's disadvantage (Section 449 HGB). Liability is unlimited in the case of intent or recklessness (Section 435 HGB).
In practice, light and valuable shipments are quickly underinsured. A 5 kg control unit is covered by law for 41.65 SDR, whatever it is worth. If the value of the goods is well above that, take out your own cargo insurance for such shipments.
Whether a claim can be enforced often depends on how it is reported at delivery. Section 438 HGB sets clear deadlines:
Visible damage or missing packages must be reported at the latest on delivery. Otherwise the goods are presumed to have arrived complete and undamaged. Telling the driver who delivers is sufficient.
Hidden damage that only shows up when unpacking must be reported within seven days of delivery, in text form – an email is enough.
The recipient must report a missed delivery deadline within 21 days, otherwise any claims lapse.
The report has to identify the damage clearly; a blanket "accepted with reservation" does not describe any specific damage. Photograph visible damage right at the handover. On a Maxmove direct drive, the digital proof of delivery records photo, signature and timestamp of the handover, so the condition is documented.
For the written notice there is a notice of liability template, and for recording damage on site a damage report.
Under Section 412 HGB, the sender is in principle responsible for loading the goods safely for transport and for unloading them, unless circumstances or custom say otherwise; the carrier ensures the load is safe for the vehicle's operation. In practice, the driver secures the load inside the vehicle. Heavy items need a forklift or pallet truck on site, or booked help with carrying.
A reasonable loading time is included in the price. If the vehicle has to wait longer, for example because the goods are not yet packed, the carrier may charge demurrage (Section 412(3) HGB). So book once the shipment is ready for collection; you see the earliest available pickup window when you book.
The order should include: the exact loading and unloading point with gate or floor, a contact person with phone number, the type, number, dimensions and gross weight of the packages, notes such as "keep upright" or "fragile", and the value of the goods for valuable items.
If a deadline is critical, state it explicitly in the order: only an agreed period counts as the delivery deadline under Section 423 HGB. Without an agreement, what counts is the time a diligent carrier could reasonably be allowed.
With Maxmove you can book direct drives online from a cargo bike for documents in the city centre, via car, small van and Sprinter L3 or 3.5 t box truck (up to 1,200 kg of payload, around 4.3 m of load length), up to a 7.5 t truck with up to 3,000 kg of payload. That covers documents, spare parts, trade fair goods, furniture and up to 15 euro pallets.
At 3.5 t there is also a legal line: for commercial haulage with heavier vehicles such as the 7.5 t truck, the German Road Haulage Act (GüKG) requires a licence and compulsory liability insurance (Sections 3 and 7a GüKG). Vehicles up to 3.5 t are exempt from this for domestic transport (Section 2 GüKG); liability under the HGB applies in full either way.
Anything heavier than 3 t, or needing an open flatbed or a crane, runs as a special transport on request.
Recurring direct drives, for example a daily shuttle between two sites in NRW, can be set up as fixed routes – talk to us via the business account.
