Shipping a pallet to Greece may not be as expensive as you had thought it might be. The part of southern Europe is directly accessible from the English Channel, of course, which means that overland shipments of commercial goods are viable by road from any location in the UK.
That said, further thought will be required if you are not sending a pallet to mainland Greece but one of its islands, such as Crete, Rhodes, or Kos, for example.
Read on to find out about the most affordable options when sending pallets to Greece.
Groupage Rates for Palletised Goods Bound for Greece
Groupage is what the global logistical industry says when it means sending items to a similar destination with one another. Consequently, a groupage shipment to Greece will typically involve loading multiple pallets onto a single truck which will then be sent from the UK to Greece via Calais or Dunkirk from southern England.
In some cases, groupage shipments of pallets to Greece may also depart from Immingham or Hull to the Netherlands.
Either way, curtainsiders, flat-bed trucks, and container lorries can be used to convey all the consignments across continental Europe in one go, thereby reducing the shipping cost per pallet considerably.
According to Barrington Freight, an established British firm that arranges these sorts of deliveries, Greek commercial clients still get their goods delivered to their premises directly so the service is a true door-to-door one.
What About Urgent Orders to Greece?
If there is one drawback with a groupage shipment, it is that the service will take a while, factoring in all the deliveries that will need to be made. That said, reasonably priced express courier services are also available. Traveling via Germany, Serbia, and North Macedonia or Albania, it would take about 32 hours to reach Athens non-stop in a van.
The fact remains that this is an unrealistic time bearing in mind that drivers are duty-bound to take breaks on the road. However, you could book a two-driver team to keep your pallet to Greece moving more of the time and still save money compared to air freight.
Shipping Pallets to Greek Islands
If you want to send a pallet to a Greek Island cost-effectively, then explore all the options. Typically, pallets will be sent to Athens where they can board a roll-on-roll-off ferry service from Piraeus, the main port close to the capital.
However, it sometimes works out less costly to drive commercial goods from France to the southern part of Italy. Frequent ferry services from Brindisi connect to Greek islands such as Zante as well as other parts of the mainland, for example.
This can be a good option if road routes through the Balkans are running slowly. It will also mean your goods won’t necessarily have to leave the EU before re-entering it at the northern Greek border. Note that a ferry service direct to Corfu also runs from Venice, often a good option if you have a customer on the island.
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