Surcharges for the First 4th of 2026 and Change in the Waiting Time Surcharge in our General Conditions

Dear Customers,

When calculating our prices for the upcoming year, we regularly base our estimates on predicted rates for electricity, fuel, track usage charges, and the expected subsidies for intermodal products in individual countries. Any deviation from the values we have based our calculations on will be reflected in an additional surcharge. Although you are acquainted with most of the surcharges from erstwhile years, we would like to reiterate their justification today.

The current amount of all surcharges can be found on our website.

IFS – Imbalance Flow Surcharge is simply a fresh surcharge that applies to services with a crucial imbalance in the flow of goods. It serves to guarantee the frequency of the services you require in both import and export, regardless of the actual volumes in each direction.

TES – Traction Energy Surcharge is closely related to fluctuations in the price of traction energy.

RIS – Rail Infrastructure Surcharge is the consequence of the subsidy policy for intermodal products and the price for the usage of railway infrastructure set by the applicable state administration.

CS – Congestion Surcharge covers non-standard additional costs incurred in the event of track closures, strikes, congestion of railway infrastructure, and inland terminals. This mainly includes the deployment of trains and staff on longer routes, fees for trains that are not allowed to proceed their journey, or cancellations of routes and truck deliveries from external terminals.

FS – Fuel Surcharge offsets fluctuations in fuel prices for truck deliveries.

DTS – Detour Surcharge compensates for costs incurred due to crucial road detours.

TOLL – Our toll charges reflect the toll fees in individual countries. If price of the toll is already included in the price, we respond to the authoritative increase of toll with an Additional Toll surcharge.


Surcharges for the 1st 4th of 2026

IFS – As of 01.01.2026, we are introducing a surcharge in Germany for the Bavaria service (transports via Munich and Nuremberg terminals).

TES – The Croatian rail infrastructure manager HŽ Infrastruktura d.o.o. has announced a sharp increase in traction energy prices. For shipments to/from Rijeka in connection with HU, SK, AT, CZ and RS (Indjija), we are forced to activate a TES of EUR 25 / TEU. All another conditions stay unchanged.

RIS – Decisions by the liable authorities for 2026 are not yet known. The situation remains unchanged, as does RIS for Q1 2026.

CS – Our newsletters show that the situation on the railways remains strained. The surcharge continues to apply without change.

FS – Continues without change.

DTS – All detour surcharges valid for CZ are being cancelled. All others stay unchanged.

TOLL – As of 01.01.2026, we are cancelling the additional toll for transports via SK terminals. The fee will be included in the price increase for the respective service. However, the situation regarding the toll for the future in any countries (e.g., RO and CZ) is not yet clear.


General Conditions 2026 – Change in the Waiting Time Surcharge

At the beginning of 2025, we launched a task to evenly distribute loadings/unloadings throughout the full day. The truck and terminal capacity is not unlimited, and shifting part of the container positioning to the afternoon hours has become essential due to increasing volumes.

This intention was besides financially supported by us; however, no crucial shift of loadings/unloadings to the afternoon hours occurred. The vast majority of container deliveries continues to be ordered for morning or late-morning hours.

For this reason, from 01.01.2026, section 3.11.1. of our General Conditions will be amended. This section specifies the free time and waiting time surcharges for truck positioning in CZ, SK, PL and HU.

The free time for loading/unloading remains unchanged at 3 hours. The surcharge for the first hr of waiting time increases from the current EUR 15 to EUR 30 per container. Each additional commenced hr will proceed to be charged at EUR 30 per container. The maximum regular rate will then be EUR 300.

If you have any questions regarding our prices and surcharges, delight contact our Pricing Department.

We look forward to our continued cooperation and sincerely thank you for the collaboration so far.

METRANS Team