How to request a quote for out-of-gauge container transport (flat rack and open top) from the Port of Barcelona: a guide for freight forwarders

This is what we need in order to quote a flat rack or an open top out of the Port of Barcelona, and why each item matters. It is written for the forwarder's working day, so that the first request can also be the last one.

The three facts that open the file: origin, destination and container type

Origin. "Port of Barcelona" is not enough. We need the specific terminal or depot: APM Terminals, Hutchison Ports BEST, a multipurpose terminal, an empty depot. Each site has its own access, its own pick-up times and its own appointment system, and all of that enters the calculation from minute one.

Destination. The exact address (factory, site, substation, warehouse) and anything unusual about the delivery point: a narrow approach, a weighbridge, a loading dock, a crane needed on arrival. The sooner we know, the better. The last kilometre is where a special transport is won or lost, and it is studied against the real address, not the municipality.

Container or equipment type. Flat rack 20 or 40 ft, fixed or collapsible; open top, standard or high cube; platform or bolster. The type of box sets the geometry of the whole combination, and here size counts twice: the deck of a 40 ft flat rack lifts the cargo some 63-65 cm off the ground, while a 20 ft deck sits at around 37-40 cm. That difference, close to double the base height, is often what decides whether transloading pays for itself. An open top, for its part, boxes the cargo in on the sides and lets it grow upwards. The exact type of box, cross-checked against the cargo dimensions, is what tells us whether the combination fits or whether we have to propose something else.

The cargo: dimensions with overhangs, weight and, when needed, photos or drawings

Of the cargo we need the same information the shipping line asks for before accepting an OOG, because it is the same problem in a different uniform: length × width × height at the most projecting points (not the dimensions of the packing, but of the piece with every overhang included), the weight, and, where known, the centre of gravity and the lifting points.

The gap between "the machine is 3.20 high" and "the machine is 3.20 plus a 15 cm lifting eye" looks small on paper. Against a bridge clearance it is not. What travels on the road is the sum of chassis, container and cargo, measured as a single piece, and an undeclared projection can turn an ordinary movement into a special one, or a valid permit into one that does not cover what is actually running.

When do we need photos or drawings? They always help. In two cases they are indispensable: when the cargo has to be lashed, and when a transload is on the table. Working out a serious lashing plan (how many chains, which tensioners, where the chocks bear, which edges need protecting) takes photos of the real piece or a drawing with views and centre of gravity. And deciding on a transload means seeing what is going to be lifted, and from where. A phone photo taken on the quay is worth more than three emails of description.

There is a third case in which the drawing stops being a convenience and becomes a requirement. When the file calls for a specific or exceptional category authorisation, the application goes in with a dimensioned drawing of the combination: axles, axle spacing, axle loads and overall dimensions. We prepare that drawing, but it can only come from real measurements and photos of the piece. Without them the permit cannot even be filed. It is not that the information would be handy; without it there is no application at all.

An OOG quote is only as fast and as accurate as the data feeding it: dimensions are taken at the most projecting points of the cargo, not around the packing.

Additional services: lashing and transloading

Lashing. On a flat rack, the cargo travels secured to the lashing rings on the deck. On the road, that securing is calculated to the European cargo-securing standard (the EN 12195 series, applied in Spain through Real Decreto 563/2017): certified chains and tensioners, sized for braking and cornering forces, with cradles and edge protectors wherever the piece calls for them. If the cargo arrives already lashed from origin, we check the securing before leaving the port estate. If it has to be lashed or reinforced at the port, we include it in the quote, and for that we need the photos or the drawing. Lashing is not a decorative extra. It is what answers when the combination brakes.

And there is one flow where lashing is forgotten more often than in any other: export. When the job is to take the piece from the factory to the port and set it on a flat rack for loading, in practice it almost always has to be lashed for the shipping line, because a flat rack travels at sea secured, not resting. But that lashing has to be asked for in the request. We do not guess it. Unless someone says otherwise, our job ends at delivery; securing for the sea leg is a separate service, which we arrange through a certified port-lashing partner when it is requested, and which needs, as always, the drawings or the photos of the piece. The same goes for weighing: most shipping lines require the verified gross mass (VGM) before loading, and the weighbridge is another service that is requested, scheduled and priced, not a formality that appears by itself. One line in the request ("lashing for shipment" / "VGM weighing") is what stops the container reaching the quay with loose cargo and no weight certificate while the vessel waits.

Transloading. This is the tool that solves the most common height problem on a flat rack, and the arithmetic is worth understanding. The deck of a 40 ft flat rack raises the cargo by some 63-65 cm; a 20 ft deck, by 37-40. A tall piece riding on that base can push the combination past 4.5 metres of overall height. That threshold matters, though not in the way it is usually described: it is not a legal ceiling. It is the point at which the authorisation stops being generic and the file goes to route study, where the physical clearances of bridges, tunnels and flyovers become the real limit. Above 4.5 metres you can still run, but the permit gets harder, slower and more expensive.

The same piece, transloaded at the port onto a low-loader whose deck runs 30-40 cm off the ground, wins back the whole height of the flat rack deck and puts the combination back into a straightforward file. (One nuance that can work in your favour: Orden PJC/780/2025 allows up to 4.5 metres of ordinary height for certain cargo types, containers homologated for combined transport among them. We assess it case by case.)

Hence the working rule: when cargo on a 40 ft flat rack approaches or exceeds 3.5 metres in height, we propose a transload, lifting the piece inside the port estate, setting it on the low-loader and handing the empty flat rack straight back. You gain the height of the deck, the securing comes out cleaner and the permit is filed on a simple combination. The final call is made by measuring the real box on the quay, with and without the container, because a centimetre either way changes the trailer, the permit and the route.

The complete guide to the oversized container, open top, flat rack and heavy tonnage, out of the Port of Barcelona →

The empty container: the two flows the request has to state

Half the misunderstandings in quoting are not about the cargo. They are about the empty. An OOG container is almost never a one-way trip, and the request has to say which of the two flows applies, or which combination of them.

Export flow: collect the empty container at the depot or terminal, take it to the factory to be loaded, and return it full to the port. Here the shipping line's clock starts the moment the empty leaves the depot: free days are limited and detention is invoiced.

Import flow: pick up the full container (the flat rack with its cargo) at the terminal, deliver at destination, and return the empty flat rack to the port or to the depot the line designates. That return is a real trip: it takes time and it belongs in the price. If the flat rack is collapsible, the return logistics change. And if the plan is a transload inside the port instead of a return, the flow gets simpler, because the box never leaves the estate, but we need to know that from the start.

So, in the request: who collects the empty and where, where it goes back, how many free days the line has granted, and what delivery date the consignee expects. With those, the quote covers the full circuit, and no "empty return" turns up afterwards that nobody had counted.

What we will propose, depending on what we see

With a complete request on the table, the analysis is ours. Two proposals are worth anticipating, because they always come out of the same logic.

If the cargo exceeds the maximum weights and dimensions of Anexo IX del Reglamento General de Vehículos, in width, height, length or weight, once measured as a combination, the vehicle moves into the special transport regime (VERTE, in the wording of the regulation) and the file requires the ACC, the Autorización Complementaria de Circulación. We handle that application, and, depending on the dimensions, we propose a pilot vehicle, the "coche piloto", or whatever escort the route requires. The forwarder does not need to know the thresholds by heart: with the real dimensions, categorising the movement is our work, and the proposal arrives with the escort already included and priced.

Three points about the calendar, since the forwarder is the one promising dates to the client. One: the quote goes out in 24 working hours, but the ACC, where it applies, has its own lead times by category, and they are stated in the proposal so that the date promised is a realistic one. Two: special transport runs against an annual schedule of traffic restrictions, the resolution published each year by the traffic authorities barring certain days and time bands, and the delivery date is checked against that schedule before it is confirmed. Three: in the higher categories, the start of the journey is notified in advance to the police and to the road authorities along the route, which takes flexibility out of the departure. That is why we ask for real dates in the first email.

If cargo on a flat rack is getting close to 3.5 metres in height, we propose the transload to a low-loader, for the deck arithmetic already described: it is the difference between a combination that does not fit and one that does. Where both are workable, the proposal carries the two options, moving the whole box or transloading, with the cost and the timing of each, so that the forwarder can choose alongside the client.

In both cases the aim is the same: that the proposal the forwarder receives can be executed exactly as written, with no surprises between the quote and the truck.

How the rate for a special transport is built, clearance, weight, route, escort and time window →

The perfect request, in one list

To close, the operational summary. A request for an OOG transport quote from the Port of Barcelona is complete when it carries:

1. Origin: the specific terminal or depot.
2. Destination: exact address and anything unusual about the delivery point.
3. Container type: FR 20'/40' (fixed or collapsible), OT standard or high cube, platform.
4. Cargo dimensions at the most projecting points: length × width × height, overhangs included.
5. Weight and, if known, centre of gravity and lifting points. Weight does not only select the trailer: above 40 tonnes of combination (44 with five axles or more), the permit category changes.
6. Photos or drawings of the piece, indispensable where there is lashing, a transload or a higher-category authorisation that requires a dimensioned drawing.
7. Additional services: lashing (including lashing for shipment on export), weighing/VGM, transloading, crane at destination. These are requested; they are not assumed.
8. Empty flow: collection, return, free days granted by the line.
9. Dates: availability at the terminal and expected date at destination, which we check against the annual schedule of traffic restrictions for special transport.
10. Dangerous goods, if any: the ADR regime stacks on top of the special transport regime, and it is worth knowing from the first email.
11. Confirmation that the cargo is indivisible. An ACC is only granted for a load that cannot be broken down into ordinary shipments. If a consignment of divisible packages is travelling inside the open top or on the flat rack, no permit is possible, and that is worth knowing before a price is given, not after.

With those eleven points, the quote goes out in 24 working hours and it lasts the whole journey.

How we handle it at Pastor

Sixty years of family tradition in special transport out of the Port of Barcelona. The port is our starting point, and port operations are settled in advance: registration on Portic, the Port of Barcelona's telematic platform with its advance notices and pick-up codes, and registration with the terminals inside the estate let us work the cargo from the moment it lands on the quay, with no friction at the gate. Our own fleet, conventional low-loader and extendable trailer, covers most of the out-of-gauge containers that leave the estate. For wider or heavier combinations, the right configuration is brought in for the case, planned from the first analysis.

With the forwarder we work as a second pair of eyes on the operation: we verify the dimensions on the real box at the quay, we obtain the authorisation under the Servei Català de Trànsit for the Catalan section, and from the other authorities when the corridor leaves Catalonia, we calculate the lashing to EN 12195, we run the transload when the height calls for it, and we close the empty circuit inside the same file. One point of contact for the forwarder; one price for the client.

Our natural ground is Catalonia, the Ebro Corridor and southern France. For destinations further out we say so in the first conversation, and we help to find the right fit.

The complete guide to special transport through the Port of Barcelona in 2026 →

When a quote goes out on a complete request, it goes out once and it is kept: the box is collected at its appointment, the combination fits where the permit says it fits, and the empty goes back where it has to go. The shipper deals with one counterpart: us.