Rates & costs
What drives Nairobi to Juba cargo prices
Weight is only one input. Here is everything else that moves the number on a Nairobi to Juba quotation, and what you can control.
Our Nairobi to Juba rates are published in full. This article explains what sits behind them, so you can tell whether a quotation you have been given is reasonable.
1. Chargeable weight, not actual weight
Road and air freight are billed on the greater of actual weight and volumetric weight. Volumetric weight turns the space a shipment occupies into a weight equivalent.
A pallet of bolts and a pallet of pillows take up the same room on a truck. The truck fills up at the same point either way, so both pay for the space.
What you control: packing density. Badly packed cargo can easily cost 30 to 40% more than the same goods packed properly.
2. Which rate band your cargo falls in
General cargo and sensitive cargo are rated separately. Sensitive covers goods with higher value per kilogram, higher duty exposure or extra documentary requirements. Electronics, phones, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and branded goods are the usual ones.
What you control: describing the cargo accurately up front. A reclassification after booking is a worse outcome than a higher rate quoted honestly at the start.
3. The service you choose
- Groupage. Pay for the space you use, and wait for the load to build.
- FTL. Pay for the vehicle, and control the schedule.
- FCL. Pay for the container.
- Air. Pay per kilogram, and remove days.
The crossover from groupage to FTL comes earlier than most shippers expect. If you are quoting a large part load at a per kilogram rate, ask for the truck price as well.
4. The minimum charge
Below a certain size, the cost of handling, documentation and border processing does not fall with the weight. Small consignments price at the minimum.
What you control: consolidating your own orders. Three small shipments in a month often cost more than one shipment of the same total weight.
5. Pickup and delivery terms
Whether we collect from your supplier or you deliver to our consolidation point changes the price. So does whether the delivery address in Juba can take a full trailer, and whether there is labour to offload.
6. What is excluded
A freight rate is not a landed cost. Budget separately for:
- South Sudan import duty and taxes, assessed on your goods (see import duties and taxes)
- Certificate of Conformity and sector permits
- Customs brokerage where the table shows it as excluded
- Waiting time, storage and anything caused by incomplete documents
7. Things that are not in anyone's control
Fuel costs, border queues, seasonal road conditions on the Gulu to Nimule stretch, and the volume of traffic at Nimule all affect transit time, and sustained changes in cost feed into rates over time. This is why every published rate carries a validity window.
How to get a quotation that holds
Send the cargo description, the gross weight, the dimensions of the largest pieces, the pickup address and the delivery address. With those five things we can give you a firm figure. Without them, anyone quoting you a price is guessing.
Get a quotation
Tell us what you are shipping
Send us the cargo description, weight or volume, and the pickup and delivery addresses. We reply with a written rate, the transit time and the documents you will need.