Road feeder service is a common practice in the logistics and transportation industry. It refers to the use of road vehicles to transport airfreight between airports and other locations. This allows for more efficient and cost-effective transportation of air cargo, as it allows for the consolidation of shipments and the use of smaller, more agile vehicles for the final leg of the journey. A road feeder service is often used to transport airfreight from a major airport to a smaller, regional airport, where it can be loaded onto a smaller aircraft for the final leg of its journey. This can help to reduce costs and improve the overall efficiency of the air cargo supply chain.

For example, Air France Cargo takes airfreight at Frankfurt am Main Airport and then takes it by land to the Frankfurt-Hahn airport.

Frankfurt am Main Airport		Road Feeder		Frankfurt-Hahn airport.

The international air carriers have their own branch offices at the main airports and organize the main run, i.e. the real transport by air from one place to another.

If the aircraft has landed, shipments to other nearby cities with airfields are also on board. Since the onward flight is much too expensive due to the fuel costs, landing fees, etc., the forwarding by truck is used in the wake-up procedure to the destination.

In this case, airfreight arriving from distant countries may be transported by truck up to 500 km or more.

The trucks used in lorry transport have some special features relating to the loading properties. For example, the trailers or swap bodies are equipped with so-called “roller bed” to accommodate specially built aircraft containers, which exactly correspond to the interior of an aircraft fuselage. Some trailers are also very high built (Jumbo trailer).

When the consignments are loaded at the airport, the unloading at the “handling agent” takes place after an overnight transfer in the early morning. This is the permanent representative of the airlines, who do not have their own office at the airport. The latter provides the consignment for collection by the airframe pedestrian or the final receiver in his warehouse.