Home / Short guides / Customs and border crossings
Border crossings on the Hochrhein.
Four Rhine crossings between Waldshut and Jestetten, open around the clock. For your people, nothing changes at the border.
Getting there
For your people, nothing changes
The Rhine crossings on the Hochrhein are open around the clock and as a rule clear. Anyone driving to an early shift slows down, shows an ID if asked, and carries on. Queues happen at the big crossings near Basel, not here. Our five locations sit at different crossings, so the shortest route is rarely the best known one.
- Waldshut
- Koblenz
- Kadelburg
- Bad Zurzach
- Hohentengen
- Kaiserstuhl and Eglisau
- Jestetten
- Neuhausen and Rafz
Lauchringen crosses at Waldshut. The resulting driving time for each job site is in the list of units.
Materials
Only what travels with you is declared
People cross the border without a declaration, tools and materials do not. This is routine and in practice runs through the freight forwarder or customs agent who handles the import anyway.
Coming back with you
There is a separate procedure for equipment that leaves again after the job. Anyone commuting regularly works from a fixed equipment list rather than starting over each time.
Staying in Switzerland
Whatever gets installed is imported. Who acts as importer, and therefore carries duty and import tax, is settled in the contract with the client. Once agreed, it holds for the whole project.
Via the customs office
Goods that must be declared go through a staffed customs office with fixed hours. Many companies therefore split the route: staff over the shortest crossing, the materials vehicle via the customs office.
Before the assignment
What actually needs lead time
It is not the border that costs time, it is registering the assignment. Eight days notification plus a few days for social security, a good week in total. Keep that in view and you drive straight through on the day.
More on this under the eight day notification rule and A1 certificate. This text is a practical overview, not customs or legal advice. What counts is the information given by the Swiss customs administration or your forwarder.
Questions
What gets asked at the border
Do tools have to be declared at the border?
Yes. People cross the border without declaring anything, tools and material do not. For equipment that comes back there is the temporary admission procedure; for material that stays in Switzerland, normal importation.
Can I drive across any border crossing with material?
No. Goods that have to be declared go through staffed customs offices with fixed opening hours. Smaller secondary crossings are not intended for that, even where they are open around the clock.
Which border crossings are there on the Hochrhein?
Between Waldshut and Jestetten there are several Rhine crossings, among them Waldshut to Koblenz, Rheinheim to Bad Zurzach and Hohentengen to Kaiserstuhl, plus the crossings near Jestetten. For passenger traffic they are open around the clock, as a rule with no waiting time.
How long does crossing the border take in the morning?
At rush hour the large crossings back up; the smaller Rhine crossings on the Hochrhein usually do not. Anyone travelling before six in the morning loses practically no time.
Accommodation close to the crossing?
People, dates, job site. You get a calculated quote with availability and a fixed price, not a price list.
Send an enquiry