What does "tour retour" freight mean?

It’s a full-truckload pattern where the driver unloads incoming cargo and loads a new outbound shipment at the same depot, rather than returning empty or picking up from a separate location.

Why does delivery order affect how a truck gets loaded?

Because unloading happens in sequence at each stop, cargo generally has to go on in the order that mirrors the delivery route — while still keeping axle weight distribution within legal limits across the whole load.

Why do axle weight problems happen even on domestic routes?

Paperwork weights don’t always match the actual cargo. A heavier-than-listed pallet can push a single axle over its limit even when the truck’s total weight looks fine on paper — experienced carriers catch this by checking the real cargo, not just the manifest.

What did a 12-year carrier think of load-planning software?

He liked being able to share a load plan as a link with the warehouse and other drivers with no app download or account needed, wanted ready-made presets for different truck and trailer sizes, and pointed out that a dark interface is hard to read in daylight on site.

12 Years of Loading Trucks by Feel: A Belgrade Carrier's Full-Truckload and Axle-Balance Problem

Miloš Marinković runs two trucks and plans every full truckload by intuition and a phone call to the warehouse. Here’s where axle balance, mixed cargo, and bad paperwork actually bite.

Key takeaways

Miloš Marinković has run Milmar Šped’s two trucks for 12 years, planning full-truckload domestic freight in Serbia mostly by intuition and coordination with the warehouse forklift driver.
Mixed cargo (LTL) with more than three customers is the hardest planning problem he faces — sequencing several deliveries onto one trailer without exact tools.
Delivery order dictates loading order on the trailer, and the load still has to keep axle weight distribution within legal limits — done by feel, not by calculation.
Discrepancies between the paperwork weight and the actual cargo weight happen regularly, and can push a single axle or the total vehicle weight over the legal limit if not caught before departure.
Shown the Hansatic app on the spot, he liked sharing a load plan as a link with no app download or registration, wanted ready-made presets for different truck and trailer types, and flagged the dark interface as hard to read in daylight on site.

A Morning at a Logistics Park Outside Belgrade

For the first episode of Cargo BTS, we drove to a logistics park 15 kilometers from the Belgrade city center, right on the main highway — 1.2 million square meters of warehouses. We were there to spend the morning with Miloš Marinković, owner of Milmar Šped, unloading one shipment and loading another alongside him. He plans his own shipments, mostly on intuition, then coordinates the details with the warehouse and his clients — which is exactly what we wanted to see up close.

12 Years on the Road: 9 Employed, 3 Independent

Miloš has been in transportation for 12 years — 9 of them working for a company, the last 3 running his own operation. Today he owns two trucks and handles domestic freight within Serbia. Before going independent, he spent 9 years doing international routes across Western Europe and Scandinavia; today his business is domestic-only.

Full Truckload, Tour-Retour: How Miloš Runs Two Trucks

His typical job is full truckload, "tour retour" — at the same depot where he unloads, he loads a new outbound shipment before heading back out. Mixed cargo is the exception rather than the rule for him, not the default.

A 7.2-Meter Curtainsider, 17 Euro Pallets

The vehicle he was running that day is a 7.5m city curtainsider: 720cm long, 290cm of cargo height, 245cm wide — a trailer that takes 17 Euro pallets. It’s a size built for city and regional domestic runs rather than long-haul international freight.

The Real Challenge: Mixed Cargo With Multiple Customers

Asked what the biggest challenge in packing actually is, Miloš didn’t hesitate: "The biggest challenge is mixed cargo, LTL. When you have more than three customers, it can be complex — but we have the experience to solve it." Twelve years gives him that experience; someone newer to the job doesn’t have it, and has no software standing in for it either.

Loading Order, Delivery Order, and Axle Balance

Miloš plans each load in coordination with the warehouse and the forklift driver, and the sequence depends entirely on the shipment: the first delivery goes toward the front of the load, the last delivery toward the back. Underneath that sequencing sits a harder constraint that never goes away — you need to balance the axle distribution, regardless of which stop is loaded where.

When the Paperwork Doesn’t Match the Cargo

Miloš told us there have been situations where the weight information didn’t match reality — where the cargo list on paper was different from what actually showed up at the dock. After 12 years, he can usually spot the mismatch immediately. The consequence isn’t abstract: it hits the vehicle directly, risking an overloaded axle or an overloaded total weight if it goes unnoticed.

From All of Europe to Domestic-Only

For 9 years, Miloš ran international freight across Western Europe and Scandinavia. Today, he’s focused entirely on domestic freight within Serbia — a deliberate shift, not a fallback, after over a decade of experience on both sides of that line.

Showing Miloš the App: Link-Sharing, Presets, and a Dark-Mode Problem

After the interview, we showed Miloš the load-planning app we’re building — Hansatic — and asked him to be brutally honest. He liked that he could share a load plan directly with other drivers and the warehouse team as a link: no app to download, no registration. His main request was ready-made presets for different truck and trailer types, so he isn’t rebuilding the same setup from scratch every time. And out on the dock in full daylight, one problem was obvious without him even having to say it: the dark interface is nearly impossible to read in direct sun. That one went straight to the top of the to-do list.