"Work without intermediaries" is among the most common searches, and the reason is plain: an intermediary lives on the gap between what the customer pays and what reaches the driver. Agencies exist for good reason; what actually costs you is that the size of the gap usually stays hidden.
Three questions that settle it
Whose contract are you signing? If the counterparty is a company that arranges rather than hauls, you are looking at a middle layer.
Whose transport licence? Carrying goods commercially requires a licence. If the person you are talking to has none, they will pass you on.
Who invoices the customer? The sharpest of the three. Whoever invoices sets the rate.
Official does not mean direct
An agency can be entirely legitimate — proper contract, contributions paid — and still take a share. "Official work" answers a question about the law, not about the money. They are different things and are constantly confused.
Going direct does not make the contributions cheaper
There is a second thing that gets confused with being "official": how much you pay the state every month. That is decided by the form of the working relationship, not by the number of companies in the chain.
Going direct means holding your own živnost — the Czech sole-trader licence. Filing one on entry into self-employment costs a one-off 1 000 Kč; every further filing is 500 Kč (Act No. 634/2004 Coll., Sazebník, Položka 24 písm. a) — "Ohlášení živnosti při vstupu do živnostenského podnikání Kč 1000"). That is where the one-off payments end and the monthly ones begin.
| Working relationship | Who pays the contributions | What leaves your side |
|---|---|---|
| Employee of an agency | The employer, from payroll | Nothing extra — it is deducted automatically |
| OSVČ through an agency | You | Monthly advances on social and health insurance |
| OSVČ direct | You | Exactly the same advances — the middle layer changes nothing |
For an OSVČ on a hlavní (main) activity the minimum monthly advance towards pension insurance is 5 005 Kč and the minimum monthly advance towards health insurance is 3 306 Kč. Only the social one goes down: on a vedlejší (secondary) activity — typically alongside a job — the pension minimum is 1 574 Kč, and for an OSVČ who has not been self-employed in the previous 20 calendar years it is 3 575 Kč, which is still a hlavní činnost, just the starter rate for one. The health insurance minimum is not reduced in either case. It is all set out in Insurance advances: how much and when.
Two things that cost money if you miss them:
- The cut in the social advance applies only from 1 July 2026 and is not retroactive. January to June 2026 stays on the old rate, and the district social security administration refunds the difference only on a written request filed by 31 December 2026.
- The health insurance minimum does not apply to everyone. Under § 3a odst. 3 of Act No. 592/1992 Coll. it is disapplied for anyone who is also an employee paying contributions from at least the employee minimum base. They pay from their real base, which is usually far lower.
Sources for the amounts: ČSSZ — Zálohy na pojistné na důchodové pojištění — "Minimální měsíční vyměřovací základ pro zálohu od července 2026 u OSVČ vykonávající hlavní SVČ činí 17 139 Kč, minimální záloha činí 5 005 Kč"; and Finanční správa — Informace k institutu paušální daně pro rok 2025 a 2026, the 2026 monthly flat-tax advance table, row I. pásmo, column "Pojistné na zdravotní pojištění". That table is the flat-tax regime, but it is the same amount: under § 3a odst. 5 písm. a) of Act No. 592/1992 Coll. the assessment base for the first band is the minimum assessment base under odstavec 2, so the health insurance minimum is identical in both regimes. Anyone on the flat-tax regime pays a single payment instead of both advances — the comparison is in Flat tax or the standard regime.
How it works here
The licence is ours, the customer contract is ours, and we invoice the customer — which is why there is no second company between you and the rate. You take the freight rate and keep the difference between it and your costs.
What is included and what is not is on C+E drivers.
