At 03:00 on Sunday 26 October, clocks across Czechia moved back one hour as the country reverted from Central European Summer Time (CEST) to Central European Time (CET). While the bi-annual change is routine, its implications for mobility planners are anything but trivial.
Airlines, rail operators and long-distance bus companies build the shift into their timetables, but tight overnight connections still merit a second look. Václav Havel Airport reports that 17 early-morning departures technically leave twice on the same day; carriers have confirmed that boarding passes reflect local time post-adjustment, yet travel managers should remind employees to verify departure times on carrier apps.
Cargo and courier firms face similar challenges. DHL and UPS say they schedule an extra 60-minute buffer for intra-EU road transfers overnight to avoid missed line-haul cut-offs. Urban transit sees the opposite effect: Prague’s metro, trams and night buses run an additional hour, giving late-shift employees and weekend revellers more options for the journey home.
For cross-border commuters, the Czech-German rail corridor is the main pinch point. Deutsche Bahn warns that some Prague–Munich services will pause for 60 minutes at the frontier to keep to German timetables. Companies with posted workers should brief staff in advance to prevent wage-recording errors, as shifts technically gain an extra hour.
The EU has debated scrapping seasonal clock changes, but decision-making has stalled. Until Brussels reaches consensus, mobility professionals must continue to build the ‘fall-back’ and ‘spring-forward’ quirks into travel policy and payroll systems.
Airlines, rail operators and long-distance bus companies build the shift into their timetables, but tight overnight connections still merit a second look. Václav Havel Airport reports that 17 early-morning departures technically leave twice on the same day; carriers have confirmed that boarding passes reflect local time post-adjustment, yet travel managers should remind employees to verify departure times on carrier apps.
Cargo and courier firms face similar challenges. DHL and UPS say they schedule an extra 60-minute buffer for intra-EU road transfers overnight to avoid missed line-haul cut-offs. Urban transit sees the opposite effect: Prague’s metro, trams and night buses run an additional hour, giving late-shift employees and weekend revellers more options for the journey home.
For cross-border commuters, the Czech-German rail corridor is the main pinch point. Deutsche Bahn warns that some Prague–Munich services will pause for 60 minutes at the frontier to keep to German timetables. Companies with posted workers should brief staff in advance to prevent wage-recording errors, as shifts technically gain an extra hour.
The EU has debated scrapping seasonal clock changes, but decision-making has stalled. Until Brussels reaches consensus, mobility professionals must continue to build the ‘fall-back’ and ‘spring-forward’ quirks into travel policy and payroll systems.
