What the desk actually needs from Stuttgart is proximity to a gate. An assignment appears when something has to leave Baden-Wurttemberg by a deadline no freight product will promise. The question is then very simple: who is close enough to STR to check in for the next departure. From Stuttgart that is 20 minutes of driving, which is why the city is on the list at all.
Open · Germany desk · Stuttgart
On Board Courier, Stuttgart
Freelance hand carry work for couriers who live in Stuttgart. STR is 20 minutes away by road, the desk books and pays the seat, and the fee is agreed in writing before you accept.
OnBoard Courier is a United Arab Emirates company, contracted by ICSL FZE and run from Dubai. A city named on this site is a place we cover and route through, not a separate company in that city. Assignments are contracted under UAE law, and the terms are published in full under legal and policies.
Based inStuttgart, Baden-Wurttemberg
Nearest gateSTR · Stuttgart
Drive to the aircraft15 km · 20 minutes
Nonstop from STR127 airports
EngagementFreelance · per assignment
Fee per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600
Apply for this position
Applying is free. Freelance · self-employed ·
posted 7 September 2026 · open until 7 March 2027
What the work pays
The fee for an assignment is agreed with you in writing before you accept it. These are the figures the site publishes, and what the desk covers on top of them.
Top published feeAED 2,000The highest fee the site shows for a single assignment: sealed medical samples in a cooled case, Dubai to Singapore.
Published band, per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600A document pouch to London is AED 1,200, an aircraft part to Frankfurt AED 1,500, an escorted watch on the Berlin lane AED 1,800.
What the flight costs youAED 0The desk books and pays the ticket, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never fronts the fare.
The one payment you makeAED 199, returnedThe Academy, paid once. It comes back in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. Applying itself is free.
Fees vary with the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate, so the desk quotes each assignment individually rather than pretending one number fits every trip. You are self-employed and there is no minimum: accept or decline whatever you like, and declining costs you nothing. Earnings are paid per delivery by bank transfer, they appear in your courier portal, and you can request a payout once the balance reaches AED 200. Apply and see the flight board.
You fly as a passengerOne consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature. No warehouse, no van, no round.
The desk books and pays the ticketFlight, transfers and, where the routing needs it, a hotel are booked before you leave for the airport.
Paid per assignmentA fee agreed in writing before you accept, paid to your bank account after the signature. Applying is free.
How to start, in four steps
1
Apply once
One application covers every country desk. Tell us which passports you hold and where you can travel.
2
Verification and the Academy
Identity and background check, then a short course on customs, handovers and chain of custody.
3
Your first offer
The desk sends the routing, the dates and the fee in writing. You accept or decline, nothing is automatic.
4
Fly, hand over, get paid
Collect, board, clear customs in person, hand over against signature, and the fee is paid to your account.
The assignment
Most assignments out of STR are confirmed hours, not days, in advance. You are given the flight, the consignee and the customs position in writing, you drive to STR, and the ticket is already paid and issued in your name. Where the routing runs through the Emirates it goes by way of IST, on one ticket, with the connection booked long enough to be real. The handover is in person, and the fee reaches your account after it.
Getting to the aircraft from Stuttgart
From the middle of Stuttgart to the departure hall at STR is 15 km of road, 20 minutes in normal conditions. Every timing the desk gives a courier in Stuttgart starts from that number.
The ground leg from Stuttgart barely counts as one. 20 minutes to STR means the desk can ring you and still make a departure the same evening. Counting the second gate matters in Stuttgart. SXB is 1 hour 58 minutes from Stuttgart with 33 nonstop destinations, so a cancellation at STR is an inconvenience rather than the end of the assignment.
| IATA | Airport | By road | Driving time | Nonstop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| STR | Stuttgart | 15 km | 20 minutes | 127 |
| SXB | Strasbourg | 169 km | 1 hour 58 minutes | 33 |
| FRA | Frankfurt-am-Main | 194 km | 2 hours 7 minutes | 274 |
Stuttgart is a city of 613,000 people in Baden-Wurttemberg, and the clock there runs 2 hours behind the Emirates in summer and 3 in winter. Road distances are measured driving routes rather than straight lines, and nonstop counts come from the scheduled route data this site publishes.
What STR reaches without a change
The board at STR carries 127 nonstop destinations flown by 31 carriers. The table below is the busiest end of the STR board, measured in average daily flights rather than in marketing.
| IATA | City | Airport | Frequency | Operators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PMI | Palma De Mallorca | Palma De Mallorca | about 9 departures a day | 3 operators: Eurowings, TUI fly, Condor |
| AYT | Antalya | Antalya | about 9 departures a day | 4 operators: Pegasus Airlines |
| SAW | Istanbul | Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen | about 6 departures a day | 2 operators: Pegasus Airlines, AJet |
| IST | Istanbul | Istanbul | about 5 departures a day | 1 operator: Turkish Airlines |
| PRN | Prishtina | Prishtina Priština | about 5 departures a day | 2 operators: Eurowings |
| AMS | Amsterdam | Amsterdam Schiphol | about 5 departures a day | 1 operator: KLM |
| MUC | Munich | Munich | about 5 departures a day | 1 operator: Lufthansa |
| BCN | Barcelona | Barcelona | about 4 departures a day | 2 operators: Eurowings, Vueling |
| ADB | Izmir | Adnan Menderes | about 4 departures a day | 2 operators: Pegasus Airlines |
| SKG | Thessaloniki | Thessaloniki Macedonia | about 4 departures a day | 2 operators: Eurowings, Aegean Airlines |
Counting every airport a courier in Stuttgart can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 297 airports. Frequencies are average daily flights and change with the season, so the desk checks the live schedule before it offers you anything.
The industry inside this catchment
The following facilities sit in the catchment of STR. They are public industrial geography and appear here to explain why consignments move at short notice around Stuttgart, not as a customer list.
- Mercedes-Benz, Sindelfingen and Untertuerkheim. S-Class assembly, powertrain and research. Stuttgart is the densest automotive engineering cluster in Europe. It sits on STR, which is 20 minutes from Stuttgart by road, and the sector is automotive.
- Porsche, Zuffenhausen. Sports car and engine assembly. Low volume, high value, and intolerant of a missing component. It sits on STR, which is 20 minutes from Stuttgart by road, and the sector is automotive.
- Audi, Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm. Assembly, aluminium body construction and engines. Two plants, two airports, one takt. It sits on STR, which is 20 minutes from Stuttgart by road, and the sector is automotive.
- Zeiss SMT, Oberkochen. Optics for lithography systems. The optics that make lithography possible, made in one place. It sits on STR, which is 20 minutes from Stuttgart by road, and the sector is semiconductor.
Why a courier in Stuttgart is useful to the desk
A courier based in Stuttgart is useful to a Dubai desk for a reason that has nothing to do with Stuttgart being famous. It is that the desk can position a person at STR inside 20 minutes of a phone call, and STR has somewhere to send them.
Honesty about the routing out of STR matters more than a good headline. From Stuttgart the best single change is Istanbul (IST), and IST to DXB is flown by Emirates and flydubai, about 5 departures a day. Counting a normal connection that is around 8h 07m gate to gate, so an assignment between Stuttgart and the Emirates is planned as a connecting itinerary and the desk books the whole thing on one ticket.
The nearest other cities on the Germany list
Show the 12 closest, and how far each is from Stuttgart
Reutlingen32 km away, STR in 28 minutesPforzheim37 km away, STR in 38 minutesHeilbronn40 km away, STR in 55 minutesKarlsruhe62 km away, STR in 58 minutesUlm74 km away, STR in 55 minutesHeidelberg78 km away, FRA in 55 minutesMannheim94 km away, FRA in 54 minutesWürzburg126 km away, NUE in 1 hour 6 minutesDarmstadt127 km away, FRA in 25 minutesFreiburg131 km away, BSL in 59 minutesAugsburg135 km away, MUC in 57 minutesNuremberg157 km away, NUE in 12 minutes
All 56 Germany cities are listed on the Germany courier desk, which stays the general application for the country.
The engagement, and who we are looking for
The engagement
- Type: freelance, self-employed. You are an independent courier accepting individual assignments, not an employee, and you decide which ones you take.
- Where it runs: assignments are flown out of STR and the other airports listed above, between Germany and wherever the consignment is going, with the return leg agreed per mission.
- Hours: variable. An assignment is a single trip, not a shift or a roster.
- How you are paid: a fee per completed assignment, agreed in writing before you accept it. The fees published on this site run from AED 1,200 for a document pouch to AED 2,000 for a cooled medical consignment, and the figure for your assignment reflects the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate.
- What the desk pays: the flight, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never pays for the ticket and never fronts the fare.
- Applying is free. No payment is required to apply, to be screened or to be placed on the courier list. The Academy costs AED 199, paid once, and is returned in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. It is the only payment a courier ever makes to us.
What we look for
- A passport with comfortable remaining validity and free pages, and the right to enter the country on the routing. The desk checks the visa position for your specific passport before any assignment is offered.
- A clean background check and a willingness to be verified. Couriers carry other people’s property.
- Availability at short notice, and a realistic view of the 20 minutes drive to STR. Most assignments are confirmed hours, not days, before departure.
- Presentable, calm and articulate at a customs counter. The consignment is only as smooth as the person carrying it.
- A working phone, reachable on the number you gave us, for the whole assignment.
What we provide
- The ticket. Always. A courier never pays for the flight and never fronts the fare.
- The paperwork, prepared before you reach STR, and a named contact at the desk on both ends.
- A briefing on the consignment, the consignee and what the customs position at the far end looks like.
- A fee per completed assignment, agreed with you in advance and paid by bank transfer after the handover.
Questions about the Stuttgart list
01How far is Stuttgart from STR?
15 km, about 20 minutes by car from Stuttgart. The desk works backwards from the bag drop at STR, so the time it asks you to leave will look conservative and is meant to.
02What can I reach from Stuttgart without a change of aircraft?
STR serves 127 airports nonstop across 37 countries with 31 operating carriers, and counting every gate a courier in Stuttgart can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 297 airports. That is the practical range of a single assignment from here before anybody has to connect.
03Getting from Stuttgart to the Emirates: nonstop or not?
From Stuttgart the best single change is Istanbul (IST), and IST to DXB is flown by Emirates and flydubai, about 5 departures a day. Counting a normal connection that is around 8h 07m gate to gate, so an assignment between Stuttgart and the Emirates is planned as a connecting itinerary and the desk books the whole thing on one ticket.
04Do I have to live in the UAE to be on this list?
No. OnBoard Courier is a UAE company and the desk is in Dubai, but the courier list is worldwide. Living in Stuttgart, 20 minutes from STR, is a qualification rather than an obstacle.
05Does it cost anything to apply?
No. There is no fee to join the Stuttgart list and no deposit of any kind. The Academy is AED 199 once, and that AED 199 is added back on top of what you are paid for your first completed assignment.
06How is my fee agreed?
The desk sends the routing, the timing and the fee for that specific assignment in writing. You accept or decline it. Nothing is deducted or charged without your written agreement.
Apply to fly out of STR
Apply once and you are on the list for STR and for every other lane your passport allows. Declining an offer out of STR costs you nothing.
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