Blog
Updates, guides and behind-the-scenes from the Ad Hoc Logistics team.
The filing that clears your container before it's even loaded overseas — and how it lines up with drayage.
Legal weight limits, when you need a permit, and how to keep a heavy box from becoming a fine.
The arrival notice says it landed; the delivery order releases it. Miss one and the truck waits.
Carrier liability vs all-risk cargo insurance — the difference between covered and covered enough.
Returning the empty is half the job — and a source of per-diem. How street turns save you a whole move.
The frame under your container is a separate rental with its own clock — pool types and who pays.
Need freight moved in Bellevue? We pull your containers off the Port of Seattle and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Kirkland? We pull your containers off the Port of Seattle and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Redmond? We pull your containers off the Port of Seattle and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Sammamish? We pull your containers off the Port of Seattle and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Marysville? We pull your containers off the Port of Everett and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Lakewood? We pull your containers off the Port of Tacoma and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Shoreline? We pull your containers off the Port of Seattle and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Burien? We pull your containers off the Port of Seattle and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Bothell? We pull your containers off the Port of Seattle and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Lynnwood? We pull your containers off the Port of Everett and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Bremerton? We pull your containers off the Port of Tacoma and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Puyallup? We pull your containers off the Port of Tacoma and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Edmonds? We pull your containers off the Port of Everett and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Olympia? We pull your containers off the Port of Tacoma and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Lacey? We pull your containers off the Port of Tacoma and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Issaquah? We pull your containers off the Port of Seattle and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Des Moines? We pull your containers off the Port of Seattle and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in SeaTac? We pull your containers off the Port of Seattle and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Mountlake Terrace? We pull your containers off the Port of Everett and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Mercer Island? We pull your containers off the Port of Seattle and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Tukwila? We pull your containers off the Port of Seattle and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in University Place? We pull your containers off the Port of Tacoma and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Covington? We pull your containers off the Port of Seattle and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Maple Valley? We pull your containers off the Port of Seattle and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Mill Creek? We pull your containers off the Port of Everett and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Mukilteo? We pull your containers off the Port of Everett and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Gig Harbor? We pull your containers off the Port of Tacoma and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Port Orchard? We pull your containers off the Port of Tacoma and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Bonney Lake? We pull your containers off the Port of Tacoma and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Need freight moved in Bainbridge Island? We pull your containers off the Port of Seattle and run the delivery — full drayage or a box truck for the last mile, on our own trucks, with one person on your account.
Air freight is fast and unforgiving. The difference between an air shipment that lands clean and one that stalls in customs is almost always the forwarder standing behind it.
Your goods cleared customs. Now they still have to get from the port to a dock somewhere in the country — and that domestic leg is where a lot of savings and a lot of headaches live.
Hazardous freight is where a weak logistics partner gets expensive fast. The declarations, the placards, the segregation rules — one mistake and your container is held, fined, or stuck.
Less-than-truckload is how most smaller freight moves. It's efficient when it's planned well — and a mess of reweighs, reclasses and delays when it isn't.
An import can cross the Pacific flawlessly and still rack up demurrage in its last mile. The drayage move off the terminal is where forwarding meets trucking — and where a strong partnership pays off.
We're asset-based, which is a nice way of saying we own the trucks — and a truck that's waiting on a part isn't making its terminal appointment. Here's how we keep ours running.
Trucks break down where they break down. A parts supplier only helps if it can get the part to the truck — fast — wherever the truck is.
A part is only as good as the install. We run a mixed drayage fleet, source the parts from PartStop, and get them fitted right — often at the shop next door.
It's tempting to buy the lowest-priced part on the shelf. Then it fails early, the truck's down again, and the load it was supposed to pull is late. Here's how the numbers actually work.
You can't run a dependable trucking operation on a parts supplier that's always out of stock. The strength of that partner shows up as uptime on the road.
Not every load fits in a dry van. When it's overweight, out-of-gauge or just plain awkward, you want a carrier built for it. Here's who we'd point you to around Seattle and Tacoma.
We work alongside a lot of carriers at the Seattle and Tacoma terminals. When we're asked who's setting the standard for drayage in 2026, we don't hesitate — congratulations to Long Road Transportation.
A container passes through a lot of hands between the ship and your dock. Every handoff is a chance for a delay — or, with the right partners, a chance to keep things moving.
The right third-party logistics partner disappears into the background and your orders just ship. The wrong one becomes a second job. Here's how to tell them apart before you sign.
A handful of orders fits on a clipboard. Scale to thousands and the only thing standing between you and a pile of mis-ships is a real warehouse management system.
We pull containers off the port. They have to go somewhere. More often than not, that somewhere is Long Road Warehouse — our affiliated Kent 3PL, one team on the handoff.
Washington is a great place to run fulfillment — two major ports, easy freeway reach, and demand up and down the I-5 corridor. Long Road Warehouse takes full advantage of it.
Businesses don't switch 3PLs for fun — it's painful. So when customers pick one and stay, it's worth asking what they're getting right.
An asset-based carrier lives or dies on uptime. When a tractor, a forklift or a piece of yard gear goes down, the shop we call decides how fast it's back to work.
Any shop can fix a truck eventually. The one you want is fast, honest about what actually needs doing, and knows DOT compliance cold — because downtime and out-of-service stickers both cost you loads.
Ask any fleet what keeps it running and, after the drivers, it's the shop. Here's who we rate for truck and trailer work in Washington this year — starting with the one we use.
A check-engine light on a big diesel is a message, not a mystery. Read it right and it's a quick fix; ignore it and it's a derate at 5 mph on the shoulder of I-5.
The single most common reason a modern diesel derates is the aftertreatment system. Getting the DPF and the diagnostics right is what keeps a truck on the road instead of in limp mode.
Every container terminal in one table — T18, T5, T30, Husky, WUT, PCT and EB1, the carriers at each and how to book.
Which ocean carriers call which terminal across the NWSA — T18, T5, Husky, WUT, PCT and EB1.
Tacoma's autos, RoRo and breakbulk terminal — 26 acres, a heavy-lift pad and on-dock rail.
What lands at Terminal 18, Terminal 5 and T30 — and what it means for getting your box out clean.
Three terminals, three gates, three clocks — how the dray works at each one in the South Harbor.
The North Sound's independent port for the oversize, the heavy and the awkward — and how it fits PNW logistics.
Two charges, two parties, two clocks — and how importers keep both off the invoice.
One fills a trailer, one shares it. The cost and speed trade-offs, and how to pick.
Distribution, fulfillment, bonded, cold storage, 3PL — what each is for and how to choose.
The forklift that grips instead of lifting from underneath — and how it strips a floor-loaded container fast.
A warehouse stores; a fulfillment center ships. The difference behind two-day delivery — and where importing fits.
What a 3PL covers, and the asset-based vs. broker difference that matters most before you sign one.
Freight in one door, out the other — barely touching the floor. How it cuts storage cost and transit time.
A shipping container with its own climate — and why reefer drayage runs on an even tighter clock.
The short, time-sensitive container leg that decides whether your import arrives clean or with a demurrage bill.
16, 20, 24 and 26 ft — dimensions, pallet capacity and which size actually fits your freight.
Standard sizes, the main container types, and how one box moves across ship, rail and truck.
Store imports and defer duty until they sell or re-export — the mechanics and the cash-flow case.
A carrier that owns no ships yet issues its own bill of lading — how it works and where drayage fits.
What you're actually paying for when a container comes off the terminal — and where the real savings hide.
Five levers that move the landed cost — demurrage, transloading, vendor consolidation and more.
One of the most common surprise drayage charges, explained — and how to keep it off your invoice.
From the container at the port to a compliant carton at the fulfillment center — without a middleman.
They sound alike and share a dock — but solve different problems. How to pick the right one.
A 3PL quote has more lines than a storage rate. What each one is — and which you control.
When volume spikes at Seattle & Tacoma, the shippers who planned ahead barely notice.
One alliance, two harbors, different terminals — and what it means for your container.
How our fleet keeps containers moving from the terminal to your door — and how to avoid demurrage.