Ports · June 23, 2026
The South Harbor handles a big share of the region's imports across three main container terminals. Here's what each one is — and how the dray works at it.
The Port of Tacoma is the South Harbor of the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA). It moves a large share of the Puget Sound's containerized cargo through three main international container terminals — Husky, WUT and PCT. Each runs its own gate and appointment system, so knowing which one your box landed at is the first step to getting it out on time.
Husky Terminal is one of the largest container terminals in the South Harbor, equipped with some of the biggest ship-to-shore cranes on the West Coast to work the largest vessels calling Tacoma. High capacity means frequent service, and it also means busy gates — so an early appointment and a tracked Last Free Day matter as much here as anywhere in the harbor.
Washington United Terminals — WUT — is a major Tacoma container terminal serving international ocean carrier services. For drayage it has its own gate and appointment portal, separate from the other terminals, which is exactly why scanning "the Port of Tacoma" as one place doesn't work — you book WUT as WUT.
Pierce County Terminal — PCT — is an NWSA international container terminal in Tacoma. It handles container services on the Blair Waterway and runs its own appointment and gate process. PCT is one of the terminals where local know-how pays off, because its systems and windows don't behave like the others.
Husky, WUT and PCT are three separate operations under one port — three gates, three appointment systems, three free-time clocks. A carrier has to track each one on its own; you can't treat the harbor as a single destination. From our Kent hub, the Tacoma terminals are about 25 minutes south, so the dray is short and the empty return is fast from any of them. We dispatch against all three daily and watch each container's Last Free Day, so a box at PCT gets the same attention as one at Husky. (See Port of Tacoma drayage and how the two harbors compare in Port of Tacoma vs. Seattle.) Tacoma also runs the East Blair One (EB1) terminal for autos, RoRo and breakbulk — a different kind of move from the container terminals here.
The main international container terminals are Husky Terminal, Washington United Terminals (WUT) and Pierce County Terminal (PCT), all part of the Northwest Seaport Alliance's South Harbor.
Husky Terminal is one of the largest container terminals in the Port of Tacoma's South Harbor, with high-capacity cranes built to handle the largest vessels calling the port.
WUT is a major container terminal at the Port of Tacoma serving international ocean carrier services, with its own gate and appointment system.
Pierce County Terminal is a Northwest Seaport Alliance international container terminal in Tacoma, on the Blair Waterway, with its own appointment and gate process.
No — Husky, WUT and PCT each run their own gate and appointment portal, so each container has to be booked against the specific terminal it landed at.