Costs · September 11, 2026
Transloading is not one price. It is four charges, and which of them dominate depends almost entirely on how the container was packed overseas.
Transloading moves cargo out of an ocean container and onto domestic equipment — a 53-foot trailer, pallets, or another container. Done near the port it does two useful things: the empty goes back immediately and stops charging per-diem, and the inland leg moves as domestic freight on a trailer that holds more than a 40-foot box.
What it costs is a fair question and one most carriers dodge. Here is the actual structure.
1. The drayage in. Pulling the container off the terminal and bringing it to the dock. Priced as a normal port dray — the terminal it comes off, the distance, and the accessorials that apply. If someone else drays it to us, this line is not on our invoice.
2. The handling. The transload itself, and the line that varies most. Palletized freight is forklift work and is normally priced per pallet or per container. Floor-loaded freight is hand work and is normally priced per hour or per container, because a hand-stacked 40-foot box is several hours of two people's time. The difference between the two is not small.
3. The outbound. The domestic leg on a 53-foot trailer, priced as domestic freight rather than as container drayage. On a long lane this is where the saving actually comes from.
4. The empty return. Getting the box back to a depot that will accept that steamship line's equipment. Included in a proper quote; a surprise in a cheap one.
Anything extra the freight needs — restacking to a retailer's height spec, relabeling, shrink-wrap, sorting by destination — is priced on top, because it depends entirely on what turns up when the doors open.
A large share of ocean freight arrives floor-loaded. Pallets cost cube, cube costs ocean freight, so overseas packers stack cartons to the ceiling by hand. Then the container reaches a domestic dock that only accepts pallets, and somebody has to build them — by hand, carton by carton.
A palletized transload is forklift work: pull twenty pallets out, put twenty pallets on a trailer, done. A floor-loaded transload of the same container is two people unloading several thousand cartons, stacking them to a pattern, wrapping and labeling.
So the single most useful thing you can tell us when asking for a transload rate is whether the container is floor-loaded or palletized, and roughly how many cartons. Without that, any number you are given is a guess — and a carrier who quotes without asking is either guessing high to be safe or planning to re-quote when the doors open.
You are comparing two options for the same freight.
Run the container through. One dray, no handling. You pay per-diem for the entire round trip plus however long the consignee takes to unload, and you pay to bring an empty container back.
Transload. One dray in, handling, one domestic outbound, empty back the same day. Per-diem stops immediately. A 53-foot trailer holds meaningfully more than a 40-foot container, so multiple boxes often consolidate into fewer outbound trucks.
The variables that decide it: distance, your per-diem rate, how many containers (consolidation only helps if there are several), and how fast the consignee unloads.
As a rough guide from the lanes we run: under about 300 miles, running the container through usually wins — the box is back inside free time and you skip the handling. Past that, the transload usually wins, and on a two-day lane like Boise or Montana it is not close, because the container is out for four to six days round trip. The inland lane pages give the distance and transit for each one.
The delivery site cannot take a container. No dock, tight street, no room to turn a chassis. Very common with retail and urban deliveries.
The freight has to be split. One container going to four consignees is one transload or four wasted drays.
Somebody needs to look at it. Counts, damage inspection, lot segregation, quality check — none of which happen through a sealed container door.
The pallets are wrong. Over height, over hang, wrong pallet type, missing labels. Fix it at the dock, not at the consignee's, where it becomes a refusal.
Only part of it ships now. Transload what goes today and put the rest into storage — impossible while it is all in one box.
Container count and size. Floor-loaded or palletized, and roughly how many cartons or pallets. The terminal. The outbound destination. Whether anything has to change about the freight — labels, pallet spec, sorting. That is enough for a firm quote the same day, priced both ways so you can see the container option and the transload option side by side.
It is four charges, not one: the drayage in, the handling, the outbound domestic leg, and the empty return. Handling is the variable — palletized freight is forklift work and priced per pallet or per container; floor-loaded is hand work and priced by the hour. Send the container count and whether it is floor-loaded, and you get a firm number the same day.
Because it is people, not forklifts. A hand-stacked 40-foot container is several hours of manual unloading and pallet building. A palletized one is twenty forklift moves.
Under about 300 miles, usually not. Past that, usually yes — the container stops accruing per-diem the day the empty goes back, and a 53-foot trailer carries more freight per truck. We quote both ways on the same sheet.
Palletized containers normally same day. A floor-loaded container that also needs palletizing and labeling is usually one working day.
Our Kent, WA dock — about 20 minutes from the Seattle terminals and 25 from Tacoma. See Tacoma transloading and Seattle transloading.
Yes, including street turns where an import box is stripped and an export loaded on the same visit. See empty container returns and street turns.
Tell us what you are moving and a dispatcher replies the same day.