Where we take containers after the port.

How inland lane pricing actually works

There is no per-mile rate for container drayage, and any carrier who quotes you one is either rounding heavily in their own favour or about to add accessorials you were not shown. The cost of an inland move is built from five things:

The distance and the hours it consumes. Not the miles themselves — the driver's day. A 156-mile run to Yakima and a 316-mile run to Post Falls are both one day. A 518-mile run to Boise is two, because hours-of-service rules say so, and that second day is on the bill whether the truck is moving or parked.

How long the container is out. Per-diem runs from the moment the box leaves the terminal until the empty is back. A two-day lane plus a slow consignee is a week of per-diem on equipment you do not own.

What happens at the delivery. A live unload where the dock takes you straight in costs nothing extra. A live unload where the driver waits four hours is detention. A drop-and-hook costs a chassis sitting idle but nothing in waiting time. Which one your consignee can actually do is worth knowing before the quote, not after.

The equipment the freight needs. Overweight, hazmat, in-bond, reefer with a genset, tri-axle chassis — each changes the truck, the routing and sometimes the permits.

Whether it transloads. The biggest single lever on a long lane, and the one most importers never get offered.

The transload question, in one paragraph

Stripping the container at our Kent dock and sending the freight inland on a domestic 53-foot trailer does three things: the empty goes back to the terminal the same day and stops charging per-diem, a 53 carries more than a 40 so several boxes often consolidate into fewer trucks, and the inland leg is priced as domestic freight rather than as container drayage. It costs you one handling of the cargo. Under about 300 miles the container usually wins. Past that, the transload usually does. We quote both on the same sheet — see transloading and cross-docking.

Which port should your freight land at?

For anything going east on I-90 — Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, Montana — the Seattle and Tacoma terminals are effectively equivalent; the box joins I-90 at the same place either way. For anything going south on I-5 — Portland, Salem, Eugene — Tacoma is thirty miles closer and that is a real saving on a same-day lane. For the Yakima Valley and the Tri-Cities, Tacoma again, via I-82. None of this matters as much as the vessel schedule, which is why it is worth asking before the booking rather than after. See Port of Tacoma vs Port of Seattle.

Inland drayage FAQ

Do you deliver containers outside Washington?

Yes — Oregon, Idaho and Montana regularly, and further when the freight justifies it. The current book includes deliveries into Oregon, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and Colorado.

How far will you run a container?

Distance is not the limit; per-diem is. We will run a container anywhere it makes sense to run one, and we will tell you when it stops making sense and a transload is the cheaper answer.

Can one carrier do the port pull and the inland leg?

That is the point of this page. Our own trucks pull the box off the terminal and run it inland — no broker in the middle, no second carrier, and one dispatcher who can tell you where it is right now.

What about the empty container return?

Included in the quote and in the plan. The empty goes back to a terminal that will accept that steamship line's equipment, which is not always the one it came from.

Do you run these lanes in winter?

Yes, and we watch the passes. Snoqualmie on I-90 and the Columbia Gorge on I-84 both close, and when WSDOT or ODOT puts restrictions on, a same-day lane becomes an overnight. You hear that from us the day before, not the day after.