Surface Transportation

Shifting shipper strategies , constrained ports boosting demand for transloading

By William B . Cassidy

Changing shipper strategies are increasing demand for services that transload containerized freight , whether those services are provided by traditional transloaders or new entrants to the market such as less-than-truckload ( LTL ) carriers , speakers said at the Journal of Commerce ’ s TPM24 conference in Long Beach .

Demand for transloading near ports will increase in the coming years as beneficial cargo owners increasingly use transloading to fine tune and manage the flow of goods moving inland , those speakers said during a panel discussion on the future of transload operations . The shift is being enabled by logistics technology , they said .

“ Technology is one of the biggest things we see changing transloading ,” said Chris Sikora , director of port services for C . H . Robinson Worldwide .

The ability to track goods shipped and reallocate and reroute partial shipments to different destinations while in transit has changed the game , Sikora said , adding “ transload becomes your distribution center .”

That strategy allows shippers to delay decisions about the final destination of products until after they arrive in the US , rather than committing to the delivery of full containerloads weeks before they reach a US port .

That helps satisfy the need for flexibility and agility shippers say they need while meeting the demand of their transportation and logistics partners .

Transloading has become more prominent as freight shipping becomes more regionalized and businesses increase their number of distribution centers ( DCs ), said Ken Kellaway , president and CEO of RoadOne IntermodaLogistics .

“ When I started , most of my customers had two or three DCs , now they may have 35 to 40 ,” Kellaway told the TPM24 conference .

“ When I started , most of my customers had two or three DCs , now they may have 35 to 40 .”

Transloading is not just for imports and not just for containerized freight , he said .

“ We do domestic transloading of freight like steel and aluminum bound for factories , moving that freight onto flatbeds , and we transload goods for export ,” Kellaway said , adding that an anticipated increase in US manufacturing could boost demand for those services .

Shippers are increasingly using transloading near ports to manage the inland flow of imported goods . Klaus Oskar Bromberg / Shutterstock . com

LTL entrants

Although many LTL carriers are newcomers to transloading containerized ocean freight , regional LTL provider Averitt has been deconsolidating ocean freight and shipping it in LTL trailers for more than 20 years , said Ed Smith , the company ’ s vice president of distribution and fulfillment . “ It was an opportunity to provide more service to our customers ,” he said .

With networks of cross-dock terminals , LTL carriers have a similar footprint to traditional transload operations . Kellaway said transload terminals today need about five parking spaces for trailers and containers per terminal door . That ’ s very similar to the parking needs at more contemporary LTL terminals , Smith and other carrier executives said .

“ As truckload capacity tightens inland , I think you ’ re going to see more and more transloading as we look for ways to reduce congestion and deliver goods to the final customer ,” Smith said .

His fellow panelists agreed more transload capacity will be needed to meet future demand , and that new varieties of transloading are likely to emerge , both international and domestic .

email : bill . cassidy @ spglobal . com www . joc . com March 25 , 2024 | Journal of Commerce 41