By Tina Wu

When the shortest way isn’t the fastest, you need a road guide to lead you the way through the jam. This not only happens during commuting time but in shipping peak season! Here is all you need to know about transloading services:

• Transloading definition
• Transloading vs intermodal vs IPI service
• Transloading rates and delivery time

What is transloading?

Generally speaking, transloading is transferring a shipment from one mode of transportation to another, such as from ship to rail, or from ship to truck.

For the U.S. imports, transloading means unloading international cargo from standardized 20’ or 40’ ISO containers and reloading it to the U.S. domestic trailers with 53’ intermodal containers. To make the transfer efficient and reliable, cargo on the tail of ocean containers will end up in the nose of truck trailers, and directly deliver to the door of the assigned store or factory.

Import to the United States

Transloading is one of the most common transportation services to ship imported goods from major seaports to inland cities in the United States. Since the recession in 2008, more and more retailers and shop owners are enjoying the promise of transloading as a more efficient transportation scheme with high flexibility, lower rates and faster delivery.

However, when shippers are looking for potential options to find the best shipping scheme for their business, they consider all modes of transportation, (namely air, ocean and land) as well as the combinations between them. Intermodal and IPI services are available candidates.

Like transloading, intermodal and IPI services both provide containerized cargo with multimodal transport to the final destinations (if needed, to-door delivery is optional), especially to inland cities. To compare them with transloading, first let’s note that IPI service stands for Interior Point Intermodal service. In other words, IPI service is a kind of intermodal services, where goods are loaded in a container and then transported by ship, rail or truck, with at least two of the transportation modes involved.

The major difference between intermodal (including IPI) and transloading service is the containers used for the cargo transport. Intermodal service covers cargo transport from truck to rail without unloading and reloading the goods during the transit. Transloading, however, unload the goods from ocean containers and reload them to truck trailers (or from truck trailers to railcars). In this way, cargo can be directly shipped to the store or factory, without being handled at a distribution center.

Transloading rates and delivery time

Lower freight rates and shorter delivery time are two competitive advantages transloading have over IPI service. Due to Covid-19 supply chain disruptions, only 10% (or less) bookings from Asia main ports to the U.S. coasts is granted IPI space. Transloading cargo to domestic trucking trailers now becomes the most efficient way to ship cargo to the final destinations in inland cities.

For IPI service, shipping containers exported to the U.S. used to be able to be directly transferred to the domestic cargo railways by carriers once arrived at the Port of Discharge (POD). However, IPI bookings have become more difficult than ever! And the shipping rate is still increasing, with Transpacific freight rate reaching USD 20000~25000 per feu. Port terminals and railway ramps are also facing congestion issues due to nationwide equipment and labor shortage in the logistics sector. Container dwell time could take more than two weeks, which also increases additional costs, like demurrage and detention.

Getting started using transloading services

It’s true ports are still the key determinant for delivery time, but transloading services enable faster transit in domestic road transportation with exclusive care for cargo delivery. Our professional U.S. partners, who have long established a network of truckers across the country, will coordinate pickup, transload and door-to-door delivery at the same time. Palletized cargo can even be arranged as live unloads to keep waiting time to the minimum.

Going on the less-taken road is a survival instinct for most commuters when traffic jam is bumping the road. This route planning dilemma is also happening in the shipping industry! Shippers are finding any way to get their cargo delivered to final destinations. Transloading services is definitely the most efficient transportation solution to move your cargo from major seaports to inland cities in the U.S. For more details, reach us for inquiry now!