Pacer Distribution services rolls out new transload center designed to meet various shipper needs
Jeff Berman, Senior Editor -- Logistics Management, 6/12/2007
CONCORD, Calif.—Pacer Distribution Services Inc., a unit of Pacer International Inc. that focuses on warehousing and distribution, announced today is has opened a new 52-door transload center in Carson, California.
The company said this new facility will help Pacer meet increased demand for transloading services for international freight shipments from the West Coast to inland ports. The 5.4 acre facility is adjacent to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and will mainly be used for transloading services, according to Pacer. The company added it will also provide capacity to Pacer’s previously existing warehouse operations that are comprised of more than 800,000 square feet and support transload, cross-dock, and customized freight-distribution services in the Los Angeles area.
Pacer Vice President of Marketing David Hoppens told Logistics Management there were a few different reasons behind Pacer’s decision to open this facility.
“Due to rising rail rates and the escalating costs to ocean carriers of managing vast inland transportation assets and networks, a number of them are beginning to rationalize their inland networks and cut back on interior destinations served on a "through" basis,” said Hoppens. “This is leaving importers with fewer options for moving freight inland.”
In anticipating this trend, and in an effort to respond to shipper and consignee needs, Hoppens said Pacer saw the opportunity to expand its transloading capacity on the West Coast in order to help these importers and their intermediaries move freight—in highly productive 53-foot domestic containers rather than in smaller 40-foot ocean boxes— to inland points even more cost-effectively than before.
Hoppens added that along with this new facility, Pacer also plans to introduce a fully integrated international freight transload service with domestic door-to-door delivery, which, he said, will further leveraging today's transload capacity expansion, and furthering the company’s ongoing effort to integrate its services. He said this “all in one service” is expected to be rolled out this summer in time for peak shipping season.
In terms of how this new facility will benefit shippers, Hoppens cited several examples:
• the increased capacity of the 53-foot domestic boxes means that more goods can move inland in fewer containers;
• because Pacer is capable of coordinating the entire move, including the transload, local drayage, the line-haul intermodal moves, etc., it can reduce the number of operational handoffs and thereby contribute to improved operating reliability; and
• the new facility creates more through-put capacity for transloading and thereby makes the service more available to customers who need it to get their freight inland.
He added that there are also significant benefits for the ocean transportation provider when freight is transloaded into domestic boxes, because ocean containers can now remain in the port area, ready for another international cycle, and this is a more efficient use of those container assets than having to send them inland and reposition them back to the West Coast.
View All Blogs
