Maersk Completes New British Columbia Transloading Facility to Speed Up Cargo Delivery

Maersk Canada and Canadian Pacific have opened a new 117,000 square foot, 103 door transloading facility speed up cargo delivery and reduce strain on North American supply chains.

The Pacific Transload Express facility will provide the ability to transload international containers into domestic 53-foot trailers enables customers to achieve overall cost savings (per cubic meter) for domestic distribution, while reducing storage costs related to port demurrage and inland detention.

Cargo flowing through the facility will be primarily focussed on fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) in the retail and lifestyle segment heavily impacted consumer demand fluctuations. FMCG will comprise 80-90% of the volumes and auto parts 10-20%.

“Bringing this new supply chain asset into play today marks an important new Asia/PNW gateway chapter for customers looking for faster order fulfillment achieved through integrated logistics. We’re looking forward to working with CP to make this a vital pivot point for supply chain planners to help them achieve their business goals,” said Omar Shamsie, President of Maersk Canada.

Construction of the facility and rail infrastructure was completed last month with Maersk commencing the transloading operations on September 1. The first containers arrived at the facility earlier this week.

For its part, Canadian Pacific will shuttle containers to the facility by rail from the three major Vancouver container terminals. The facility on CP land adjacent to its Vancouver Intermodal Facility, meaning fewer handoffs and better accountability of service.

“We are very proud to open this first-of-its-kind transload facility that creates tremendous opportunity for sustainable growth,” said CP President and CEO Keith Creel. “We are transforming inbound logistics in North America by reducing transit time variability thanks to CP’s premium service and at the same time having a smaller environmental impact and carbon footprint by taking thousands of trucks off the road while leveraging the inherent benefits of moving goods by rail.”

Currently, transit times for cargo range from 35 to 75 days from Asia factories to North America distribution centers. The new facility can help reduce those times drastically.

“We can help our customers reduce the transit time variation from 35-75 days door-to-door to having the cargo in consistently at 35-40 days,” said Erez Agmoni, Head of Maersk North America’s Warehousing & Distribution Product Development. “This helps customers create a more precise and predictable supply chain that helps them reduce safety stock, saving money on inventory storage costs with this transload solution. We are the first and only company providing this solution in the market.”

Unlock Exclusive Insights Today!

Join the gCaptain Club for curated content, insider opinions, and vibrant community discussions.

Sign Up