A private container depot minutes from the Port of Tacoma
Three fenced acres in the Tacoma tideflats. Loaded and empty container storage, prepull, container flips and top pick handling, on our own yard and our own equipment.
US DOT3388302
MC113242
SCACLRDP
Long Road Transportation operates a three-acre fenced container depot and yard at 1531 Portland Avenue East, in the Tacoma tideflats and minutes from the Northwest Seaport Alliance terminals. It is our own ground, worked by our own drivers and our own lift equipment — not a space rented inside somebody else's operation.
That matters for one practical reason. When a container has to come off the terminal before your receiver can take it, somewhere has to hold it. If that somewhere belongs to a third party, you are now coordinating two companies and paying both. Here, the truck that pulls your box, the yard it sits on, and the machine that lifts it are all the same carrier.
Call dispatch on (425) 800-4609 or request a quote with the container number, the terminal, and how long you need it held.
Need a box held today?
Call dispatch at (425) 800-4609 with the container and the terminal. If it can come off before the last free day, we will tell you today.
Your box, still sealed, held on our yard until the receiver is ready. This is the prepull, and it is the single cheapest way to stop terminal demurrage.
Empty container storage
Empties staged on the yard between moves instead of running back and forth to a terminal that may not accept them that day.
Container flips
A box lifted off one chassis and set onto another — for a different axle configuration, a damaged chassis, or an overweight load that needs a superchassis under it.
Prepull: what it actually saves you
Demurrage is charged by the terminal for every day a container sits inside the gate past its last free day. It rises on a sliding scale, it is billed per container per day, and it is the most expensive place in the region to leave a box.
The prepull moves the problem. We pull the container the day it releases — before the last free day, not on it — and set it on our yard. The terminal clock stops. The container waits here, at yard rates, until your receiver has an appointment. Then it delivers.
What a prepull does not stop is per-diem, which the steamship line charges for their equipment being outside the terminal until the empty comes back. Two different charges, two different parties. Any carrier who tells you a prepull stops both is either confused or hoping you are.
Top pick and forklift — why the lift equipment matters
A depot without a lift is a parking lot. Ours runs a top pick capable of handling loaded containers and heavy machinery, plus forklifts for palletized freight coming out of a box.
That is what makes the difference between storing a container and actually working it. With a top pick on site we can flip a box between chassis, set a container on the ground and pick it back up, load and unload out-of-gauge machinery that will not roll off a trailer, and handle damaged containers that cannot go back on a standard chassis at all.
Transload on the yard
Some freight should never go inside a warehouse. Oversize machinery, steel, long lengths, anything that needs a crane or a reach stacker rather than a dock and a pallet jack — that work happens outdoors, on the yard, with the top pick.
So Long Road runs two transload points, and they are not interchangeable. Palletized and floor-loaded cartons go to the Kent warehouse, where there are docks, forklifts and racking. Oversize and complex cargo is transloaded here on the Tacoma yard, straight from the container onto a flatbed, step deck or RGN. Sending oversize freight to a warehouse dock is how it ends up sitting for three days waiting for equipment that was never there.
Where the depot sits, and why that address
1531 Portland Avenue East is in the Tacoma tideflats — inside the industrial area that surrounds Husky, Washington United Terminals and Pierce County Terminal. A container released at any of those terminals reaches this yard in minutes, not in an hour of freeway.
That proximity is the whole point of a depot. A prepull only works if the truck can pull the box, drop it, and be back at the gate for the next one inside the same shift. A yard forty minutes inland cannot do that, and the cost of the extra driving ends up on your invoice.
Time is of the essence!
Demurrage starts the day after the last free day. Call (425) 800-4609 and we will get the box off the terminal and onto our yard.
Importers whose receiver is not ready. The vessel arrived early, or the warehouse has no appointment until next week. The box comes here instead of collecting terminal charges.
Brokers and forwarders managing somebody else's freight. One yard, one dispatcher, one invoice, and a straight answer about where the container is.
Anyone running volume through the ports. When several boxes land at once and the delivery schedule is spread over two weeks, a depot is the buffer that makes the schedule possible at all.
Exporters. An empty picked up and staged here, loaded on your schedule, and returned ahead of the vessel cut-off.
Freight that needs handling, not just parking. Flips, ground drops, out-of-gauge transloads and damaged-container work — all of which need the lift equipment that is already here.
3-acre
Fenced Tacoma yard & depot
Minutes
From every NWSA terminal
Top pick
Loaded boxes & heavy machinery
200+
Private chassis & equipment
24/7
Capacity & in-house repair shop
Container depot questions
Do you have a container depot near the Port of Tacoma?
Yes — a fenced three-acre yard and container depot at 1531 Portland Avenue East, in the tideflats and minutes from Husky, Washington United Terminals and Pierce County Terminal. It is ours, not rented space in another operator's yard.
How much does container storage cost?
Yard storage is priced per container per day, and it is a fraction of terminal demurrage — that gap is the entire reason prepulls exist. The full cost of holding a box is the pull, the days on the yard, the delivery, and the per-diem the steamship line charges in the background. We quote all of it on one sheet rather than showing you a cheap daily rate and adding the rest later.
Can you store empty containers?
Yes, loaded or empty. Empties stage here between moves instead of being trucked back to a terminal that may not accept that line's equipment that day.
What is a container flip?
Lifting a container off one chassis and setting it onto another. It is needed when a box has to move to a different axle configuration — an overweight container going onto a superchassis, for instance — or when a chassis fails and the freight still has to move. It takes a top pick, which is why not every yard can do it.
Does a prepull stop demurrage?
Yes. Demurrage is the terminal's charge for the box sitting inside the gate; once it is out and on our yard, that charge stops. Per-diem on the container keeps running until the empty is returned, and that is a separate bill from the steamship line.
Can you transload at the depot rather than a warehouse?
Yes, and for oversize or awkward freight that is the right call. The yard has the top pick and the open ground for machinery, steel and long lengths. Palletized cartons are better handled at the Kent warehouse, which has docks and racking.
How long can a container stay?
As long as you need. Most boxes are here for days rather than weeks, because per-diem keeps running while a loaded container sits anywhere outside the terminal. If the wait is going to be long, transloading the freight out and returning the empty is usually cheaper, and we will say so.
What do you need to arrange a prepull?
The container number, the terminal, and the delivery order. Dispatch checks whether it is released and whether a gate appointment is available, and comes back the same day.
You call it, we haul it.
Call dispatch on (425) 800-4609 with the container number, the terminal, and how long you need it held.
