by LOWELL, Ark. — J.B. Hunt Transport Services said it is expanding its transload operations into Seattle and Laredo, Texas to provide quick access to outbound rail and highway transport.
Transload facilities typically are used to transfer freight from one place to another, such as ocean to rail, rail to truck or ocean to truck.
“Both new operations will enable J.B. Hunt to transfer customers’ international freight to equipment for domestic transport using the company’s transportation assets and capacity solutions,” the company said, adding that these are in addition to similar services already offered in the Northeast and Southern California.
The company noted that the Tacoma, Washington facility set to open in November will service freight arriving at the Seattle and Tacoma ports and help relieve constraints resulting from the increase of international shipping demand. It also will complement a direct container-only joint service BNSF launched in August between its Tacoma South facility and Chicago. J.B. Hunt and BNSF announced a joint initiative earlier this year to relieve intermodal capacity constraints.
The company added that the recently opened Laredo operation will provide a direct opportunity to growing nearshoring operations in Mexico while continuing support for inbound and outbound cross-border traffic.
“Freight entering and exiting the U.S. often requires transloading services because of regulation requirements, carrier and driver availability, and domestic capacity demand,” the company said.
“By growing the reach of our transload service and managing the drayage and loading processes for our customers, we can provide new levels of process oversight and visibility into their freight activity, particularly the critical first-mile segment.” said Darren Field, President of intermodal and executive VP at J.B. Hunt.
The company said it also recently expanded its transload footprint in July with a new operation in Commerce, California to support international cargo in the Los Angeles and Long Beach areas.
