From the rail ramp to a Calgary warehouse.

How the container gets from the ramp to the dock

The railway lifts the container off the train at its intermodal terminal and parks it in the yard. CN's Calgary terminal is in the Calgary Logistics Park at Conrich, near Stoney Trail and the Trans-Canada Highway. It opened in January 2013 and replaced CN's older terminal at Sarcee Yard in southeast Calgary. CPKC, the railway formed when Canadian Pacific combined with Kansas City Southern in 2023, runs its own intermodal terminal in Calgary.

From the yard, a drayage truck pulls the container on a chassis, the wheeled frame a container rides on over the road, and takes it to the warehouse. After the unload, the empty goes back to wherever the shipping line or railway directs, often the same terminal. In Calgary, Rolls Right runs that move on its own chassis; see container de-stuffing and drayage in Calgary.

Sidings matter for boxcars and other railcars that unload at a building. A container on a chassis needs a dock door.

Before the container lands, find out who pulls it from the ramp, who unloads it and who returns the empty. A date that moves has to reach every one of them.

What happens at the warehouse dock

De-stuffing, also called devanning or stripping, is unloading the container at the dock. The crew counts what comes off against the packing list, records any damage, and either puts the product away into racking or moves it across the dock onto an outbound trailer.

How the container was packed decides how long the unload takes.

• Palletised: the pallets come off with a forklift, so the container unloads quickly and counts easily
• Floor-loaded: cartons stacked loose from floor to roof come off by hand and usually get built onto pallets on the way off, which holds a crew and a dock door for much longer
• Mixed: pallets and slip-sheets together need the same planning as a floor load

Demurrage and detention are two different clocks

Both charges start once free time runs out, and they bill for different things. Demurrage is charged while the container sits at the terminal or port waiting to be picked up. Detention is charged for keeping the shipping line's equipment, the container and sometimes the chassis, after it has left the terminal and until the empty is returned.

Each railway, terminal and shipping line sets its own free time and daily rates in its tariff or contract, and they change, so check the current figures for your lane before the container ships. The part you control is the gap between the container being available and the empty going back: book the pickup and the dock time before it arrives, and send the paperwork early.

After the unload the freight is stored or cross-docked

Once the container is empty, the product either goes into storage or leaves on another truck. Cross-docking sends it straight out, usually the same day, which suits freight that is already sold or booked into a retail distribution centre. Storage suits stock that ships over weeks or months.

Some loads do both: part of the container ships out the same day and the rest goes into racking. Moving freight from an ocean container onto a domestic trailer is called transloading, and de-stuffing is its first half. Cross-docking, transloading and storage compares the three.

What to send for a container quote

A container quote comes back faster, and closer to the final bill, when it starts with the details that change the work.

• Container size (20, 40 or 45 ft, standard or high cube) and how many are coming
• Whether each one is palletised or floor-loaded, with the carton and SKU count
• The terminal, and the date the container is available for pickup
• What happens next: storage, a cross-dock onto another truck, or delivery to a retail distribution centre on an appointment
• Any pallet or labelling requirements from the receiver