Freight Lanes from Southern California

Our freight lanes from Southern California

Our regular freight lanes from Southern California start at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles and run to the Inland Empire, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas and Chicago. Most loads begin as ocean containers that we dray from the terminal to our Long Beach facility, unload or transload, and send out as full truckload or LTL freight.

Each lane page below covers the actual route, road miles, state rules, hours-of-service math, the destination market and whether to move the ocean container or a 53' trailer. Freight to other U.S. destinations moves through our nationwide trucking service, and loads for Mexico or Canada move through cross-border trucking with partner carriers.

Freight lanes from Southern California: miles and typical transit

Road miles are approximate from the Long Beach port area. Transit times are our typical estimates for a solo driver after pickup, not guarantees.

Explore each lane

Route detail, market notes and lane-specific questions for each of our regular truckload lanes.

How we estimate transit time on a lane

Transit time on a truckload lane is set mainly by distance and federal hours-of-service rules. FMCSA allows a property-carrying driver 11 hours of driving within a 14-hour on-duty window, followed by 10 hours off duty, with a 30-minute break after 8 hours of driving.

In practice, a solo driver covers roughly 500 miles in a full day once traffic, fuel stops and California's 55 mph truck speed limit are counted. That is why Phoenix fits in one shift, Dallas at about 1,400 miles takes three driving days, and Chicago at about 2,000 miles takes four, before adding the receiver's appointment. Short lanes are limited by traffic and dock hours instead of driving hours.

What changes from lane to lane

The same container can cost and behave differently depending on where it is going. These are the lane factors we plan around.

• Container or trailer: on short lanes like San Diego, direct container drayage is often cheapest; on longer lanes, transloading into 53' trailers usually returns the empty faster and cuts the number of trucks
• Terrain and weather: Cajon Pass winds on I-15, desert heat on I-10 and winter weather on the Dallas and Chicago routes
• State lines: loads to Arizona pass the Ehrenberg Port of Entry, and every lane runs under California's emissions and speed rules for its California miles
• Backhaul balance: markets that ship little freight back to Southern California, such as Las Vegas and Phoenix, carry that imbalance in their pricing
• Receiver appointments: large distribution centers book delivery windows ahead, which often decides whether a short lane delivers the same day or the next

Port freight lanes start before the truck leaves

The fastest truckload lanes start with the container decision. Our team plans the outbound load while the container is still at the terminal, so container unloading, palletizing and cross-docking happen in step with the outbound truck instead of waiting for it.

If freight is not ready to ship, it can wait in warehousing near the port, or in our bonded warehouse if it has not cleared customs. For a comparison of shipment sizes, see our FTL vs. LTL guide.

Frequently asked questions