Container Freight Station (CFS) in Long Beach

Our CFS in Long Beach

Our CFS in Long Beach devans LCL and FCL containers, splits freight by house bill of lading, and holds each shipment until its releases are confirmed. We are a Long Beach company, and our container freight station in Long Beach sits a short drive from the Port of Long Beach and Port of Los Angeles terminals, so containers are on the road for minutes, not hours, before they reach our dock.

That distance matters at a port this size. The Port of Long Beach handled about 9.9 million TEUs in 2025, a record year. With that much volume flowing through San Pedro Bay, every hour a container spends in traffic or waiting for a gate window is an hour your freight is not available to you.

We pull containers with our own trucks and company-owned chassis, devan them in our own building, and release freight to your trucker or deliver it ourselves. One operator handles the whole chain, which removes most of the hand-offs where LCL freight gets lost or delayed.

CFS services in Long Beach

How an LCL container moves from the terminal to our Long Beach CFS

This is the sequence for a typical LCL import container that a forwarder or NVOCC has routed to our CFS.

1. 01
   Pre-arrival

   The forwarder sends the master bill, container number and the list of house bills. We match house bills to consignees and flag any shipments with special handling, palletizing or delivery needs.

2. 02
   Availability and holds

   After discharge, we watch the terminal for availability and any line, customs or terminal holds on the container. A container with an open hold cannot be pulled, so we report holds to the forwarder right away.

3. 03
   Appointment and pull

   We book a terminal appointment and pull the container with our own truck and chassis. Pulling early in the free-time window is the single biggest protection against demurrage at Long Beach terminals.

4. 04
   Devanning and tally

   The container is opened, the seal is recorded, and every piece is counted by house bill. Shortages, overages and damage are photographed and reported to the forwarder the same day.

5. 05
   Staging by consignee

   Each house bill is staged in its own location in our CFS warehouse in Long Beach, recorded in our warehouse management system and barcoded, so the right freight goes to the right truck.

6. 06
   Release and pickup

   When the customs release from the consignee's broker and the freight release from the forwarder are both confirmed, the shipment is released. The consignee's trucker picks up with the release reference, or we deliver.

7. 07
   Empty return

   The empty goes back to the terminal or the depot the ocean carrier designates. Returning it promptly stops the detention clock for the master bill holder.

Long Beach timing realities that affect LCL freight

LCL freight at Long Beach moves on two clocks at once. The container has terminal free time and then demurrage, and once it leaves the terminal it has detention until the empty is returned. Each house bill inside it then has CFS free time once devanned. Missing any one of those windows adds cost.

Terminal appointments are the gate to everything else. Long Beach terminals run appointment systems, and during peak season or after a vessel bunching event, appointment windows tighten. Because we pull with our own trucks, we decide which containers to prioritize based on free time and customer need instead of waiting in a third-party trucker's queue.

Customs timing also matters. Containerized cargo can move to a container station before entry is filed, but unentered goods cannot sit indefinitely. Under 19 CFR 4.37, unentered merchandise may remain at the place of unlading until the 15th calendar day after landing, after which it heads toward general order. A consignee whose broker files entry before the vessel arrives almost never sees that problem.

What can hold up an LCL shipment at a Long Beach CFS

Example timeline: one LCL container through our Long Beach CFS

An illustrative timeline for a 40' LCL container with 12 house bills, discharged at a Long Beach terminal with no holds. Actual timing depends on terminal availability, holds and when releases are filed.

Bonded options at our Long Beach CFS

Some LCL freight cannot clear quickly: a commercial invoice is wrong, a partner agency needs more information, or the consignee wants to defer duty. We hold bonded carrier authority and operate a CBP customs-bonded warehouse in Long Beach, so freight that is not ready for release has a compliant place to wait instead of drifting toward general order.

Freight can move under our bonded carrier authority as an in-bond shipment, then be stored in our Long Beach bonded warehouse until the broker files entry. See bonded drayage in Long Beach and our guide to in-bond shipments for how those moves work.

Local scenarios we handle

These examples show how a Long Beach CFS fits different customers. They are illustrative, not specific client cases.

• Forwarder with a mixed LCL box. A 40' container arrives with 14 house bills for 14 consignees across Southern California. We devan the day it is pulled, release 11 shipments that have both releases, hold three waiting on broker clearance, and deliver five of the released shipments by LTL for consignees without their own trucks.
• Importer with a mixed FCL. A full 40' arrives floor-loaded with 30 SKUs. We sort by SKU, palletize, label for a fulfillment center's spec and send most pallets on by truckload while the rest go into our Long Beach warehouse.
• Exporter with partial loads. Three local manufacturers each have a few pallets bound for the same foreign port. We receive by the cutoff, stuff one container, and deliver it to the terminal for the forwarder's booking.
• Consignee missing a release. One house bill in an otherwise clean container is waiting on a broker. We release everything else on schedule and keep the held shipment staged separately, so one delay does not stop the container.

Why a Long Beach-based CFS matters

• Short dray from the terminals. Less road time means fewer missed appointments and faster devanning after a container is available.
• Our own trucks and chassis. We run 20' and 40' chassis plus triaxle chassis for heavier containers, so chassis shortages at the terminals affect us less.
• Both ports from one building. Containers from Long Beach and Los Angeles terminals are devanned in the same CFS; see CFS for Port of Los Angeles freight.
• Release and pickup in one place. Local consignees' truckers pick up near the port without crossing the basin.
• Connected services. Freight can move straight into transloading, cross-docking or container storage without another dray.

What forwarders get from a Long Beach destination CFS partner

Forwarders and NVOCCs routing LCL containers to us as their destination CFS can expect:

• A tally by house bill soon after devanning, with photos of any exceptions, so you can answer consignee questions before they call.
• Hold and release visibility for each house bill, so your customer service team knows which shipments are waiting on whom.
• Consistent pickup procedures for consignees' truckers, with release references checked before freight is loaded.
• Delivery options for consignees without their own trucks, through LTL or local delivery.
• One contact for the container, from terminal pull through empty return.

What to send us before your container arrives

• Master bill, container number, vessel and ETA
• House bill list with consignee names, piece counts, weights and dimensions
• Any special handling: fragile cargo, palletizing, relabeling or receiver specs
• Delivery instructions for consignees who want us to deliver
• Broker contacts for each consignee, so we can confirm customs releases

Who uses our Long Beach CFS

• Freight forwarders and NVOCCs that need a destination CFS partner for LCL deconsolidation in Long Beach
• Importers with floor-loaded containers that need sorting and palletizing before delivery
• E-commerce sellers preparing freight to fulfillment-center specifications
• Customs brokers who want a CFS that communicates holds and releases clearly
• Exporters consolidating Southern California cargo into full containers

From the CFS to the final receiver

Released freight leaves our Long Beach CFS by whatever mode fits. Local consignees often send their own trucks. Others use our LTL service for small shipments or full truckload when several house bills go to the same place. For containers we pull, see Long Beach drayage.

For the general mechanics of CFS work, CFS charges and how to compare providers, see our national container freight station services page.

Frequently asked questions