Container Storage Near the Port of Long Beach

Container storage in Long Beach, close to the terminals

Container storage in Long Beach gives your import containers somewhere to wait between the terminal and your warehouse. We pull the container before its last free day (LFD), hold it at our Long Beach operation near the Port of Long Beach and Port of Los Angeles, and deliver it when your dock has room.

Because the yard is in Long Beach, the pre-pull is a short run from the terminal and the eventual delivery starts from the harbor instead of from a yard far inland. The same site holds our warehouse, CFS, transload and bonded operations, so a container that waits too long can be worked on the spot instead of running up per diem.

For the general mechanics and the cost math behind pre-pulls, see our national container storage page. This page covers how storage runs here.

How a Long Beach pre-pull works with us

1. 01
   Flag the gap

   Tell us the LFD and your first available delivery date. If the appointment falls after the LFD, or the day before it, we plan a pre-pull.

2. 02
   Confirm release

   We check customs, freight and terminal holds. A container on hold cannot be pulled, so we flag any hold early enough for you or your broker to clear it.

3. 03
   Book and pull before the LFD

   We book the terminal appointment and pull the container on our own 20' or 40' chassis, or a triaxle chassis for heavy loads. Demurrage stops at the out-gate.

4. 04
   Hold in our Long Beach yard

   The container waits in our yard. You get confirmation of arrival, and we track the per diem clock against the steamship line's free days.

5. 05
   Deliver, or work it here

   We deliver on your appointment as a live unload or a drop. If the wait is getting long, we can unload it into our Long Beach warehouse or transload it and return the empty.

Long Beach container storage scenarios

These are the situations we see most often at the San Pedro Bay ports. Numbers are illustrative examples.

Watch the per diem clock in Long Beach storage

Storage stops terminal demurrage, but the steamship line's per diem clock keeps running while its container is outside the terminal. At the San Pedro Bay ports the empty return location is set by the line and can be on either side of the harbor, which matters when a container has been sitting for a while.

Example with round hypothetical numbers: a container is pre-pulled on its LFD and the line allows four free days. If your warehouse can receive on day three, storage is clearly the right call. If the first appointment is day ten, six days of per diem at a hypothetical $120 a day adds $720 on top of yard and chassis charges. Unloading it at our Long Beach container unloading dock on day one and returning the empty would stop that clock.

We track these dates for every container we hold and tell you when unloading starts to cost less than waiting. Our guide to demurrage and detention explains both charges in detail.

Example: managing a ten-container week from our Long Beach yard

Example with round hypothetical numbers: an importer has ten 40' containers discharging over two days at a Long Beach terminal, all with an LFD four days later. Their Inland Empire DC can receive two containers a day, so delivering straight from the terminal would leave four containers past the LFD.

We deliver the first two straight from the terminal on day one, pull six more into our Long Beach yard over the next two days while appointments are open, and leave the final two for direct delivery before the LFD. From the yard, we feed the DC two a day on its schedule. No container sits on terminal past free time, and every delivery leaves from the harbor instead of an inland yard.

If the DC slips by several days, we shift the last few containers to our container freight station or warehouse, unload them, and return the empties before the steamship line's free days run out. The freight then ships as palletized loads when the DC is ready.

Long Beach timing realities that drive storage

Most storage requests at the San Pedro Bay ports trace back to a few local patterns:

• Free time starts at discharge. Terminals usually start the free-day count when the container is discharged and available, regardless of when your dock can receive.
• Appointments are tight in surge weeks. When several large vessels discharge close together, import appointments fill fast. Pulling a container when a slot opens protects the LFD.
• Empty returns move around. The steamship line names the return location, and it may be on the Los Angeles side, at a different terminal from the pickup, or at an off-dock depot.
• Port fees do not change with storage. The PierPass Traffic Mitigation Fee and Clean Truck Fund rate apply per loaded container at the terminal regardless of whether it is stored before delivery.

When to use container storage near the Port of Long Beach

• Your warehouse is full or has no appointment before the last free day
• A vessel arrives early or several containers discharge at once
• A weekend or holiday discharge would burn free time before your dock opens
• You are waiting on a delivery window from your customer
• Terminal appointments are scarce and you want the container out while a slot is open
• A loaded export container is ready before the terminal's receiving window opens

Why store in Long Beach instead of inland

• Short pre-pulls. The terminals at both San Pedro Bay ports are a short drive from our yard, so a pull fits in a tight appointment window.
• Flexible empty returns. When the line names a return location on either side of the harbor, we are close to both.
• A way out of storage. Our container freight station, warehouse, transload and cross-docking operations are in Long Beach, so a long wait becomes an unload instead of a growing bill.
• Bonded capacity. Our customs-bonded warehouse can hold cargo that has not been released.
• One carrier, one record. The same team pulls, stores, delivers and returns the empty, with status updates at each step.

Who uses our Long Beach container yard

• Importers and retailers whose DCs cannot absorb a whole vessel's arrivals before the LFD
• E-commerce sellers timing inventory into fulfillment centers with limited dock appointments
• Freight forwarders and customs brokers who need a holding point while documents or releases catch up

What to send to set up Long Beach container storage

• Container numbers, bill of lading and terminal
• Last free day and your first available delivery appointment
• Container size and type, gross weight and commodity (reefers are delivered direct, not stored, because our yard has no reefer plug-ins)
• Delivery address and live unload or drop
• Customs status and your customs broker's contact
• The steamship line's free days for the empty, if known

Frequently asked questions