This guide is for the founder or ops lead bringing a container through the Port of Los Angeles who has never seen what happens between the vessel and the warehouse. By the end you’ll know who touches your container at each stage, what Port of Los Angeles drayage involves, which charges start a clock, and what to send your warehouse so the container is unloaded and sellable instead of sitting in a yard accruing fees.
We’re 6G Logistic, an owner-operated 3PL (third-party logistics provider) with four Southern California warehouses. We don’t clear customs, so this is written from the dock, where every upstream mistake finally shows up.
The short answer
Once your container is discharged at a Port of Los Angeles terminal, three releases must clear before it can move: customs, the ocean carrier, and the terminal’s fees. A drayage trucker then hauls it on a chassis to a warehouse, where it’s unloaded, counted and put away, or transloaded onto domestic trucks. Free time runs throughout, and every day past it costs money.
Who handles your container from vessel to shelf?
Your container passes through seven handoffs and four or five different companies. Most delays happen at a handoff where each party assumed the other had sent the paperwork.
| Stage | Who does it | What they need from you | What goes wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Security filing before loading overseas | Your customs broker or forwarder | Seller, buyer, manufacturer, HTS codes, stuffing location | Late filing, penalties, holds |
| 2. Vessel discharge | Ocean carrier and terminal operator | Nothing directly | Vessels bunch up; your box is buried in the stack |
| 3. Customs entry and release | Your customs broker | Commercial invoice, packing list, customs bond | Exam selected, days added |
| 4. Carrier and terminal release | Ocean carrier, terminal, PierPASS | Freight paid, bill of lading released, port fees paid | A hold blocks pickup |
| 5. Drayage to the warehouse | A licensed drayage carrier | Container number, delivery appointment | Missed appointment, pre-pull, storage |
| 6. Unload, count, receive | Your warehouse | Packing list or ASN, SKU list | Count variances, damage |
| 7. Empty container return | Drayage carrier | Return location from the ocean carrier | Detention and chassis days |
We work at stage 6, plus the dock appointment in stage 5. Send us the container number, ETA and packing list, and we book the delivery appointment with the drayage carrier, unload the container and count it. That’s the scope of our container unloading and import warehousing service. If the freight shouldn’t stop at all, because it’s bound straight for a retailer or another facility, our cross-dock service moves it from inbound to outbound with little or no storage time.
What has to happen before the vessel arrives?
The paperwork starts before your goods leave the factory. Under the Importer Security Filing rule from CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection), known as “10+2,” the importer or its agent must transmit 10 data elements no later than 24 hours before the cargo is loaded onto the vessel overseas. Note the timing: before loading at origin, not before arrival in Los Angeles.
Your customs broker files the ISF (Importer Security Filing) and, later, the customs entry. The data comes from you and your supplier: seller, buyer, manufacturer, ship-to party, HTS (Harmonized Tariff Schedule) codes and where the container was stuffed. A broker can only be as accurate as the packing list and commercial invoice you hand over.
What a customs exam does to your timeline
CBP can select any container for examination. For an intensive exam, the container is trucked to a Centralized Examination Station (CES), a private facility CBP designates, where it’s unloaded for inspection. Federal regulations put the expense of preparing goods for examination on the importer (19 CFR 151.6), so the CES fee, the extra trucking and any storage land on your bill.
You can’t prevent selection. You can make the paperwork match the box. If the packing list your broker filed and the one sent to your warehouse disagree, a carton shortage at the dock becomes a customs question as well as an inventory one. Send both parties the same document.
What does Port of Los Angeles drayage actually involve?
Drayage is the short truck move that takes a container from a marine terminal to a nearby warehouse, transload facility or rail yard. At the Los Angeles and Long Beach port complex, a drayage carrier needs three things before it can pull your box: the container released, a terminal appointment and a chassis.
The chassis: the trailer frame you pay for until it’s returned
An ocean container has no wheels. The chassis is the steel trailer frame it rides on. At San Pedro Bay, most chassis come from leasing companies’ pools, and since 2015 the major providers have run an interoperable “pool of pools,” so a chassis picked up at one terminal can be returned at another.
Ask how your chassis is billed. Where it’s billed by the day, the meter runs from pickup until the chassis is returned, so every day your container waits on wheels at a yard or a dock costs you. For scale, the Port of Los Angeles daily operations report for 18 June 2026 showed average chassis on-street dwell of 3.7 days for 20-foot containers and 6.7 days for 40-foot and larger.
Port fees on every loaded container
Two port-area fees apply to a loaded import moved by truck, before any trucking charge. Both are billed to the cargo owner, meaning you or your agent, never the driver.
| Fee | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic Mitigation Fee (TMF), collected through PierPASS | $40.63 per 20-foot container; $81.26 for all other sizes | Effective 1 August 2026. Adjusted each year by the terminal operators |
| Clean Truck Fund (CTF) rate | $10 per TEU; $20 for containers longer than 20 feet | Not charged on loads hauled by zero-emission trucks, or by qualifying low-NOx trucks through set dates |
A TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) is the industry’s standard container measure, and a 40-foot container counts as two. So a loaded 40-foot import hauled by a non-exempt truck carries $101.26 in these two fees alone.
What a drayage quote should break out
Drayage rates move with fuel and season, so we don’t publish them here. What we can tell you is what a complete quote lists, because these lines show up on invoices whether or not they were quoted. A complete quote lists base line-haul to the delivery address, fuel surcharge, chassis and how it’s billed, pre-pull, daily yard storage, waiting time beyond the free allowance, and overweight handling for heavy containers. Get every line in writing before the vessel sails.
Free time, demurrage and detention: where does the money leak?
Free time is the number of days the terminal and the ocean carrier allow before charges start. Two separate meters can run against your container. Demurrage is charged while a loaded container sits inside the terminal past its free time. Detention, also called per diem, is charged while you hold the carrier’s container outside the terminal past its free time, until the empty is returned.
Free days are set by the terminal’s tariff and by your ocean contract or your forwarder’s. There’s no single port-wide number, so get yours in writing, per container, before the vessel sails.
Once the container leaves the terminal, demurrage stops but three other charges can run at the same time: detention on the box, chassis days on the frame, and yard storage if the container was pre-pulled.
Pre-pulls: a fix that costs money
When terminal free time is about to expire and the warehouse can’t take the container yet, the drayage carrier pulls it to its own yard. That stops demurrage. It also adds a pre-pull fee, yard storage, more chassis days and a second truck move.
Sometimes that’s the right call. If you’re paying pre-pulls on most of your containers, though, the fix is upstream: send your warehouse the ETA the day you get it, not the day the vessel berths.
The FMC billing rule protects you if you keep records
Since 28 May 2024, a Federal Maritime Commission rule (46 CFR Part 541) has governed demurrage and detention invoices from ocean carriers and terminals. Invoices must go out within 30 calendar days of the last charge, the billed party gets at least 30 days to dispute, and the billing party must try to resolve a dispute within 30 days. An invoice issued late, or missing required information, removes the obligation to pay it.
That protection only helps if you can prove dates. Keep the bill of lading, the gate-out time, the empty return time and every invoice. This is a summary, not legal advice: for a disputed charge, talk to your forwarder, your customs broker or counsel.
What happens when the container reaches the warehouse dock?
Unloading a container is called devanning, or stripping. How long it takes depends on how the container was loaded at origin.
Floor-loaded or palletized: decide before the factory loads
A floor-loaded container has cartons stacked directly on the container floor, wall to wall. It fits the most cartons, but every carton is handled by hand at the dock, so it takes more labor to unload and we quote it differently. A palletized container comes off by forklift with far less labor, but pallets and the gap above them take up space you paid ocean freight for.
Run the math both ways before your supplier loads. Weigh the cartons you lose to pallets against the extra unloading labor on your warehouse quote.
What we do when it arrives
We unload floor-loaded and palletized containers and count every carton against your packing list or ASN (advance ship notice, the electronic list of what’s in the shipment). Damaged units are photographed and reported the same day. Everything is scanned into our warehouse management system by SKU (stock keeping unit), put away and available to ship once received.
Containers that arrive before our receiving cutoff get a receiving report before the end of that business day. You can see how we receive inventory step by step.
Deconsolidation and transloading
A mixed container holds several SKUs, several purchase orders or goods for more than one buyer. Deconsolidation breaks it down by SKU or PO into pallets or cartons. Part can go into storage while part leaves the same week as LTL (less-than-truckload, a shared truck for a few pallets), parcel or Amazon inbound shipments.
Transloading moves cargo out of the ocean container into a domestic trailer, such as a 53-foot dry van. The ocean container goes back sooner, which stops detention, and the freight continues on domestic equipment. Because a 53-foot trailer holds more than a 40-foot container, freight from several containers can be consolidated into fewer trucks.
Where should the container be delivered?
Deliver the container to the building where the inventory will live. Every extra move adds a truck, a handling charge and a day.
The tempting move is a short, cheap dray to the warehouse nearest the port and a second truck inland later. That second move is an inland transfer: another truck, another unload, another receiving charge and another day. Price one longer dray straight to the Inland Empire against the short dray plus the transfer, and include handling at both ends.
Across our four buildings, the split is simple. Fast-turning import stock and freight that’s only passing through belong at our LA Basin building in Commerce, the shortest drayage from the ports. Stock you’ll fulfill to California, Arizona and Nevada belongs in Jurupa Valley, our primary hub. Bulk, seasonal stock and containers that land early go to Perris, which is where we place most import accounts. For the full comparison of rent, customer location and Amazon access, read how the Inland Empire, Los Angeles and Orange County compare.
When is our dock the wrong destination?
We’d rather lose a quote than set up a container flow that doesn’t fit. Here’s where something other than a Southern California 3PL dock is the better answer.
Your customers are mostly east of the Rockies. Landing in Los Angeles and parcel-shipping cross-country from the Inland Empire adds transit days to every order. A container routed through an East Coast or Gulf port, or railed inland by the ocean carrier, puts inventory near those customers. National networks like ShipBob and ShipMonk, with eastern warehouses, fit that pattern better than we do.
You import less than a container. If your goods arrive as a few pallets in a shared container (LCL, less than container load), your forwarder’s container freight station unloads the shared box. Your pallets then reach any warehouse as an ordinary freight delivery. You need standard receiving, not container unloading.
You want customs, ocean freight and storage on one invoice. We don’t clear customs. A freight forwarder that also runs a warehouse can bill all three together. The trade-off is that you’re choosing a freight company that also stores goods, rather than a warehouse whose whole business is receiving and shipping them.
Your goods need temperature control or are hazardous. We store dry goods only. We have no refrigerated or frozen space, and we don’t handle hazmat.
You ship under 50 orders a month with no plan to grow. Our $500 monthly invoice minimum will cost more than the service is worth at that volume. If your charges fall short of $500 in a month, we bill the difference.
What should you send your warehouse before the container lands?
Send these the day you have them, not the day the vessel berths:
- Container number and size: 20-foot, 40-foot, 40-foot high cube or 45-foot.
- Vessel ETA and the discharge terminal.
- The drayage carrier’s dispatch contact, so we can book the dock appointment.
- Packing list or ASN with carton counts by SKU.
- Whether the container is floor-loaded or palletized.
- SKUs that must leave immediately: a retail purchase order, an Amazon shipment or a cross-dock.
- Barcodes, carton dimensions and weights for every new SKU.
If you’re new to us, plan on live orders 5 to 7 business days after onboarding starts, with store integration taking 1 to 3 business days. Time your first container to land after that, not before.
Frequently asked questions
Does 6G Logistic clear customs?
No. A licensed customs broker clears your container. Once it’s released and delivered, we unload, count and receive it at our warehouse.
Can you hold goods before customs release, in bond or in a Foreign Trade Zone?
Containers come to our dock after CBP has released them. If you need goods held in bond or in a Foreign Trade Zone, ask your customs broker for a facility with that status.
How fast is a container sellable once it reaches your dock?
Containers that arrive before our receiving cutoff are counted, scanned and reported the same business day. The time before it reaches us depends on customs release, terminal appointments and the drayage carrier’s schedule.
What’s the difference between demurrage and detention?
Demurrage is charged while a loaded container sits in the terminal past its free time. Detention is charged while you keep the carrier’s container outside the terminal past its free time. The terminal tariff and your ocean contract set both.
Does a floor-loaded container cost more to unload?
Yes. Every carton is handled by hand, so we quote floor-loaded containers differently from palletized ones. Both are quoted line by line before you sign.
Tell us what’s landing
Book a 15-minute call to size your fulfillment needs. Tell us what’s landing, how often and from where, and we’ll send a written proposal within 24 hours that says which of our four buildings fits and why. Call sales at (949) 468-7759 or support at (949) 391-3093, or start the conversation through the contact page. We’re available Monday to Saturday, 8am to 6pm Pacific.