William B. Cassidy, Senior Editor | Mar 23, 2012 4:39PM EDT
Trucking company Old Dominion Freight Line opened a drayage facility in Oakland, Calif., expanding its container-hauling business to meet higher demand.
Drayage shipments increased 35 percent in the first two months of 2012, ODFL said Friday. The carrier’s containerized freight was up 19 percent for all of 2011.
The new Oakland drayage facility, housed in the less-than-truckload carrier’s San Francisco service center, will serve ports, rail heads and container yards.
ODFL already operates a Southern California drayage facility in Los Angeles, and earlier this year the trucking operator opened a drayage center in Seattle.
The $1.9 billion multi-regional carrier has been bolting drayage and export and import-oriented services onto its core North American LTL business.
The West Coast expansion “will help us better serve our customers who ship both globally and domestically,” said Wayne Bersch, director of container operations.
ODFL was the fastest growing LTL carrier in the U.S. in 2011, increasing LTL trucking revenue 25.7 percent, according to SJ Consulting Group estimates.
The Thomasville, N.C.-based carrier now operates 15 drayage facilities. Last year, ODFL opened drayage facilities in Memphis, Tenn., Mobile, Ala., and Baltimore.
Contact William B. Cassidy at wcassidy@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter at @wbcassidy_joc