Timely news, analysis, case studies and videos about inland ports in the US and elsewhere – and their impact on shippers, transportation providers and suppliers of distribution and logistics services. 

Thanks to dramatic improvements in intermodal transportation and logistics technologies, the major distribution processes that formerly needed to be managed at seaports can now be managed – or co-managed – at various locations across the entire supply chain, including at various inland ports, which were long thought of as too distant geographically to play a key role in the global transportation and distribution of valuable goods.

Ordinarily located along Class 1 railroad lines and major road networks, inland ports offer intermodal transfer facilities and international trade processing and other services that may be linked to specific seaports. Distribution centers and other warehousing facilities are generally co-located with inland ports, even on site.

Each emerging full-fledged inland port – such as Houston, Chicago, Kansas City, Fort Worth, St. Louis, Atlanta, Memphis, Columbia (SC), Charlotte (NC), and California’s Inland Empire -- functions as a hub designed to move international shipments more efficiently and effectively from maritime ports inland for distribution elsewhere. 

In the southeast US, port authorities have opened up various inland ports to eliminate multi-hour drays, free up truck capacity and raise driver capacity.

In South Carolina, Inland Port Greer, owned and operated by the South Carolina Ports Authority, is located 212 miles inland from the Port of Charleston. Inland Port Greer offers importers discharging goods at the Port of Charleston access to Norfolk Southern’s intermodal services. Similarly, Inland Port Dillon, 160 miles from Charleston, also linked to the Port of Charleston, provides ready access to CSX Transportation Intermodal train services, which extend into the midwest and northeast US. 

In Georgia, Appalachian Regional Port, 388 miles northwest of Savannah, also provides quick access to CSX Transportation Intermodal. Virginia Inland Port, at Front Royal, Virginia, located 220 miles northwest of the port of Norfolk, provides direct access to Norfolk Southern intermodal services.

 For additional content that may be of interest, visit the JOC’s Industrial Real Estate and Distribution Centers sections.