Shipping from Houston
Houston, Texas freight rates Whether by sea, highway or rail, a major portion of the country’s freight passes in and out of the Houston region. The region is home to the ports of Houston, Galveston, Freeport and Texas City. The Port of Houston ranks first in the U.S. in foreign tonnage and is the largest container port in the Gulf Coast, handling 66 percent of Gulf Coast container traffic in 2013. A recent expansion of the Panama Canal to allow larger ocean freighters should increase port traffic. As one of the nation’s busiest rail centers, the Houston region has a rail network of more than 800 miles of rail line and 21 miles of railroad bridges. Additionally, 10 major rail companies serve the Houston region and 150 trucking lines connect the Port of Houston to the continental U.S., Canada and Mexico. Houston is the crossroads for Interstate Highways 10 and 45, as well as several state highways.
Shipping to Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, UT freight rates Salt Lake City’s prime geographic location has garnered it the title “Crossroads of the West.” The city directly connects to or is near several major interstate highways: Interstate 80 (east to New York City/west to San Francisco), Interstate 70 (east to Denver), and Interstate 1-15 (north to Canada/south to Mexico). There are more than 2,300 interstate and intrastate motor freight carriers with operations in Utah. The area’s rail system provides interline switching routes for West coast rail transit shipments, and for Eastern and Midwestern transit shipments, with the advantage of not having to backhaul shipments. A new trans-loading facility located in Salt Lake City can accommodate up to 250,000 container lifts annually and is the first major destination and interchange point for Union-Pacific Railroad from Seattle, Portland, Oakland and Los Angeles/Long Beach. The Salt Lake City International Airport is served by 16 cargo carriers that handle more than 550 million pounds of air cargo a year. The city is also a full service customs port city.
