Container drayage at the Port of Montreal: terminal pickup, chassis supply, and direct delivery into our CBSA sufferance warehouse, with appointment booking handled in-house.
Drayage is the short-haul container move from a marine terminal to the next stop in the supply chain — usually a sufferance warehouse, transload facility, or rail ramp. At the Port of Montreal, drayage moves are concentrated around four terminals operated by Termont and the Montreal Gateway Terminals Partnership: Cast (Section 68/77), Termont (Maisonneuve and Viau), Racine, and Bickerdike. FENGYE LOGISTICS runs drayage out of our Lachine facility, which sits inside the 30-minute radius for all four terminals plus the CN Taschereau and CP St-Luc intermodal yards.
We operate registered drayage equipment with our own SCAC code on file with CBSA and the Port of Montreal trucker portal, which is the prerequisite for booking gate appointments through Termont Reservation System and the Trucker Tools / Tnet platforms used by the Cast and Racine terminals. Without an SCAC and a registered carrier profile, third-party trucks cannot enter the secure container area — this is where most ad-hoc trucking arrangements stall.
Our chassis strategy is hybrid: in-house pool of GVW-rated chassis for the bulk of weekly volume, supplemented by IMC pool draws when peak season volume spikes. This avoids the chassis-shortage delays that hit the Port of Montreal regularly between June and October when import volume from Europe peaks. Containers are pulled live or dropped at our yard for next-day stripping under CBSA seal, depending on the customer release plan.
Live drayage from Cast, Termont, Racine, and Bickerdike terminals at the Port of Montreal. Appointment booking handled in-house through Termont Reservation System and Trucker Tools.
For volume importers we drop the loaded box at our yard under CBSA seal and pick up an empty for return. Avoids per diem and detention charges on the loaded container.
In-house chassis fleet plus IMC pool draws during peak season (Jun-Oct). GVW-rated for 53,000 lb gross weight on Quebec roads.
Registered SCAC on file with CBSA and Port of Montreal trucker portal. Can also handle SCAC paperwork for shippers booking their own carriers.
Direct drayage to and from CN Taschereau and CP St-Luc intermodal yards for boxes routed by rail to Toronto, Chicago, or Western Canada.
Pull-and-strip into our Lachine sufferance warehouse for CBSA release, deconsolidation, and downstream distribution. Single accountability from gate-out to dock-to-stock.
A vessel arrives at one of the four Port of Montreal container terminals and is discharged over 24-48 hours. The container is gated-in to the yard, an arrival notice is issued, and customs and freight charges become payable. From the moment the box is "available for pickup" the importer has a free time window — usually 4 calendar days at Cast and Termont — before per diem and demurrage start running. Drayage execution inside that window is the difference between a $0 storage bill and a $200-$400 per day charge.
The mechanics are not glamorous. A driver shows up at the terminal gate with a valid TWIC equivalent (Marine Transportation Security Regulations clearance for Canada), a registered SCAC, a pre-booked appointment slot, and a chassis. The terminal worker scans the appointment, the driver hooks the box, exits through the OCR gate, and proceeds to the next stop. If any one of those four things is missing — no SCAC, no appointment, no chassis, no security clearance — the truck turns around and the importer eats the day. FENGYE pre-stages all four for every container we touch, which is why our gate-out to dock-to-stock turn averages 90 minutes on a routine pull.
Hours of service rules under Transport Canada limit drivers to 13 hours of driving and 14 hours on duty per day, which matters for drayage because the Port of Montreal gates are open 6 AM to 10 PM Monday through Friday and limited Saturday hours. We run two shifts to cover the full operating window and pre-book appointments in batches the night before, which is how we hit the 30-minute pickup commitment from the time a customer says "release the box."
Drayage is the short-haul container move from a port terminal to the next inland point — typically a sufferance warehouse, transload site, or rail ramp. We handle it in-house out of our Lachine yard for two reasons. First, accountability: when one carrier owns gate-out, chassis supply, and warehouse stripping, the per diem clock and dock-to-stock SLA are managed by the same dispatcher. Second, peak-season chassis: we run our own pool plus IMC pool draws, so we are not scrambling for equipment between June and October when European import volume into the Port of Montreal spikes.
Most marine terminals at the Port of Montreal release containers for pickup within 24 hours of vessel discharge once customs and freight charges are settled. Once the box is flagged "available," our dispatch typically books the next available appointment slot — usually same-day or next-morning at Termont and Cast — and completes gate-out to our Lachine yard within 60-90 minutes door-to-door. The full window from "available" to "in our warehouse" is normally 12-36 hours depending on appointment availability and customer release timing.
Both. We run an in-house pool of GVW-rated chassis sized for our routine weekly drayage volume, which keeps us off the IMC pool waitlist for 70-80% of moves. For peak season volume spikes (June-October European import flow into the Port of Montreal) we draw additional chassis from the Trac Intermodal and DCLI pools that operate at the Montreal terminals. This hybrid setup is what keeps us out of the chassis-shortage dispatch delays that hit single-source operators during peak.
SCAC (Standard Carrier Alpha Code) is a unique 2-4 letter identifier issued by NMFTA in the US, recognized by CBSA and the Port of Montreal trucker portal as the carrier credential for marine container moves. Without a registered SCAC on file, a truck cannot book a gate appointment, cannot interchange a chassis from an IMC pool, and cannot file the inbound A8A advance notification with CBSA when a sealed box is moved to a sufferance warehouse. FENGYE has its SCAC registered with all four Port of Montreal terminals and CBSA — this is the prerequisite many ad-hoc trucking arrangements skip and stall on.
For containers routed by rail to Toronto, Chicago, or Western Canada we drayage the box from the marine terminal to either the CN Taschereau yard (in Saint-Laurent) or the CP St-Luc yard (in the Cote-Saint-Paul area), both within 15-25 minutes of our Lachine facility. Reverse moves — pulling rail-arrived boxes for final-mile delivery — work the same way. Direct interchange with both CN and CP keeps the box on a chassis and out of an extra cross-dock, which saves a full day of transit and avoids the rehandling fees most third-party drayage adds.
Our inbound dispatch operates 24/7 to take container release notices and book appointments. Actual gate operations at Port of Montreal terminals run roughly 6 AM to 10 PM Monday through Friday with limited Saturday hours at Termont and Cast. Transport Canada hours-of-service rules cap drivers at 13 hours driving and 14 hours on-duty per day, so we run two driver shifts to fully cover the gate window. For urgent vessel-side pickups outside normal hours we coordinate after-hours moves directly with terminal supervisors.
Free time is the period after a container is discharged and "available for pickup" before storage charges begin. At Cast and Termont terminals free time is typically 4 calendar days for standard dry boxes, shorter for reefers and hazmat. After free time expires, terminal demurrage runs $75-$200 per container per day depending on the box type, escalating with each additional day. Steamship line per diem on the equipment itself runs separately, usually $50-$150 per day after a 5-day free period. FENGYE prioritizes drayage scheduling by free time expiration so the highest-cost-clock boxes go first.
Yes. Roughly 30% of our drayage moves are direct-delivery: pull from the Port of Montreal terminal and deliver straight to the customer's own warehouse, distribution center, or rail ramp without touching our facility. We still handle the appointment booking, SCAC registration, and chassis supply — the customer just provides the final destination and any access requirements (dock height, appointment window, signature on delivery). Useful for full container loads of bulky goods where stripping at our warehouse would add unnecessary handling.