Cross docking in Chicago, without a long stop in between
Cross docking in Chicago is pretty simple when you strip away the jargon. Freight comes in one door, gets sorted or rebuilt, and goes out another door, usually within a short window. No months on a rack. Just enough handling to get it where it needs to go next.
We do this from our warehouse at 5673 W Howard St in Niles, Illinois. Boxes from a supplier that need to head to an FBA warehouse. Pallets that need a quick stage and new paperwork. Containers that need unloading, sorting by SKU and rebuilding onto pallets before they go anywhere.
Before going further, one thing to be clear about. When we say freight forwarding on this page, we mean forwarding boxes and pallets onward from our building and coordinating domestic freight. We are not an international freight forwarder and we're not a customs broker. Your container needs to be cleared and delivered by your own forwarder or broker. Once it's at our dock, we take it from there.
Box forwarding, priced by how many you send
Box forwarding is the lightest version of this work. Cartons arrive, get checked in, and go back out (to a marketplace warehouse, a customer, a retailer, wherever the work order says) without being opened or prepped.
- 1-20 boxes
- $5.00/box
- 21-50 boxes
- $4.50/box
- 51-100 boxes
- $4.00/box
- 100+ boxes
- $3.50/box
This works well when your supplier can't ship directly to the final destination, or when cartons need a fresh carton label before they go on. Extra carton labels run $0.20 each. If the units inside need FNSKU labels or bagging, that's prep work, and it moves over to our Amazon FBA prep team instead.
Pallet cross dock services
Pallet forwarding and cross-dock is $20-$25 per pallet. That covers receiving the pallet, a short stage on our floor, and outbound handling onto the next truck. Freight itself is excluded and billed separately.
Where the pallet is going to sit for a while instead, it moves into warehouse storage, and the $10 per move pallet inbound and outbound handling applies for storage-only or freight accounts.
Cross dock services work best when everybody knows the plan before the truck arrives. Which pallets go where, which carrier is picking up, and whether any of them need new labels or wrap. Send that with the inbound notice and the pallets can be turned around without guesswork.
Container unloading: palletized vs floor-loaded
This is the part that catches importers off guard. A palletized container and a floor-loaded container are two very different jobs, even if they're the same size.
Palletized means the goods are already on pallets inside the container. A forklift pulls them out, they're received, done. Floor-loaded means hundreds or thousands of cartons stacked by hand from floor to ceiling. Every one of them has to come out by hand. Honestly, it's the most physical job in the building.
- 20 ft palletized container unload
- $350/container
- 20 ft floor-loaded container unload
- $500-$650/container
- 40 ft palletized container unload
- $600/container
- 40 ft floor-loaded container unload
- $750-$1,000/container
Floor-loaded pricing depends on carton count and SKU complexity. A 40 ft container with 600 identical cartons sits at the lower end. One with 1,400 cartons across 30 SKUs, some of them unlabeled, sits at the top. Tell us what's inside when you ask for a quote and the team will give you a straight number.
Driver detention after the free hour is $50 an hour, where it's caused by client or carrier conditions and disclosed in advance. Scheduling the container properly with us is the best way to avoid it.
Transloading services: unload, sort, rebuild, ship
Transloading is what happens when a container's contents need to go somewhere else in a different shape. We unload the container, sort the cartons, build them onto pallets, and send them out to their next stop. Think one container in, eight pallets out to three different destinations.
The pieces, and what they cost:
- Container sort by SKU: +$0.15-$0.30 per unit, when a floor load needs separating and counting.
- Pallet build or palletization: $30 per pallet plus $1 per carton (whether skid and stretch wrap are included gets confirmed in the quote).
- Stretch wrap only: $5 per pallet for standard wrap.
- Pallet strapping: $25-$30 per pallet, when required.
- BOL and freight paperwork: $7.50 per shipment.
If the destination is a marketplace warehouse, palletization for FBA or WFS follows the same $30 per pallet plus $1 per carton rate. Always check the marketplace's current pallet and carton requirements before you book. Those rules change and you're responsible for meeting them. We'll build to the spec you give us.
Freight coordination, priced in the open
Some sellers book their own trucks. Others would rather we handle it. Either is fine.
If you want us to coordinate freight, it's carrier cost plus 10%, or a $25 minimum. The carrier's role gets confirmed in your quote. This covers domestic freight moves from our dock: LTL or truckload pickups to a marketplace warehouse, a retailer, or your next location. It doesn't cover ocean freight, air freight or customs. Again, that's your international forwarder or broker.
For parcels, scheduled carrier pickups run Monday through Saturday with GOFO, UPS, USPS and FedEx. Forwarded boxes going out as parcels ride on those pickups. Shipping labels must be legally purchased and valid. Reused or counterfeit labels aren't accepted, ever.
How a container or cross-dock job runs
- 01
Send the load details
Container size, palletized or floor-loaded, carton count, SKU count, and where everything is going after. For forwarding, the box or pallet count and destinations.
- 02
Lock in the work order and schedule
Unload method, sorting, palletizing, labels and outbound freight are written down. The container delivery gets scheduled with us. Onboarding verification comes first.
- 03
Unload and receive
Freight is unloaded, counted against your packing list, and sorted if needed. Damage or shortages get photographed and reported.
- 04
Rebuild and send it on
Pallets are built, wrapped and labeled, paperwork is prepared, and the freight leaves on the agreed carrier.
Who uses container handling services like this
Mostly importers. A brand bringing in a container of private-label product with no dock of its own. A wholesaler splitting one container across several retail customers. An Amazon seller who wants part of a container sent to FBA, part kept in storage and part used for direct orders. Our container handling services are built for exactly that kind of split.
Also sellers using box forwarding as a relay. Supplier ships to us, we check it in, we send it on. Simple, and much cheaper than having a supplier deal with a marketplace's inbound rules.
Getting a container ready before it reaches us
Most of the cost of container unloading is decided at the factory, weeks before the box is sealed. A few conversations with your supplier can save real money on our end.
First, ask whether the load can be palletized. It takes up a bit more space in the container, so suppliers sometimes push back. But a palletized 40 ft unload is $600, and a floor-loaded one can run up to $1,000 before any sorting. Do the math on your own load and see which side wins.
If it has to be floor-loaded, ask for cartons to be loaded by SKU, not mixed. One SKU in the front, the next behind it, and so on. That alone can keep you out of the per-unit sort fee. Ask for a SKU label and quantity on every carton too, and get the packing list to us before the container ships from the port.
Then share the delivery details with us early. Containers that show up unscheduled are harder to work in, and that's usually where driver detention starts. Nobody wants to pay $50 an hour for a truck to sit in the lot. A short email a few days ahead makes cross docking in Chicago a lot less stressful for you, for the driver and for our crew.
Why Chicago-area importers use this dock
The building processes approximately 1,000+ parcels per day, so constant inbound and outbound movement is the normal rhythm here. Rates are posted for every forwarding and container service. We maintain up to $5 million in insurance coverage for qualifying warehouse operations, subject to policy terms, limits and exclusions. Coverage isn't automatic, so confirm it before you ship. And we aren't responsible for carrier delays, carrier damage or customs, which is worth knowing when you're planning a tight timeline.
Reach the team Monday through Saturday, 10 AM to 4 PM Central, by phone, email or WhatsApp.
Container unloading in Niles for Chicago-area freight
Our dock is in Niles, just outside Chicago's northwest edge, which makes it a practical stop for containers and pallets moving through the Chicago area. More on working with us locally is on our Chicago location page.
Forwarding is one part of our storage and movement work. Freight that needs a careful check-in starts with inbound receiving and inventory control. Wholesale orders built from container stock go through B2B and wholesale fulfillment, and a container split for Walmart can head into WFS prep.
Full rates are on the pricing page. Ready to plan a load? Request a container or cross-dock quote and we'll scope your cross docking in Chicago, from the unload to the outbound truck.