Cross-dock services in Ottawa.

Ottawa is not a port or an intermodal gateway, and cross-dock work here follows the freight that arrives by truck. Freight comes in on the Highway 416 and 417 corridors from Toronto and Montreal, and from the US through the Ogdensburg crossing, and goes out on shorter delivery routes across Eastern Ontario and the Outaouais. The value is breaking a full trailer from a Toronto or Montreal DC into the smaller loads and multi-stop routes that the capital region needs.

Consolidation works in the other direction too. Shippers combine LTL shipments into full truckloads at the dock, which cuts transportation cost on weekly freight, and sort inbound product by PO, destination, or customer before dispatch. Container destuffing and floor-load conversion are available for import freight that has been drayed in. Trailer staging runs $100 – $225 per trailer per month for secured 53ft positions, which covers drop-trailer programs for customers with scheduled deliveries.

Facilities are in Ottawa South and Nepean (3), Gloucester and Ottawa East (3), and Kanata and Stittsville (2). Industrial vacancy is 3 – 5%, so dock space is limited, and booking through an operating facility is faster than a lease. Government and tech suppliers typically need appointment-based delivery, which suits staged and dispatched freight with carrier coordination.