Container devanning in Fort Wayne.
We unload your container, count it against the packing list, check it for damage and palletise it — and if the goods are headed to Amazon, we FNSKU-label and ship them into FBA from the same building.
Where the value actually is
If all you need is a box emptied, a dock near the port will do it cheaper than we can — they're closer and they'll beat us on per-diem avoidance every time. We won't pretend otherwise.
What they can't do is what happens next. Your goods come off the ramp, get unloaded, counted, palletised, and then — if they're going to Amazon — FNSKU-labelled and shipped into a fulfillment center in the same city. One building, one invoice, one set of hands. That's the version worth driving 87 miles inland for.
And for a Northeast Indiana importer with a container landing and no dock or no crew to strip it, proximity to a seaport isn't the problem being solved at all. A dock within drayage range that answers the phone is.
What's included on every container
- Unload, floor-loaded or palletised
- Carton count against your packing list
- Damage and condition check
- Photo set, start to finish
- Palletising and stretch wrap
- Discrepancies reported the day we find them
- Three days' free staging
- Onward prep, labelling or storage if you want it
- Devanning
- Floor-loaded and palletised containers
- Transload
- Container to outbound trailer
- Sizes
- 20ft · 40ft · 40HC
- Dock
- One door — full semi, live load or unload, by appointment
- Documentation
- Count sheet and photo set, included
- Then what
- Prep for Amazon · Store · Reship · Straight back out
- Pricing
- Palletised quoted flat; floor-loaded per built pallet
Two very different jobs
Palletized and floor-loaded aren't the same service.
Palletized container
The goods are already on pallets. A forklift strips the container in well under an hour, we count and check as it comes off, and it's staged or straight back out. Quoted flat per container, and it's the cheapest way to move a box.
Floor-loaded container
Cartons stacked loose, floor to ceiling — commonly 1,000 to 1,150 of them in a 40-footer, every one handled by hand, yielding 20 to 24 built pallets. A crew job of several hours. Quoted per pallet built, with sorting priced separately when there's more than a few SKUs in the box.
Not sure which you've got? Send us the packing list and we'll tell you — and quote both ways if it's ambiguous.
The chain
Ramp to dock to labelled to Amazon.
The reason to unload a container here rather than near a port is that everything after the unload happens in the same building. No second vendor, no second freight leg, no second invoice, and nobody handing your goods to a stranger halfway through.
Container lands at the ramp. Drayage down US-24. We strip it, count it, photograph it, palletise it. Then it either stores here, ships out as freight, or gets FNSKU-labelled and sent into the Amazon fulfillment center a few miles from our door.
FAQ
Devanning questions
What is devanning?
Unloading a shipping container. "Van" is old freight slang for the container itself, so devanning is taking the goods out of it — then counting them, checking for damage, stacking them onto pallets and wrapping those pallets.
What's the difference between a palletized and a floor-loaded container?
Palletized means the goods are already stacked on pallets inside — a forklift pulls them straight out, usually in under an hour. Floor-loaded means cartons are stacked loose from floor to ceiling with no pallets, and every box comes off by hand. A floor-loaded 40-footer commonly holds 1,000 to 1,150 cartons and takes a crew several hours. They price very differently, and we quote them differently.
Why do suppliers floor-load containers at all?
Because pallets waste space. You fit roughly 20–30% more product in a container without them, which saves the supplier money on ocean freight and moves the labour to whoever unloads it. That's usually you — which is where we come in.
Do you handle containers coming off the rail ramps?
Yes. The CSX intermodal ramp at North Baltimore, Ohio is 87.7 miles from our dock, a straight run down US-24, and it handles around 2,000 international containers a day. Chicago's ramps are further at 150–180 miles but still workable.
Can you label the goods for Amazon after unloading?
That's the whole point of using us rather than a dock nearer the port. We unload, count and palletise, and if the goods are headed to Amazon we FNSKU-label and ship them into FBA from the same building. One stop instead of three.
How fast can you take a container?
Published guidance tells importers to expect 48–72 hours' notice for a warehouse appointment. We run one dock door and schedule it ourselves, so call us and you'll get a straight answer on whether we can take it tomorrow — not a queue position.
What documentation do we get?
A carton count against your packing list and a photo set, both included rather than billed as extras. If something arrives short or damaged you hear it from us the day we find it, with pictures.
Next step
Got a container landing?
Send us the packing list and the arrival date. We'll tell you what it costs to strip it, and whether we can take it when it lands.