Imperial Valley to Los Angeles freight

Freight from the border and the fields

Calexico sits on the border opposite Mexicali, a large manufacturing city whose factories build electronics, medical supplies, aerospace parts and automotive components for companies in the United States. Much of that output crosses at the Calexico East commercial port of entry, is cleared and staged in warehouses on the California side, and then travels north to distribution centers across the Inland Empire, in Los Angeles County or at the ports. That cross border flow is the backbone of the dry van freight on this lane, and it runs all year.

The valley adds freight of its own. Hay and alfalfa leave on flatbeds in every season of the year, a good share of it bound for export, and machinery, building materials and store returns head north from the yards and stores of El Centro, Imperial and Brawley. The winter vegetables themselves ride in temperature controlled trucks, a separate market, but their harvest from November into March shapes the whole valley’s trucking calendar.

Who takes a northbound load

Our dispatch desk covers this lane with partner carriers we have screened through Highway for operating authority, insurance and identity, and the best match is usually a carrier fresh off a delivery into the valley from Phoenix, San Diego or the Inland Empire that wants to head north. When one of our own tractors is finishing a desert run, it can take the load home toward Covina instead. The dispatcher who accepts your load books the carrier, confirms the pickup time at the warehouse, tracks the truck past the Salton Sea and over the pass, and sends you the signed receipt.

North along the Salton Sea

From El Centro the truck follows the Interstate 8 business loop through town and picks up State Route 86 north through Imperial and Brawley, the farm and cattle town at the north end of the irrigated valley. A stretch near Brawley also carries State Route 78. North of Brawley every vehicle stops at a Border Patrol checkpoint on State Route 86, usually briefly and occasionally behind a line of traffic.

The highway then runs up the west shore of the Salton Sea, the largest lake in California, through Salton City and open desert below sea level, and continues into the Coachella Valley past Thermal, where it joins Interstate 10 near Indio. From there the route runs west the length of the Coachella Valley, over the San Gorgonio Pass at Banning and Beaumont, and onto State Route 60 through the Badlands and across Riverside and the Inland Empire into Los Angeles County. State Route 111 along the east shore, through Calipatria and Niland, is the other way around the sea.

Heat, dust and a long dry stretch

The Imperial Valley and the Salton Sea basin bake from June into September, with many afternoons climbing past 110 degrees. Services are thin along the sea, so drivers top off in El Centro or Brawley and carry water. Spring winds raise dust from the lake bed exposed as the Salton Sea shrinks, and summer thunderstorms can flood the low crossings on State Route 86 for an hour or two at a time.

After the desert the lane picks up the weather of the Coachella Valley run: wind through the San Gorgonio Pass, Santa Ana winds across the Inland Empire from fall into winter, and basin traffic at both rush hours. Winter is the easiest season to drive and the busiest season in the valley, because the harvest crowds the roads around the packing sheds and keeps trucks in demand.

How the valley’s calendar affects your truck

This is a farm valley that ships heavily at harvest, from November into March, and in those months trucks of every type are drawn into it and booked quickly, so a dry van or flatbed going north is best arranged a few days ahead. From April into October the fields quiet down, and trucks that have delivered into the valley from Phoenix, San Diego or Los Angeles look harder for a northbound load. Those are the months when a short notice load is easiest to cover.

The border freight steadies all of it. Factories in Mexicali run year round, so Calexico warehouses ship north in every season, and that flow keeps carriers working the valley even in summer. The opposite direction, from Los Angeles south into the valley, is mostly supply freight for the towns and the farms.

Trailers for border and farm freight

Cross border freight usually travels on pallets in 53 foot dry vans, often under a seal applied at the warehouse; the bill of lading carries the seal number and the receiver checks it at delivery. When a warehouse preloads trailers, a drop trailer arrangement lets the driver swap an empty for a loaded one instead of waiting at the dock, and power only covers a shipper that owns its trailers.

Hay rides on flatbeds, stacked in large bales, strapped down and tarped when rain threatens. Machinery and building materials also go open deck, and anything past the legal width needs a California oversize permit, which the carrier gets and we track.

About four hours, all on Pacific time

Four hours of driving leaves plenty of room under the federal 11 hour limit, so freight picked up in Calexico or El Centro in the morning is normally unloaded at a basin dock the same afternoon. The checkpoint, the warehouse release time and basin traffic decide the rest; a pickup after midday, or one that waits on paperwork at a border warehouse, is planned for the next morning.

Both ends keep Pacific time. Warehouses in Calexico tend to release freight once crossings and paperwork clear, so the pickup time can move, and the dispatcher keeps the receiver posted when it does.

Quoting a northbound load

Send the pickup address, whether it is a border warehouse, a farm or a yard, what the freight is, its pallet count or dimensions and weight, any seal requirements and the delivery appointment. If the freight is still waiting to cross, tell us the expected release so the truck arrives when it is ready. The figure for the day, when we have priced this lane, shows as a dated range above the form; the firm price comes back from a dispatcher through the form.

Receivers in the basin are described on Los Angeles truckload shipping and our page for the Inland Empire, the rest of the state on freight shipping in California. Farm valley freight also reaches the basin on our Salinas to Los Angeles freight lane, and drop trailer service explains preloaded trailers.