Freight shipping in Spokane

Spokane as a freight market

Spokane is the hub of the Inland Northwest, the dry country east of the Cascades that takes in eastern Washington, north Idaho and western Montana. Interstate 90 runs through the city east and west, from Seattle over Snoqualmie Pass to the Idaho panhandle and the Montana line, and US 395 runs north to the Canadian border and south through the Columbia Basin to Oregon. The BNSF main line crosses the city with a large yard on the east side, Union Pacific serves it as well, and the airport on the West Plains is a cargo gateway for the region.

The industrial areas are the Spokane Valley east of the city, with an aluminum mill, an industrial park and the technology campuses of Liberty Lake; the West Plains around the airport and Airway Heights, where distribution centers and fulfillment buildings have gone up in recent years; and the older rail served districts north and east of downtown. Spokane's shippers are manufacturers, distributors serving a region hundreds of miles across, farm and timber businesses, and the mines and mills of north Idaho a half hour east.

What our records show here

Spokane is somewhere we unload, not somewhere we load, with a difference from the rest of Washington: our own trucks carry most of it. We move freight into the Spokane area several times a year, nearly all power only moves from the Inland Empire, and our own drivers pulled most of them. Spokane is the one corner of Washington where we have picked up: a dry van from the Spokane area to Los Angeles County and one from the Spokane Valley to the Phoenix area, both on our own trucks, the drivers reloading for the trip home.

That makes Spokane an unusual market for us: light volume, but a round trip our own fleet knows. If you ship between the Inland Northwest and the Southwest, that pattern is worth asking about.

Three days from Southern California

Spokane is about 1,200 miles from central Los Angeles and about 1,250 from the Inland Empire, and there are two ways to get there. The inland route leaves Southern California on Interstate 15, turns onto Interstate 84 in Utah, crosses Idaho and eastern Oregon, and runs up US 395 through the Columbia Basin, or continues on Interstate 90 from the Idaho panhandle. The coastal route runs up Interstate 5 to Seattle and east over Snoqualmie Pass on Interstate 90. Either way it is about three days for one driver under federal hours of service rules, and the median trip in our records was about 64 hours.

Winter decides the route. The inland route crosses high desert and the Blue Mountains, the coastal route crosses the Siskiyou Summit and Snoqualmie Pass, and both see snow and chain controls from November into March. We pick the route for the week and allow a day of slack.

Equipment we run to Spokane

Power only and dry vans in our records, on our own trucks. The power only trucking page describes how a trailer move works. Flatbeds for the mill, the manufacturers and the mines across the Idaho line are arranged through partner carriers vetted through Highway. Washington and Idaho both have ports of entry on the routes in, and Idaho and Oregon weight mile and permit rules apply on the inland route; those are the carrier's responsibility and already in our quotes.

Seasonal and local notes

Spokane has real winters: snow on the ground from December into February, cold that affects brakes and air lines, and chain controls on the passes in every direction. From November through March a Spokane quote carries a day of slack. Summer brings wildfire smoke and occasional closures on the Columbia Basin highways. Interstate 90 through the city is short and busy, the Valley and the West Plains have truck routes, and the mill and rail districts are reached across grade crossings.

Spokane is on Pacific Time, the same clock as Los Angeles, and so is the Idaho panhandle a half hour east; southern Idaho, Boise included, keeps Mountain Time. Our only office is in Covina, California; nothing of ours is based in Washington.

Data center and heavy equipment freight

The Columbia Basin south and west of Spokane has become a data center region because of cheap hydroelectric power, and the transformers, generators and modules for those campuses travel the same roads our trucks use. The data center freight pages describe how we move that equipment and the permits an oversize piece needs through Washington, Oregon and Idaho.