In an effort to streamline product distribution from overseas vendors, Chesapeake, Va.-based Dollar Tree Stores has chosen Oregon's Port of Portland Terminal 6 to serve as its Pacific Northwest import distribution gateway. The new port facility will allow Dollar Tree's containers to arrive in Portland, where it can unload its goods and place them on trucks and railcars (a process known as transloading) for transit to the company's California and Chicago distribution centers. By transloading the goods to trucks rather than transporting them to shipping containers, it frees up the containers for regional exporters shipping goods to overseas markets.
      "The Dollar Tree strategy is to build the operation using transloading as the foundation," explains Steve White, Dollar Tree's senior vice president of logistics. "As we grow our store business in the Northwest, our plan will be to expand the operation to eventually include complete regional distribution. The Port of Portland, along with area business partners and our core ocean carriers, have embraced our approach."
      Dollar Tree's transloading operation is located in the Port's 2,800-acre (1,134-hectare) Rivergate Industrial District, less than a mile from Terminal 6. The transloading facility is served by both of the country's transcontinental railroads (Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific), and is a short distance from the U.S. Northwest's two leading freeways, Interstate 5 and Interstate 84.
      This industrial district is expected to play an even larger role in the port's future with the recent collaboration with CB Richard Ellis. The goal of the new partnership is to draw firms that can bolster the volume of containerized imports over port docks. The proximity of the port's available property in Rivergate to its main container terminal is a distinct advantage to import distribution operations because of the short distance and time it takes to truck containers to the distribution facility. Mark Fitkin, CB Richard Ellis' managing director in Portland, notes that "Portland's ability to trade internationally is a very important element in maintaining a healthy economy for all Oregonians. The strategic alliance created between our company and the port enables us to leverage our local and global capabilities."