Most forwarders and importers scope a warehouse near the Port of Montreal by distance and rate card. Then the first container sits two days waiting for a dock door, or the broker sends a PARS release to the wrong FIRMS code and you burn a morning sorting it out. Distance matters, but it's not the only variable that decides whether your inbound flow works or breaks down.
We run a sufferance warehouse at Lachine (CBSA Sublocation Code 6050, Office 0395, Type CW) about ten minutes from the Cast, Termont, and MIT terminals. Seven dock doors, 40-day sufferance dwell limit, daily drayage windows coordinated with Port of Montreal gate hours. What follows is the evaluation checklist we wish more forwarders asked about before they book the first pallet.
Terminal Proximity and Drayage Window Coordination
Lachine corridor warehouses sit closest to the container terminals. Dorval warehouses are fifteen to twenty minutes farther. Montreal-East warehouses (Pointe-aux-Trembles, Rivière-des-Prairies) add another fifteen to twenty minutes and put you on the wrong side of the port for most LCL deconsolidation flow. The absolute drive time matters less than whether the warehouse coordinates daily drayage windows with terminal gate hours and container free-time expiry.
Port of Montreal terminals (Cast, Termont, MIT) publish gate hours and appointment windows. Container free time runs from discharge to when demurrage starts charging. If your warehouse books drayage pickup the same day the container goes available, you save a day. If the warehouse waits until the next morning because they batch drayage requests overnight, you lose a day and detention starts ticking. Ask whether the warehouse monitors terminal availability in real time or batches pickups on a fixed schedule.
We monitor terminal availability starting at 06:00 and book drayage the same morning when containers hit "available for pickup" status. That cadence keeps most European LCL inside free time. Warehouses that batch requests once daily or wait for broker instruction before booking drayage routinely hit detention charges by the second or third day.
Dock Door Capacity and Throughput on LCL Deconsolidation Weeks
Dock door count is the single biggest physical constraint on how many containers a warehouse can turn in a week. We run seven dock doors at Lachine. On a typical European LCL deconsolidation week (six to eight containers arriving Monday through Wednesday, PARS releases staggered Tuesday through Thursday, devanning and putaway Thursday through Friday), seven doors handle the flow without multi-day queuing. A three-door warehouse queues containers on the yard and picks them off one at a time, which stretches dock-to-stock from 24-48 hours to three or four days.
Ask the warehouse how many dock doors they operate and what their typical weekly container count looks like during peak LCL season (September through November for European import, January through March for Chinese New Year make-up volume). If the door count is low and they don't publish a dock appointment system, your container will sit on the yard waiting its turn. LCL consolidation and deconsolidation services depend on dock throughput more than square footage.
| Warehouse Zone | Typical Terminal Distance | Dock Door Range | Deconsolidation Throughput |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lachine corridor | 10-15 min | 5-10 doors | 6-10 containers/week steady state |
| Dorval | 20-30 min | 3-6 doors | 3-6 containers/week |
| Montreal-East | 30-40 min | 4-8 doors | 4-7 containers/week |
These are not rate guarantees or SLA commitments. They are observed ranges across facilities we've coordinated with on cross-dock and transload moves. Your mileage depends on the warehouse's actual door schedule, staffing, and whether they run dedicated deconsolidation shifts or mix inbound with outbound on the same doors.
CBSA Sublocation Code and FIRMS Code Matching
Every sufferance warehouse holds a CBSA Sublocation Code (ours is 6050, Office 0395, Type CW). When the broker files the CAD and requests exam or release, the warehouse sublocation code and FIRMS code have to match. If the broker sends the release to the wrong FIRMS code, CBSA holds the file until the discrepancy is corrected, which costs half a day minimum.
This happens more often than it should when a forwarder books a new warehouse mid-shipment and the broker still has the old FIRMS code on file. The container clears the terminal gate, arrives at your dock, and the PARS release is addressed to a different warehouse across town. The broker resubmits with the correct code, CBSA re-releases, and you've burned four to six hours. Ask the warehouse for their CBSA Sublocation Code and FIRMS code up front and send both to the broker before the container discharges.
Our Montreal sufferance warehouse credentials are published on the CBSA warehouse list (Sublocation 6050, Office 0395, Type CW, postal code H8T 2Y5). We send this to every forwarder and broker on first contact so the FIRMS code is in the system before the first container moves.
CN Taschereau and CP St-Luc Rail Terminal Proximity
If your inbound flow includes 401-corridor rail from Toronto or CN/CP intermodal from the US, proximity to CN Taschereau and CP St-Luc rail terminals matters. Lachine warehouses sit closer to both rail yards than Dorval or Montreal-East. Rail dwell (the time between when the container is unloaded from the railcar and when drayage picks it up) runs two to four days during normal weeks, longer during CN/CP congestion events. A warehouse ten minutes from the rail terminal can book same-day or next-day drayage pickup when the container goes available. A warehouse thirty minutes away often batches rail pickups weekly, which adds another two to three days to the dwell time.
Ask whether the warehouse monitors CN and CP daily availability reports and whether they coordinate rail drayage separately from port drayage. Warehouses that treat all inbound drayage as a single daily batch miss the rail pickup windows and let containers sit on the rail yard accruing per-diem charges.
Dock-to-Stock SLA and What Drives Variation
We typically see 24-48 hours dock-to-stock for European LCL on our dock. That range assumes the broker sends the PARS release within six hours of container arrival, CBSA does not flag the shipment for exam, and the container does not require reefer monitoring or hazmat segregation. Exam-flagged containers add one to two days. Reefer containers with temperature deviation add another half-day while we document the cold-chain break and get disposition instructions from the consignee.
The biggest driver of dock-to-stock variation is broker release timing. If the CAD was filed pre-arrival and CBSA releases on minimum documentation (RMD), the container can be devanned the same day it hits the dock. If the broker files the CAD after the container arrives, we wait for the release before devanning, which pushes dock-to-stock to 48 hours or longer. Ask the warehouse what their actual dock-to-stock time is when the broker sends the release the same day versus next-day, and what happens when CBSA holds the file for exam.
Our in-bond cargo handling at our sufferance warehouse includes RMD coordination with the broker, but we can't release freight until CBSA sends the authorization. The 24-48 hour range is what we hit when the broker does their part on time.
Lachine vs Dorval vs Montreal-East: Which Zone Fits Your Inbound Flow
Lachine corridor warehouses optimize for port-direct LCL and rail intermodal. Dorval warehouses sit closer to Trudeau Airport and work better for air-to-truck transload or mixed-mode inbound (ocean primary, air make-up). Montreal-East warehouses handle higher pallet counts and longer dwell times (30-day average vs 10-day average in Lachine) but add drayage time and cost for every port pickup.
If your primary inbound mode is ocean LCL from Europe or Mediterranean, Lachine is the right zone. If you run 70% air and 30% ocean, Dorval makes sense. If you need long-term storage with occasional port pickups, Montreal-East offers lower per-pallet-day rates at the cost of drayage efficiency. There is no universal best answer; it maps to your actual inbound mix and dwell time.
We handle warehousing and distribution for importers running 80% ocean LCL, 20% rail intermodal, with 10-15 day average dwell. That profile fits Lachine. If your dwell time runs 30-45 days and you prioritize per-pallet cost over drayage speed, Montreal-East is probably the better fit.
Practical Evaluation Checklist
When you scope a warehouse near the Port of Montreal, ask these questions in the first call:
- What is your CBSA Sublocation Code and FIRMS code?
- How many dock doors do you operate, and what is your typical container throughput per week during peak LCL season?
- Do you monitor Port of Montreal terminal availability in real time, or do you batch drayage requests on a fixed daily schedule?
- What is your actual dock-to-stock time when the broker sends the PARS release same-day versus next-day?
- Do you coordinate CN/CP rail drayage separately from port drayage, or do you batch all inbound pickups together?
- What happens when CBSA flags a container for exam? Do you have on-site exam capacity, or does the container go back to the terminal?
- What is your reefer monitoring SOP, and do you charge separately for temperature deviation documentation?
If the warehouse cannot answer these questions with specific numbers and process detail, they either don't handle enough LCL volume to have refined the process or they don't track the metrics that matter. Either way, your first container will surface the gaps.
Our Port of Montreal drayage coordination runs daily terminal checks starting at 06:00, same-day drayage booking for containers that go available before 10:00, and dock appointment windows that align with broker release timing. We publish dock-to-stock actuals every month (24-48 hour median, 72-hour 95th percentile) so forwarders know what to expect before they book the first pallet. Most warehouses don't publish these numbers because they don't track them. Ask, and see what you get back.
Lachine puts you ten minutes from the terminals and twenty minutes from CN Taschereau. Seven dock doors, CBSA Sublocation 6050, 24-48 hour dock-to-stock when the broker sends the release on time. If that matches your inbound profile, come say hello.
Originally published at https://www.fywarehouse.com/news/how-to-choose-warehouse-near-port-of-montreal.
