Montreal logistics hub growth: What ops teams should expect

The capacity squeeze is real, and it starts at the dock

Port of Montreal moved approximately 1.74 million TEU in 2023, and that number keeps climbing. The terminal operators and drayage carriers know it. We know it. What's less obvious to importers is how that volume growth translates to tighter operational windows on our end—the sufferance warehouse and cross-dock side.

Five years ago, we could afford loose coordination between a drayage window and dock-door availability. A carrier could tell us "arriving Wednesday afternoon" and we'd shuffle one of two available doors. Today, we're managing against a published cross-dock cutoff of 14:00 for next-day outbound, and Wednesday afternoon arrivals at 16:30 sit overnight at our in/out rate. That's a $40 per skid swing vs. $12 for immediate putaway. It compounds fast.

The Port of Montreal is in the middle of a multi-phase expansion targeting deeper berths and increased crane capacity. That infrastructure work is supposed to smooth some of the congestion, but in the near term—through 2025 and into early 2026—we're in a transition period where vessel scheduling pressure hasn't eased but drayage availability has gotten tighter as carriers optimize their own lane economics.

What's driving the growth forecast

Container volumes at Port of Montreal have grown roughly 6–8% annually over the past three years, with particular strength in inbound refrigerated cargo (reefer penetration on transpacific routes into North America has climbed to around 22% of total volume) and light manufacturing components routed through the CUSMA corridor. That's not just noise; it changes the mix of what arrives and when.

Reefer containers carry temperature penalties. A 2-degree deviation kicks a deviation fee and potential duty recalculation. When we're moving 15,000+ reefer pallets through a facility in a month, putaway cycle time becomes a compliance issue, not just a KPI. We're working 48-hour dock-to-stock SLAs on temperature-controlled cargo, and any dock backup eats into that window hard.

Importers shipping under CUSMA are also benefiting from preferential tariff treatment on goods that hit certain origin thresholds. That's driving inbound consolidation—multiple smaller shipments arriving in fewer containers, which means higher pallet density per container and tighter de-consolidation windows. A 40HC that used to be 18–20 pallets is now regularly 24–26 pallets, all destined for different receivers in the 401 corridor. Cross-dock velocity has to rise to match.

Transport Canada's hours-of-service rules for drayage operators also tighten the math. A driver can't sit in a Port of Montreal queue for 4 hours and still make a 14:00 warehouse cutoff 50 km away in Lachine without burning hours. That pressure cascades back to the terminal—carriers want earlier slots, which means earlier arrivals, which means earlier dock-door commitment from us.

Sufferance warehouse capacity and the real constraint

FENGYE LOGISTICS operates a CBSA-authorized sufferance warehouse in Montreal with 50,000 sq ft of climate-controlled racking and seven dock doors. At current utilization, we're running 85–90% occupancy in Q4, compared to 65–70% in the same quarter three years ago. That's not a crisis, but it's a constraint. Every percentage point of growth in container throughput hits the warehouse side with lag—it's a one-to-many problem. One container spreads across multiple warehouse zones during consolidation or de-consolidation, then exits as smaller shipments.

The Port of Montreal's stated capacity target is 3.4 million TEU annually by 2030, which implies roughly 15–20% volume growth from current levels. If that growth distributes proportionally across sufferance warehouses and cross-dock facilities in the region, we're looking at 400–600 additional pallet positions needed per facility over the next 24 months, just to maintain current utilization ratios.

Most in-bond facilities in the Montreal area haven't expanded dock infrastructure significantly. Racking density can be increased, but dock doors are fixed assets. A facility with seven doors can only service seven trailers simultaneously, no matter how many pallets are stacked behind them. When dwell time at the port climbs—and it's climbing; we're seeing 8–12 day holds on exam-flagged containers in peak season—those containers arrive at the warehouse later in the cycle, compressed into fewer available dock windows.

What this means for drayage and LTL consolidation

Drayage carriers operating from Port of Montreal to warehouse-to-receiver circuits are pricing the scarcity in. We're not seeing published rate increases on every lane yet, but the negotiation texture has changed. Carriers are asking for earlier commitment (we need to slot them 72 hours out, not 48), and they're charging detention premiums more aggressively. A 48-hour free time window used to be soft; today, hourly overage starts bleeding into quotes at hour 49.

That puts pressure on LTL consolidation economics. If a carrier is charging CAD 4,500 per 40HC slot and markup on the consolidated shipment has to cover dwell penalties, the cost advantage of consolidation shrinks. We're seeing importers push back and ask for fewer but larger inbound shipments—moving away from weekly 8–10 pallet LCL consolidations and toward biweekly or monthly FTL loads. That sounds efficient, but it's a trap for inventory managers. The working capital cost of holding inventory longer usually outweighs the drayage savings.

The play, if you're running consolidation in Montreal, is to commit to dock slots earlier and eat the buffer. We're increasingly recommending 72-hour pre-booking windows for carriers and 96-hour release notification to importers on consolidated shipments. That's two days more carrying cost, but it eliminates the detention penalty and the cross-dock cutoff miss that turns $12 per-skid putaway into $40.

Bonded warehouse strategy and RPP bond sizing

As volumes rise and dwell times compress, importers holding duty liability in a sufferance warehouse longer than planned have a real problem. The CBSA tracks in-bond inventory and applies holding fees after specific thresholds. If you're running a revolving in-bond consolidation operation—receiving multiple shipments on a single RPP bond before releasing to payment—higher throughput means higher concurrent inventory and higher bond coverage required.

We're seeing importers discover their RPP bond isn't sized for current velocity. A bond that was adequate for 500 pallets in-transit is insufficient when peak inventory hits 800 pallets because dwell time climbed from 6 to 10 days. That's a CARM-era issue; the CAD filing and release timing haven't changed, but the physical holding period has. The bond math needs to reset when volume and dwell assumptions break.

Timeline: What to act on now

If you're importing into Montreal regularly, the next 12 months are the time to renegotiate drayage SLAs and dock-door commitment windows. Carriers who were flexible two years ago are fully booked in Q4 2025. Softer slots are disappearing.

Second, audit your consolidation thresholds. If you're consolidating 10-pallet shipments weekly, run the math on shifting to 16–20 pallet biweekly shipments with 72-hour pre-notification. The per-pallet putaway cost drops, and you avoid the cross-dock cutoff miss. Inventory holding cost might increase slightly, but it's usually worth it at current drayage premiums.

Third, if you're holding inventory in-bond in Montreal for any reason beyond brief consolidation, talk to your customs broker about RPP bond sizing and ask your 3PL to project 12-month peak inventory for you. Undersized bonds create audit friction with CBSA and can hold up releases during peak season when you least need it.

Port of Montreal growth is real, and the infrastructure will eventually catch up. Until then, the constraint is local warehouse and dock velocity, not the port itself. Plan for tighter timelines and less buffer than you've had. Get in touch with us if your current sufferance warehouse operation isn't built for the next 18 months of volume. Learn more about sufferance warehouse Montreal.

Originally published at https://www.fywarehouse.com/news/montreal-logistics-hub-growth-what-ops-teams-should-expect-06a9b605.