Rail for the long haul, even when your dock has no track. Steel Wheel Logistics coordinates the facility, the rail leg, and the handoff.
Transloading moves your product between rail cars and trucks at a facility built for the transfer — grain to a truck at an elevator, plastic pellets from a hopper into a pneumatic trailer, steel from a gondola onto a flatbed. It’s how shippers get rail economics on lanes where one end has no siding. If the concept is new to you, start with our plain-English explainer: what is transloading?
The transfer itself happens at a facility. The work around the transfer is ours: Steel Wheel Logistics selects the facility, matches your commodity to its handling equipment, and coordinates the rail move and the handoff. We don’t operate terminals and we don’t take title to your freight — so the facility we point you to is the one that fits your move, not one we have to fill.
We maintain the largest free transload directory we know of — 2,500+ facilities, searchable by state, commodity, and on-site capability, with operator contact details where published. We verify and enrich it continuously; it’s the same database we work from when we coordinate your move.
Search the transload directory or browse facilities by state. If you’d rather have someone who reads these facility profiles every day pick the right one for your commodity, that’s the service.
Not sure how your commodity moves by rail? Our commodity reference pages cover the railcar, typical loading, and how each product typically transfers.
Two jobs wearing one name. The facility physically moves product between railcars and trucks. The coordinator picks the right facility, arranges the rail leg, and manages the handoff. Steel Wheel provides the coordination — shipper’s side, no facility to fill, no title taken.
Facility operators — railroad-affiliated networks and hundreds of independent terminals — run the physical sites. Coordinators like Steel Wheel Logistics work for the shipper: we select from 2,500+ facilities, match commodity to capability, and coordinate the move end to end. The distinction matters because a facility operator’s answer to “where should I transload?” is usually their own terminal.
Generally: long line-haul, real volume, and a product that handles bulk transfer well. Short lanes and small volumes usually belong on trucks — the handling charge eats the rail saving. The honest comparison is rail line-haul + handling + short truck leg against truck all the way, and we’ll run it with you either way it comes out. Our transloading vs. direct rail guide covers the decision in depth.
Facilities quote their own handling rates — typically per ton or per unit, varying by commodity, equipment, and storage time. We don’t publish facility rates because they aren’t ours to publish; we help you get the quote and judge the total lane economics against it.
That’s the everyday work. Start with the free directory — filter by your state and commodity — or tell us the lane and we’ll shortlist facilities that genuinely fit.
Both. One-time bulk moves can pencil when distance and volume are there — and when they don’t, we say so. Recurring lanes are where transloading earns its keep, and ongoing coordination is part of our outsourced rail department service.
Tell us the origin, the destination, and the product. We’ll tell you whether transloading makes sense — and where.
