How does an export container get from your dock to a GTA ramp?
An export container makes three moves. The empty comes to your dock, you load and seal it, and it returns loaded to CN Brampton or CPKC Vaughan. The deadline is the rail cutoff for the train it must catch. Setara Transport brings the empty and takes the loaded container back to the ramp before the rail cutoff.
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How does an export move work, step by step?
Four steps, in order. A late booking or a late empty pushes back every step after it.
You get a booking
Your ocean line or forwarder gives you a booking number. It comes with a cut-off date and a sailing date.
We bring the empty
We pick up an empty against your booking and bring it to your dock for loading.
You load and seal
Your crew loads and seals the container. Send us the seal number and the cargo weight in the container.
We take it to the ramp
We deliver the loaded container to CN Brampton or CPKC Vaughan before the rail cutoff.
At CN Brampton, CN requires a gate appointment to deliver or pick up a steamship container, loaded or empty. To drop off a container, the appointment uses your booking number. CN sets this out, with its exceptions, on its gate appointment page.
What does dispatch need from you?
Send what you have at tender, and we tell you what is still missing. The booking number comes first, because the rest of the move hangs off it.
Give us the cargo weight in each container, not one total for the booking. Dispatch adds the container's own weight and confirms the right chassis before booking.
Send the rail cutoff and the first date the ramp accepts your loaded container. Those two dates set your loading window.
The seal number comes after loading. For a reefer, send the set point with the tender.
- Booking number and empty release
- The ramp: CN Brampton or CPKC Vaughan
- The rail cutoff
- First date the ramp accepts it
- Loading address and hours
- Cargo weight in each container
- Seal number, after loading
- Set point, for a reefer
What is the rail cutoff, and what if you miss it?
The rail cutoff is the latest time a loaded export container can enter the ramp and still leave on its train. Miss it, and the container waits for a later train.
Your booking carries a cut-off date and a sailing date. CN's 2018 story on grain exports in containers describes the booking the same way.
At CPKC, the rule is in its intermodal services tariff, in force since October 2, 2026. It sets cut-offs and acceptance dates by vessel for ports on its export schedule. A loaded export is tendered within the acceptance window for its vessel.
So two dates matter: the first day the ramp accepts your container, and the cutoff. Load so the container reaches the ramp between them.
Send both with the tender. It depends on the releases, the ramp and the schedule that day, so we do not promise a time here.
- The rail cutoff
- The first date the ramp accepts it
- The sailing date
- Your loading date
What a later train means for your sailing is a question for your forwarder or ocean line.
Who books the rail and the vessel?
Not us. Setara Transport is a carrier. It does not book rail, arrange freight forwarding or clear customs.
The booking
Your forwarder or ocean line makes the booking and handles the export documents. Changes to the booking go through them.
The load and the seal
You load, count and seal the container. Under our conditions of carriage, that is your load, your count and your seal.
The truck legs
We pull the empty to your dock and take the loaded container to the ramp before the rail cutoff.
The rules for our moves are in the conditions of carriage. If your forwarder already booked a trucker with the ocean move, check before you tender to us. That way the container is not booked twice.
Can you haul heavy or refrigerated exports?
Yes. Heavy and overweight exports ride on tri-axle chassis, and reefer exports run off both ramps.
Tri-axle chassis
We haul heavy and overweight containers on tri-axle chassis. Tell us the cargo weight in each container on the quote, and dispatch confirms the right chassis before booking. See heavy and overweight containers.
Your set point
Import and export reefers off both ramps. Who sets the temperature? You do. Send the set point with the tender. See reefer drayage.
How should you plan the loading?
Tell us at tender when you will load and what hours your dock works. Dispatch confirms how we will cover the move.
Work back from the cutoff
Pick a loading day that gets the container to the ramp after its first accepted date and before the cutoff.
Tell us at tender
Send the loading address, your dock hours and the day you want the empty.
Send the numbers
Once the container is loaded and sealed, send the seal number and the cargo weight.
If loading slips, call dispatch as soon as you know. Tell your forwarder too: changes to the booking go through them.
What does Setara Transport do?
Setara Transport runs the truck legs of an export: the empty to your dock and the loaded container back to the ramp. We serve docks across Peel, York, Halton, Toronto and Durham, and out into the rest of Ontario.
- Booking number and empty release
- The ramp: CN Brampton or CPKC Vaughan
- The rail cutoff and the first date the ramp accepts it
- Loading address and hours
- The cargo weight in each container
- The seal number after loading, and the set point for a reefer
- Pick up the empty against your booking
- Bring it to your dock for loading
- Take the loaded container back to the ramp before the rail cutoff
- Use tri-axle chassis for heavy and overweight containers
- Move reefer exports with the set point you send
Dispatch, at (905) 745-2322, Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 18:00 ET, or dispatch@setara.ca.
Export container questions.
Words like rail cutoff, set point and tri-axle chassis are explained in drayage terms in plain English.
Can you bring an empty container to my dock for export?
What is a rail cutoff?
What do you need to book an export pickup?
What chassis does a heavy export container need?
Do you move refrigerated exports?
Do you book the rail or the vessel?
More answers for importers.
CN Brampton drayage
The CN ramp in Peel RegionCPKC Vaughan drayage
The CPKC ramp in York RegionWhere does an empty go back?
Empty returns after an importWhen does per diem stop?
The ocean line's clock on its containersHow is a heavy container moved?
Heavy containers on tri-axle chassisAll answers
Every answer for importers and forwardersExport booked? Send us the booking number.
The booking number, the ramp, the rail cutoff and your loading address.