Bear Shift Seattle, WA · licensed freight broker
Freight broker in Seattle, Washington
Freight broker in Seattle, Washington: Bear Shift arranges trucks for freight leaving or arriving in the city, from a full trailer out of a SODO warehouse to a few pallets bound for a store on Capitol Hill. Independent, FMCSA-authorized carriers haul each load under their own authority, while our office in Issaquah books them, sets up the appointments and keeps you posted until delivery.
Where freight moves in Seattle
Seattle's main industrial area lies south of downtown. SODO sits beside the Port of Seattle's East Waterway and Georgetown along the Duwamish, with warehouses, rail yards and distributors packed between East Marginal Way and I-5. Harbor Island, at the mouth of the Duwamish, holds Terminal 18, one of the port's main container terminals, and Interbay, the low valley between Queen Anne and Magnolia, mixes a rail yard, maritime businesses and light industry.
The Port of Seattle has run its container terminals, Terminal 5 in West Seattle among them, together with the Port of Tacoma through the Northwest Seaport Alliance since 2015. Trucks reach the waterfront from I-5 and the surface streets of the industrial area, and I-90 is the way east toward Bellevue, Issaquah and the Cascades. Downtown is a different job: tight streets, short loading zones and very little room to park a 53-foot trailer.
Freight that commonly moves in and out of Seattle
The city's port, its retailers and its offices shape the freight that moves through Seattle. Typical loads look like the ones below; if yours is different, ask anyway.
- Imported goods unloaded from ocean containers and reloaded into dry vans for regional delivery.
- Retail and consumer packaged goods restocking stores and distribution centers.
- Computer, server and office equipment moving between offices, labs and data rooms.
- Shelf-stable food and beverages for grocers, restaurants and caterers.
How we arrange Seattle loads
The truck depends on where the freight starts and ends. A full trailer from a SODO distributor to Spokane is a standard full truckload; a handful of pallets for a downtown store may be better on a box truck with a liftgate that can stop at the curb. We look at the address, the dock and the receiving hours, then book a vetted carrier with the right equipment for that stop.
Box truck and final mile
Downtown and neighborhood stops where a 53-foot trailer will not fit.
LTL and partial
A few pallets from a Seattle dock to a customer elsewhere in the state.
Full truckload
A whole trailer out of the industrial area, booked for your freight alone.
See all the services we arrange
Storage near Seattle
When freight has to wait before a Seattle delivery, it does not have to wait in Seattle. We look for space with independent partner warehouses in the Kent Valley, a short run down I-5 or SR-167, and coordinate the trucks in and out. A 53-foot trailer can drop the pallets there, and a box truck can make the last leg into the city once the store or office is ready to receive them.
Warehousing we coordinate · Pallet staging before delivery · Own a warehouse? Become a partner
Shipping to or from Seattle? Get a price
Seattle freight questions
Can you arrange a delivery to a downtown Seattle address?
Yes. Tell us the street address, whether the building has a dock or a loading zone, and the receiving hours. For most downtown stops we look for a box truck or a van with a liftgate, because a 53-foot trailer often has nowhere to stop. Some buildings require an appointment with their loading dock; give us the contact and we include it in the carrier's instructions.
Do you handle freight coming out of the Port of Seattle?
We arrange the trucks that take import freight onward once it is out of the container, usually from a transload or cross-dock warehouse near the waterfront. Moving the container itself from the terminal to that warehouse is drayage, normally done by your forwarder or a drayage company; if you don't have one, ask and we tell you whether we can arrange that move too.
Is your office in Seattle?
Our office is in Issaquah, about 20 miles east of downtown Seattle. As a broker we don't keep trucks or a warehouse there; the carriers we book come to your dock, wherever it is in the city.