Loads in Wilmington, NC
Live within 75 miles
No loads out of Wilmington right now
Guides for this area
Hauling in and out of Wilmington
Port gates and rules
- The container terminal at 1 Shipyard Boulevard runs its South Gate Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., with the last container received at 5:30 p.m. [1][2]
- The General Cargo Terminal's North Gate at 1870 Burnett Boulevard runs 7:30 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3:30 p.m. on weekdays, first come, first served. Drivers needing an escort must reach the badging office by 3 p.m. [1][2]
- A valid TWIC is required to enter the port. Without one, arrange an approved escort ahead of time. No passengers are allowed in the truck. [1]
- Before your first visit, register an account in the Navis N4 terminal system and bring a safety vest and safety shoes. [1]
- Containers enter the South Gate in lanes 2 or 3, and all container traffic leaves through the radiation portal lanes. The terminal speed limit is 20 mph, and drivers stay in the truck in the container yard. [1]
- The chassis yard gate at the River Road entrance runs weekdays 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and requires a TWIC. [1]
- Two NC Ports pages list different reefer hours, so call the South Gate at (910) 746-6488 before a reefer run. [1][2]
- Other gate phones: North Gate (910) 746-6345, and the chassis yard or South Gate after hours (910) 746-6451. [1]
- Remaining port holidays: Veterans Day November 11, Thanksgiving November 26 and 27, Christmas December 24, 25 and 28, and New Year's Day January 1, 2027. [2]
- The South Gate complex opened in 2022 with 7 inbound and 6 outbound lanes, weigh-in-motion scales and OCR portals. Trucker registration and container holds are in the Customer Access Portal. [3]
- NC Ports reported average truck turn times of about 20 minutes for a single move and 30 minutes for a dual move through November 2024. [10]
What moves through the port
- The port handles more than 320,000 TEUs a year and more than 5,000 container gate moves a week. [8]
- It has 1,500 reefer plugs, a covered reefer service area with wash stations, on-dock cold storage and an overweight container allowance. [4][10]
- More than one million sq ft of new cold storage has come online near the port. [4]
- In fiscal 2026, reefer imports grew on tropical fruit, Peruvian blueberries and melons, and protein was the largest refrigerated export. [11]
- A Chilean grape import season with Maersk ran through July 2026 using new produce treatment on the terminal. [12]
- A microscope added in 2024 lets CBP get same-day pest identifications on produce, which used to take days. [30]
- NC Ports' 2031 plan aims to make Wilmington the cold gateway of the Mid-Atlantic. [13]
Rail
- The Queen City Express runs daily CSX intermodal service from the port to the Charlotte Inland Port. Imports leave at 1 a.m. and are available at 8 a.m. the next day. [5]
- The Wilmington Midwest Express runs through CSX's Carolina Connector in Rocky Mount, with export transit of 5 days to Chicago. [6][7]
- Intermodal rail volumes set records through 2024 and fiscal 2025, and a fiscal 2026 yard expansion added 5,000 feet of working track. [9][11]
Other freight
- Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, about 16 miles south, is the Army's transfer point for munitions and military equipment. [23]
- International Paper runs a mill in Riegelwood on the Cape Fear River, about 19 miles from Wilmington. [24]
- Regional employers named by Wilmington Business Development include GE Vernova Hitachi, GE Aerospace, Corning, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Amazon. [25]
Roads and bridges
- I-40 ends in Wilmington at Exit 420, and I-140 meets it at Exit 416. [19]
- I-140 is a 25.4-mile northern bypass from US 17 near Winnabow to I-40, complete since 2017. [20]
- The Cape Fear Memorial Bridge carries US 17, 76 and 421 and port trucks across the river. It is a lift bridge, so expect delays when it opens for ships. [14][15][18]
- Its replacement is estimated at $1.1 billion, with public comment open through October 15, 2026 and no construction date set. [15]
- During the 2024 bridge closures, 300 to 700 container trucks a day detoured on MLK Jr. Parkway, South College Road and Shipyard Boulevard, and commercial trucks were banned from Third Street. [16][17]
- US 74/76 west toward Whiteville is signed as the Future I-74 corridor and meets I-95 at Exit 13. [29][28]
- No Wilmington location made ATRI's 2026 list of the top 100 truck bottlenecks in the US. [26]