People generally take it for granted just how their brand new Toyota gets to their driveway. There is much more to it than just going to the dealer and driving it home. The journey for the car began many, many days earlier thousands of miles away. It did not reach U.S. soil till after being loaded onto an automobile ship and being offloaded at its destination port.

The Port of Portland is one of the major destinations in the United States for overseas auto shipping. From there, railcars are used for transporting vehicles to twenty six different states, some as far as the east coast.

Automobile shipping brings a tremendous economic impact to the region. Nearly $90 million alone was generated in taxes (state and local). Just fewer than 12000 jobs are created annually at the four terminals that service the automobile ships. Almost $871 million in income is created as well. Estimates calculate the economic benefit to the region for each car imported is $318.

Just last February the Port of Portland was designated the first port of call for the largest automobile ship in the world, the Morning Lisa of Eukor Car Carriers Inc. The vessel has a capacity of 8011 units making the economic impact for each subsequent visit (assuming it is full) to be over $2.5 million.

The Port of Portland typically handles around 400,000 automobiles a year. Volume was a little low in 2008; approximately 9% down from the previous year. The highest number of vehicles transported through the Port was in 2006 (463,557 total units).


For more information on car shipping and auto transport services, call N-Motion Auto Transport today for auto shipping rates.