Warehousing & Distribution Excellence

Bison leverages 11 dock facilities that are strategically placed across North America. These facilities amount to over 500,000 sqft. of warehousing space, and offer services such as storage, cross-docking, and pick-and-pack, including one of the most unique solutions in the industry with a rail spur directly connected to the main CP line at our flagship terminal in Winnipeg.

Warehousing with Bison can have various benefits, such as:

• Fully secure facilities in key Canadian and U.S. hubs
• Cross-dock, storage, and distribution services
• Indoor rail and truck loading/unloading
• Computerized inventory control and management
• Customized reporting and services
• Container loading and unloading
• Pick-and-pack services
• Forklift services
• Less-than-truckload consolidation and deconsolidation

Cross-dock items are items you receive and ship without putting them away, whereas Warehousing items require some form of storage and recall when product is required to move out. Cross-docking involves the direct transfer of goods from inbound to outbound transportation with minimal storage time, ideally suited for high-demand or quick-turn products. Warehousing involves the transfer of goods from inbound units into storage locations or racking for short or long-term horizons.

Consolidation Cross-Docking combines smaller shipments from multiple origins into larger loads for transportation. Goods are received, sorted, and then sent out to their destination, all in one single fluid process without the need for short or long-term holds on site.

Tactically, cross-docking may also involve shifting intact pallets from one form of ground transportation, like rail or truck, to another form of transportation with no storage time in between.

Warehousing solutions are ideal when you need to have product sit for a period of time. An example of this would be storing your product closer to your end consumer, so that you may fulfill deliveries in a more agile manner, rather than fulfilling direct-from-manufacturer.

There can also be a strategic angle to warehousing in which shippers want to achieve economies of scale on their transportation services. By booking large-format loads like full truckloads or full container loads into regionalized warehouses for storage, you can improve the unit economics on the inbound side, then store and call-out individual skids or smaller fulfillment requests from the warehouse.

Some of the benefits would include minimizing stock-outs and lowering impact of stock-outs if they do occur by getting to your consignees quicker. This may also ease the returns and reverse logistics process, allowing your stores or consignees to send returns back to the warehouse to be consolidated before going back to manufacturer, as opposed to sending single returns all the way back to origin facility.

Cross-dock solutions are most appropriate when you want to minimize the amount of time a product or commodity sits idle.

Food & Beverage: Cross-docking allows for rapid distribution of perishable goods. This helps minimise storage time, preserve product quality, and reduce food loss.

Consumer Goods & Retail: The retail sector, with its vast array of consumer goods, leverages cross-docking to manage inventory efficiently and respond promptly to market demands.

Automotive & Chemicals: The automotive and chemicals industries require meticulous handling and prompt delivery of parts and substances.

Seasonal Merchandise: Managing the influx of seasonal goods, ensuring stores receive timely stock without the need for extensive warehousing.

Time-Sensitive Industries: Industries dealing with time-sensitive or high-value items, such as pharmaceuticals, benefit tremendously from cross-docking.

Faster Shipping & Receiving: By bypassing traditional warehousing methods, products move rapidly from supplier to customer, dramatically reducing delivery times. This speedy process is particularly beneficial for time-sensitive goods such as perishable food items, fashion apparel, and electronics.

Cost & Time Savings: Implementing a cross-docking system leads to substantial cost savings and time efficiencies. Storage costs plummet, as the need for warehousing is significantly reduced or eliminated. It also cuts down on labour costs associated with handling and storing goods.

Centralised Handling & Operations: Cross-docking facilitates centralized distribution, allowing for more efficient handling and operations. Consolidating goods at a central point enables companies to optimise shipments, ensuring full truckloads and reducing environmental impact through fewer emissions.

Pick-and-Pack refers to the itemized assembly of store deliveries from bulk storage. Suppliers may transport and store large quantities of a particular SKU into a centralized warehouse location, but their customers may only need to purchase in piece counts. This method is typically utilized in a retail fulfillment model, where stock from several vendors is picked case-by-case and assembled into consolidated store deliveries on only a few pallets. Instead of delivering a pallet per supplier, you are consolidating cases from several suppliers into a single pallet or delivery and improving your cost efficiencies as well as minimizing storage needs at the final consignee.

Bison does not have any Bison-branded temperature-controlled warehousing, however with our vast network of regional carrier partners, we are able to tap into localized dock services who do offer temperature control options. It is best to speak with your Account Manager if you have a specific need in the temperature-controlled space, as there is likely a way that Bison can leverage our network of carrier relationships to support your specific need.

Bison Transport is fully approved under the Customs Self Assessment (CSA) and Free and Secure Trade (FAST) programs, and is a certified participant in the Partners in Protection (PIP) and Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) programs. These accreditations reflect Bison’s commitment to the secure and efficient conveyance of our customers’ freight across all border crossings. In alignment with these standards, Bison’s warehouses are both bonded and CTPAT compliant, further enhancing the security and integrity of our supply chain operations.

Freight Validation is the process by which the warehouse confirms the details of the freight booked in the system. This can include several steps from validating the weight, dimensions, or pallet counts communicated by the customer during booking, to ensure they are represented accurately in reality. This may also include validating that the paperwork supplied is an accurate reflection of the physical freight. Freight validation may include imaging freight to document the state of product when received at the dock including documentation of any OS&D (Overages, Shortages, Damages). Holistically, the freight validation process ensures the customer is charged accurately for the product they are shipping and are kept informed of any exceptions along the way.