If women’s clothing doesn’t seem like time-sensitive cargo, just ask Dick Perket.

The senior director of global logistics for Minnesota-based retailer Christopher & Banks explains it this way: A customer needs an outfit for an event. She spots what she wants in a catalogue and tries to purchase it online, only to learn that her choice is out of stock. One click later, she’s gone.

A product, Perket says simply, needs to be available when a consumer wants to buy it. And so Christopher & Banks a few years ago began transloading through The Northwest Seaport Alliance to save time and improve their supply chain’s reliability.

It’s just one example, Perket said, of how the NWSA’s involvement in the supply chain can help beneficial cargo owners solve problems.

“Knowing that the two ports are working together as one is huge for us. It gives me more options,” he said. “By partnering with the terminals, the ocean carriers and the transloaders, they’re the conduit and connection with the freight.”

If there’s a question or a need, the alliance is there to help. And in a competitive trade market, that makes a difference.

“I have choices,” he said. “I can go somewhere else. But when you listen to me and help me solve my problems, then you’re a partner with me.”

The transloading solution followed years of unpredictable transport through both the Northern United States and Canada to the Minneapolis area. The Christopher & Banks containers often ended up at the back of the train, which meant delays in unloading, Perket explained.

Transloading the cargo from 40-foot ocean-going containers to larger—and fewer—53-foot domestic containers saved the company critical time. The company partnered with Global Transportation Services in Kent, Washington, and the arrangement has helped speed cargo arrival by securing spots near the front of the train.

“[Transloading] doesn’t sound like it could make that much of a difference—that those extra steps to unload and load containers could make it faster—but it does,” Perket said. “I know if the cargo leaves on Saturday, it’s going to be here on Wednesday. That predictability is something I can depend on.”