How Does Toyota's "Port" System Work?

Is the port for the Tundra in San Antonio at the plant itself or is this a different location for distribution centers? If they are at different locations then what port services what areas? Maybe its just the word itself that is throwing me off. Can anyone explain the "port" and how it works after your truck is built?

 

There seems to be very little good solid information available on the Port installed options. Either from the Web or the dealer. My 21 had a few port installed options but nowhere could I find out where they were installed. Some vehicles go to Houston to Gulf States for port installed options but not sure where others go.
I think the original "Port" was a point of entry where Toyotas were off loaded from Japan and went directly to a facility nearby for final work. But that would make no sense for my Tundra to be delivered to the west coast only to then be loaded back up and sent to Ohio.

I'm hoping others have been able to figure out this mystery and let us know.

One final point is that Google provides info on a company that provides this service to multiple companies but nothing tells me Toyota uses them.

 

I tried to search for this and had no luck. I would think it is too expensive to ship vehicles to multiple locations but maybe someone will chime in with how it works.

 

I'm going to venture a guess here based on what I've picked up from various folks in the Toyota dealer network...

Toyota has 3 primary "distributors" in the USA:

• Southeast Toyota USA - Serves all of the Southeast and the entire east coast (I think)
• Gulf States Toyota - Serves Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. Maybe more, but those are the ones I know for sure.
• Toyota of America or maybe it's "Toyota USA" - Serves the west coast (pretty much west of the Rockies)

Tundras are built in TX and then shipped by rail to each of the distributor's "ports." The "port" is nothing more than a giant staging area where the vehicles can be off-loaded from the rail cars, final options are installed, the trucks are converted to "pre-delivery" status, and then loaded onto their car haulers for final delivery to the individual dealerships.

I'm not sure where the "ports" are though. I think Toyota of America's (Toyota USA) port is in Los Angeles. At least, any time I order parts they always come from a massive distro center in LA plus my local dealership said my truck was "on a car hauler coming in from LA" the week I took delivery of it. Gulf States Toyota is owned by Dan Friedkin and his headquarters is in Houston. Southeast Toyota is owned by the JM Family and the family's HQ is in Deerfield Beach, FL. It would make sense that's where the three "ports" are in case they had to export vehicles for sale in overseas or South American markets.

My 2 cents. Hope that helps in some way.

 

the "Port" is not a physical location. It's a state of being. To understand it look at it as a brand whole rather than the Tundra specifically. The labelling is simplistic and doesn't care where the vehicle is physically. In production means just that, and it would be listed the same if it's a car made in Japan, USA, or Mars. Then it is sent to the "port" which is staging before sale where any addons that are not part of manufacturing, but not dealer addons can be added. If it were the Japan car then the port could literally be the port of another country, or a parking lot outside the factory. As previously stated, the physical locations isn't specified by port, it is just the stage of the process it is in.

 

We have one of the ports here in Portland. Services the West coast(maybe more). Vehicles can come on rail, or ship. Get processed(have some options added) then put on trucks to the dealer.

 

Southeast toyota has a "port" here in Jacksonville. 3 different Manufacturers deliver here, by rail or ship. I'm guessing toyota would deliver Tundras here by rail, but could be wrong. Sounds more expensive to sail them around Florida from TX

 

Exactly this!

 

thank you for the input. That helps it make more sense.

 

actually there are about 12 "ports" for toyota. port is just another word for centralized distribution hub for a region with each region serving several states. a port/region will receive shipments from toyota usa (including GST/SET) with a state that is part of that region.

my region (western region) the port is located in kansas city since i am in ND. on our 2016 tacoma we had status updates from the dealer and it was railed from mexico thru arizona then to kansas city.

after it arrives at a port they will put on PIO only (port installed options) options that those vehicles requiires before being put on a truck to ship to a dealer. a good example is the paint protection options are PIO installed.

this also falls back to allocation requests. when a dealer puts one in, all they are doing is requesting that particular build is coming to that regional port be sent to that dealer. if the port says its not being built/or with those options/pkgs and being shipped to that regional port, the system will kick back a denial of the request to the dealer within 1-3 days and the dealer will have to resubmit a new reqeust until it is accepted by the regional port.

also each regional port has different inbound requirements from toyota usa. some pkg/options combo's that are available in one region may not be available in other regions.

ie:

AVS package must include automatic running boards but running boards do NOT require AVS package. this is the current restriction in my region.

or less 4wd versions are shipped to southern states and vice versa for northern states, since they dont sell as much of those configs.


New England Region -- Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island
Greater New York Region -- New York, New Jersey, Connecticut
Central Atlantic Region -- Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, District of Columbia
Southeast Region (SET) -- North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida
Western Region -- Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota
Ohio Valley Region -- Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee
Midwest Region -- Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota
Mountain Region -- Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming
Gulf States Region (GST) -- Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi
Northern CA Region -- California north of the Los Angeles metro area
Southern CA Region -- Los Angeles metro area, and areas south
Pacific Northwest Region -- Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana

 

Damn, someone who actually knows something!

 

This is exactly how the process working in my thinking. I presume the RR unloads the new vehicles at these ports and once the PIO are installed the yellow sticker is applied then loaded on a truck to be delivered to the dealer. Do you know where the Ohio Valley region distribution center is located?

 

had to go find my old post on tacoma world

• Boston Office (ME, NH, VT, MA, RI) 508-339-5701

• New York (NY, NJ, CT) 973-575-7600

• Central Atlantic (PA, VA, WV, MD, DE) 410-760-1500

• Southeast Region (NC, SC, AL, GA, FL) 954-429-2000

• Cincinnati Region (MI, OH, KY, TN) 513-745-7500

• Chicago Region (MN, WI, IL, IN) 630-907-0150

• Kansas City Region (ND, SD, NE, KS, IA, M0) 816-891-1000

• Gulf States Region (OK, TX, MS, LA, AR) 713-580-3300

• Portland Region (AK, WA, OR, ID, MT) 503-493-4900

• Denver Region (WY, CO, UT, NM, AZ, NV) 303-799-6776

• San Francisco Region (Northern CA) 925-830-8300

• LA Region (Southern CA) 949-727-2700

not confident on the phone numbers since they are from late 2000's

 

also to add, shipping ports are usually only for inbound toyota from japan (4runner, lexus). part of rav4 production use to be made in japan but shifted to usa/.ca production if i remember correctly. land cruiser was built in japan but no longer being shipped to usa since they discontinued it for usa market since the usa version was unique to usa and not the global version of the land cruiser.

domestic built toyota's are shipped via rail then trucked within the usa (including the tacoma's built in mexico)

 

and for those that want to see what an allocation request (our 2016 tacoma and 2018 tundra) and shipment tracking looks like (2018 tundra).

the tacoma sheet shows which pkg/options are mandatory and what things on the right are optional items that are not tied to other pkg/options requirements. this is done thru dealerdaily via a toyota website (which i think was via a vpn, not sure, so if someone that logs into dealerdaily can correct me)

also you can notice on the tacoma the "i have" vehicle is a tacoma already allocated to this dealer that the dealer already put in a request for. the vehicle change section "i want" is where you change the options to what the customer wants to "order/allocate" certain options to be sent to this dealer.

the tundra tacking is unique since we were able to get a status update while the train was stopped in temple, texas being railed to kansas city. you will also notice that there is vessel depart/arrival, these are for those shipped from japan, otherwise you only will see rail depart/arrive for domestic built/shipped vehicles. we put in an allocation request back in early october but i cant find full pdf on the tundra allocation printout, only page 2.

the tacoma printout is on a different screen than the tundra in dealerdaily, hence the different formats. the tacoma printout is the actual selection screen for what pkg/options you want (dealer allocation request section) and the tundra is a summary of what your request was (dealer allocation request)

these were created just doing a screenshot and printing it via pdf option in the printer selection drop down.

BIG CAVEAT, NOT ALL DEALERS ARE THIS FORTHCOMING ON LETTING A CUSTOMER SEE THESE SCREENS. LUCKILY I HAVE BOUGHT 13+ TOYOTA'S FROM THIS DEALER SO YMMV.