Cold store cross-docking and 3PL overflow support
EZ Trans moves chilled and frozen pallets in and out of the third-party cold stores at Wacol, Carole Park and Richlands, about 25 km from our Kedron depot on the Ipswich Motorway. We work as the overflow and last-mile carrier when a large 3PL cannot fit a smaller client’s run into its schedule.
Wacol and Carole Park hold some of the largest third-party cold stores in Brisbane, and much of the region’s frozen and chilled stock passes through them before it reaches a customer. Those facilities are built for volume. When a movement is small, urgent or awkward it tends to fall outside the schedule, and that gap is where our refrigerated transport fits.
The precinct sits roughly 25 km from our Castle Street depot at Kedron, about 25 to 30 minutes outside peak on the Ipswich Motorway. Most Wacol work reaches us at short notice: a store at capacity, a client whose pallets have to shift to another site, or a delivery run a larger operator has no room for this week.
A large 3PL is optimised for its own biggest accounts. When the freezer fills or the delivery board is full, the deferred movements are the small ones: a client with nine pallets, a single-store delivery, a transfer between two sites in the same suburb. None are hard jobs. They just do not fit a plan built around full-vehicle runs.
We pick up that residue. Typical calls are a part-load out of a Wacol freezer to a customer the store cannot service this week, a transfer from one Carole Park facility to another because inbound containers have taken the racking, and last-mile delivery where the 3PL keeps the stock. Our post on choosing the right logistics partner covers how that sits alongside an existing provider.
Progress Road is the working axis, running from the Ipswich Motorway through Wacol into Richlands, with the cold stores and distribution sheds sitting off it and off Grindle Road. Wacol Station Road ties the older industrial pocket back toward the rail line, and Boundary Road carries traffic into the Carole Park estates. In that grid the constraint is rarely the road and usually the yard.
Motorway geometry is the advantage. The Ipswich Motorway interchange sits on the doorstep, the Logan Motorway begins just south at Gailes, and the Centenary Motorway is a short run east, so one Wacol collection can reach Ipswich, Logan, Acacia Ridge or the inner north without doubling back. It also makes the precinct a sensible staging point for interstate refrigerated freight.
A cross-dock is the weak point in most cold chains, because responsibility moves at the same moment the product does. Food Standards Australia New Zealand is clear that potentially hazardous food must be at 5C or colder, or 60C or hotter, and that the limits apply during receipt, storage, display and transport. A Wacol handover touches three of those inside the same hour, so each needs its own record.
We treat the handover as a documented event: product temperature taken at the point of release, the vehicle pre-cooled before pallets leave the dock, and a second reading recorded at delivery. The Australian Cold Chain Guidelines, released by the Australian Food and Grocery Council in 2017, treat handling, transport and storage as one chain, which is how a cross-dock has to be read. Each run is planned around the handling and temperature requirements of the freight.
Overflow work takes three shapes, and the right one depends on how many times the pallet is touched before it lands.
| Option | Suits | Temperature risk points | What we need from you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct from store to customer | A release that is ready and a same-day delivery | One release, one delivery, least exposure | Release number and a delivery window |
| Cross-dock between two facilities | Racking pressure, a site change, a split consignment | Two docks, two receipts, two sets of records | Both site contacts and written release authority |
| Staged into our storage, then delivered | Stock with no confirmed drop date | Controlled holding, then one delivery leg | Volume, band and how long it may sit |
For the third option freight can sit in refrigerated, ambient or dry storage until the buyer confirms, which often suits a client better than holding pallet space in a facility priced for volume.
Often within the same or the following working day, though we confirm a slot only once we know what the run involves. Two things decide it: whether the release paperwork is ready at the store, and whether the drop sits on a corridor we already run. Wacol connects to three motorways, so the second condition is met more often here than elsewhere.
Scheduling also sits inside the driving rules. Fatigue laws under the Heavy Vehicle National Law apply to fatigue-regulated heavy vehicles, as set out by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, so a late release does not simply extend the day, it reshapes the run. Send the detail early and book the movement, and we will say plainly whether it fits today or tomorrow.
From Wacol or Carole Park, take the Ipswich Motorway east, then the Centenary Motorway and Inner City Bypass through to Lutwyche Road and Kedron, roughly 25 km and about 25 to 35 minutes depending on the hour. The yard is at 2/21 Castle Street, and the directions to our Kedron depot page shows the approach.
Every area we cover is listed on the service areas index.
About 25 km, or roughly 25 to 30 minutes outside peak on the Ipswich Motorway, longer once Centenary and Inner City Bypass traffic builds. For cold store work the depot leg matters less than the delivery leg, since pallets usually travel straight from Wacol to the receiver.
Yes, and it is common work when racking fills or a client changes sites. We need both site contacts, written authority to release, and the pallet or consignment identifiers. Product temperature is recorded at release and again at the receiving dock, so the transfer is documented at both ends.
Yes. A reading is taken and noted when the freight is released, the vehicle is pre-cooled before loading, and a further reading is recorded at delivery. That gives the receiving party a continuous picture across receipt, transport and delivery rather than one figure at the end.
Frequently, yes. Short-notice overflow is a large part of what we do in this precinct. We confirm a slot only after seeing the job, because release readiness and driving hours both affect it, but the motorway access at Wacol means a same or next day answer is usually possible.
Yes. Progress Road links Wacol and Richlands directly, and Gailes and Ellen Grove sit on the same motorway loop, so those addresses normally join one run. Darra and Sumner Park are close enough that a collection in one and a delivery in the other can be sequenced together.
Tell us the facility, the band the stock is held at, the pallet count and where it has to go, and we will quote the movement and say what is realistic today. Freight type, timing, distance and storage all shape the quote.
