Independent study shows Savannah saves shippers $1,000 per container compared to West Coast ports.
SAVANNAH, Ga., April 9, 2026 – New findings from Georgia Tech researchers show the Port of Savannah saves shippers more than $1,000 per container to Atlanta, Memphis and Nashville, compared to West Coast gateways.
“Our research shows that when shippers evaluate total landed cost and end-to-end reliability, routing cargo through Savannah provides a clear economic advantage compared to West Coast routes,” said Chris Gaffney, managing director of the Supply Chain and Logistics Institute at Georgia Tech. “For Atlanta, Memphis and Nashville, routing cargo through Savannah reduces congestion exposure, saves shippers money and delivers more consistent, predictable transit performance.”
A previous, Atlanta-focused study showed similar benefits: Shorter overland routes from Savannah result in fewer cargo handoffs and lower overall transport costs, even when factoring in longer ocean routes from Asia to the U.S. East Coast.
“In today’s business environment when lower cost and value are drivers for any decision, Savannah is clearly the best provider of great service and lower cost,” said Georgia Ports President and CEO Griff Lynch.
The Port of Savannah delivers not only shorter routes to Eastern U.S. markets, but on-terminal rail and direct interstate access. GPA leads the industry in speed to market, with average rail dwell at 20 hours between vessel offload and departing train.
In their latest work, researchers factored in both vessel and inland transit from ten Asian ports to Memphis, Nashville and Atlanta. The findings showed Savannah compensates for longer ocean routes with highly reliable port processing and inland transport, eliminating the high variance and congestion risks associated with West Coast routes.
PhD students and professors from Georgia Tech’s Supply Chain and Logistics Institute conducted the study, “Gateway Choice is a Total Cost and Time Reliability Decision, Not an Ocean Rate Decision,” at the institute’s Physical Internet Center.
Download a PDF of the news release here.
ABOUT GEORGIA PORTS
Georgia’s Ports in Savannah and Brunswick are strategic gateways, creating the most competitive supply chains in the nation with their level of operations, connectivity and supply chain ecosystem. These attributes combined with Georgia’s ranking as the top state to do business for 12 consecutive years create a strong business model for growth. The Port of Savannah is one of the best-connected ports in the U.S. to world markets with 40 ship calls a week, 42 doublestack trains per week and 14,000 truck gate moves daily. The Port of Brunswick is the number 1 ranked U.S. RoRo port by annual volumes for autos and has an increasing amount of machinery cargoes with its expanded high and heavy cargo operating space. GPA has a self-financed investment plan of nearly $5 billion for the next ten years which will see five new big ship container berths added in Savannah (the most new berths of any U.S. container port) and a fourth RoRo berth in Brunswick to meet future growth. In the past decade, GPA has invested $3.2 billion in infrastructure improvements. As part of GPA’s community engagement efforts, $6 million is being donated to port communities to support a multi-year, local workforce housing initiative, helping 178 families repair, buy or build a home in the Savannah area since its start in September 2023. For further information, visit gaports.com or contact Edward Fulford, Manager of Media Relations at [email protected] 912-964-3806.