DeltaPort Container Tour

Part of being a tourist in your own back yard means going out and seeing things. Sometimes, while you are "touring", you see things and wonder "what is that?" or "what do they do there?". Even when you are driving to and from work, you see things that might interest you.

Google Map of Tilbury Area

 I worked for over a year in the Tilbury area of Delta, which is primarily a light to heavy industrial area, near the Fraser River. Every day, while driving to work, I would see large stacks of shipping containers, tug boats hauling barges, and trucks carrying shipping containers back and forth. I wondered, where are they going? What is in them? Why are there so many different kinds of containers?

According to the Port of Vancouver website, "the Port of Vancouver Delta Community Office provides an opportunity for the community to meet Vancouver Fraser Port Authority staff and learn about port operations, initiatives and projects, including the proposed Roberts Bank Terminal 2 Project." They are open to the public, and they offer free information and speaker sessions, bus tours, and provide additional information regarding 

Fraser River in Tilbury

the impact of the port and its future developments. You can subscribe to their newsletter here.

It took a couple of attempts, but I was finally able to score a couple of free tickets to the Container Trail Tour. The tour sells out quickly, but if you are patient, it is worth it.

Stacks of Containers

We arrived at the office Saturday morning for the 9AM tour. After donning a safety vest and grabbing a couple of cookies (and a quick stop at the washroom!), we were loaded onto a small tour bus and took off. for Tilbury Industrial Park. You see the various container storage areas, the large LNG storage facility, truck staging areas, and if you are lucky, you might catch a glimpse of a Seaspan tug boat hauling a large barge down the river.

Next it is off to the DeltaPort at Roberts Bank. We drove through a couple of industrial complexes getting there, including the new Canada Customs container inspection facility and the new Amazon facility. From there we went to the actual port, which is not usually accessible to the public. Lucky for us, one of the guides had a back stage pass!

Driving among the huge cranes and gantries, seeing massive ships being loaded and unloaded, makes you realize how important this port is to our economy. It is also good to know that the Port takes into consideration the communities it affects, including Tsawwassen First Nations.

The tour is very informative, and it is good to interact with the guides and the other guests, especially if you or someone else has experience in the shipping and logistics industry. On our tour, we had a Longshoreman that had experience operating one of the huge cranes, and was also quite knowledgeable on the various operations around the port.

Looking North from Tug Basin

The tour takes 2 hours, and will run rain or shine. there is no walking, except to and from the bus, and at one point you get out for a quick break and some fresh air at the end of the main port dock, near the tugboat dock. This is a great chance to take some pictures of the surrounding mountains and shores, and the area on the other side of the port. As this is a working port, we were not allowed to take pictures of the ship being unloaded, but it was great to watch the remote-controlled cranes doing the work.

For me, this was the first of more tours like this.

Look like Walkers from Star Wars!

There are Bald Eagles EVERYWHERE!