Amazon is adding heavy-duty capacity at both ends of a key national freight arc — the West Coast’s I‑5 corridor and the Midwestern I‑70/I‑465 loop — with a 3.8‑million‑square‑foot fulfillment complex in Woodburn, Oregon, and a newly announced 1‑million‑square‑foot facility planned for Greenfield, Indiana. For carriers and 3PLs, that combination points to denser middle‑mile lanes, more live‑load appointment traffic, and fresh opportunities for power-only and drop‑and‑hook work heading into peak.
In Oregon, Amazon’s Woodburn site — the largest fulfillment center in the Pacific Northwest — is now ramping with multi‑story automation and thousands of hires. Early headcount targets are in the low‑thousands as the building fills, signaling sustained inbound trailer flow and outbound linehaul to regional delivery nodes. Expect higher daily turns on north–south I‑5 as the facility broadens its SKU mix and deepens inventory for next‑ and two‑day coverage.
In Indiana, Amazon says the new Greenfield building is designed to take in large supplier loads and reallocate freight across its fulfillment network — effectively an inventory positioning and flow‑through node that feeds multiple FCs. The company notes final operating details are still being dialed in, but the intent is to relieve pressure where demand is building fastest and to complement an already sizable Indiana footprint of fulfillment and sortation assets. For truckers, that means steady inbound full truckload and predictable outbound network shuttles into nearby FCs across the state.
Why this matters for trucking: large‑format capacity tends to amplify the middle mile. Woodburn’s scale puts more vendor freight onto I‑5 and accelerates pallet and case movement to spokes serving Portland, the Willamette Valley, and farther north into Washington. Greenfield’s role implies recurring IXD‑style runs — high‑velocity transfers from a central inbound node to customer‑facing FCs — creating repeatable lanes that favor drop trailers, yard capacity, and weekend surge coverage. Operators with flexible appointment management and yard jockey resources should see the most benefit.
Another Oregon angle to watch is infrastructure headroom. Even as Amazon stands up more logistics capacity, the company is also expanding its data‑center footprint in the state’s interior, a reminder that power supply and permitting can become gating factors for any large industrial operation. Local leaders tout diversification benefits, but they’re also weighing water and energy impacts — variables that can ripple into shift schedules and gate hours if constraints tighten. Carriers should keep an eye on municipal updates around utility upgrades and traffic mitigation.
Bottom line: the Woodburn–Greenfield pairing adds muscle at two strategic bookends. It shortens linehaul distances between inbound supply and the customer‑facing network, pulls more freight into high‑consistency shuttle patterns, and sets up a busier peak for Midwest and Pacific Northwest carriers. If you run I‑5 or operate within a half‑day of Indianapolis, now’s the time to secure dock slots, expand trailer pools, and price in tighter appointment windows as these sites scale.
Sources: FreightWaves, Construction Dive, IndexBox, OPB
This article was prepared exclusively for TruckStopInsider.com. Republishing is permitted only with proper credit and a link back to the original source.
