Drayage is the short-haul trucking that moves shipping containers between a port or rail ramp and a nearby warehouse, yard, or doorstep. It's the shortest leg of an international shipment and routinely the most operationally painful — because it's where ocean schedules, terminal appointments, chassis availability, and free-time clocks all collide.
How a drayage move works
Drayage is the short-haul truck move that picks up your shipping container from a port terminal or rail ramp and delivers it to your warehouse — usually within about 50 miles. A credentialed driver with a TWIC card and a terminal appointment picks the box up on a chassis inside the port's free-time window, then either live-unloads at your dock or drops the container for a later pickup. The critical variable is not the truck rate; it is whether the box moves before free time expires. Miss that window and demurrage charges from the terminal and per-diem charges from the ocean carrier start stacking daily — typically $75 to several hundred dollars per container, per day. Step by step, it looks like this:
- Your container discharges from the vessel (or arrives at the rail ramp) and the terminal makes it available for pickup.
- The clock starts. Terminals give a few free days ("free time") before storage charges — demurrage — begin accruing daily.
- A drayage driver with port credentials (TWIC card, terminal appointments, UIIA interchange agreement) picks up the box on a chassis.
- The container is delivered to your dock — either live-unloaded while the driver waits, or dropped and picked up later.
- The empty goes back. Keep the container or chassis past the rental free time and per diem / detention charges stack daily until it's returned.
The fee glossary that saves you money
Demurrage: the terminal charging you for the container sitting at the port past free time.
Per diem (detention): the ocean carrier charging you for keeping their container/chassis out too long.
Chassis split: an extra trip because the chassis wasn't where the container was.
These run from roughly $75 to several hundred dollars per container per day — and they compound fast over a weekend.
Last reviewed June 2026
Why drayage goes wrong
Almost every drayage horror story is a timing story: the container discharged Friday, free time ran out Tuesday, nobody had an appointment until Thursday. A good drayage operation watches vessel ETAs, books terminal appointments before the box hits the ground, secures the chassis, and lines up your dock door — so the container moves inside free time and the fee clocks never start.
Drayage + everything after it
A container rarely ends its journey at the first warehouse. We handle the dray, the LTL/FTL distribution after deconsolidation, and — when what's inside the box is a machine — the rigging to take it off the floor and set it in place. Port cities like Houston, Charleston, Norfolk, and Los Angeles are exactly where our drayage and heavy work overlap.
Got boxes hitting a port? See freight moving or send us the ETA and the delivery address — we'll keep the clocks at zero.