What is Drayage, Its Types and Why It Matters?

Nimrod Meroz brings over 15 years of deep R&D and cybersecurity experience to his role as VP of R&D at Wisor.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

Drayage connects transport modes like ocean, rail, and truck, often under 100 miles, but is one of the most time-sensitive and complex legs in freight forwarding.
Delays from poor coordination, chassis shortages, and terminal congestion can spike costs; AI and real-time tracking minimize these disruptions by syncing schedules and clearing bottlenecks.
Cost drivers include chassis usage, congestion fees, container type, and demurrage; pre-booking, load consolidation, and digital documentation cut expenses significantly.
Wisor cuts quote time by 85%, automates pickups to avoid fees, and removes manual follow-ups. Its API platform offers end-to-end drayage visibility, AI-optimized routing, and instant quoting for smoother operations and higher margins.

What is Drayage in Freight Shipping?

Modern supply chains are complex, multimodal, and span global geographies. It’s not uncommon for goods to move from port to rail to a final destination warehouse, where those goods are further distributed by truck. Drayage handles the short-haul movement between transport modes and carriers. It plays a critical role in connecting major shipping legs like ocean, rail, and truck.

Though often overlooked, drayage is one of the most time-sensitive and operationally challenging legs in intermodal logistics. The challenges stem from coordinating schedules across carriers, transport types, and congested terminals

Drayage vs. OTR, Intermodal, and Cartage

Drayage is one component of a broader freight movement strategy. Over-the-road, intermodal, and cartage solutions are also extremely common. Each mode serves specific use cases based on distance, cargo type, and infrastructure.

Why Drayage Matters in Supply Chain Movement

Drayage bridges the gap between long-haul shipping modes – connecting ports, terminals, and warehouses. Left alone, drayage can be a major source of delays, extra costs, and missed delivery timelines. For modern freight forwarders, drayage is a supply chain management opportunity and a prime area for digital transformation and cost-saving optimization.

Enabling Intermodal Connectivity: Consider drayage services as the glue between transport layers. For instance, if you have to move containers from ocean to rail, drayage handles the transportation in between. Or, if you have to move containers from Carrier A to Carrier B and switch from a marine container to a domestic one, that’s inter-carrier drayage.
Preventing Port Congestion and Dwell Time: Organizing the timely movement of your containers reduces port congestion and dwell time by freeing up container terminals so you don’t pay demurrage. Dispatching trucks precisely when containers are cleared reduces delays and terminal fees.
Enhancing First- and Last-Mile Delivery Efficiency: Well-organized drayage creates opportunities for efficiencies and cost reduction across every leg of the transport journey. Coordinated drayage reduces first-mile costs to carriers and last-mile costs to destination warehouses.

Types of Drayage Services

Drayage is nuanced, often involving multiple service types within a single shipment. In most cases, you’ll leverage several types of drayage services to support intermodal shipping.

1. Port and Terminal Drayage

This involves moving containers from ports and cargo terminals. You might use the marine container or transfer goods to a domestic container. Here, challenges include tight scheduling constraints and port congestion.

2. Intra-Carrier Drayage vs. Inter-Carrier Drayage Transfers

Intra-carrier drayage transfers involve moving containers inside a single carrier’s network, for example, port to rail within the same company. Inter-carrier drayage introduces more complexities, because you must align schedules for different carriers, requiring more careful timing and communication.

3. Expedited Drayage and Time-Sensitive Moves

Expedited drayage is essential for time-sensitive cargo and just-in-time delivery schedules. Some key scenarios include moving perishable goods or moving containers onto a ship with a scheduled departure time. In either case, expedited drayage moves prioritize speed and minimize idle time.

4. Door-to-Door Drayage

Door-to-door drayage moves containers directly to the destination, skipping transloading and handling. You may switch to a domestic container first. This is suitable for final destinations within 50-100 miles of the terminal.

5. Shuttle, Repositioning, and Warehouse Drayage

Sometimes, containers need to be repositioned before they’re ready for the next leg of their journey – whether within a terminal, between storage areas, or inside a warehouse. In these cases, specialized drayage services handle the internal movement to keep operations running smoothly:

Shuttle Drayage: Moving containers between storage facilities or warehouses without leaving the terminal. It is typically handled by in-terminal services.
Repositioning: Container drayage inside a terminal for logistics reasons.
Warehouse Drayage: Repositioning containers inside a warehouse, for instance, to position all containers for your carrier together.

6. Short-Haul vs. Long-Haul Movements

While drayage typically covers short hauls under 100 miles, some carriers extend service across longer urban corridors or between key intermodal hubs when needed.

Drayage Costs and Pricing Factors

Drayage pricing varies widely—from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per shipment. Costs are typically based on CWT. Several factors influence total drayage costs, including:

Distance Travelled: Costs include fuel, labor, and detention fees when congestion causes delays at pickup.
- Fuel Surcharge: Includes baseline fuel cost and potential surcharges.
- Line Haul Rate: Calculated on distance.
- Chassis Usage: Fee charged for using the chassis during the trip.
- Drop Fee: Charged when the carrier drops off a container and returns later for empty pickup instead of completing it in a single trip.
Weight: Base costs are in CWT.
Cargo Type: Expect to pay more for materials requiring specialized equipment and permits. These include specifications like reefer containers, overweight freight, or special handling permits.
Container Size: Marine containers typically cost more than domestic single-unit trailers (TFUs). Changing containers also adds to costs.
Terminal Fees: Terminal fees add up. Demurrage fees are incurred when containers stay at the terminal beyond free time.
- Congestion Fee: If congestion extends the time for handling, you’ll pay a fee.
- Demurrage: You’ll pay for time after free terminal time.
- Yard Pull (Pre-Pull): Pre-pulling containers to staging areas incurs additional yard fees.

Tips to Reduce Drayage Costs

Drayage costs can add up. That’s more true if carriers are sitting at terminals for hours unpaid, waiting to pick up cargo.

Book in Advance to Avoid Last-Minute Surcharges: Use visibility tools to anticipate drayage needs and plan proactively. Then, book gate opening and pickup in advance to reduce total costs.
Minimize Dwell Time at Ports and Terminals: Coordinate schedules to ensure trucks are ready when containers are released. You’ll reduce delays and idle time while avoiding demurrage and speeding up delivery times.
Consolidate Loads Wherever Possible: Look for drayage services that can consolidate partial shipments (like 20-foot containers or LTL) to maximize truck capacity. You’ll reduce total port costs because you’re sending in fewer drayage trucks.
Use Real-Time Visibility Tools: Leverage real-time tracking tools to coordinate carriers, avoid early port arrivals, and ensure trucks are ready to go when your containers are.
Optimize Routing with AI-Driven Platforms: AI route optimization helps you spot opportunities for timely arrival, avoiding congestion, and improving delivery timelines.
Select the Right Drayage Partner for Your Lane: Select drayage services based on local and transport expertise. For example, if you’re moving cargo from the Port of Los Angeles to a rail yard, select a local carrier with expertise and connections.
Digitize Documentation and Pre-Clearance: Pre-clear customs paperwork and ensure documents are in order with digital document management. You’ll be able to see document status live, so you’ll never send a truck in to pick up a container that isn’t cleared yet.
Avoid Chassis Splits and Mismatched Equipment: Create real-time visibility into your supply chain, so you can see what is needed where. Then, you can match carrier capacity to your drayage needs. If you need an LTE, choose a carrier that’s already moving half a container from the same port, etc.
Bundle Drayage with Other Freight Modes via APIs: Connect your carriers so you get real-time insight into cargo and route optimization as it moves from port to truck to rail. API connections deliver powerful insights and opportunities for timely communication and handoff, even between carriers.

Challenges in Today’s Drayage Ecosystem

Drayage is inherently complex, involving coordination across multiple parties, timelines, loads, and pickup windows. With much of the process still managed manually, it remains prone to inefficiencies like excessive wait times, limited visibility, and terminal congestion.

Best Practices for Drayage Management

Improving drayage management reduces freight shipping costs by cutting fees, improving delivery time, and creating opportunities for cargo alignment. Often, that begins with selecting the right carrier and the right software to manage freight.

Choosing the Right Drayage Partner: Look for local expertise and niche, and proven reliability. You’ll need a partner with software including tracking that integrates into your own so you can create opportunities for data and route optimization.
Preparing Accurate Load and Container Info: Leverage automation to ensure customs, pickup numbers, load and container information, etc., are automatically there. Machine automation reduces human error, while improving speed on processing and clearing cargo. Make sure your carrier can integrate to receive that data.
Setting Clear SLAs and Communication Channels: It’s critical to communicate expectations and needs to carriers. That means establishing SLAs. You’ll also want real-time communication channels for scheduling and alignment across pickups and delivery windows.

Pro Tip: Cut Demurrage and Delays with Pre-Clearance & Chassis Pooling

Standardize pre-clearance workflows using digital tools to ensure gate clearance before truck dispatch. It’s one of the easiest ways to eliminate idle charges and demurrage.
Use chassis pooling where possible to avoid delays from mismatched equipment. Build your drayage partner list with clear notes on chassis availability by terminal.
Track every move with API feeds, from terminal pull to final warehouse delivery. Don’t rely on email chains; integrate updates into a single operations dashboard.
Quote with full drayage cost breakdowns. Include congestion fees, chassis usage, and yard pull charges in your initial rate to reduce back-and-forth and avoid profit erosion.

Role of Technology in Modern Drayage

Drayage is traditionally manual, last-minute, and difficult to track. Freight forwarding technologies are rapidly changing this status quo with the addition of real-time tracking, route optimization, and automatic document handling.

Real-Time Tracking and Load Visibility

Real-time visibility into cargo status and location enables operational efficiencies and coordination across carriers. Shippers know when to dispatch trucks; carriers know when containers are cleared, improving coordination and speed.

AI-Powered Dispatching and Planning

AI optimization leverages proven algorithms to schedule dispatch and pickup, with factors like congestion, clearance, and paperwork processing all included.

Route Optimization and Load Consolidation

Algorithmic route planning takes the full supply chain into account, right-sizing trucks, merging loads, and optimizing routes to minimize fees and delay times.

Integration of Digital Freight Platforms

Wisor’s API-powered platform gives real-time insight into routes, capacity, and cargo location, making it easier to plan and react. For example, rate management systems track real-time costs to enable smarter and better decision-making and scheduling.

How Wisor Modernizes Drayage Operations

Wisor helps freight forwarders simplify and automate the most frustrating part of the supply chain: drayage. With a modern, AI-powered platform, Wisor tackles manual bottlenecks, improves visibility, and reduces port-to-door costs. Here’s how:

Smart Drayage Booking: Wisor uses real-time port data, freight visibility, and AI routing to auto-optimize pickup slots, so you never pay for dwell time or wait charges again.
API-Connected Carrier Network: Get live updates across ocean, air, and land freight through API-powered integrations. This means smarter handoffs and fewer manual follow-ups.
Real-Time Visibility Across First and Last Mile: Track every drayage move in one view – from gate clearance to final warehouse delivery – with KPI dashboards and predictive alerts.
Instant Quotes Powered by AI: Use Wisor’s quoting engine to generate highly accurate drayage cost estimates, factoring in local congestion, chassis availability, and free time windows.
Customs and Documentation Automation: Say goodbye to gate delays. Wisor digitizes customs and terminal paperwork to pre-clear containers and automatically syncs with terminal systems.

“With Wisor, we gained full visibility into our shipments and significantly reduced our quote turnaround time. The automation cut manual work by over 50%.” — Roni Shabtai, COO, Isline

Conclusion

Drayage is a critical but often messy and manual part of moving freight. Aligning schedules and delivery/pickup windows across terminals, carriers, and warehouses is never easy. Drayage remains one of the most manual and cost-variable legs of freight forwarding.

Today, that’s rapidly changing with the introduction of real-time visibility for freight and trucks, cross-carrier and modal data connections, and AI tools to automatically find and connect synergies and opportunities. Real-time insights into cargo location and status, combined with truck and chassis visibility and load matching allow freight managers to seamlessly quote and connect carriers to freight with factors like pickup windows, free time, congestion, and delivery requirements all considered.

Ready to reduce costs and delays in your drayage operations? Schedule a free drayage strategy call and discover how Wisor brings speed, visibility, and automation to every shipment.

About the Author

Nimrod Meroz brings over 15 years of deep R&D and cybersecurity experience to his role as VP of R&D at Wisor. He previously served as VP of R&D at Orchestra Group and led engineering efforts at Sigmabit and Unit 8200. With a BSc in Mathematics and Physics from Ben-Gurion University, Nimrod combines technical precision with leadership excellence to scale world-class engineering teams.

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