Drayage & Intermodal
A drayage move is rarely more than eighty miles, and it is almost never the mileage that costs you money. It is the clock — free time, demurrage, detention and per diem, all running on different schedules against the same container.
Four Charges People Routinely Confuse
Demurrage and detention sound interchangeable and are not. Demurrage is what the terminal charges when your container sits inside the gate beyond the free time allowed after it is discharged and available. Detention is what the shipping line charges once you have taken that container out and kept it beyond the free time allowed outside. Per diem is the daily rental on the equipment itself, and chassis charges accrue separately again where the chassis comes from a pool.
All four run at once and none of them care whose fault the delay is. A container that clears customs on a Friday afternoon, cannot get a terminal appointment until Tuesday, then waits two days at a warehouse with no unloading crew, will collect charges from three different parties for the same week. Managing drayage well is mostly the discipline of watching those clocks before they start rather than reconciling invoices after they stop.
| Charge | Billed By | Accrues When |
|---|---|---|
| Demurrage | Terminal | Container sits inside the gate past free time |
| Detention | Ocean carrier | Container held outside the gate past free time |
| Per diem | Equipment owner | Daily, for use of the container |
| Chassis rental | Chassis pool | Daily, from gate-out to gate-in |
Operational Safeguards
Appointments Booked Against Availability
Terminal appointment slots are finite and go quickly. We track the last free day alongside the availability date so the appointment is secured while it is still free, not after demurrage has begun.
Chassis Confirmed, Not Assumed
Chassis shortages and splits — where the chassis is not at the terminal holding your container — are among the most common causes of a failed pull. Equipment availability is confirmed before the driver is dispatched.
Weight Checked for Highway Legality
A container loaded to a weight that is perfectly legal at sea can be illegal on a US highway, particularly a heavily loaded 20-footer. We check gross weight against the chassis configuration and arrange tri-axle or permitted corridors where needed.
When Rail Beats a Truck
Domestic intermodal puts a 53-foot container on a train for the long middle of the journey, with a dray at each end. The trade is straightforward: you generally give up a day or two of transit and you gain cost, plus insulation from the driver capacity swings that move truckload rates. The arithmetic tends to favour rail beyond roughly seven hundred miles, and improves the further you go, provided both ends sit within reasonable reach of a ramp.
Transloading is the other lever. Ocean freight arrives in 40-foot containers; domestic containers and trailers are 53 feet. Moving the contents of three ocean boxes into two domestic ones at a facility near the port cuts the number of line-haul units you pay for, and it returns the ocean container to the line immediately — which stops per diem and detention on day one instead of day ten. For import volume moving inland, that combination is frequently the single largest saving available.
| Equipment | Where It Is Used |
|---|---|
| 20' ocean container | Dense import cargo; watch highway gross weight |
| 40' / 40' high cube | The standard import box; high cube adds a foot of height |
| 45' ocean container | Higher cube imports; restricted on some routes |
| 53' domestic container | Domestic intermodal rail; matches trailer capacity |
| Tri-axle chassis | Overweight containers near port corridors |
Send Us These and We Can Start
Container and Booking Numbers
With the container number, steamship line and terminal we can begin tracking availability, customs status and the last free day without waiting for your forwarder to confirm.
Last Free Day, in Writing
Free time varies by line, by terminal and by contract. Knowing the actual date — not the usual number of days — is what lets us sequence the pull correctly.
Unloading Capability and Hours
Live unload or drop and pick, forklift or hand unload, and the receiving hours. This decides whether detention is a risk at all, and it is the part most often left unsaid.
Beat the Last Free Day
Send the container and terminal details as soon as you have them. The earlier the pull is sequenced, the fewer of those four clocks ever start running.