Supply Chain Success Hinges on  Seamless Drayage Shipping 

In the debate about when a supply chain actually begins and whether it’s the inbounding of raw materials, stuffing of the container, or the big bang for that matter, there’s one critical aspect of the sequence that always gets short shrift: drayage.  

Drayage is a lynchpin of the supply chain because it connects outbound containers to vessels and inbound cargo to distribution and its final destination. Drayage is critical to every step and stage of the supply chain that follows. It’s important to start right, and to do that you have to dray right.  

That’s easier said than done. Jackson Fuiten, President of WSI drayage partner, Pac-Modal, describes the drayage landscape as having many moving pieces that change on a daily basis. Without staying up on what’s happening and anticipating changes, shippers can literally miss the boat and open themselves up to staggering costs and consequences. 

 In this post we’ll uncover what makes for great drayage with the help of Jackson and his 23 years of experience as a drayman in the Pacific Northwest.  

Drayage Is a Separate and Unique Form of Trucking

Generally defined as moving containerized cargo to and from ports and intermodal hubs, drayage usually involves short regional hauls. Drayage haulers are typically small local companies that serve a particular port and don’t travel too many miles outside the port area.  

Drayage attracts different drivers than those that go into over-the-road (OTR) or long-haul trucking. Draymen drive Class A tractors, are subject to FMCSA requirements and have commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) but the similarities end there. Drayage drivers excel in urban driving and navigating the tight thruways leading to and from ports. They know port layouts, individual carrier requirements, and intricacies of container chassis. And they operate on strict, highly coordinated timeframes, Jackson explains.  

Drayage Carriers Perform Essential Roles

One of the biggest benefits of working with good drayage carriers is the avoidance of delays and exorbitant costs. Leave your container at the port past your free days and you could be on the hook for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.  

In the worst cases of containers being stuck at ports during the pandemic, shippers racked up demurrage charges of $50,000, Jackson recalls. Drayage drivers have the experience and insight to help you pick up your box in time to avoid expensive demurrage fees or deliver your container to the port so you can safely make your sailing. Miss a sailing and you could be waiting weeks to get your cargo on the next vessel.  

Those are just the basics of the drayage carrier’s responsibilities. The steps leading to a successful dray that protects your profit margin and your cargo are a complex choreography of equipment and carefully timed events.  

Picking up and delivering containers on time requires clear communication and planning. Drayage carriers monitor when containers will be released and reserve appointment times in advance. Making their appointment time with the right kind of chassis and showing up at the right place with the necessary paperwork leaves no margin for error. Mistakes lead to delays, missed appointments, downstream delays that lead to unexpected costs, and a long list of potential ramifications that can create a shipper’s nightmare.  

Getting the right container to the right place often requires resourcefulness when challenges arise. Without experienced drayage carriers who have a pulse on port congestion and equipment availability, full containers get stuck, and charges accrue.  

When drayage services fail on a wide scale, ports break down and we see cataclysmic backups. We saw it during the pandemic off the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles when container ships that couldn’t unload spanned across the horizon.    

Picking up cargo and delivering it to and from parts is only part of the job. Returning empty containers to ports and procuring containers and chassis are essential responsibilities of drayage carriers that have heavy consequences and costs when not performed in a timely fashion. When empties don’t get returned to carriers on time, shippers face per diem charges that average $250 a day. Those charges can add up, especially if your cargo is in multiple containers, Jackson points out.  

In the grand supply chain scheme, America’s legion of drayage carriers is responsible for keeping cargo flowing in and out of ports. They operate largely behind the scenes. When they do it right, no one even notices them. Containers make their connection to rail on time, they hit the warehouse where they can be transloaded to trucks without delay, or arrive just in time for the production line, trade show or big sale.  

Drayage to and from a Port Is Just One Way to Dray

Drayage is defined by short haul container moves. Many may lack the magnitude of a port visit, but they can be every bit as important and consequential to shippers. Here are other prominent forms of drayage. For an experienced provider like WSI Pac-Modal flexing for the need is all in a day’s work. Here are the six other drayage types highlighted by the Intermodal Association of North America: 

• Cross-Town or Inter-Carrier — Transportation of a container from one railroad to another or from a rail hub to a third-party warehouse or shipper’s warehouse.  
• Door-to-door — This involves moving a box OTR to a retailer’s location or buyer’s store. 
• Expedited — Some cargos are too time-sensitive for a transload. Expedited drayage moves containers OTR to the final destination without delay.   
• Intra-Carrier — This type of drayage refers to the transfer of containers within a carrier’s own network—for example from a carrier’s rail hub to another of their intermodal hubs.  
• Pier — This form of drayage refers to an OTR haul of a container from rail hub to a port dock. 
• Shuttle — When an empty or full container is hauled from one hub to another hub or yard for storage, usually because of space issues, it’s referred to as shuttle drayage.  

Choose a Qualified Carrier for Drayage  

If you have an intermodal shipment, your third-party logistics (3PL) provider or freight forwarder will probably handle drayage for you. Not so when you book ocean transport yourself. Whether you need to move your cargo from a port to your warehouse or a third-party warehouse or vice-versa, you’ll need to arrange the drayage. It’s not as easy as just finding a trucker to haul your container as you’ve probably gathered by now.  

Large ports tend to have hundreds of regional drayage carriers serving the port. Just in California, there are an estimated 33,500 drayage trucks that serve seaports and rails annually according to the California Air Resources Board. As a shipper, you can sift through your options or enlist the help of a freight broker 3PL who will find a suitable option for you.  

Some look-fors are the same for selecting a long-haul carrier, but others are unique to drayage.  

7 Tips for Selecting Drayage Carriers  

1. Drayage experience – As a point of reference, to work with WSI | Pac-Modal, Jackson requires drayage carriers have two years of experience in drayage 
2. Clear background – The basics for hiring any drayage or OTR carrier are: a valid CDL (commercial driver’s license), an acceptable CSA score, and a clear MVR (motor vehicle record) from the state where a driver’s CDL is issued. 
3. Port or ramp familiarity – Experience hauling to and from the ports or rail ramps you’re using is a must. Drayage deals with dynamic conditions. Reduce all the risks you can. 
4. Valid DTR sticker or tag – Make sure your driver is registered with your port’s Drayage Truck Registry (DTR). 
5. TWIC® card – A Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) card issued by TSA is required for truckers to gain access to ports and shipping terminals. 
6. Cargo familiarity – A carrier needs to know your cargo weight, container size and special handling requirements. Confirm their capability—especially if your cargo is overweight. 
7. Chassis access – Choose a drayage provider that is connected to a large chassis pool like UIIA. To ensure their chassis availability, Pac-Modal operates two container yards where they can free-up chassis by loading and unloading containers themselves. 

Successful Drayage Shipping Starts with Planning

Today’s competitive drayage rates and steady availability of capacity are favorable to importers and exporters, Jackson says. But he warns that the drayage market, like the freight market in general, is cyclical.  

The best practices of establishing a reliable base of carriers and forming working relationships with drivers are as important if not more important with drayage. Time is always of the essence with drayage. Shippers only need look back to the pandemic to be reminded of the importance of drayage carriers who had resources when chassis and capacity became rare. Connected providers like Pac-Modal have the ability to scale.  

“We have a big network of drayage providers that work with us. Although we average about 30 loads a day, we can quickly do 150 to 200 loads a day depending on the need,” Jackson explains. “We just have the relationships to do that here in the Pacific Northwest.”  

In addition to planning for cyclical changes ahead, shippers require greater freight visibility and track and trace ability today, Jackson says. Meeting these needs can be a challenge. Jackson adds that drayage has traditionally lagged in the use of transportation management systems (TMS). 

 “It’s hard to find the right TMS for drayage. Most of the really good TMS programs focus on OTR and there’s very few that really handle all the extra information that we need as a drayage carrier.” 

 Pac-Modal’s own TMS is a forerunner in the space, providing shippers with real-time visibility into driver and container locations as well as ETAs. “We customized it for drayage and I’ve been able to work with IT to develop things to make it work for us,” Jackson says.  

Pac-Modal customers can log in to see where their load is and receive a system alert once their driver is on their load and for other events. These capabilities may seem standard, but Jackson says TMS providing drayage visibility is still beyond the means of most drayage carriers.  

With unknown disruptions ahead and ever-increasing customer expectations in performance and visibility, Jackson feels TMS like Pac-Modal’s as well as the use of AI to aid in forecasting will soon be a requisite for all drayage providers.  

Is Drayage a Weak Link in Your Supply Chain? 

As shippers alter their transportation strategies to be more agile and to take advantage of new efficiencies and economies, technology combined with the ability to connect with local drayage carriers and warehousing options in new ports is vitally important.  

3PL freight forwarders like WSI that can integrate drayage, warehousing and OTR transportation on a national level provide a tremendous advantage.  

Talk to the WSI team about your drayage pains and find out how an integrated approach to your logistics could benefit your supply chain no matter what direction transportation takes in the future.