Drayage

A dray at a railroad car, modeled at the Steam Museum in Swindon, UK
Shipping containers at the terminal at Port Elizabeth, New Jersey. Units in the foreground have been placed on chassis and await drayage to their destination.

Drayage is the transportation of shipping containers by truck to its final destination.[1][2] Drayage is often part of a longer overall move, such as from a ship to a warehouse. Some research defines it specifically as "a truck pickup from or delivery to a seaport, border point, inland port, or intermodal terminal with both the trip origin and destination in the same urban area".[3] Port drayage is the term used when describing[4] short hauls from ports and other areas to nearby locations. It can also refer to the movement of goods within large buildings such as convention centers. Drayage is a key aspect of the transfer of shipments to and from other means of transportation. The term drayage is also used for the fee paid for such services.

Domestic drayage is when product from a marine container is transloaded into a 53-foot domestic container and then moved inland. Marine drayage is when the product remains in the marine container until it reaches its final destination. Every import or export that arrives or leaves an ocean port must at some point be moved by drayage.[5]

An estimated 30 million marine containers move in and out of the United States on an annual basis.[5] Each one of these containers require at least two drayage moves.

  1. ^ Hooser, Katie George (May 18, 2023). "What is Drayage?". IMC: What is Drayage. p. 1. Retrieved May 18, 2023.
  2. ^ "What is Drayage? | CCC Transportation, LLC". www.ccctrans.com. Retrieved 2017-05-07.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ Harrison, Robert; Nathan Hutson; Jolanda Prozzi; Juan Gonzalez; John McCray; Jason West (February 2009). "The Impacts of Port, Rail, and Border Drayage Activity in Texas" (PDF). Center for Transportation Research, the University of Texas at Austin. p. 2. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  4. ^ "What is Drayage?". globalforwarding.com. Retrieved 2017-04-21.
  5. ^ a b "What is Drayage? | A White Paper by Katie George Hooser". www.whatisdrayage.com. Retrieved 2022-10-31.