Drayage

What is drayage?

Drayage—sometimes referred to simply as “dray”—is a specialty logistics service that carries freight over a short distance. It is an essential part of intermodal shipping and is usually part of a longer logistics process.

How does freight get from a rail car to a ship? How does a container get from rail to a truck? It all happens via drayage. Whether freight moves from truck to rail, ship to warehouse or any other combination, drayage service is the link in the overall supply chain.

Drayage companies move containers in and out of warehouses, rail terminals, ocean ports and harbors. This often involves taking large steel shipping containers off rail cars and shipping decks and loading them onto truck trailers. From there, the container is hauled to a warehouse or storage facility to prepare for the next step in the intermodal shipping process.

The term also has a number of additional meanings throughout the industry.

Drayage also means:

  1. The name of the fee charged for the services

  2. The vehicle used to collect shipment at a border, ocean port or intermodal point

The service is not one-size-fits-all. Here are six drayage classifications from the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA):

  1. Cross-town or inter-carrier: A movement of an intermodal unit across town from one railroad to another for continuance of the move

  2. Door-to-door: Retail drayage involving over-the-road movement of a unit to a customer location

  3. Expedited: An over-the-road movement of an intermodal unit to meet a deadline. This type of drayage usually involves time-sensitive freight

  4. IMX or intra-carrier: A movement of an intermodal unit from a carrier’s rail hub to the same carrier’s intermodal hub. IMX drayage extends the reach of an intermodal hub

  5. Pier: An over-the-road movement of an intermodal unit from a carrier’s rail hub to a port’s dock or pier

  6. Shuttle: A movement of an intermodal unit, either loaded or empty, from a hub to another parking lot when the railroad has run out of room at the hub

The classification of service you select depends on your shipping needs. Shippers should determine which type of drayage service best suits the cargo for the next leg of the journey, as a freight container may need to transfer via drayage multiple times during shipment.

Why drayage service is needed

Drayage services can reduce costs. Ports often have limited capacity, and container rentals and chassis can be expensive. Moving containers quickly to a local distribution center (DC) keeps business running smoothly and avoids extended dwell time at the docks. Third-party logistics providers (3PLs) often offer affordable drayage services to help move freight to off-site warehouses so that freight doesn’t block traffic at a busy port.

How Infios supports drayage

Infios Transportation Management (TM) is easily applied across drayage moves, from straightforward static moves to the most varied and dynamic routes. Simple design allows users to run the optimizer to accommodate loads with last-minute changes without adjusting any parameters. The built-in scripting feature also allows companies to customize the tool to address specific constraints.

Infios TM enables users to:

  • Schedule complex intermodal, global moves that may include ocean, rail, less-than-truckload (LTL), truckload and cartage all at once

  • Consolidate shipments across locations

  • Use actual contract rates, even from carrier application programming interfaces (APIs)

The opportunities are as extensive and varied as your business model.