What is Drayage? What are some drayage classifications?

What is Drayage? 

Drayage is a term used to describe the process of transporting goods over short distances. It includes the trucking of containerized cargo from one port to another or from a port to a railyard, where the cargo begins the next phase of its journey. 

Drayage typically serves the same metropolitan area and rarely gets out of the said area, making a faster and more efficient transport of the goods. This process is typically completed within a single shift of a trucker. 

What are the different types of Drayage?

- Inter-carrier Drayage: The movement of units between short distances between different carriers. Example: moving goods from a trucking terminal to a railyard. 

- Intra-carrier Drayage: This involves taking freight to two different locations owned by the same carrier. In this case, cargo can be transported from an intermodal hub to a railyard. 

- Door-to-door Drayage: In this case, goods are delivered from the sender directly to the customer through roadways.

- Expedited Drayage: The over-the-road transport of time-sensitive cargo or goods. 

- Shuttle Drayage: This is when an intermodal unit is temporarily taken to a parking lot due to overcrowding at the origin hub. This happens for both empty and loaded units.

- Pier Drayage: This is when highways and roads are taken to transport intermodal units to a dock or pier from a previous rail hub.