What is Drayage? What are some drayage classifications?

What is Drayage? 

Drayage refers to 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 and is an essential part of intermodal shipping. 

Since drayage is a short haul solution, typically involving a single shift of a trucker, it typically serves one metropolitan area, resulting in a faster and more efficient transport of goods.

What are the different types of Drayage?

- Inter-carrier Drayage: movement of units short distances between different carriers, like 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: Goods are delivered from the sender directly to the customer through roadways.

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

- Shuttle Drayage: 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: when a truck utilizes highways and roads to transport intermodal units to a dock or pier from a previous rail hub.