Every ocean container touches a truck at least twice before it reaches a shelf. Here is the drayage definition in plain terms, the seven kinds of drayage moves, how a single move works from terminal gate to receiving dock, and what a shipper pays for.
By Ryan Faulk, CEO, Savannah Logistics Services | Read time: 8 minutes | Last reviewed: September 2026
Drayage definition: Drayage is the short-haul trucking of a shipping container between a marine terminal or rail ramp and a nearby warehouse, distribution center, or transload facility. At the Port of Savannah, drayage is the move from Garden City Terminal through the truck gate to a Pooler yard or an inland dock, usually completed within a day of the container becoming available. It is the first and last truck leg in almost every ocean shipment.
The simplest drayage definition is the movement of freight over a short distance, historically by cart and today by a road tractor pulling a container on a chassis. The word comes from the dray, a low, flat cart without sides that horses pulled between ships, warehouses, and rail sidings in the 1800s. The horses are gone, but the job is the same: bridge the short gap between a terminal and the place the freight is actually needed.
In modern shipping, drayage almost always means container drayage. A drayage carrier picks up a sealed ocean container at a terminal, delivers it to a receiver, and brings the empty back. The move is measured in miles, not states, and is priced per container rather than per mile. That is the practical drayage definition a logistics manager works with every day. The broader service category, including how carriers price and staff it, is covered in our guide to drayage trucking services at the Port of Savannah.
One drayage definition covers several distinct moves. The industry generally recognizes seven, and a full-service port carrier runs most of them every week.
| Type of Drayage | What It Means | Example at Savannah |
|---|---|---|
| Port drayage (pier drayage) | Moving a container between a marine terminal and a nearby facility | Garden City Terminal to a distribution center in Pooler |
| Inter-carrier drayage | Moving a container between two different carriers' facilities | Terminal to a rail ramp operated by a different railroad |
| Intra-carrier drayage | Moving a container between two facilities owned by the same carrier | One railroad's ramp to that railroad's hub |
| Expedited drayage | A time-critical move with a guaranteed delivery window | A container pulled the hour it clears customs to meet a production line |
| Shuttle drayage | Moving containers to an off-terminal yard to relieve congestion | Pre-pulling boxes to a carrier's yard during a vessel bunch-up |
| Door-to-door drayage | A single carrier handles the container from terminal to final consignee | Terminal pickup, delivery, and empty return under one dispatch |
| Export drayage | Delivering an empty to a shipper, then returning it loaded before vessel cutoff | Empty from the depot to a Statesboro plant, loaded back to GCT |
Two of these deserve a closer look because shippers search for them by name.
Export drayage runs against a hard clock. The loaded container must arrive at the terminal before the ocean carrier's cargo cutoff, and at Savannah it must be pre-advised in the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) web portal before the truck reaches the gate. Miss either and the container rolls to the next sailing.
Long-haul drayage is a contradiction in terms that shippers use anyway. It usually refers to a container delivered directly by truck to a destination several hundred miles from the port instead of being transloaded. A Savannah-to-Atlanta direct delivery, about 250 miles up Interstate 16 and Interstate 75, is the common local example. Whether that beats transloading depends on the cargo weight, the detention terms, and how many boxes move each week.
A container does not move the moment the ship docks. The sequence below is how an import move works at Garden City Terminal (GCT), the GPA container terminal on the Savannah River.
Steps two, four, and five decide whether the move happens on the first available day. A carrier cannot clear a customs hold, but it can stage the chassis before the vessel arrives and check the release status every morning. For the operating standard SLS builds around that first available day, see Port Drayage at the Port of Savannah: The Complete Guide.
The confusion between these four terms costs shippers money because they describe different services with different prices.
Drayage versus trucking. All drayage is trucking; not all trucking is drayage. Over-the-road trucking moves domestic freight in 53-foot trailers across regions. Drayage moves a sealed ocean container a short distance on a chassis. The driver credentials, the equipment, and the pricing model are all different.
Drayage versus intermodal. Intermodal is the whole journey using two or more modes, usually ocean or rail plus truck. Drayage is the truck leg at either end of that journey. Every intermodal shipment contains drayage; a drayage move on its own is a local trucking service.
Drayage versus transloading. Drayage delivers the container. Transloading opens it at a port-adjacent facility and transfers the cargo into a domestic trailer so the ocean box can return inside free time. Many Savannah shippers use both: drayage from GCT to a transload dock in Pooler, then domestic trucking inland.
A drayage carrier is a motor carrier that owns or controls tractors, chassis, and credentialed drivers and moves containers under its own operating authority. A drayage company may be that carrier, or it may be a broker that sells drayage and hires a carrier to perform it. The distinction matters when capacity is tight; the asset-based versus brokered comparison in our Port Drayage guide lays out the difference side by side.
What a working drayage carrier has: tractors (usually day cabs, because the work is home-daily), a chassis fleet in 20-foot, 40-foot, and tri-axle configurations, TWIC-cleared drivers, registration under the Uniform Intermodal Interchange and Facilities Access Agreement (UIIA) so it can interchange equipment with ocean carriers, an FMCSA safety record a shipper can check, and a yard close to the terminal. For cargo that will not fit a standard box, the same carrier should also be able to run flat racks and open tops; that side of the business is covered in our out-of-gauge freight guide.
Moving containers through the Port of Savannah? Send your container count, lane, and delivery pattern. Savannah Logistics Services responds within two hours with an itemized drayage quote and an equipment plan. Request a Drayage Quote or call (912) 450-0202.
Drayage is priced per container, per lane. A complete quote lists a line haul rate that includes the empty return, a fuel surcharge tied to a published diesel index, a chassis charge, and accessorials: waiting time beyond a free allowance, drop fees, pre-pull and yard storage, tri-axle chassis and permits for overweight boxes, gensets for reefers, and hazmat handling.
Three things move the number most. Distance and lane set the base. Equipment supply, especially chassis during peak import season, moves the accessorials. And the receiver's dock behavior, meaning how long a driver waits or whether the box can be dropped, decides whether waiting time appears on the invoice. The two charges shippers fear most, demurrage and detention, are not drayage charges at all; they are ocean carrier and terminal charges that good drayage prevents.
Savannah runs its container volume through a single terminal, which concentrates a carrier's knowledge on one gate complex, one yard layout, and one set of GPA procedures. GPA publishes truck turn times, and Savannah's have historically been among the shortest at major U.S. ports, which rewards carriers with yards close enough to run multiple gate turns per driver per shift.
Savannah Logistics Services has run Garden City Terminal for 25 years as an asset-based carrier with 80+ owned tractors, 300+ owned chassis, TWIC-cleared drivers, and three facilities in Pooler 11 miles from the port. The same team runs standard containers, reefer, overweight, hazmat, and out-of-gauge cargo, so a shipper never hands a project between vendors. When you send container count, lane, and cadence, we respond within two hours with a quote.
In shipping, drayage means the truck move that carries an ocean container between a marine terminal and a nearby facility such as a warehouse, distribution center, rail ramp, or transload dock. It is the first and last land leg of an ocean shipment, priced per container by lane, and performed by a motor carrier with a tractor, a container chassis, and a TWIC-cleared driver.
In trucking, the drayage definition narrows to a specialized segment: short-haul container moves from ports and rail ramps, run on chassis rather than trailers, by drivers who hold port credentials and return home daily. Drayage carriers are motor carriers under FMCSA authority, but their equipment, gate procedures, and per-container pricing set them apart from over-the-road truckload carriers.
A drayage company provides container moves between a terminal and a nearby facility. It may be an asset-based carrier that owns the tractors, chassis, and drivers, or a broker that sells the service and hires a carrier to perform it. Asset-based carriers control the equipment on the day it matters; brokers offer reach across many ports from one contact.
No. Drayage is one kind of trucking. It moves a sealed ocean container a short distance on a container chassis, requires port credentials such as a TWIC card, and is priced per container. General trucking moves domestic freight in dry vans and reefers over regional or national distances and is priced per mile or per load.
Intermodal is a shipment that uses two or more transport modes, usually ocean or rail plus truck, under one bill of lading or one container. Drayage is the truck leg at each end of that shipment. Every intermodal move includes drayage, but a drayage move by itself, such as terminal to a local warehouse, is a local trucking service rather than an intermodal shipment.
Send us your container count per week or month, origin terminal, delivery zip code or facility, live unload or drop-and-hook, reefer or dry, and start date. Our team responds within two hours with an itemized quote.
Request a Drayage Quote | Call (912) 450-0202
Terminal procedures and free-time terms are current as of September 2026 and change without notice. Confirm with the Georgia Ports Authority (gaports.com) and your ocean carrier's tariff before finalizing a move.
Ryan Faulk is CEO of Savannah Logistics Services, the asset-based drayage and heavy haul operator that has run Garden City Terminal for 25 years. To reach the SLS team, call (912) 450-0202. Execute and good things will happen.