What Drayage Trucking Services Are
Drayage is the short-haul movement of a container between a marine terminal and a nearby facility. The word comes from the dray, the low, sideless cart that horses pulled between docks and warehouses. The distance is still short, but the equipment has changed: a road tractor, a container chassis, and a sealed ocean box.
Drayage trucking services are the commercial form of that move. A carrier supplies the tractor, the chassis, and a credentialed driver, picks up the container at the terminal, delivers it, and returns the empty. At Savannah, the working radius covers Pooler, Garden City, Port Wentworth, Rincon, and Statesboro, and it extends up the Interstate 16 corridor to Macon and Atlanta when the shipper wants the box delivered rather than transloaded.
Shippers confuse drayage with three adjacent services. The table below separates them.
| Service | What Moves | Equipment | Typical Distance | Who Usually Provides It |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drayage | Sealed ocean container, import or export | Tractor plus container chassis | Terminal to a facility within a day’s turn | Asset-based drayage carrier or a broker who hires one |
| Over-the-road trucking | Domestic freight, palletized or floor loaded | Tractor plus 53-foot dry van or reefer | Regional or national | Truckload carrier |
| Intermodal | Container or domestic box moving mainly by rail | Rail well cars, with drayage at each end | Long haul between ramps | Railroad plus intermodal marketing company plus drayage carrier |
| Transloading | Cargo transferred from an ocean box into a domestic trailer | Dock, forklifts, then 53-foot trailer | Port-adjacent facility, then inland | Transload facility, often the same company that drays |
Every one of those services can touch the same container. The drayage carrier is the one that gets it through the terminal gate.
↑ Back to ContentsHow Port Container Drayage Works at Garden City Terminal
Port container drayage follows the same sequence at every terminal. The details below are specific to Garden City Terminal (GCT), the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) container facility on the Savannah River and the largest single-terminal container facility in North America by GPA’s description. Procedures change, so confirm current rules on GPA’s site before you plan a move.
Steps two, four, and five are where the timeline breaks. A drayage carrier cannot make a missing customs release appear, but it can stage the chassis before the vessel arrives, hold a TWIC-cleared driver for the pickup window, and confirm the release status daily so the box moves the morning it clears.
↑ Back to ContentsTypes of Drayage Moves a Port Carrier Handles
Import drayage from GCT to a nearby DC is the volume move, but a full-service drayage carrier at Savannah runs eight distinct move types. Each has its own equipment and paperwork.
Terminal to consignee, loaded. The move most shippers mean when they say drayage. The variables are release timing, chassis, and the receiving dock’s appointment rules.
Empty container from the depot or terminal to the shipper’s dock, then loaded back before the vessel’s cargo cutoff. Missing the cutoff rolls the container to the next sailing. The container must be pre-advised in GPA’s system before it reaches the gate.
Terminal to a port-adjacent facility where cargo transfers into a 53-foot domestic trailer. The ocean box returns inside free time and freight moves inland on equipment that carries more weight and cube. Right call for destinations more than a few hundred miles away or tight detention terms.
Terminal to an on-terminal or nearby rail facility, or between two terminals. On-terminal rail connects GCT to CSX and Norfolk Southern, and GPA operates the Appalachian Regional Port in northwest Georgia for the Atlanta and Chattanooga corridors.
Containers loaded beyond the standard chassis limit. Georgia allows sealed ocean containers above legal road weight under a GDOT permit within a defined distance of the port, on tri-axle chassis. Confirm current thresholds before booking a heavy box.
Refrigerated containers moving under power. The carrier supplies a genset that keeps the reefer running between the terminal plug and the receiver’s dock, and the driver monitors the set point and fuel throughout.
Containers carrying regulated materials under 49 CFR. The driver holds a hazardous materials endorsement, the tractor carries the placards the shipper supplies, and the paperwork rides in the cab.
Flat racks and open tops that exceed standard dimensions. At Savannah this often becomes heavy haul once it leaves the terminal. SLS runs it with the same team and dispatch; see the out-of-gauge freight guide and the heavy haul trucking guide.
Chassis at Savannah: Why Ownership Changes the Timeline
A container chassis is the wheeled frame that carries the box. Without one, an available container sits in the stack and the demurrage clock runs. Chassis provisioning is the least visible and most consequential variable in port drayage.
Chassis at Savannah come from three sources. The regional pool supplies chassis to carriers under interchange agreements, and pool availability tightens when import volume spikes. Some ocean carriers still supply chassis under their own programs, with their own rules on where the chassis can go. The third source is the drayage carrier’s owned fleet.
The difference shows up in peak season and after a vessel bunch-up. When the pool runs short of 40-foot chassis, a carrier that depends on the pool waits. A carrier with its own chassis stages them in its yard before the vessel discharges and dispatches on the release. That is the reason the SLS fleet includes 300+ owned chassis, including tri-axles for heavy boxes and 20-foot and 40-foot configurations for standard moves.
Demurrage and Detention: Where Shippers Get Burned
Demurrage is the charge for a container that stays at the terminal past its free time. Detention (also called per diem) is the charge for keeping the ocean carrier’s container outside the terminal past the free days allowed. Both are set by the ocean carrier’s tariff, and both are billed per container, per day, with rates that escalate the longer the box sits.
At Savannah, GPA also publishes a storage schedule that applies once terminal free time expires. A shipper can face demurrage from the ocean carrier and storage from the terminal on the same box.
The causes are predictable:
- A release hold (customs exam, unpaid freight, missing paperwork) that no one tracked until the container was already available.
- No chassis on the day the container became available.
- A receiving dock that could not take the delivery inside the free window, so the loaded container sat at the carrier’s yard while detention ran.
- A drayage provider with brokered capacity that could not find a truck during a volume surge.
Drayage capacity prevents the bill. When the carrier stages equipment ahead of the vessel, confirms releases daily, and has a yard 11 miles from the gate where a loaded container can wait on an owned chassis for the receiver’s appointment, the container leaves the terminal inside free time and returns inside free days. Read your ocean carrier’s tariff for the exact free-time terms on each booking; they vary by carrier, contract, and container type. For a deeper look at day-one release as an operating standard, see Port Drayage at the Port of Savannah: The Complete Guide.
↑ Back to ContentsDirect Drayage, Transload, Drop-and-Hook, and Live Unload Compared
The way a container is delivered changes the equipment plan, the cost, and the exposure to detention. Use this table to pick the pattern that fits your dock.
| Delivery Pattern | How It Works | Equipment | Timeline & Cost Drivers | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct drayage, live unload | Driver delivers the loaded container and waits while the receiver unloads, then returns the empty | One tractor, one chassis, one driver per box | Free waiting time is limited; every hour past it is billed. One box per driver per trip | Low weekly volume, receivers with a fast dock, short distance from the port |
| Direct drayage, drop-and-hook | Driver drops the loaded container on a chassis at the receiver, hooks an empty, and leaves | Extra chassis on the ground at the receiver | No driver waiting time; chassis days accrue. Requires enough owned chassis to leave equipment behind | Recurring volume, DCs that unload on their own schedule |
| Transload | Container goes to a port-adjacent facility, cargo is transferred to a 53-foot trailer, ocean box returns fast | Dock, forklifts, domestic trailers | Adds a handling charge; removes detention risk and lets one domestic trailer carry more than one ocean box | Inland destinations over roughly 250 miles, tight detention terms, floor-loaded cargo |
| Yard staging | Loaded container held at the carrier’s yard on an owned chassis until the receiver’s appointment | Carrier’s yard, owned chassis | Adds a storage day at the yard; avoids terminal demurrage | Receivers with fixed appointment windows, vessel bunching |
Drop-and-hook is the pattern that tells a carrier a shipper is an account rather than a spot customer. It only works when the carrier owns enough chassis to leave equipment at the receiver’s dock and still cover the next day’s pickups.
Two Hours to an Itemized Quote and an Equipment Plan
Share your container count per week or month, the origin terminal, your delivery zip code or facility, and whether you unload live or drop-and-hook.
What Drives a Drayage Rate
A drayage quote should be itemized. If it is one number with no breakdown, you cannot compare it to another quote or predict next month’s invoice. Here is what a complete quote lists.
| Line Item | What It Covers | What to Ask |
|---|---|---|
| Line haul | The move from terminal to door and the empty return, priced by lane or zone | Is the empty return included, and to which location? |
| Fuel surcharge | Indexed to a published diesel price, adjusted weekly or monthly | Which index and which schedule? |
| Chassis | Daily chassis usage, either pass-through pool cost or the carrier’s own rate | Owned or pool, and what is the daily rate after day one? |
| Waiting time | Driver time at the terminal or the receiver beyond the free allowance | How much free time, and what is the hourly rate after it? |
| Drop fee | Leaving a loaded or empty container on a chassis at the receiver | Is a drop-and-hook program priced differently from live unload? |
| Pre-pull and yard storage | Pulling the box before the receiving appointment and holding it at the carrier’s yard | Daily rate, and is the first day free? |
| Overweight, reefer, hazmat | Tri-axle chassis and permit, genset and fuel, hazmat endorsement and placards | Which accessorials apply to my cargo profile? |
| Terminal and port fees | Pass-through charges from GPA or the ocean carrier | Which are pass-through and which does the carrier absorb? |
Rates are lane-specific and change with fuel, volume, and equipment supply. A carrier that quotes within two hours and itemizes every line above is giving you something you can plan with. A carrier that quotes one number and adds charges on the invoice is not.
↑ Back to ContentsAsset-Based Carrier or Broker: Why the Model Matters
A drayage broker sells you capacity it does not own and hires a carrier to run the move. An asset-based drayage carrier owns the tractors and chassis and employs or contracts the drivers directly. Both models have a place. A broker is useful for a shipper with containers at six ports who wants one phone number. The trade is accountability: when a brokered truck does not show, the broker has to find another one, and the demurrage clock does not pause while that happens.
| Question | Drayage Broker | Asset-Based Carrier (SLS) |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the chassis? | The carrier the broker hires, or a pool | 300+ owned chassis staged in SLS yards |
| Who employs the driver? | The subcontracted carrier | TWIC-cleared drivers on the SLS fleet |
| When a truck does not show | Broker sources another; the demurrage clock keeps running | Dispatch reassigns from owned capacity |
| Best fit | Occasional volume across many ports from one contact | Steady volume at a single port with one accountable party |
Working directly with an asset-based carrier at a single port gives you one party responsible for the chassis, the driver, the appointment, and the exception call. For a side-by-side of the two models on a standard container move, see the asset-based vs. brokered comparison in Port Drayage at the Port of Savannah: The Complete Guide.
↑ Back to ContentsPeak Season and Capacity at Savannah
Savannah’s import volume rises in the third and fourth quarters as retail inventory arrives ahead of the holidays, and again when West Coast disruptions push cargo to the East Coast. In those weeks, the same number of trucks and chassis chase more containers, and the shippers who booked spot capacity find it gone.
Recurring shippers protect themselves three ways. They commit a weekly or monthly cadence to a carrier so the carrier can plan tractor and driver coverage. They agree on a drop-and-hook pattern that decouples the driver’s day from the receiver’s unload speed. And they choose a carrier whose capacity is owned, so a surge in the pool market does not become a surge in their demurrage.
Drayage Solutions for Retailers, Manufacturers, and Freight Forwarders
Shippers often search for customized drayage programs when the standard terminal-to-door move does not fit their operation. Three patterns come up repeatedly at Savannah.
Weekly volume is steady and the DC receives on appointments. The program is drop-and-hook with a fixed number of owned chassis at the DC, a daily release check on every inbound container, and a pre-pull rule that moves any box at risk of demurrage into the carrier’s yard the day it clears.
Inbound containers arrive loaded and similar containers leave loaded a few days later. The program matches import deliveries to export pickups so the tractor and chassis are never empty in both directions, and the export pre-advise is filed the moment the booking confirms so the box never misses cargo cutoff.
A firm local rate inside two hours, a carrier that can handle a standard box today and a flat rack next week, and one point of contact who reports exceptions before the client asks. The program is a lane rate card, a named dispatcher, and a standing agreement that out-of-gauge cargo runs under the same account.
None of those programs require special technology. They require a carrier that owns its equipment, sits near the gate, and has run the terminal long enough to know which release holds clear on Tuesday and which do not.
↑ Back to ContentsSavannah Specifics: Terminal, Gate, and Turn Times
Three facts about Savannah shape every drayage plan.
One Container Terminal, One Gate Complex
GCT handles the port’s container volume through a single terminal with multiple truck gates, and GPA has been redeveloping Ocean Terminal to add container capacity. A single-terminal port means a drayage carrier’s knowledge is concentrated: one set of gate procedures, one yard layout, one set of relationships with GPA Gate Operations.
Turn Times Are Published and Generally Fast
GPA reports truck turn times, and Savannah has historically posted some of the shortest average gate turns among major U.S. container ports. Fast turns reward a carrier with a yard close enough to run multiple terminal trips per driver per shift. The SLS facilities in Pooler sit 11 miles from the port for that reason.
Interstate Access Is Direct
GCT connects to Interstate 95 and Interstate 16 within minutes of the gate. Atlanta is roughly 250 miles up Interstate 16 and Interstate 75, about four hours of drive time for a direct delivery, which is why many Atlanta-bound importers weigh direct drayage against transloading at Savannah.
Local knowledge cuts cost in small, repeated ways: knowing which gate lane moves fastest at 6 a.m., knowing which receivers in Pooler take drops without an appointment, and knowing which ocean carriers release freight overnight and which release at midmorning. None of that appears on a rate sheet. All of it appears on the demurrage line of an invoice when the carrier does not have it.
↑ Back to ContentsWhat to Look for in a Savannah Drayage Provider
Ask these six questions of any carrier, including us.
| # | Ask Every Drayage Provider | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Do you own your tractors and chassis, and how many are at Savannah? | Owned equipment is the only capacity that exists when the pool is short. |
| 02 | How far is your yard from Garden City Terminal? | Distance sets how many terminal turns a driver can run per shift and whether a loaded box can be staged near the gate. |
| 03 | Are your drivers TWIC-cleared and are you UIIA-registered? | Both are required to interchange equipment and enter the terminal. A carrier that cannot answer immediately is not running port drayage every day. |
| 04 | Do you run standard containers and out-of-gauge cargo with the same team? | If not, a flat rack becomes a second vendor, a second quote, and a second point of failure. |
| 05 | How do you report exceptions? | The right answer names a person and a time: a dispatcher who calls before the receiving appointment is missed, not a portal you check after. |
| 06 | Will you commit capacity to a weekly cadence, and what does that look like in October? | The answer separates a carrier that wants your account from one that wants your spot load. |
For a complementary set of eight procurement questions, including day-one release rate and dual-port coverage, see Eight Questions to Ask Any Drayage Company at the Port of Savannah.
↑ Back to ContentsThe People Behind the Trucks
A drayage carrier is its drivers and its dispatch. The driver holds the CDL-A and the TWIC card, knows the gate, secures the twist locks, checks the seal, and makes the call when a receiver’s dock is backed up. The dispatcher matches releases to chassis to drivers every morning and re-matches them every time a vessel is late or a hold clears early.
Drayage driving is home-daily work with a rhythm unlike over-the-road trucking: several terminal turns per shift, a gate procedure that has to be right every time, and a receiving dock that may or may not be ready. Driver consistency matters to the shipper because a driver who has delivered to your dock ten times does not need directions, does not misjudge the trailer well, and does not lose an hour to a missed turn.
How Savannah Logistics Services Handles Drayage at the Port of Savannah
Savannah Logistics Services is the asset-based, port-native drayage and heavy haul operator at the Port of Savannah. We have run Garden City Terminal for 25 years. We own the 80+ tractors and 300+ chassis that the work requires, our drivers are TWIC-cleared, and our three facilities in Pooler sit 11 miles from the port, close enough to stage loaded containers for a receiver’s appointment and to run multiple terminal turns per driver per shift.
The same team and dispatch that move standard import and export containers also run reefer, overweight, hazmat, and out-of-gauge cargo, and we file over-dimensional permits in house across Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee. A forwarder or importer never hands a project off between vendors.
When you send us your container count, lane, cadence, and delivery pattern, our team responds within two hours with an itemized quote and the equipment plan. SLS is a division of Komar Distribution Services, which operates port-adjacent warehousing and fulfillment near Savannah for shippers who want drayage and storage under one relationship.
Continuous port drayage operating history at Garden City Terminal — the team that built its reputation as Savannah River Logistics.
80+ tractors and 300+ chassis, including tri-axles for overweight boxes and 20-foot and 40-foot configurations for standard moves.
Three Pooler facilities close enough to stage loaded containers on owned chassis and run multiple terminal turns per driver per shift.
Standard, reefer, overweight, hazmat, flat rack, and heavy haul moves run under one account with one dispatcher.
Over-dimensional permits filed in house across Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee.
Every line item — line haul, fuel, chassis, waiting time, drop, pre-pull, accessorials — spelled out before the move is booked.
Drayage Trucking Services: Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to the questions shippers ask before booking port drayage at Savannah. See the SLS blog for the full drayage series.
Drayage trucking is the short-haul movement of an ocean container between a marine terminal and a nearby warehouse, rail ramp, or distribution center. The carrier supplies a tractor, a container chassis, and a TWIC-cleared driver, picks up the container at the terminal gate, delivers it, and returns the empty. At Savannah, most drayage moves run between Garden City Terminal and facilities within a day’s turn.
Drayage is priced per container by lane, plus fuel surcharge, chassis usage, and accessorials such as waiting time, drop fees, pre-pull, overweight permits, or reefer gensets. Rates change with fuel and equipment supply, so there is no single national figure. A complete quote itemizes every line; ask for that itemization and compare quotes line by line rather than by the total.
Drayage is the truck move at one end of a container’s journey, between a terminal or rail ramp and a nearby facility. Intermodal describes the full journey using two or more modes, usually ocean or rail plus truck. Every intermodal shipment includes drayage at the origin and destination, but a drayage move by itself is a local trucking service, not an intermodal shipment.
Once a container is available and the carrier has a chassis and a gate slot, a Savannah-area delivery typically completes the same day, with the empty returned the same or the next business day. Deliveries to Atlanta add about four hours of drive time each way. The wait before pickup depends on release holds and chassis, which is why carriers confirm releases daily and stage equipment ahead of the vessel.
No. A shipper, importer, or freight forwarder can book directly with an asset-based drayage carrier at the port. A broker adds value when you need capacity at many ports from one contact or when your volume is occasional. For steady volume at a single port, working directly with the carrier that owns the tractors and chassis removes a layer between you and the driver.
Yes, if the carrier owns both the standard chassis fleet and the specialized trailers, and if the same dispatch runs both. At Savannah Logistics Services, standard import and export containers, reefer, overweight, hazmat, flat racks, and heavy haul moves run under one account with one dispatcher, and over-dimensional permits are filed in house.
Request a Drayage Quote
Send us the following and our team responds within two hours with an itemized quote and an equipment plan: container count per week or month, origin terminal, delivery zip code or facility, live unload or drop-and-hook, reefer or dry, hazmat if applicable, and your start date.
Continue Exploring the Drayage Cluster
Terminal procedures, free-time terms, permit thresholds, and gate hours are current as of September 2026 and change without notice. Confirm with the Georgia Ports Authority (gaports.com), your ocean carrier’s tariff, and the Georgia Department of Transportation (dot.ga.gov) before finalizing a move. Savannah Logistics Services is a division of Komar Distribution Services.
About the author. 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.
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