Drayage and Port Services Run Against the Last Free Day
Your container is on the ground and a clock you did not start is already running. Dobie coordinates the release check, the terminal appointment, the chassis and the drayage carrier that pulls it, plus the transload or the empty return that stops the per diem.
What is drayage?
Drayage is the short move that connects the ocean or rail leg to the road leg: a container pulled from a marine terminal or rail ramp to a warehouse, yard or transload dock nearby, usually inside the same metro and usually with an empty return to close it out. The distance is trivial and the money is not. Almost every dollar in a drayage move is decided by dates rather than miles: the last free day at the terminal, the free days on the box once it leaves the gate, and the day the shipping line will actually take the empty back.
Drayage Moves We Coordinate
- Import pulls from the marine terminal to a warehouse or plant, with the empty return leg planned in
- Rail ramp pulls and returns, where free time and storage rules differ from the port's
- Export moves: empty pickup, loading at your dock, and a return inside the terminal cutoff
- Street turns, where an import empty goes straight to an export loading instead of back to the pier
- Transload from a 20-foot or 40-foot box into a 53-foot dry van for the inland leg
- Live unloads, and drop-and-pick when the receiver needs the box on the ground
- Overweight containers on tri-axle chassis or permitted local corridors where the port offers one
- Reefer containers off the terminal plug, with a genset and the set point carried on the dispatch
- Empty repositioning and returns timed to the open return windows the shipping line allows
Who This Is For
- Importers whose last free day is counting down while a hold has not cleared
- Distributors whose dock can receive a 53-foot van but not a live container unload
- Freight forwarders and customs brokers who need wheels under a box the day it releases
- Exporters working backwards from a terminal cutoff instead of a delivery date
- Manufacturers importing dense freight, tile, stone, paper rolls or resin, that will not ride legal in a single box
- Rio Grande Valley shippers moving containers toward the Mexico crossings
Free time is the only clock that matters
A drayage move is measured in days at the terminal, not miles on the road. When the vessel discharges and the line releases the box, the terminal posts a last free day. Miss it and demurrage starts, billed per container per day, and it does not care that the box has eleven miles left to travel.
Everything before that date is gate work. Four holds have to clear first: the customs hold, the ocean carrier freight release once the invoice is paid, the terminal fee hold, and any exam hold. A box pulled for an X-ray scan, or worse for a full intensive exam at a centralized station, burns days your free time was never sized to absorb, and the free time keeps counting while the box waits in the exam queue.
Appointments are the second gate. Terminals release slots in windows, and a slot belongs to one move on one container, not to a carrier who can shuffle it. A truck that arrives on the wrong slot, or with a hold still showing on the box, leaves empty, the turn is gone for the day, and at a congested terminal the next open window can be two days out.
Demurrage and detention are two different bills
Shippers use the words interchangeably and then argue with two invoices. Demurrage runs on the container while it is still inside the terminal, past the free time in the ocean carrier tariff. Detention, billed as per diem, runs on the box after it leaves the gate and stays with you past its free days. Storage on the box you have not picked up, rent on the box you have not given back, and the two clocks rarely start on the same day.
A third charge sits underneath both: the chassis, rented by the day for as long as the box is on wheels. That is how a container dropped in your yard on Friday for a Monday unload becomes three separate line items over one weekend.
The way out is scheduling, not negotiating. A live unload ends the chassis day that afternoon. A drop buys dock time and starts per diem the same hour. The empty return is its own trap, because terminals restrict returns by shipping line and by day: a box you finished with on Tuesday can have no open return window until Thursday while per diem keeps counting on both the container and the chassis. We book the return window at the same time as the pull, not after it.
The weight math that catches importers at the scale
A container that loaded legally at origin can be illegal the moment it sits on a chassis. Ocean stowage is planned against the plate on the door, around 67,200 lbs of maximum gross. The highway is planned against 80,000 lbs for the whole combination, with 12,000 lbs on the steer axle and 34,000 lbs on each tandem group. Tractor, chassis and empty box have already spent roughly 30,000 to 32,000 lbs of that before any cargo is counted.
On paper that leaves close to 48,000 lbs. In practice most standard 40-foot moves cap nearer 42,000 to 44,000 lbs, because what binds first is not the gross number but where the weight lands. A container is loaded by whoever packed it overseas, the chassis has fixed axle positions, and a wall of dense cargo stacked at one end puts a tandem group over 34,000 lbs while the combination is still comfortably under 80,000.
The 20-foot box surprises people most, because it is rated for close to the same gross as a 40 and fills on weight long before it fills on cube. Forty feet of freight concentrated into twenty feet of chassis is an axle problem before it is a gross problem. The fixes are a tri-axle chassis, an overweight permit where the port and the route allow one, or a transload that splits the cargo across two trailers. Finding out at the scale house costs more than any of the three.
Chassis: pool, carrier-provided, or yours
The chassis under the box is a separate rental with a separate owner and a separate bill. Most ports run on grey pools, where any participating carrier draws a chassis and the daily charge follows the container. Some carriers bring their own. Some importers lease dedicated chassis and stay off the pool clock entirely.
Two things go wrong often enough to plan around. The chassis split: where the pool sits off-dock, the driver picks up a chassis at a depot before entering the terminal, adding an hour and a fee to a move measured in single-digit miles. And roadability: a driver who finds bad tires, lights or brakes has to swap the chassis before he can legally leave, and that swap can cost an appointment window that took three days to get.
Dobie owns no chassis, no trucks and no terminals, so this gets read off your port and your lane before a number is quoted. A rate with the pool day inside it and a rate without it are not the same rate, and the gap widens by one more day every day the box stays on wheels.
When to transload, and when drayage is the wrong answer
Drayage keeps the freight inside the ocean container. Transloading strips it into a 53-foot dry van at a warehouse near the port and sends the empty box back the same day. You are trading one extra handling touch against a clock that otherwise does not stop.
Distance usually decides. A pull to a warehouse in the same metro stays on the chassis, because no transload pays for itself over twenty miles. Once the freight is going several hundred miles inland, keeping it in the box means per diem and chassis rental for every day of the run, plus a driver eventually bringing an empty back to the port it came from. A 53-foot van holds 26 standard 48-by-40 pallets against roughly 20 in a 40-foot container, ends the container clock on day one, and owes nothing to a return window.
Drayage is also the wrong answer when the receiver physically cannot take a container. A container floor rides around 54 inches off the ground on a standard chassis against roughly 50 inches for a 53-foot dry van, so a leveler set for van height may not have the travel to bridge it. The container doors swing outward and have to be opened in the lot before the driver backs in, which a tight dock apron will not allow. The tractor and 40-foot chassis together run about 65 feet with no ability to jackknife the way a van can. If your building is one narrow door in a shared lot, the honest answer is a transload, not an appointment you will pay to reschedule.
What we need before a truck can be dispatched
Four facts decide whether this is a routine move or a rescue: container and booking numbers, the steamship line, the terminal or ramp, and the last free day. With the container number and the line we read the actual hold status and the posted free day first, because in drayage the status of the box governs everything, including whether a truck is worth dispatching at all.
Then the physical detail. Size and type, the tare stenciled on the door, the cargo weight from the packing list, whether it is a reefer that needs a genset from the moment it comes off the terminal plug, and whether it goes to a live unload, a drop or a transload dock. Receiver hours matter more here than on any long haul, because the driver's 14-hour on-duty window gets spent in the terminal queue rather than on the road. Two hours inside the gate on an eleven-mile move is an ordinary day, and a receiver who opens late can end that clock before the empty ever gets back.
Port work also adds a layer no inland lane has: the driver must hold the federal port access credential and be registered in that terminal's system before an appointment can be booked in his name, on top of the operating authority and insurance check every carrier passes the day the load is assigned.
Where the 80,000 lbs goes on a container move
Why a box that was legal on the vessel can be illegal on the chassis. These are typical equipment weights; the tare stenciled on your door is the number that governs.
| Federal gross limit | 80,000 lbs for tractor, chassis, container and cargo combined, with 12,000 lbs on the steer axle and 34,000 lbs on each tandem group. |
|---|---|
| Tractor | Roughly 15,000 to 17,000 lbs for a day cab running local drayage, more with a sleeper. |
| Chassis | About 7,000 lbs for a standard 40-foot chassis. A tri-axle weighs more and buys axle capacity, not gross capacity. |
| Container tare | Stenciled on the door: roughly 8,200 lbs for a 40-foot standard, closer to 8,700 for a high cube, about 5,000 for a 20-foot. |
| Left for cargo | Close to 48,000 lbs on paper once tractor, chassis and tare come off the 80,000. Axle placement, not the gross figure, usually caps a standard 40-foot move nearer 42,000 to 44,000 lbs. |
| What the box is rated for | Around 67,200 lbs of maximum gross on a standard container, and a 20-foot box carries close to the same rating as a 40. |
| When it does not fit | Tri-axle chassis for axle distribution, an overweight permit where the port corridor allows one, or a transload that splits the load across two trailers. |
How a Drayage Move Comes Together
Release Check First
Container and booking numbers, shipping line, terminal and last free day. We confirm the box is discharged and that the customs, freight and fee holds are clear before anyone talks about a truck.
Appointment and Chassis
A drayage carrier credentialed at that terminal takes the slot, and the slot belongs to that one move on that one container, so it cannot be shuffled later. The chassis is set at the same time: pool day, carrier-provided, or tri-axle when the cargo weight calls for it.
The Pull
The box comes out inside the booked window and goes to a live unload, your yard or the transload dock, with the loaded weight checked against the highway limit and the tandem groups before it rolls.
Empty Return or Street Turn
The empty goes back inside the return window that line has open, or straight to an export loading as a street turn, which removes a move and stops the per diem in the same trip.
Matching the chassis to the box, not to what was parked
A standard 40-foot chassis handles a normal import, with a slider so the tandems can be set for the states on the route. A heavy 20-foot box wants a 20-foot or sliding chassis rather than being pinned at one end of a 40, and a tri-axle when the cargo pushes an axle group past 34,000 lbs. Reefer containers need a genset from the moment they leave the terminal plug, with the set point written on the dispatch instead of remembered. Dobie owns no chassis and no trucks. The equipment comes from a network of 465+ vetted carriers, and on a drayage move that choice is made at the depot gate: a driver who simply takes whatever the pool hands him can end up with a standard 40-foot chassis under a 44,000 lbs box and no way to legalize the axles, and he finds out at the scale.
What We Confirm For Your Port Instead of Guessing
Three things that depend on a specific terminal in a specific week, and that a dedicated logistics specialist confirms with you in writing instead of this page publishing a blanket answer:
- Which transload or cross-dock facility is available near your terminal, its hours, and whether a box can be stripped and the empty returned the same day. That single answer decides whether your per diem stops on day one or keeps running through the weekend.
- Whether a container can sit on wheels or be grounded anywhere near your receiver while you wait for a dock, and what that storage costs per day on top of the chassis.
- The chassis arrangement on your lane, pool, carrier-provided or your own leased equipment, and whose account the per diem invoice lands on.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between demurrage and detention?
Demurrage is charged on a container that is still inside the terminal past its free time. Detention, also called per diem, is charged on a container that has left the terminal and is still in your possession past its free days. Storage versus equipment. Chassis rental is a third charge that runs by the day alongside detention, which is why one weekend on your yard can produce three separate line items.
My last free day is tomorrow. Can you still pull it?
Sometimes, and the answer depends on things that are not the truck: whether the freight release and fee holds are clear, whether the box is flagged for an exam, and whether that terminal has an appointment slot left. Send the container number and the shipping line and we will read the status before promising anything. If the date is already lost, the next question is keeping the demurrage days from multiplying while the empty return gets booked. Call (956) 450-8133 if this is happening this week.
Can you move an overweight container?
It depends on the number and the route. A tri-axle chassis redistributes weight across axles but does not raise the 80,000 lbs gross limit by a single pound. Some ports have permitted overweight corridors for short local moves between the terminal and a nearby warehouse. Past that, the load has to be transloaded or split. Send the cargo weight and the container tare and we will tell you which of the three you are in before a truck is dispatched.
Do you provide the chassis?
Dobie coordinates it and does not own it. Depending on the port, the chassis comes from a grey pool, from the drayage carrier's own equipment, or from a chassis you already lease. The part that catches people is that the pool charge follows the container, not the truck, so the chassis day keeps billing after the driver is long gone and the box is sitting in your yard. We confirm which arrangement applies to your lane, because whether the pool day sits inside the rate changes the number you are comparing.
Can you take the container straight to a customer several states away?
Physically yes, and it is often the wrong call. The container and the chassis both keep billing by the day for the entire run, and someone still has to bring the empty back to the port it came from. Past a few hundred miles, transloading into a 53-foot van usually wins: 26 pallets per van, no per diem, no return leg. We quote it both ways so the comparison happens on paper instead of in an argument three weeks later.
Do you handle rail ramp containers as well as marine terminals?
Yes. The mechanics rhyme but the terms do not: ramps run their own free time, bill storage under their own rules, count notification dates differently, and do not always take the empty back where you picked it up. We treat a ramp pull as its own move with its own clock rather than assuming port rules apply to it.
Last reviewed: August 2026 · Reviewed by the Dobie Transport logistics team
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