What is Drayage in Freight Shipping?

What Does Drayage Mean and Where Did the Term Come From?

Drayage is the short-distance road transport of a shipping container between a terminal — port, rail, or intermodal — and the first inland delivery point. It sits within the freight and road transport terms cluster because it describes a physical road move, not a logistics service category or commercial booking type.

The word itself traces to the dray — a flat, sideless cart pulled by a dray horse at ports, canal wharves, and rail yards throughout the 19th century. Horses moved loaded carts from ship berths to nearby warehouses over distances limited by the animal's working range in a single shift. Containerisation and the tractor unit replaced the horse and cart through the 20th century. The term stayed in the industry's vocabulary.

European freight contracts use parallel terms for the same move depending on direction. Pre-carriage is the drayage move before the main voyage — collecting a packed container from an inland point and moving it to the port of export. On-carriage is the drayage move after arrival — collecting a discharged container from the port of import and moving it inland. Both are drayage. The distinction appears as separate line items on freight invoices and carrier contracts, so shippers reading a multimodal quote need to recognise both labels.

Where Does Drayage Sit in an Intermodal Freight Chain?

Drayage is the first road leg — every containerised import requires at least one. A container loaded at a factory in Asia travels by sea to a European port. After vessel discharge, the terminal releases the container once customs clearance is confirmed. A drayage truck collects the container at the port gate and moves it to the first inland point. That road move — however short — is drayage. It completes when the container reaches the warehouse or distribution centre and the driver returns the chassis to the terminal pool.

From that inland point, cargo continues by road freight. Consignments above 10,000 kg move as full truckload freight in a dedicated trailer to the final destination. Smaller loads join other shippers' goods in LTL groupage. Drayage and onward road freight meet at the warehouse — not at the port. They are different service categories with separate pricing, vehicles, and scheduling.

Go Trans arranges inland road distribution after container arrival at Belgian ports — including Antwerp-Bruges and Zeebrugge — through carrier partners including DSV. Go Trans coordinates the handoff between port release and the onward freight movement. It does not operate drayage vehicles.

What Are the Five Types of Drayage in Freight?

Port drayage, inter-carrier drayage, intra-carrier drayage, shuttle drayage, and expedited drayage are the five types — each covering a distinct stage or scenario in the container movement chain.

• Port drayage moves a container from a port terminal to a nearby warehouse or distribution centre. It is the most frequent type and the one shippers encounter on standard import consignments arriving by sea.
• Inter-carrier drayage transfers a container between two different carriers at a transport hub. A container discharged from a shipping line's vessel may move under inter-carrier drayage to a rail operator's loading facility for the next leg, where a different carrier takes over.
• Intra-carrier drayage repositions a container within one carrier's own network — between two sections of the same terminal, or between two facilities under the same operator. It serves internal logistics rather than commercial delivery.
• Shuttle drayage clears overflow. When a port terminal runs out of usable ground space during peak arrival windows, containers move by shuttle truck to a nearby off-port yard. This keeps the terminal's gate flow moving and prevents vessels from waiting at anchorage.
• Expedited drayage moves a container ahead of the standard collection queue for time-critical cargo — perishable goods, pharmaceutical products, urgent manufacturing parts. It carries a surcharge above the standard line haul rate.

What Costs and Charges Appear on a Drayage Invoice?

Six charges apply to a drayage move: line haul rate, fuel surcharge, chassis fee, drop fee, congestion fee, and pre-pull fee. Multiple charges stack on a single container move regularly — shippers who budget only for the line haul rate routinely receive invoices higher than expected.

• The line haul rate is the base transport charge for moving the container from the terminal gate to the delivery address. Distance determines this figure, and it is the starting point on any drayage quote.
• The fuel surcharge is a variable percentage added to the line haul rate, indexed to a published fuel price benchmark. It adjusts on a set schedule — weekly or monthly depending on the carrier — and cannot be fixed at the time of booking.
• The chassis fee covers hire of the container trailer frame required to carry the container on the road. Most drayage carriers hire chassis from pool operators at the terminal rather than owning them outright. That daily hire cost passes to the shipper.
• The drop fee applies when the truck delivers the container to the warehouse and leaves it there for unloading at a later time. Instead of waiting while the container is stripped and returning the chassis on the same trip, the driver drops the container and the chassis stays at the warehouse. A drop fee on delivery plus a daily chassis hire for every day the frame sits at the warehouse can both result from one container move.
• The congestion fee compensates the driver and carrier for time lost at a terminal gate queue. It applies when port access runs significantly over standard dwell time — caused by berth delays, gate system outages, or labour disruptions at the terminal.
• The pre-pull fee — also called a yard pull fee — applies when a container is collected from the port terminal and held at an off-port yard before final delivery. This happens when the receiving warehouse has no appointment slot open in time to beat the free time deadline at the terminal. The container moves out of the terminal on schedule, avoiding demurrage, but sits in the off-port yard until the warehouse is ready.

How Does Delayed Drayage Trigger Demurrage?

Demurrage accumulates the moment a container exceeds the terminal's free time window — and delayed drayage is the most common reason that window closes with the container still inside the terminal. Free time is the period after vessel discharge during which the container can remain at the terminal without charge. 3 to 7 days is the standard range, set by the terminal operator and the shipping line's contract. After that, demurrage in freight runs as a daily charge until the container exits the terminal gate.

Drayage removes the container and stops the clock. A container stuck at the terminal because no truck was booked, the warehouse appointment was not confirmed, or chassis were unavailable at the terminal generates several hundred euros in demurrage for every 5 days it remains past free time. That figure grows daily. Shippers who treat drayage as an afterthought in import planning absorb demurrage costs that a correctly timed truck booking would have prevented entirely.

The connection runs in both directions. A drayage truck that arrives at the terminal before customs clears the container cannot collect it — the terminal will not release a container without clearance confirmation. Every day of customs delay that falls inside the free time window is a day permanently consumed. It cannot be reclaimed once free time expires.

What Does Drayage Look Like in European Freight?

European freight documentation uses port haulage, pre-carriage, on-carriage, terminal haulage, and inland haulage as working terms for drayage — the physical move is the same regardless of the label on the contract. Shippers reading a multimodal freight quote from a Belgian broker will see these terms before they see the word drayage.

The ISO container is the unit at the centre of every drayage move. Standard 20ft TEU containers, 40ft FEU containers, and 45ft pallet-wide containers are the most common configurations on European port and short-sea routes. The container type and size determine which chassis configuration the drayage carrier requires at the terminal.

The Port of Antwerp-Bruges is the second largest container port in Europe by TEU volume — handling over 14 million TEU per year. It is the primary Belgian drayage origin point for containerised imports arriving from Asia, North America, and the Middle East. The port of Zeebrugge, now operating under the Port of Antwerp-Bruges authority, handles roll-on/roll-off and container traffic from UK and Scandinavian short-sea routes. Together, the two terminals generate the majority of Belgian drayage volume to warehouses and distribution centres across Belgium, the Netherlands, northern France, and western Germany.

Road moves originating from Belgian port terminals fall under the CMR Convention — the international treaty governing road freight liability in Europe. A CMR consignment note covers the drayage move from the terminal gate to the inland delivery point. It records the carrier's liability for the container and its contents during the road leg and serves as the primary transport document if a claim arises from damage or loss in transit.