Container Drayage - From the Port to the Final Mile, One Team Owns It

The part of your supply chain that breaks most often — and doesn’t have to

Container drayage is where international shipments go to die. Not literally — but operationally, more supply chain failures happen in the drayage leg than in the ocean transit, the customs clearance, or the final distribution combined.

A container arrives at the port. The terminal appointment window is tight. The chassis pool is short. The driver shows up and the container isn’t available yet — or it’s available but the chassis he reserved isn’t. Now you’re burning demurrage at $150 to $300 per day while everyone points fingers at everyone else.

Or the container clears the port fine but the delivery location can’t receive it until Thursday. The container sits on a chassis for three days. Detention charges stack up. The trucking company bills you for chassis usage you didn’t plan for.

Or the container is overweight and the driver gets turned back at the scale. Now you need a transload to split the weight across two trucks before the freight can move to its final destination.

These are not edge cases. They are Tuesday in container drayage. And every one of them is preventable with a drayage provider who manages the full picture instead of just dispatching a truck.

How Total Connection handles drayage differently

We don’t treat drayage as a standalone truck dispatch. We treat it as the critical connector between your ocean or rail shipment and your warehouse, distribution center, or customer — because that’s what it is. Every drayage move we manage includes terminal appointment scheduling, chassis availability confirmation, container weight and overweight assessment, demurrage and detention monitoring from the moment the container is available, and delivery coordination with the receiving facility.

One account manager handles the full move. When something changes — and in drayage, something always changes — you hear from us proactively, not after the charges have already started accruing.

Our drayage services

Port drayage

Container pickup from marine terminals at all major US ports — New York/New Jersey, Savannah, Houston, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Charleston, Norfolk, Oakland, Seattle/Tacoma, and others. Terminal appointment scheduling, chassis coordination, and live container tracking from gate out to delivery.

Rail drayage

Container pickup and delivery from inland rail terminals and intermodal ramps. BNSF, UP, CSX, and NS facilities covered. Rail drayage requires the same terminal appointment and chassis management as port drayage — and we manage it the same way.

Transload services

When a container can’t be delivered directly — because it’s overweight, because the receiving facility can’t handle containers, or because the freight needs to be broken down into multiple smaller shipments — we coordinate transload at facilities near the port or rail terminal. Container stripped, freight reloaded onto domestic trailers, and delivered on schedule.

Cross-dock services

For shipments that need sorting, consolidation, or redistribution before final delivery. Container arrives, freight is unloaded at a cross-dock facility, sorted or reconfigured, and shipped out to multiple destinations on domestic trucks. We coordinate the full cross-dock operation.

Last mile container delivery

Direct container delivery to the final destination — warehouse, distribution center, manufacturing facility, or job site. Including residential and limited-access deliveries where standard container chassis can’t access the delivery point.

Hazmat container drayage

Drayage for containers holding DOT-regulated hazardous materials. Certified hazmat carriers, HAZMAT-endorsed drivers, proper placarding and documentation, and compliance management from terminal gate to delivery dock.

Industries we serve with container drayage

Chemical importers and distributors

ISO tank and dry container drayage for chemical imports — hazmat and non-hazmat. Overweight container management, transload coordination, and hazmat compliance handled as standard on every chemical drayage move.

Consumer goods and retail

High-volume container drayage programs for retail importers. Port to warehouse, port to distribution center, and port to cross-dock with outbound distribution to multiple locations.

Food and beverage importers

Temperature-sensitive and food-grade container drayage with FSMA compliance. Dedicated equipment where required, pre-delivery inspection, and receiving facility coordination.

Manufacturing and industrial

Raw material and component container drayage from ports and rail terminals to manufacturing facilities. Just-in-time delivery coordination for production-critical container freight.

Construction materials

Heavy and overweight container drayage for construction material imports — steel, stone, tile, fixtures. Overweight assessment and transload coordination for containers that exceed road weight limits.

E-commerce and fulfillment

Container drayage to fulfillment centers and 3PL warehouses. High-frequency programs with scheduled delivery windows and appointment management.