Trucking and drayage for FCL shipments

Drayage is the trucking of a full container from the port to your warehouse. How the container is unloaded — a live unload, a drop, or a drop-and-pick — determines which trucking fees apply. Your Prime Freight team helps you pick the option that fits your schedule, cost, and site.

Drayage is the short-haul move of a full container by truck, typically from the port container yard to a nearby warehouse. Once the container reaches your warehouse, it's unloaded in one of a few ways — and each way carries different costs and time trade-offs.

The driver waits at your warehouse while the container is unloaded, then returns the empty container to the port.

• Most drivers allow 1–2 free hours of waiting.

• Past the free time, the driver charges a prorated hourly rate shown on your invoice as a trucking wait fee.

• Live unload works best when cargo is palletized and your warehouse has a forklift to move pallets off quickly. If you can empty the container within the free window, this is usually the most cost-effective and fastest option.

The driver drops the container at your warehouse and leaves, rather than waiting. Once you tell us the container is empty, the driver returns to collect it (usually within 48 hours).

• Because it requires an extra trip, a drop costs more — shown on your invoice as a drop fee.

• You'll also be billed for the extra day(s) the chassis is in use, shown as a chassis fee.

• A drop makes sense when cargo can't be unloaded quickly — for example loose, floor-loaded cartons that take time to handle, or when your warehouse is short-staffed or congested and can't unload on arrival.

If you have containers arriving every few days, the driver can drop your full container and pick up an empty one before leaving (for instance, a container that arrived the day before).

• This is cheaper than a drop or a live unload, because the driver neither waits nor makes a second trip.

• It only works if you have enough volume to keep containers cycling.

Leaving a container too long — at the terminal or on the chassis — can trigger demurrage and detention and per diem charges. Choosing the right unloading method and unloading promptly is the best way to keep drayage costs down.

You import floor-loaded cartons in a 40-foot container to a busy warehouse. A live unload would run well past the free time and rack up wait fees, so your Prime Freight team arranges a drop: the driver leaves the container, your crew unloads it over the next day, and the driver returns for the empty. You're billed a drop fee and a chassis fee — less than the wait fees a live unload would have cost.

Your Prime Freight team works with you and your receiving warehouse to choose the best unloading method based on schedule, cost, and site conditions. The resulting fees appear as line items on your invoice — see Pickup and delivery fees and How to read your invoice.

• Pickup and delivery fees

• How to read your invoice

• What's included vs excluded in your pricing

• Demurrage and detention

• FCL vs LCL vs parcel

• Freight & shipping glossary