GUIDE
What is drayage? A plain guide for GTA importers
What drayage means, how a container gets from CN Brampton or CPKC Vaughan to your dock, and what goes into the price. A plain guide for GTA importers.
SHIPPER GUIDES
Drayage guides for GTA importers and exporters
Short, practical answers to the questions shippers ask dispatch every week: what drayage is, how terminal and shipping line charges work, and how to pick the cheapest way to take delivery.
ALL GUIDES
Start here
GUIDE
Last free day, per diem and demurrage: what they cost and how to avoid them
How terminal storage, per diem and demurrage charges work on GTA containers, and the practical ways to avoid them: pre-pull, yard storage and transloading.
GUIDE
Transloading vs. drayage straight to your dock: which is cheaper?
When it costs less to deliver a container straight to your dock, and when transloading into 53' trailers or straight trucks saves money near Toronto.
GLOSSARY
Drayage terms in plain English
- Drayage
- The short truck move that takes a shipping container between a rail terminal or port and a warehouse.
- Last free day
- The last day a container can stay at the terminal before storage charges start.
- Per diem
- The daily charge a shipping line bills while its container is out, until the empty is returned.
- Pre-pull
- Picking a container up from the terminal early and holding it in a yard until the delivery day.
- Chassis days
- Days a container stays on a chassis at your site. Billed instead of driver waiting time on a drop.
- Live unload
- The truck waits at your dock while you unload, then leaves with the empty in the same trip.
- Drop and pick
- The container is left on a chassis at your site and the empty is collected later.
- Grounded
- The container is lifted off the chassis and set on the ground.
- Lift on / lift off
- Moving a container between a chassis and the ground or a stack with lift equipment.
- Transload
- Moving freight out of an ocean container and into a domestic trailer or truck.
- Gate receipt
- The terminal or depot's record of a container going in or out. Proof the empty was returned.
- POD
- Proof of delivery: the receiver's signed confirmation that the freight arrived.
LET'S MOVE IT
Have a container landing soon?
Send the container number and delivery address. Dispatch replies with a price and a pull date.