Drayage · July 9, 2026
That steel frame under your container is a separate rental with its own clock. Here's who supplies it and who pays.
Newcomers to drayage are always surprised that the chassis — the wheeled frame the container sits on — is a whole separate thing from the container, with its own owner, its own rental clock and its own fees. Understanding chassis pools explains a couple of the mystery lines on a drayage invoice.
Years ago the ocean lines provided chassis with the container. Most of that ended — now chassis are supplied by leasing companies through "pools," and the trucker rents one to move your box. So a container move is really two rentals stacked: the ocean line's container and a leasing company's chassis, each ticking on its own.
Chassis rental is billed per day, and like the container it accrues until it's returned. Then there's the chassis split — when the chassis and container aren't in the same place and the trucker has to make an extra move to marry them up, which costs a trip. Knowing which pool applies at which terminal is how you avoid surprise splits and keep chassis days down.
We know the pool setup at the Seattle and Tacoma terminals, use our own chassis where it saves you a split or a rental day, and keep chassis time short by returning promptly. It's one more reason running the drayage under one team beats stitching together separate providers — fewer splits, fewer surprise chassis days.
A shared supply of container chassis run by leasing companies, that truckers rent from to move containers. Since ocean lines mostly stopped providing chassis, a container move is two rentals: the container and the chassis, each with its own clock.
Because the chassis is rented separately from the container, usually billed per day until returned. A chassis split fee is added when the chassis and container aren't together and the trucker has to make an extra move to combine them.
When the container and an available chassis are in different places, so the trucker makes an extra trip to marry them before hauling. It costs a move, which is why it shows up as a fee.
By knowing the pool setup at each terminal, using our own chassis where it avoids a split or rental day, and returning chassis promptly to keep the daily charge short.