Drayage · June 22, 2026
What you're actually paying for when you move a container off the terminal — and where the real savings hide.
Drayage looks simple from the outside: a truck pulls your container off the dock and drops it where it needs to go. The invoice is where it gets interesting. A drayage rate isn't one number — it's a base move plus a stack of variables, and knowing which lever does what is how you stop overpaying. Here's how we build a rate at the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma, line by line.
The biggest piece is the linehaul — priced by the lane, meaning the distance and zone from the terminal to your delivery point. A box going to a Kent warehouse costs less than one running to Yakima or Portland. This is why your delivery ZIP is the first thing we ask for: it sets the floor for everything else.
Unless you own or lease your own, the container rides on a chassis billed per day. Chassis cost — and chassis availability — swings with terminal pools and season. A move that takes three days because the box sat waiting on an appointment quietly triples the chassis line. Tight scheduling keeps this small.
A fuel surcharge (FSC) rides on top of the linehaul, indexed to the weekly diesel price. It moves with the market, so two identical moves a month apart can differ here.
Most "surprise" charges live in accessorials, and most are avoidable:
Prepull — pulling the box before your appointment and staging it so it's off the terminal clock. A small flat fee that often saves a much larger demurrage bill. When you're not ready for the freight yet, we stage the container at our Kent yard or with our warehousing partner Long Road Warehouse so the box clears and the clock stops.
Chassis split — when the chassis and container aren't at the same spot and a trip is needed to marry them. Avoidable with the right pool and planning.
Detention / per-diem — the container out but not returned in time. Driven by how fast you unload.
Yard storage — per-day once free time runs out.
Three moves do most of the work. One: give accurate timing up front so we schedule the pull tight and skip prepull/detention. Two: transload heavy import boxes onto domestic trailers near the port instead of trucking a 40-foot ocean container inland — you ship more freight per mile and return the box fast. Three: keep the dray, the dock and any storage under one carrier, so nobody bills a handoff and the empty goes back before per-diem starts.
Per container by lane (terminal to your delivery zone), plus a per-day chassis charge, a fuel surcharge indexed to diesel, and any accessorials such as prepull, chassis split, detention or yard storage.
Almost always accessorials — usually demurrage, detention or a chassis split triggered by timing. Accurate appointment windows and a fast unload keep them off the bill.
For longer inland moves, usually yes — transloading lets you ship full 53-foot domestic loads instead of paying to move a partially full ocean box, and returns the container quickly to stop per-diem.
Send us the terminal, container type and delivery ZIP — we quote the lane plus chassis and likely accessorials the same day.