What Is Drayage? The Full Cost Stack and the Billing Rules

Updated 2026-08-10

Drayage is the short-distance truck move of a container or trailer between a port, rail ramp, warehouse, or yard — usually under a hundred miles, and usually the first or last leg of a longer journey.

It is priced nothing like truckload. A truckload quote is a rate for a move. A drayage quote is a base rate plus a stack of third-party fees, most of which are set by parties that are not the trucker, and several of which only appear after the container is late.

The cost stack

At the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the PierPASS Traffic Mitigation Fee is $40.63 per TEU and $81.26 for all other size containers effective August 1, 2026, a 4.77% increase announced on July 1, 2026. Exempt from the TMF: “empty containers; import cargo or export cargo that transits the Alameda Corridor in a container and is subject to a fee imposed by the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority; and transshipment cargo,” plus empty chassis and bobtail trucks (PierPASS).

Those two ports also run Clean Truck Fund programs whose current rates and exemptions are published on the ports’ own clean-truck pages — check the rate there before quoting, because it is set by the port and revised on the port’s schedule, not the market’s.

Demurrage, per diem, and detention are three different clocks

Truckload people use “detention” for a waiting truck. In container freight, the words are specific, and getting them wrong costs you the argument:

• Demurrage — the container is still inside the terminal after free time expired. You are being charged for occupying the terminal.
• Per diem (commonly called detention on the ocean side) — the container or chassis is outside the terminal, in your possession, past its free days. You are being charged for holding the equipment.
• Driver detention — the driver is sitting at a gate or dock. This is the truckload sense of the word, and it is a contract term between you and the drayage carrier, not an ocean-carrier charge. See detention fees.

One container can accrue all three in a single week, billed by three different parties.

The billing rules most brokers never use

The Federal Maritime Commission’s demurrage and detention billing rule took full effect on May 28, 2024 (FMC). It puts hard deadlines and content requirements on those invoices — and they cut in your favor.

A late invoice is not payable. 46 CFR 541.7 states that “a billing party must issue a demurrage or detention invoice within thirty (30) calendar days from the date on which the charge was last incurred,” and if that deadline is missed, “the billed party is not required to pay the charge.” A parallel 30-day rule applies to an NVOCC passing a charge along, and to a corrected invoice issued after billing the wrong party.

You get at least 30 days to dispute, and they get 30 days to answer. 46 CFR 541.8 requires the billing party to “allow the billed party at least thirty (30) calendar days from the invoice issuance date to request mitigation, refund, or waiver,” and to “attempt to resolve the request within thirty (30) calendar days of receiving such a request.”

The invoice has to actually say things. 46 CFR 541.6 requires identifying information including bill of lading and container numbers and, for imports, the port of discharge; timing information including the free time allowance, the free time start and end dates, container availability or earliest return date, and “the specific date(s) for which demurrage and/or detention were charged”; rate information including “the total amount due” and the applicable rule; and dispute information, including “digital means, such as a URL address, QR code, or digital watermark” pointing to the dispute process.

The practical version: when a demurrage invoice lands, check the date it was issued against the date the charge stopped accruing, and check whether it contains the required fields. An invoice that is late, or that cannot tell you which specific days it is charging for, is an invoice worth challenging in writing inside the 30-day window — with the clock running against the biller, not you.

Why drayage quotes miss

Free time is assumed, not confirmed. Free days differ by ocean carrier, terminal, and contract. Quote a delivery date past free time and you have quoted the customer into demurrage.

The chassis was not in the quote. Chassis charges are billed by the pool or leasing provider on their own cycle, and a chassis split turns one move into two.

One appointment was assumed. Terminal appointment availability decides whether a container moves today. A dray quoted as a two-hour job becomes a pre-pull, a storage day, and a second turn.

The empty return was forgotten. The move is not over at delivery. Per diem keeps running until the empty is back and receipted, and the terminal that will accept it may not be the one it came from.

Truckload instincts were applied to the miles. A 40-mile dray is not priced off distance. ATRI’s per-mile operating cost — $2.336 per mile in 2025 — describes a truck covering ground, not one sitting in a queue at a gate. Drayage economics are turns per day, not miles per day.

FAQ

How much does drayage cost? There is no single answer, and any page giving you one number is describing one port on one day. The base rate is negotiated; the rest of the invoice is fees set by terminals, ports, chassis providers, and ocean carriers. Quote it as a stack — base, fuel, chassis, terminal and port fees, plus the demurrage and per diem risk created by your delivery date.

What is the difference between demurrage and per diem? Demurrage is charged while the container sits inside the terminal past free time. Per diem is charged while you hold the container or equipment outside the terminal past its free days. Different clocks, often different bills.

Can I refuse a late demurrage invoice? 46 CFR 541.7 provides that if the invoice is not issued within 30 calendar days of the date the charge was last incurred, “the billed party is not required to pay the charge.” Whether a specific invoice qualifies depends on its dates and its contents — check them, and dispute in writing inside the window in 46 CFR 541.8.

Is drayage the same as intermodal? No. Intermodal describes the whole multi-mode journey. Drayage is the truck leg at either end of it.

What is the PierPASS TMF? A fee at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, $40.63 per TEU and $81.26 for other container sizes as of August 1, 2026, with exemptions for empty containers, Alameda Corridor fee cargo, transshipment cargo, empty chassis, and bobtails (PierPASS).

Related

• Detention fees and the evidence that gets them paid
• Linehaul vs fuel surcharge vs accessorials
• FTL vs LTL vs partial: how each gets quoted