Intermodal , Drayage and Chassis

Special Report

Shippers spreading drayage volumes amid supply chain volatility

By Eric Johnson

Industry dynamics are driving shippers to diversify their allocation of volume to drayage carriers in a bid to manage increased volatility through the US ports they use for their import supply chains . Whereas shippers have historically tended to rely on a single drayage carrier in a specific gateway , the underlying technology and changing attitudes toward resilience on a chronically overlooked transportation leg are enabling that diversification .

The change impacts a part of the industry that is especially fragmented , with more than 12,000 drayage carriers operating in the United States on a local , regional or national basis , and accounting for more than 49,000 drivers , according to the Intermodal Association of North America ( IANA ). That fragmentation includes everything from national providers with as many as 2,500 trucks , to owner-operators running single-vehicle businesses .

“ The landscape has changed ... we have seen a significant adoption of diversification .”

Drayage is also notorious for thin margins for operators , a reality that only deviated from the norm temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic .

For shippers , the hard work of managing a network of dray partners , as opposed to a single relationship , is theoretically offset by better performance and more flexibility to get the capacity required through a given gateway .

In the past two years , drayage capacity has been largely loose in aggregate despite solid container growth in 2024 ; however , shippers still deal with episodic periods of tightness week to week or through specific ports .

“ The landscape has changed significantly over the last five years ,” said Reade Kidd , CEO of EDRAY , a managed transportation platform that helps importers , including Crate & Barrel , Floor & Decor , and Samsung , to coordinate their shipments .

“ Pre-COVID , you saw many shippers with large volume lanes allocated to one dray carrier , leveraging one contract , one integration and one feedback loop ,” Kidd said . “ While there are synergies and benefits from increasing scale with one provider , we have seen a significant adoption of strategies around diversification of

10 Journal of Commerce | February 3 , 2025 www . joc . com