Drayage is a term utilized by the shipping and logistics sector to describe the process of transporting goods over short distances. While drayage can be used for minor transporting of goods, usually it is confined to use by the container shipping industry as they have to be port approved carriers.

Drayage can include the trucking of containerized cargo from port to port, or the cargo might be taken from a port to a rail yard or the cargo may be trucked to its ultimate location. Drayage, though, specifically refers to short distance movements as part of the supply chain process.

In drayage, departure and arrival points are typically part of the same metropolitan area, as opposed to the regional or national movements seen in other forms of shipping.

Some other key insights about intermodal drayage include:
• Drayage can normally be finished in one shift, as part of a longer length haul during shipping.
• In addition to the process of short transport of goods, “drayage” also has some additional meanings in the industry. At times, drayage can also refer to a pickup by vehicle to or from an inland or boarder point, an intermodal terminal, or a seaport. Drayage as a term is also at times used as the name of the fee for such services.
• Container shipping in the international commerce sector is one of the entities that utilizes the term drayage to refer to the charges incurred from using said services.