What an all-in drayage quote means and how to get one

An all-in drayage quote is a combined price for a defined container move. It may bring together transportation, fuel, chassis use, tolls, and specified accessorial services. To understand the total, you still need to know the locations, equipment, timing, included quantities, and operating conditions it covers.

There is no universal package behind the words all-in. One provider may mean transportation and fuel. Another may include several chassis days, a pre-pull, and yard storage. A forwarder's door-delivery offer may combine the drayage with other destination services. Those totals can describe different work, even when the container and delivery ZIP are the same.

A useful all-in price answers: all of which work, under which conditions, through which final event? For an ordinary import move using an ocean carrier's container, that final event usually needs to include the authorized empty return, with chassis return addressed as well.

Portmate uses shipment context and its proprietary machine learning algorithm to price the work being quoted. The point is an accurate total for that defined work. That total remains applicable while the quoted scope, quantities, and conditions remain the same, within the quote's validity and agreed terms. The challenge in drayage is that the operation can change after pricing, sometimes without any change to the customer's instructions.

This guide focuses on U.S. container drayage for importers, exporters, forwarders, and operations teams. If you are new to the movement itself, start with what drayage means.

What “all-in” actually tells you

An all-in label describes how a price is presented. The quote and its terms establish what that price buys.

A bundled total still needs boundaries

These are different offers:

• Transportation bundle: The truck movement and fuel, with equipment and other services charged separately.
• Total for a planned operation: The defined movement plus stated equipment days, handling, and other known requirements.
• Wider destination package: Drayage combined with named forwarding, terminal, customs-related, or warehouse services.
• Fixed price or capped arrangement: An agreement in which the provider absorbs specified cost risks, subject to written coverage and exceptions.

A provider can agree to absorb waiting, additional equipment days, or particular third-party charges. That is a commercial commitment that should be stated explicitly. The phrase all-in alone does not establish that commitment, and even a broad cap needs a defined service boundary.

Also distinguish a planning estimate from a quote available for booking. An estimate based on a port metro, an approximate destination, or unknown dates can be useful, but it needs refinement as the operating details become known. Check the quote's expiry, applicable service dates, and any conditions for acceptance or revision.

Read each amount in its proper context

First confirm the currency and whether the displayed price is per container, per trip, or for the whole order. A clear quote should then let you distinguish:

An accessorial can be part of the original total when the need is known. For example, an overnight container drop belongs in the quote when overnight unloading is the plan. The same service might be an additional charge if the original plan was a live unload and the container subsequently had to be left behind.

An item shown as at cost is not free. If its amount is unresolved, the displayed known total is not a final total for all expenses associated with the shipment. Confirm what remains open before using the number as a complete budget.

The charges to check in a drayage quote

Drayage costs reflect more than the loaded distance between two points. The truck may collect equipment, enter a terminal, wait for a container, visit a warehouse, and return the empty container and chassis to different places. Some moves also need an intermediate yard or an additional collection trip.

Transportation, fuel, tolls, and local fees

Base transportation or linehaul pays for the stated truck operation. Establish whether the price covers the complete import or export cycle, a particular leg, or a one-way movement. A loaded delivery is not by itself confirmation that empty collection and return are covered.

Fuel surcharge, often shortened to FSC, may be a separate line or incorporated into transportation. Ask whether it is fixed for the quoted movement or subject to a stated adjustment. A fuel percentage is meaningful only when you know the amount to which it applies.

Tolls and route costs depend on the itinerary and truck configuration. Confirm the priced route and movement legs, including relevant return travel. A passenger-car toll calculation is not a substitute for a truck calculation.

Terminal and local program fees need their own check. In Los Angeles and Long Beach, for example, the PierPASS Traffic Mitigation Fee and Clean Truck Fund rate are separate programs with their own applicability and exemptions. Ask whether each applicable expense is included, paid directly, or advanced by the provider. Do not assume that paying the trucker's invoice settles every terminal-related obligation.

When a provider advances an expense, check its billing basis. A pass-through arrangement may include an agreed fee in addition to the underlying outlay. Save proof of direct payments so the same expense is not paid again through another party.

Chassis, equipment, and handling

Chassis use is often priced by the day. Check the chassis type, included days, minimum rental period, counting method, and event that ends the rental. The container and chassis are separate assets; returning one does not necessarily establish that the other has been returned.

For a concrete example, DCLI's billing FAQ explains that a chassis collected Monday afternoon and returned Tuesday morning incurs two calendar days, even though it was out for less than 24 hours. That is DCLI's stated basis, not a universal rule for every provider.

Chassis splits and flips concern additional equipment movements or handling. A split generally involves collecting or returning a chassis at a location separate from the container transaction. A flip transfers a container between chassis or between the ground and a chassis. Identify what is required and whether it is already covered. The container chassis guide explains the equipment options behind these decisions.

Special handling may involve heavy cargo, a specialized chassis, hazardous goods, an operating reefer, a genset, weighing, permits, or an authorized bonded movement. Specify the actual requirement. A non-operating reefer is a different operation from a refrigerated shipment that needs temperature control throughout the road movement.

An overweight charge does not establish that the truck can legally travel the route. Gross weight, axle groups, spacing, and route restrictions still matter, as FHWA's bridge-weight guidance explains. For a heavy container, check the lane's overweight support before treating it as a standard move.

Time, extra trips, and storage

Live loading or unloading means the driver stays with the equipment. Drop-and-pick means leaving the container and returning later. Confirm that the quote matches the facility's actual plan, including how the container will be supported and when it can be collected.

Driver waiting concerns the truck and driver's time. Establish the included allowance at each location, when the clock starts, the hourly rate, billing increments, and documentation requirements. An included allowance at the warehouse does not automatically provide the same allowance at the terminal.

Pre-pull means collecting the container before final delivery and holding it in an intermediate location. Check the pickup, later delivery, storage allowance, equipment days, and handling together. A pre-pull can avoid terminal dwell while introducing yard and equipment costs.

Yard storage pays for space at the trucker's or another operator's yard. It is distinct from chassis rental and from ocean-carrier container detention. Those charges can cover the same dates while paying for different resources.

Dry runs, failed attempts, redelivery, extra stops, and cancellations need clear triggers. A truck dispatched to a terminal without a usable release may perform work without collecting the container. Establish what makes that attempt billable and what evidence supports it.

Actual schedules show why the detail matters. Dray Alliance's published accessorial schedule specifies a chassis minimum, separate waiting allowances, and a storage allowance bundled with pre-pull. Those provisions illustrate the importance of reading the service description; they are not Portmate's rates or terms.

Ocean, terminal, rail, and other third-party costs

Do not use detention as a catch-all label. Driver detention or waiting concerns truck time. Ocean detention, often called container per diem, generally concerns extended use of the ocean carrier's container outside the terminal. Demurrage generally concerns a container remaining at a terminal beyond its applicable free period. The governing tariff or contract supplies the exact definitions and clocks. Maersk's U.S. import guidance provides an operator example of these distinctions.

Rail storage has its own rules. BNSF's intermodal storage guidance measures the relevant period from availability notification to out-gate, with charges after free time expires, and requires storage charges to be settled before the equipment leaves its property. Check the actual railroad and facility for your move.

Government examinations can introduce another facility, handling, and transport into the operation. U.S. customs examination rules address the importer's responsibility for preparing merchandise for examination and permit examination at another authorized location. Identify any examination-related transport, handling, or storage separately rather than assuming it belongs to ordinary door delivery.

Finally, a drayage quote does not establish inclusion of ocean freight, customs duties, brokerage, cargo insurance, warehouse unloading labor, transloading, or onward domestic transport. Include those services explicitly when you need a wider package. For unfamiliar charge names, use the shipping terms and accessorial glossary.

Why the operation can change after the quote

A container move depends on several organizations coordinating their own equipment, systems, schedules, and permissions. The customer controls some inputs, but cannot independently control the entire chain.

The parties and dependencies behind the price

These are common dependencies to establish when planning the move:

The practical distinction is between changing the instructions and changing the conditions required to carry them out. A customer can request the same delivery throughout the shipment while a terminal restriction changes the time, equipment use, or trips needed to complete it.

A return restriction can extend more than one clock

Suppose a container is unloaded on schedule, but its authorized return location is not accepting that carrier's equipment in the required size, or a usable appointment is unavailable. The warehouse may be ready and the trucker may have followed the plan, yet the empty cannot be returned as expected.

This is an operational dependency, not just a hypothetical billing exception. TraPac Los Angeles publishes empty acceptance by shipping line, equipment type, date, and shift, including conditions for certain dual transactions. A dual transaction combines an inbound and outbound container transaction on the same terminal visit. A container being empty does not by itself establish permission to return it.

The revised operation might require more chassis days, temporary yard storage, a different authorized depot, or another truck trip. Ocean-container detention may also become a question under the applicable terms. Confirm each consequence separately; a blocked return does not automatically make every proposed charge payable.

An export has similar dependencies in reverse. A revised vessel schedule can change when a terminal accepts the loaded container. The Northwest Seaport Alliance's export receiving resource directs users to monitor receiving schedules and confirm current details with the terminal or carrier. Loading earlier does not guarantee that the terminal will accept the container earlier.

A changed cost still needs an explanation

Separate three questions:

1. What happened? Identify the changed instruction, unavailable appointment, release problem, extra equipment day, or other event.
2. What additional work or expense resulted? Identify the service, quantity, dates, and calculation.
3. Who agreed to bear that cost? Check the quote, booking terms, applicable rules, authorization, and evidence.

A provider's omitted known requirement, a calculation error, an external disruption, and a newly requested service are different situations. A failure by a provider to perform the agreed work should not simply be relabeled as a customer scope change.

The same care applies in the other direction: an extra trip or equipment day is not automatically a hidden fee because it was absent from the original plan. A useful explanation connects the event to the work and the billing basis, without assuming the customer caused it.

How to request a quote that matches the whole move

You do not need to master every accessorial code before requesting a price. Describe the operation in ordinary language, distinguish confirmed details from assumptions, and ask the provider to identify what the total covers.

Gather the details that establish the scope

Start with these details for each container or group of identical moves:

• Direction and movement: Import, export, terminal transfer, or another clearly described service.
• Locations: Exact marine terminal or rail ramp, physical facility address and truck entrance, intermediate stops, and known equipment pickup or return locations.
• Equipment and quantity: Container count, size/type, carrier-owned or shipper-owned equipment, and special chassis or reefer needs.
• Cargo: Commodity, net cargo weight per container with units, and hazardous or other special requirements.
• Timing: Required service dates, availability or expected arrival, applicable last free day, and facility appointments and hours.
• Release and receiving conditions: Known holds, documents or payments still pending, export earliest receiving date, cutoff, and required reservations.
• Loading plan: Live service or drop-and-pick, expected loading/unloading duration, overnight dwell, and collection readiness.
• Commercial basis: Who pays third parties, required service approvals, and any requested cost cap or broader destination services.

The last free day, or LFD, is the final day of the applicable free period before the relevant charges begin. Identify which charge and location it concerns. A terminal's last free day, the container's return free time, and the chassis rental allowance are separate checks.

For Portmate, provide net cargo weight, including packaging, without container, chassis, or tractor tare. Keep the source document's weight label clear. Verified gross mass, or VGM, includes the packed container; IMO's VGM guidance explains the distinction. Do not supply VGM as though it were cargo weight.

For an import, describe pickup through unloading, empty collection if needed, and authorized equipment return. For an export, describe empty pickup, movement to the shipper, loading, and loaded return within the receiving window. A rail move needs the actual ramp and its availability and storage information.

Unknown details do not prevent early planning. Label them plainly. An ETA is an estimate of arrival, not confirmation of container availability or release. A delivery ZIP supports initial pricing, but the actual facility entrance and service requirements may refine it.

A detailed example you can adapt

The following is a sample request, not a live shipment or a Portmate rate:

Please quote one import 40HC dry container from Port Newark Container Terminal to Elizabeth, NJ 07201. The exact warehouse street address and truck entrance are still to be confirmed. Cargo is non-hazardous packaged household goods, with net cargo weight of 18,000 kg including packaging.

The plan is a weekday pickup, live unloading taking about two hours, and authorized empty return afterward. We do not currently plan an overnight drop or pre-pull. Final availability, last free day, delivery appointment, release status, and empty return instructions are not yet confirmed.

Please identify the assumptions used for the planning quote. Show the transportation, fuel, chassis type and days, tolls, applicable local fees, and other included services. Please also identify exclusions, unresolved at-cost items, waiting allowances, rates for additional work, validity, and what must be confirmed before booking.

For an overnight unload, change the request to say the container must be left at the warehouse and collected the next day. For an export, replace the import timeline with empty pickup, loading, earliest receiving date, and loaded cutoff. Those are changes to the operation being priced, not merely different wording.

Questions to settle before booking

Use the returned quote to answer these questions:

1. Does it cover the exact terminal or ramp and the intended facility?
2. Which loaded, empty, and chassis movements are included?
3. How many equipment days and waiting hours are included, and how are they counted?
4. Does the service plan cover live unloading, a drop, pre-pull, or storage as required?
5. Which known third-party charges are included, and which are paid separately or remain unresolved?
6. What triggers an additional charge, and what rate, minimum, or increment applies?
7. What notification, approval, and supporting evidence are required when the plan changes?
8. Is the price still valid for the intended booking and service dates?

Ask for written clarification where the answer is missing. Keep the quote, applicable accessorial schedule, and booking confirmation together so the dispatch and invoice teams work from the same scope.

How to compare two all-in quotes fairly

Compare the cost of the same operation before comparing the headline totals. Align locations, service dates, equipment, days, waiting allowances, return movements, and third-party expenses.

Consider a planned move requiring three billable chassis days and an applicable $80 local expense. These amounts are invented to demonstrate the comparison; they are not current market or Portmate rates.

Quote A requires two more chassis days, adding $100, plus the known $80 expense. Its lower displayed number becomes the higher price for the planned operation. This comparison assumes both offers otherwise cover identical services and terms.

Then compare the cost of plausible changes. What happens if unloading takes longer, delivery must be dropped, or a return is delayed? Apply each quote's own allowances, rates, and minimums to the same scenario. Do not add every conceivable accessorial to every quote or treat every possible disruption as certain.

Keep a contingency budget separate from the agreed price. A reserve helps you plan for uncertainty; it does not authorize the provider to spend it or establish that a particular extra charge is due.

How Portmate builds a quote from the shipment context

Portmate combines the details you provide, relevant conversation context, proprietary machine learning pricing, and applicable pricing rules to build the quote for a supported move. Relevant inputs include the lane, terminal or ramp, container type, commodity, cargo weight, equipment needs, and disclosed operating requirements. The guide to what Portmate rates are based on explains the wider pricing approach.

This lets you describe a requirement such as “leave the container overnight and collect it tomorrow” without first knowing its accessorial code. Portmate uses the context to identify relevant supported charges and equipment requirements. It does not need to add every possible fee to every shipment to produce a useful total.

The accuracy of that total has a specific meaning: it is the rate for the work quoted, with the stated scope and allowances. An unchanged operation stays within that pricing basis, subject to the quote's validity and agreed terms. A new destination, additional equipment days, an unplanned yard stay, or an additional trip changes what must be performed or paid for and needs to be assessed against the quote.

Unknown facts and unresolved expenses still need attention. A pricing model can use an assumption for a missing detail; it cannot turn that assumption into a confirmed terminal instruction or guarantee that a future appointment will be available. Read any at-cost line alongside the known total.

To get a quote:

1. Open Portmate and sign in. Use the chat to describe the move, including the terminal or metro, facility, container type, commodity, and net cargo weight.
2. Add the operating context. Explain loading or unloading, timing, overnight dwell, special equipment, and anything already known about releases or returns.
3. Review the result. Check the transportation, fuel, chassis and accessorial lines, quantities, total, and any notes or assumptions. Ask for clarification where the service basis is incomplete.
4. Refine and book the intended operation. Confirm missing details and have material differences reviewed before relying on the earlier total for dispatch.

If only a metro is known, review how Portmate selects a terminal assumption. Replace that assumption when the actual terminal or ramp is confirmed. You can also look up current accessorials; a schedule is a rate reference, while the quote establishes the charges included in your particular total.

The instant drayage quote walkthrough shows the quoting process. Once the scope is confirmed, use the booking guide to proceed from the quote.

What to do when conditions change

The best response to a disruption is to establish the revised operation while preserving the original pricing record. That helps operations choose the next step and gives billing a clear basis for reviewing the eventual cost.

Record the event promptly. Capture what changed, when it became known, the affected container and equipment, and the source: terminal notice, appointment system, carrier instruction, facility record, or other relevant communication. Keep event dates, times, and time zones clear.

Compare the feasible options. A pre-pull may reduce terminal exposure while adding yard and chassis costs. An alternate authorized return location may add travel while shortening equipment use. Compare the total effect of each available option instead of focusing on one daily fee.

Establish the cost and authority. Ask which existing allowance is exhausted, what additional service or quantity is proposed, and what terms govern it. Follow the agreed notification and approval procedure. Where time is critical, document the decision and the authority to act as clearly as the circumstances allow.

For example, suppose an illustrative $1,000 quote includes three chassis days and the planned return. A return restriction then requires two additional billable chassis days, two billable yard days, and a separately chargeable additional trip. At invented agreed rates of $50 per chassis day, $40 per storage day, and $150 per trip, the proposed addition is:

$100 + $80 + $150 = $330, producing a revised total of $1,330 if those services occur and are chargeable under the agreement.

Check the included allowances, bundling, evidence, and any available relief before accepting that calculation. The scenario explains how the operation can cost more without a customer-requested change; it does not establish automatic liability for those amounts.

Reconcile the invoice against both scope and events. Match each additional line to its rate, quantity, supporting record, and applicable authorization. Remove duplicate billing and account for direct payments or credits. The accessorial tracking guide explains how to review charges and evidence alongside the shipment record.

For U.S. ocean demurrage or detention invoices, 46 CFR Part 541 sets requirements for covered invoices, including charge and free-time information, issuance timing, and dispute procedures. Its rules should not be applied automatically to ordinary driver waiting, chassis rental, or trucker's yard storage. Follow the applicable dispute deadline and preserve evidence while the problem occurs.

The carrier's instructions can be specific. For example, Maersk's U.S. import dispute guidance describes evidence for appointment unavailability and explains that screenshots are not conclusive when terminal records show capacity. Retain the actual notices, requests, and equipment records that explain your shipment.

When requesting your next quote, describe the complete move and ask what would make the price change. A defined total, visible assumptions, and clear change terms give you a price you can compare, book, and reconcile when the container has completed its journey.