“Drayage transportation” is the term used in the shipping industry to explain one specific logistics service in the general field of container shipping. This particular aspect of shipping pertains to carrying freight and goods across specifically short distances, typically within one city or region. Drayage is a key part of intermodal transportation. Intermodal transportation involves multiple forms of transportation used to pick-up, transport, and deliver shipments between key shipping areas. These key shipping areas include ports, railroads, border crossings, and more. In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits of drayage transportation, the distinction of container hauling owner-operators, and the reason for a current increased demand for drayage drivers.
The Benefits of Drayage Transportation
By dividing shipment activities between multiple methods of transportation, involved parties can reap the benefits of quicker, more efficient transportation and deliveries, in turn yielding time and money savings and higher revenue potential. Transporting a shipment between distant locations, especially when one is overseas from another, can require multiple methods of transportation traveling vast distances over different terrains. To efficiently achieve individual freight shipments on a daily basis worldwide, there are also different types of drayage transportation, each with its own distinct focuses.
Drayage is ultimately essential to global logistics, owing to its cost-effectiveness across vast distances. In addition to the aforementioned role of drayage in shipping success, it also benefits customers by effectively decreasing the costs associated with freight container usage when pulling freight. These specific transportation fees include the driver, drayage truck, machine required to transfer a given shipping container, and frequently a place to store a given shipping container.
What are Container Hauling Owner-Operators?
Many people in the trucking industry throw around the terms “independent contractor” and “owner-operator”, sometimes interchangeably. These two active industry positions do have a lot in common. However, there are also some key distinctions that keep them from being truly the same and reasonably interchangeable in every potential scenario. Both of these terms describe truck drivers who are not employed by any single carrier company in particular. Each of these industry participants enjoys their own independence in the field. Every owner-operator is essentially an independent contractor. However, some truck drivers act as owner-operators while other drivers act solely as independent contractors. The essential definition of an owner-operator is an independent contractor who is able to choose who they work with, receive a W-9 from all companies they work with, and are the owners of their own equipment. They are an independent contractor with a business name attached.
However, an individual is able to operate as an independent contractor in the trucking industry without having to also be an owner-operator. Some truck drivers make the decision to simply lease an industry vehicle from a separate company and then operate under that company’s authority without participating in the industry as a fully-fledged owner-operator. Some truck drivers choose this route in lieu of working to set up their own individual carrier company.
These essential distinctions are important, as “owner-operator” refers to a business owner, while “independent contractor” refers to someone who is not an official employee of a specific company and instead works independently under given contracts and contract conditions. Arguably the biggest difference regards who specifically owns the given operating authority. Specified authority is an essential designation for every carrier in order to transport goods in the US. Some independent contractors and owner-operators specifically work in container hauling between warehouses, ports, and other shipping locations.
Why Is There an Increased Demand for Drivers?
Drayage and other transportation services are essential for consistent and successful shipping movements. The market for drayage services is likely to continue growing, and thus, the demand for drayage drivers worldwide. Reports in the last half of 2022 gave predictions that the current and developing market for drayage services will witness accelerated growth globally. One of the key drivers of this predicted accelerated growth in the coming years is the growing manufacturing industry.
Manufacturers and other key stakeholders are continually opting for safer methods of transportation for their consumer goods and other materials. This shift is in turn driving an increased demand for drayage drivers and their specific services. These and other factors are likely to continue fueling existing growth of the drayage services market. One of the key trends also contributing to the increase of drayage services market shares is the expanding e-commerce market.
Electronic commerce is a rapidly developing market with a current strong impact on distribution channels as well as retail as a whole. Expanding urbanization and disposable incomes, especially in Asian and European countries, continue to accelerate the increased growth of the retail market, which in turn is resulting in a well-organized retail sector. The development of retail and e-commerce sectors is further anticipated to increase the evolving competition within the global drayage service market. However, one of the key challenges is the existing shortage of available and willing drayage drivers. The present shortage of desired drayage drivers to match the expansions and growth forecast for the next few years is set to become an increasingly significant challenge for the drayage services market. The various supply chain products need deliveries to a range of destinations within a short time. Consequently, a more streamlined supply chain is necessary to ensure customer satisfaction.
Choose Heavy Weight Transport as Your Drayage Trucking Company
When you’re looking for a drayage trucking company to work with, consider being part of our team here at Heavy Weight Transport. As some of the best container hauling owner-operators in the shipping and logistics business, we work to consistently value our employees’ needs and efforts with a myriad of considerable benefits. Some of the top benefits of choosing us as your drayage trucking company include sign-on and referral bonuses, a 401K with company contributions, paid-for-fuel cards, free recertification physicals, paid orientation, medical insurance, and DOT stop clean inspection bonuses.
