What goes into a drayage rate, and which extra charges can appear?
A drayage rate from CN Brampton or CPKC Vaughan depends on the ramp, your address, the cargo weight and the container. A Setara Transport rate confirmation shows the rate, with fuel surcharge and waiting time as separate lines where they apply.
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Why is there no price on this page?
Two containers off the same ramp, bound for two GTA docks, can be very different jobs. A price list would be wrong for most of them, so we quote each move on its own details.
Send the container details with a quote request. Dispatch replies with how we would cover it and a rate, not an instant online price. The rate is for that move as tendered. If the move changes, for example from a drop to a live unload, tell dispatch before you accept.
Read the rate confirmation before you accept it. If we can see the load will need something it does not show, we raise it before we sign.
What changes a drayage rate?
Six things move a drayage rate. Each one changes the truck, the chassis or the time the job takes.
Where it goes
The ramp and your address set the distance and the roads. Delivery runs across Peel, York, Halton, Toronto and Durham, and out into the rest of Ontario.
The cargo weight
We haul heavy and overweight containers on tri-axle chassis. Tell us the cargo weight in each container, and dispatch confirms the right chassis. See heavy containers.
Marine or 53 ft domestic
Dry or reefer, marine or 53 ft domestic. For a reefer, send the set point with the tender. See reefer drayage.
Live unload or drop
The driver waits while you unload, or we leave the container on a chassis if you have the yard space. See live unload or drop.
Hours and window
Your receiving hours and appointment window decide when the truck can arrive. Give the real ones at tender, so the pickup is booked to match.
Whose chassis
We pull containers on our own chassis. If the move needs to go on your chassis or a pool chassis, tell us at tender and name the steamship line.
What appears on the rate confirmation?
The rate confirmation is the document you accept before the move. Read it line by line, and look for these four things.
The rate. The price of the move you tendered: this ramp, this container, your address, live unload or drop.
Fuel surcharge. Its own line where it applies, so you see it apart from the rate.
Waiting time. Its own line where it applies. Detention is measured from the appointment time written on the rate confirmation. Documented in and out times decide what is invoiced.
Free time and the standing schedule. Free time is on the rate confirmation before you accept. The standing schedule is in our conditions of carriage.
How waiting is counted, in detail: truck detention and waiting time.
- The rate
- Fuel surcharge line
- Waiting time line
- Free time
- Who pays storage and per diem
Ask for anything missing before you accept, not after delivery.
Which charges are not the trucker's?
Storage is billed by the railway. Demurrage is billed by the ocean line. Each one runs on its own clock.
Railway storage builds when a container sits at the ramp after free time. CN, for example, sets its storage charges in its own tariff.
Demurrage is the ocean line's charge while its container is still at the terminal or ramp after the line's free time.
Per diem is the common name for the ocean line's detention charge. It starts when the container leaves the ramp and runs until the empty is returned.
Our conditions of carriage put these charges on the party responsible under the rate confirmation. Where a delay is ours, we own it. Where it comes from the ramp, the line, customs or the receiver, it stays with the shipment.
- Railway: storage
- Ocean line: demurrage
- Ocean line: per diem
Each clock, explained: storage and demurrage and container per diem.
Why can two quotes for the same container differ?
Two quotes can price two different jobs. Line them up on the same five points before you compare totals.
Fuel, shown or folded in
One quote may show fuel surcharge as its own line. Another may fold it into the rate. Compare totals, not base rates.
Free time before waiting
Check what free time each quote allows before waiting time starts, and where that is written down.
The empty return
Check that each quote covers taking the empty back to the ramp or the depot your line names.
Whose chassis
Ask whose chassis each quote assumes. If it is not the carrier's, ask who pays for it. In trade terms, a chassis split is an extra move to bring the container and a usable chassis together.
Who runs the truck
Ask whether the company quoting runs the truck or passes the load on. Read how to choose a drayage carrier.
Ask each company for its accessorial list in writing with the rate. Then compare the same move on the same terms.
What do you send for an accurate rate?
Send these with the quote request. Anything you do not have yet can follow.
The container
The container size and type: marine or 53 ft domestic, dry or reefer. For a reefer, add the set point. The container number can follow once the container is released.
The weight
The cargo weight in each container. Dispatch adds the container's own weight and confirms the chassis.
Your dock
The delivery address, your receiving hours, and live unload or drop.
The dates
The ramp and the last free day, so the pickup is booked in time.
What is a dry run, and how do you avoid one?
A dry run is a trip where the truck arrives but cannot take the container. It often comes from a hold or a missing release.
Send us the container number and we tell you what is still missing. Dispatch checks the releases before a truck goes out, so a missing release is found at the desk, not at the gate.
What does Setara Transport do?
We haul marine containers and 53 foot domestic containers, dry and reefer, on the truck legs between the ramp and your dock. We do not book the rail.
- The ramp and the container number
- The cargo weight in each container
- The delivery address and receiving hours
- Live unload or drop at your dock
- Reply with how we would cover it and a rate
- Show fuel surcharge and waiting time as separate lines where they apply
- Confirm the right chassis before booking
- Book the pickup at the ramp: the CN Brampton gate appointment or the CPKC Vaughan pickup
- Deliver live unload or drop, and bring the empty back
Dispatch, at (905) 745-2322, Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 18:00 ET, or dispatch@setara.ca.
Drayage rate questions.
How much does container drayage cost in Toronto?
Is fuel included in a drayage rate?
What are accessorial charges in drayage?
What do you send for an accurate drayage rate?
Why do two drayage quotes differ?
More answers for importers.
How is waiting time counted?
Truck detention, free time and in and out timesWhen does per diem stop?
The ocean line's clock after pickupStorage and demurrage
The railway's and the line's charges at the rampIs a pre-pull worth it?
When the dock is not ready before the last free dayDrayage terms
The words on the paperwork, in plain EnglishAll answers
Every answer for importers and forwardersNeed a rate for a container? Send us the details.
The ramp, the container, the cargo weight and your address.