subject: Drayage: Transportation beyond the Usual Limits of Transportation [print this page] Drayage: Transportation beyond the Usual Limits of Transportation
Drayagedrayagenoun(dr-ij): the work or cost of a strong vehicle, generally without sides, such as a boat, truck or train, used to haul goods.
Most people would glance at the word "drayage" and never think twice about its meaning. Not because of the complexity of the word, but simply because they don't understand what it means. For example, global warming to the average person simply means warmer weather and less ice at the poles, not understanding the complexity of the situation or why the hubbub around the topic, chalking it all up to another political debate or a topic for greenies. But drayage is actually something that many Americans are unconsciously aware of.
Think of the last movie or television show that you saw in which the bad guy was hiding out at a warehouse in a shipyard, inevitably with a captured government official, beautiful girl or small child. Now think about the scenery when the good guys got to the shipyard. Big metal containers and huge empty warehouses, right? Plenty of room in between the metal containers to dramatically drift cars and enough space in the warehouses to harbor criminals and their ticking-time-bombs. The media has snuck into your brain and planted the answer to the question, "What is drayage?"
Drayage is the work or cost of a strong vehicle, generally without sides, such as a boat, truck or train, used to haul goods. Those huge containers in movie shipyards are drayage containers, and they probably carried paper, lumber or beverages across the ocean from the factory or forest the products came from in order to be stored in distribution warehouses, transported by trucks or trains, and sold to consumers. You know all those fancy wood flooring materials like Koa, Hoop Pine, Yellow Stringybark and Australian Red Cedar? Those oddly named timbers are grown overseas and transported to America in those big metal drayage containers.
The people in charge of those big containers, tracking what is on the containers and determining where each product goes are part of the logistics management team. The logistics management teams track and ship products and, if needed, they call in other trucking companies to handle excess shipments. With all of the organized chaos, the companies in charge of the drayage, logistics management and distribution warehouses have to be ready for anything that might come their way. With personalized individualistic focus, drayage and transportation companies are guaranteed to be your one-stop-shop by providing unmatched customer service and on-time delivery through their commitments to excellence.
