In the world of transportation for goods and products, there are many steps along the path to getting goods from point A to point B. One of the steps is called drayage, and it means short-distance transportation. A good example is a truck service that shows up at a warehouse in the city of Chicago to pick up goods and transport them to a retail location in a suburb of Chicago.
History of Drayage Services
You might see the term “drayage services” when a Chicago trucking company like Larry’s Cartage Company, Inc. writes you an invoice. The fee for drayage services will be different at times because drayage is not the same as a long haul. One way to remember what this term means is to think of the horse-drawn carriages that showed up at docks when ships full of trade goods arrived at port towns before cars were invented. The carriages were called drays, and they would be loaded with goods and then taken to the market, where merchants could get their products off the dray and place them in the storefront.
Types of Drayage Services
There are lots of different types of drayage services in Chicago. You may need expedited drayage, meaning a short run that is done as fast as possible. You may need door-to-door drayage, meaning that products are taken directly to the customer. You may need shipment to a shopping mall or many other services.
Drayage services are most often used for things like freight moves on trains. The freight may need to be split up from a larger shipment, loaded onto smaller trucks, and then taken to the correct rail location. This smaller truck’s movement from the pick up to the rail is called drayage. There is a very specific type of drayage called pier drayage, in which a train is unloaded onto a truck, and the truck then takes the freight to a dock or pier to be loaded onto a boat.
Why Does Any of This Matter?
Drayage services in Chicago can be very useful for a wide variety of reasons. If you have freight that needs strategic movement from one location to another nearby, you can have this done – and quickly. To learn more about drayage services, contact Larry’s Cartage Company, Inc. by calling our office at (630) 920-0772.
