A carrier in Medley lands a steady drayage contract. Short runs, predictable volume, no long-haul nights. It looks like the easiest work he has ever taken.
He then spends three weeks not moving a container, because getting a truck through a terminal gate involves registrations, credentials, and interchange agreements he had never encountered running regular freight.
Drayage looks simpler than over-the-road work and is structurally more complicated. The trips are short, the equipment mostly is not yours, and the freight is in a different regulatory category than the mileage suggests.
The Freight Is Interstate Even Though the Trip Is Not
This is the point that catches carriers before anything else does.
Containers moving from PortMiami, Port Everglades, or Port Tampa Bay to a consignee’s warehouse are continuing a movement that began overseas. That freight is in foreign and interstate commerce, and the final leg is part of it — even on a twenty-mile run that never leaves the county.
The practical consequence is that a drayage carrier may be operating under federal jurisdiction while describing the business as intrastate. Federal financial responsibility, federal driver qualification, federal hours of service, and the filing requirements follow the freight rather than the route.
We cover the distinction in more detail in interstate vs intrastate trucking in Florida, and it is worth resolving deliberately rather than by assumption.
Getting Through the Gate Is Its Own Set of Requirements
Port access is layered, and each layer is administered by someone different.
Credentials. Unescorted access to secure areas of a maritime facility requires a Transportation Worker Identification Credential, and the application and vetting process takes time. A carrier who hires a driver without one has hired someone who cannot get through the gate.
Terminal registration. Individual marine terminal operators set their own requirements for carriers seeking access, including registration, gate systems, appointment scheduling, and insurance. Those requirements are set by the terminal rather than by a single statewide rule, and they differ between facilities and change over time.
Interchange agreements. Carriers picking up equipment from ocean carriers and chassis providers generally do so under an interchange agreement, commonly the industry’s standard intermodal agreement. Registering under it involves meeting insurance requirements set by each equipment provider, and those requirements vary by provider.
None of that is something to work out after the contract is signed. The sequence that works is confirming the access and interchange requirements for the specific terminals you will serve, then getting the insurance aligned to them, then taking the work.
Ask the terminal and the equipment providers directly what they require. Anyone quoting you a single universal number for port access is guessing.
The Chassis Is Not Yours, and That Is a Coverage Question
This is the exposure most drayage carriers have not priced, and it is the one worth the most attention.
Most drayage runs on pool chassis owned by a leasing company or an ocean carrier rather than by the trucking company. The same is true of the container. A carrier hauling a load is in possession of two pieces of equipment belonging to other parties, with contractual responsibility for both under the interchange agreement.
Physical damage coverage on equipment you own does not reach equipment you do not own. Trailer interchange or non-owned trailer physical damage coverage is what addresses it, and a carrier without it is personally responsible for damage to a chassis or container in its possession.
Two things make this worse than it first appears. Chassis are frequently in poor condition when interchanged, which makes the inspection at pickup the line between pre-existing damage and damage you are about to be charged for. And the interchange agreement, not the insurance policy, defines what you agreed to be responsible for.
Photograph the chassis and container at interchange, every time, and read what the interchange agreement says about equipment condition and liability.
Per Diem and Detention Are Real Money and Not Insurance
Container per diem, chassis rental, and detention charges accumulate when equipment sits — at the warehouse, in the yard, waiting for a return appointment.
Port congestion, appointment availability, and consignees who unload slowly all drive those charges, and none of them is an insurable event. They are a business exposure managed through contracts, dispatch, and turn times rather than through a policy.
It is worth knowing which side of the line a cost sits on, because a carrier expecting insurance to absorb detention is going to be disappointed.
Cargo Liability on a Sealed Container
A drayage carrier usually moves a sealed container without seeing what is inside it.
That does not remove the cargo exposure. If the container is stolen, damaged, or arrives with the seal broken, the claim is for the value of the goods, and the carrier’s cargo liability is engaged whether or not anyone at the trucking company ever saw the freight.
Seal integrity is the documentation that matters. Record the seal number at pickup, confirm it at delivery, and note any discrepancy before the container is opened. A carrier who can show the seal was intact on arrival is in a different position from one who cannot.
The cargo values in a container can also run well above what a carrier assumes, which is worth checking against the cargo limit rather than leaving at whatever was set when the operation was hauling something else.
The Driving Itself Is a Concentrated Exposure
Drayage means repeated trips through the most congested corridors in the state, with heavy equipment, in traffic that includes a meaningful share of uninsured drivers.
The short radius helps in some respects and does not help with severity. An accident on the Palmetto involving a loaded container is the same claim it would be anywhere, and the frequency of exposure is higher because the trips repeat all day.
Brokers and terminals will have their own limit requirements, and the practical market expectation for liability in this work generally sits above the federal minimum.
What Drayage Carriers Should Confirm
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Have you established whether your operation is in interstate commerce, given where the freight originates?
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Is your BMC-91 filed and posted, and is the MCS-90 on the policy?
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Do your drivers hold current TWIC credentials?
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What does each terminal you serve require for access, and have you asked them directly?
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Are you registered under the interchange agreement the equipment providers require?
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Do you carry trailer interchange or non-owned trailer physical damage coverage on chassis and containers?
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Do you photograph equipment condition at interchange?
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What is your cargo limit, and does it reflect the value of what is actually in the containers?
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Do you record and verify seal numbers at pickup and delivery?
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Who at your company is responsible for turn times and per diem exposure?
Trucking Insurance in Florida
Prestige Insurance Group works with trucking companies across Miami, Hialeah, Medley, Doral, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Tampa, including drayage and intermodal operations.
If you are starting port work or expanding into it, send us the interchange agreement and the terminal’s requirements along with your current policy. Whether your coverage meets what you have agreed to is answerable from those documents, and it is a better question than what a policy costs.
Call the office nearest you.
Miami: 305-969-8776 Orlando: 407-993-2331 Stuart: 772-247-3788
General information only, not legal advice. Port and terminal access requirements, credentialing, and intermodal interchange insurance requirements are set by terminal operators, equipment providers, and federal agencies, vary by facility and provider, and change over time; confirm current requirements directly with the terminals and equipment providers you work with. Policy forms, limits, and endorsements vary by carrier. Refer to your actual policies and interchange agreements for the terms that apply to your operation.
