Dray Alliance enabling chassis availability to reduce “Dry Runs”

Dray Alliance's focus on dual transactions is resulting in more chassis availability for its driver network, and reducing “dry runs.” A dry run occurs in drayage when a chassis is unavailable for the driver to move a shipping container from a cargo ship, resulting in more delays for the shipment, incurring more fees for the shipper and negatively impacting a driver’s earning potential.

In 1H 2022, 84% of Dray Alliance’s transactions at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were dual transactions--returning an empty container and freeing up the corresponding chassis to be used for another load. Dray Alliance’s rate of dual transactions was 30% higher than averages reported by four terminals at Port of Long Beach and Port of Los Angeles, according to available data.

“Dry runs cost everybody time and money, especially drivers” said Steve Wen, Co-Founder and CEO, Dray Alliance. “Dray Alliance leverages the strength of our carrier network to retrieve empty containers and get them and the chassis back into the terminal and back into circulation.”

Data from the Pool of Pools, a congregate date list compiled by the three largest chassis providers in Southern California, shows that the average time a chassis sat at a local warehouse or rail ramp for a 40/45-foot container this week was 9.8 days near POLB and POLA Three days is standard for maintaining normal cargo flow.

“Chassis availability has continually been an issue since the middle of the pandemic,” continued Wen. “It’s like a chicken and egg scenario--drayage can’t move the containers without chassis, and chassis often stay with the containers until they’re unloaded. Our emphasis on dual transactions allows for carriers to get empty containers off of warehouse chassis and, in turn, use those to carry out full loads from the ports.”

When a carrier selects a load on the Dray Alliance platform, drivers are then directed to pick up an empty container from a warehouse or yard, given a timeframe for port arrival and are more quickly moved through the queue at the terminal to receive a full container to dray out to a warehouse.

The Dray Alliance platform enables carriers to be their own dispatchers -- displaying loads ready for pickup on the company’s mobile app and allowing drivers to select the load at their discretion.