IN THE NEWS: Shrinking US Drayage Capacity to Continue Outstripping Demand

Journal of Commerce
March 27, 2025
William Cassidy

FROM THE ARTICLE: Nationwide US drayage capacity appears to be slowly shrinking from a 2022 high, but with some of those losses attributed to the migration of drivers to larger carriers, excess drayage capacity will persist, putting more pressure on already rock-bottom rates.

The number of drivers in the Intermodal Association of North America’s (IANA’s) intermodal driver database dropped only 0.4% in January from the same month in the prior year to about 489,000 drivers, according to a report Jason Hilsenbeck, President of LoadMatch.com and Drayage.com, released last week. The driver number is down about 8% over two years.

The number of Uniform Intermodal Interchange Agreement (UIIA) carriers is still 61% higher than in late 2019, while the number of drivers is only up about 3.4% in the same period, according to data from the report. The number of companies with a UIIA dropped 3% year over year to 12,960 in January and was down nearly 14% from January 2023.

The UIIA is a contract governing the exchange of intermodal equipment and is administered by IANA. According to the association, the UIIA covers 95% of all North American intermodal equipment exchanges.

....

The disparity in growth between UIIA carriers and intermodal database drivers suggests that some owner-operators or drivers at small drayage carriers are shifting to larger operators, a trend also seen in the over-the-road truckload sector when rates drop.

“Drivers, in general, are the commodity in trucking,” said Paul Brashier, Vice President of Global Supply Chain for ITS Logistics, which provides drayage services among its offerings. “They will migrate to the larger carriers when the market is where it is now because the larger carriers can acquire business.”

Without stronger demand, “the small carriers will struggle to keep their doors open and have a more difficult time acquiring or holding on to business,” Brashier said.

And with US import volumes expected to slow amid tariff uncertainty and waning consumer confidence, drayage carriers face a tough year ahead.

Read the full article.