Importers spend a lot of energy comparing drayage rates and almost none on payment terms — until the first invoice arrives and the terms turn out to matter more than the rate did. Whether you pay before the truck rolls or thirty days after delivery affects your working capital, your ability to move cargo on short notice, and how much friction you hit on a bad week.

Here is how billing actually works in container trucking, and what to negotiate.

The three common arrangements

Prepayment

You pay before the container is picked up or before it is released at delivery. This is standard for new customers without established credit, for one-off shipments, and for higher-risk situations. It is simple and it eliminates collection risk for the carrier, which is why prepay customers sometimes get slightly better rates.

The cost is flexibility. If a container becomes available at 6 a.m. and your payment posts at noon, you have lost half a day of a limited free-time window.

Credit terms

Net-15, net-30, or occasionally longer, extended after a credit application and review. This is the normal arrangement for regular importers and gives you the operational responsiveness prepay does not — the carrier dispatches on your instruction without waiting on funds.

Hybrid arrangements

Some carriers extend credit for line-haul but require prepayment or immediate settlement for pass-through costs they must advance on your behalf — terminal fees, demurrage, per diem, exam charges. This is reasonable: those are real cash outlays the carrier makes for you.

What a drayage credit application asks for

Expect to provide:

• Legal entity name, DBA, federal tax ID, and business address.
• Years in operation and ownership information.
• Three or more trade references, ideally other transportation or logistics vendors.
• Banking reference.
• Requested credit limit and expected monthly volume.
• Accounts payable contact and invoicing preferences.
• Signature on the carrier’s terms, often including a personal guarantee for newer or smaller businesses.

Read the terms document, not just the application. It defines payment timing, late fees, storage and accessorial billing, lien rights over cargo, and dispute windows. Go Drayage’s credit application and posted terms are available on our site.

Two things worth negotiating

The dispute window

Terms often require invoice disputes to be raised within a short window — sometimes as little as a week or two — after which the invoice is deemed accepted. If your AP process takes longer than that, you will lose valid disputes on procedure alone. Negotiate a window you can actually meet, and build an invoice audit routine that fits inside it.

Accessorial notification

The most common billing complaint in drayage is not the rate — it is the accessorial nobody warned you about. Ask for a commitment that chargeable events such as driver detention, chassis splits, or dry runs are reported the same day rather than surfacing on the invoice weeks later. Our breakdown of common accessorial charges explains what each one is.

Cargo liens are real

Carrier terms typically grant a lien over cargo in the carrier’s possession for unpaid charges. In practice this rarely comes up, because most disputes settle. But it is worth understanding that a payment dispute can become a cargo-access problem, which is a strong argument for paying undisputed amounts promptly and disputing only the specific line you contest — rather than holding an entire invoice hostage over one charge.

Practical advice for new importers

1. Apply for credit before you need it. Review takes days. Starting during your first urgent shipment guarantees you will prepay it.
2. Ask for the full rate sheet, not just the line-haul rate. A low base rate with aggressive accessorials is not a low rate.
3. Confirm what is pass-through and what is marked up. Both are legitimate; you should know which is which.
4. Establish an AP contact the carrier can actually reach. Most collection friction is a routing problem, not a solvency problem.
5. Pay on time early. A clean six-month history is what gets a credit limit raised when you need capacity in peak season.

Go Drayage is an asset-based carrier operating company-owned trucks and a secure Miami yard for PortMiami and Port Everglades drayage. If you want to see rates and terms side by side before committing, request a quote or contact our team.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a drayage credit application take to approve?

Typically a few business days, driven mostly by how fast your trade references respond. Complete applications with reachable references move fastest; missing tax IDs and stale reference contacts are the usual cause of delay. Apply before you have cargo on the water.

Can I get net-30 terms as a brand-new importer?

Sometimes, but expect a modest starting limit or a personal guarantee. Carriers extend credit against demonstrated payment history, and a new entity has none. Many importers start on prepay or a small limit and move to standard terms after a few months of clean payments.

Are demurrage and per diem billed the same way as the drayage rate?

Usually not. These are third-party charges the carrier advances on your behalf to the terminal or steamship line, so they are frequently billed as pass-through and settled immediately rather than on your standard terms. Confirm this in the terms document so it does not surprise you.