Choosing a drayage carrier gets a lot of attention. The thirty days after the decision get almost none, which is a shame, because that is where most new carrier relationships either settle into something reliable or quietly go wrong. Here is what a real onboarding looks like.
Before the first container: the paperwork week
None of this is glamorous and all of it prevents problems.
Credit and billing setup
A credit application, trade references, and agreement on terms. Prepay or credit, net-30 or net-15, who receives invoices and in what format, and whether you need purchase order numbers or reference fields on every invoice. Getting the invoice format right at the start saves months of coding disputes — see drayage payment terms and credit applications.
Credentials exchange
You should receive: certificate of insurance with your company as certificate holder, FMCSA authority details, UIIA registration confirmation, and a customs bond reference if you move bonded freight. Our guides to reading a carrier’s COI and drayage carrier credentials cover what to verify in each.
Authorization at the ocean carriers
The new trucker has to be listed as your authorized carrier with each steamship line you use, or they cannot pick up your containers. This step gets forgotten constantly and is discovered at 7 a.m. on the day of the first pickup. Confirm it in writing with each line.
Rate agreement in writing
Base rates by lane, and — more importantly — the accessorial schedule. Chassis usage, pre-pull, yard storage per day, detention after how many free hours, dry run, hazmat, overweight, after-hours. A base rate without an accessorial schedule is not a quote. See accessorial charges explained.
The information handoff
Your new carrier does not know your business. Everything below is something a driver otherwise learns the hard way, on a delivery, at your expense.
- Delivery locations: full address, receiving hours, real cutoff for last truck accepted, appointment requirements, dock type and count, forklift availability, gate codes, and site contact name and mobile number.
- Your typical freight: commodity, whether containers are palletized or floor-loaded, typical weights, and anything requiring special equipment.
- Documentation flow: who sends the arrival notice, who sends the delivery order, who confirms customs release, and how the carrier will know a container is ready.
- Escalation path: who the carrier calls when something goes wrong, and who calls whom after 5 p.m.
- Standing instructions: what you want done by default if a receiver refuses delivery or a container cannot be delivered the same day.
The first container
Pick an easy one. A standard dry box, a familiar receiver, comfortable free time, mid-week. The purpose of the first move is to test the process, not to prove anything about capacity.
Watch three things: whether you were told the container had been picked up without having to ask, whether the delivery confirmation arrived with the signed receipt attached, and whether the invoice matched the quote. Those three signals predict the next hundred moves better than any sales conversation.
Weeks two through four
Run parallel
Keep your incumbent on part of the volume. You get a real comparison on the same weeks and the same terminal conditions, and you are not exposed if the new carrier turns out to have capacity issues. Our guide to switching drayage carriers covers how to structure the transition.
Audit every invoice
Not a sample — every one, for the first month. This is where you find out whether the accessorial schedule is being applied as agreed and whether charges appear that were never discussed. Use the invoice audit checklist.
Track the metrics that matter
On-time delivery against appointment, demurrage and per diem incurred and the reason for each, accessorials as a percentage of base spend, and dry runs. Our guide to drayage KPIs covers how to define each one so the numbers are comparable.
The thirty-day review
Schedule it at the start, before anything has gone wrong. A useful review covers what happened, not what was promised: containers moved, on-time percentage, charges incurred beyond the base rate and why, and anything either side needs to change.
The strongest signal in that meeting is whether the carrier brings up its own misses before you do. A carrier that arrives with “here are the two moves that went badly and here is what we changed” is one worth scaling volume with. A carrier that arrives with only good news either had a perfect month or is not looking closely.
Common first-month failures
- Steamship line authorization never completed — caught on the first pickup morning.
- Receiving hours communicated as posted hours rather than actual last-truck cutoff.
- No standing instruction for refused deliveries, so the container sits while people decide.
- Accessorial schedule agreed verbally and interpreted differently by both sides.
- All volume switched at once, leaving no fallback when the first bad week arrives.
Every one of these is preventable in the paperwork week. If you are evaluating a change in South Florida, request a quote or start a conversation — and ask us the questions in our carrier selection checklist first.
Frequently asked questions
How long should onboarding take before the first container moves?
For a straightforward South Florida account, three to five business days is realistic – enough time for credit setup, credentials exchange, and confirming delivery locations. Accounts needing bonded moves, hazmat, or EDI integration typically take two to four weeks.
Should I move all my volume to a new carrier at once?
Usually not. Running a portion of your volume with the new carrier for the first month, while keeping your existing provider on the rest, gives you a real performance comparison without betting the whole operation on an untested relationship.
What should I ask for at the end of the first 30 days?
A review covering on-time delivery, any demurrage or per diem incurred and why, accessorials billed and whether they were avoidable, and communication gaps. A carrier worth keeping will have the data ready and will raise the problems before you do.