Gateway
Port of LA & Long Beach Drayage
TWIC-carded drivers, terminal appointments kept, and your freight on its way to the dock instead of sitting in a yard.
Cargo Taxi Deliveries provides drayage and transload service at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach using TWIC-carded drivers. Freight is recovered from the terminal or from a transload warehouse, devanned onto pallets where required, and delivered directly to the consignee without an intermediate storage stop.
The San Pedro Bay ports move more containers than anywhere else in the country, and almost every problem at them is a timing problem. Terminals run on appointment systems. Free time expires. A container that clears customs on a Thursday afternoon and is not collected starts accruing demurrage on a schedule nobody at the terminal is going to remind you about. So drayage is a scheduling discipline first and a trucking job second.
The work covers pier pulls from the Los Angeles and Long Beach terminals, transload and devanning of containers onto pallets, delivery of the resulting freight to consignees across the basin and out into the western states, and empty container returns. TWIC-carded drivers mean secure terminal areas are not an obstacle, and the appointment is made and kept rather than attempted.
An honest scope note: this fleet is box trucks and a flatbed, not chassis-pulling tractors. Where the job is a live container pull on a chassis, the right answer is a drayage operator with that equipment, and dispatch will tell you so. Where the job is transload — the container devanned at a warehouse and the freight moved on pallets to its final destinations — that is exactly what this fleet is for, and it is frequently the cheaper arrangement anyway.
Specifications
The numbers.
| Ports served | Port of Los Angeles, Port of Long Beach |
|---|---|
| Driver credential | TWIC card, current |
| Service type | Transload and distribution; chassis container pulls referred out |
| Devanning | Container to palletised freight |
| Onward lanes | LA basin plus ten further western states |
| Equipment | 26ft box truck with liftgate and pallet jack; 26ft flatbed |
Equipment used for this work
26ft Box Truck
Enclosed 26ft box with a liftgate and a pallet jack on board as standard — the right truck for palletized freight going anywhere without a dock.
- Limit: Not a 53ft trailer — 12 pallet positions, not 26
- Limit: Restricted on some residential streets and low clearances
26ft Flatbed, Sleeper Cab
Open 26ft deck with a sleeper cab — machinery, steel, building materials, and multi-day long hauls that run without a forced overnight stop.
- Limit: No liftgate — consignee needs a forklift or crane
- Limit: Open deck: weather exposure unless tarped
Questions
Port Drayage, answered.
Do you have TWIC-carded drivers for port access?
Yes. TWIC-carded drivers are available for the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and for other secure terminal areas. Ask dispatch to confirm the card against your specific terminal and appointment before booking, so the assignment is made against the requirement rather than discovered at a gate.
Can you pull a container on a chassis?
No — this fleet runs box trucks and a flatbed rather than chassis-pulling tractors, so a live container pull needs a drayage operator with that equipment and dispatch will say so. What this fleet does is transload: the container is devanned and the freight moves on pallets, which is often cheaper anyway when the contents are going to more than one consignee.
How do you avoid demurrage and per-diem charges?
By working backwards from the free time rather than forwards from the customs release. Tell dispatch the last free day when the job is booked, not when it is close — the appointment systems at both ports are the constraint, and a day of notice is worth considerably more than a day of urgency.
Can one container be split between several consignees?
Yes, and that is the main reason to transload rather than pull. A container devanned onto pallets can be distributed across the basin on a multi-stop route, each consignee taking only what belongs to them, without anyone having to receive and sort a whole container.
Further reading
How this works in practice.
Company
Thirty Years Hauling Freight Out of Los Angeles
What does a Los Angeles freight carrier learn in thirty years?
Compliance
TWIC, Hazmat Endorsements and Port Access Explained
What is a TWIC card and does my carrier need one?
Los Angeles
Demurrage, Free Time and the Port Clock
How do I avoid demurrage charges at the Port of Los Angeles?
Related services
Often booked together.
Air Freight Recovery
Off the cargo building floor and onto a truck that goes straight to the consignee — no warehouse, no second handling.
LTL & Palletized Freight
One to twelve pallets, liftgate and pallet jack on every truck, and no terminal in the middle losing your freight.
Hazmat Freight
Endorsed drivers, correct placards, correct paperwork — and a dispatcher who asks what is actually in the box before saying yes.
Government & Defense
Documented custody, facility access handled in advance, and paperwork that still makes sense a year later in an audit.