Chassis Charge – What Is It?

A chassis is a special trailer or undercarriage used to transport ocean containers over the road.  The United States is the only large market where ocean carriers own and provide chassis to truckers to move containers. Several years ago, Maersk was the first ocean line to announce the decision to end its ownership of chassis. Following the Maersk decision, many other ocean lines have announced that they will no longer provide chassis for import and export cargo containers in a growing number of U.S. markets. This forces drayage companies (truckers) to either own or rent chassis equipment.

Until this recent trend developed, ocean lines routinely provided chassis for import and export containers in many U.S. cities and locations.  This change in policy has increased drayage rates and caused impacts on many shippers’ planning process.  The daily rate for chassis charges varies by carrier, but they typically range from $15-$25 per day of use. These charges must be factored into the total inland freight charges. The longer that a chassis is in use on the container, the higher the daily charges will be.

Some of the ocean lines implementing this change have commented that the change will bring benefits, which include reducing chassis storage (which would make more waterfront terminal space available), reducing congestion, increasing efficiency, reducing turn times, saving hours for truckers, cutting fuel costs, and reducing air pollution.

Please, contact PNG Worldwide at info@pngworldwide.com for questions and answers regarding how chassis charges will affect your import and export shipments.