Reimagining drayage operations through data aggregation and enhanced predictability
“Drayage as a market is still five to 10 years behind full truckload or over-the-road (OTR) trucking,” but it doesn’t have to be that way thinks Steve Wen, the CEO of non-asset drayage marketplace Dray Alliance
This interview was conducted at Reuters Events: Supply Chain USA (May 17-18, Chicago, 2023).
Although the trucking industry is often viewed as resistant to technological adoption, the drayage sector — a specialised segment within trucking — is even more so. Drayage trucking typically handles the freight movement to and from port terminals to freight hubs and intermodal yards, before they are sorted and transloaded onto longer forms of transport.
The scarcity of digitalization efforts within the drayage market is a critical problem, as the inefficiency resulting from the lack of coordination between different stakeholders in the drayage ecosystem can make the segment a linehaul bottleneck. “Drayage as a market is still five to 10 years behind full truckload or over-the-road (OTR) trucking, and OTR trucking is considered very analogue still,” said Steve Wen, the CEO of non-asset drayage marketplace Dray Alliance.
“Dray Alliance is trying to solve this by aggregating all the data from different partners and stakeholders to present a flow of reliable and predictable data for our customers, primarily the shippers who entrust us with their containers,” he said. Wen founded Dray Alliance after being struck by the ease of hailing a taxi with the likes of Uber, even while the drayage market — with a similar operational flow — remains plagued by numerous visibility challenges.
“If you want to get a container out of the floor, you have to make an appointment. You have to go find a truck, and you have no idea if the truck is ever going to show up,” pointed out Wen. “There is no rating system to tell you how truckers perform, nor do you have reviews from shippers. Even the payments, sent via written paper checks, could bounce.”
Ultimately, it all boils down to the simplicity and predictability provided by the drayage platform towards freight movement. Wen contended that shippers want visibility into their container arrival, delivery to the respective distribution centre, return of the empty container, and associated costs. “That’s the predictability part,” explained Wen.
Simplicity, on the other hand, revolves around how the platform keeps its customers updated. “Simplicity is about generating enough data from the customers, and other customers like them, to offer a simple experience — through either integration, if they have a system that they integrate to, or adapt to a process that’s best practice in the industry,” said Wen.