Seaport
Port of Miami drayage
Drayage off all three PortMiami terminals: POMTOC, Seaboard and SFCT. Two ways out of this port and the wrong one costs a day.
Officially it is PortMiami, renamed in 2011. Almost nobody in the trade says that: it is still the Port of Miami, Port Miami, or Miami port, on every dispatch note we have ever read. All the same place, and we pull from it daily.
Two ways out, and your load decides
The tunnel takes about 80% of port traffic straight onto MacArthur and I-395, skipping downtown entirely. Fifteen feet of clearance, eight foot six of width, no toll, and it is the right answer for almost everything.
It is not an option for placarded hazmat or an oversized load. Those leave over Port Boulevard, across Biscayne, and through downtown. An over-height detector and a turnaround ramp sit ahead of the portal for exactly this, so an over-tall truck is caught and sent to the bridge instead of discovering the problem at the tunnel mouth. If you are moving something overdimensional off this port, that routing is the job, and we handle the permits and the escorts with it.
The bridge itself is a fixed high span, so nothing opens and nothing waits on a vessel.
A TWIC alone will not get your driver in
PortMiami wants a TWIC and a PortMiami Identification Card, green for unescorted access, and trucking companies carry proof of insurance for every driver. A driver who arrives holding only a TWIC gets turned around at the gate, and nobody bills that day back.
Where it actually slows down
Appointments. Not gates, not chassis, not traffic. Appointments.
Some terminals we can pre-pull the same day when a truck is free. Others, SFCT here and everything at Port Everglades except King Ocean, run on appointment availability, and no amount of urgency creates a slot that is not there. You will be told which one you are dealing with when you send the container, rather than promised same-day and told the truth tomorrow.
Gates run 8 to 5, with one exception worth planning around. Seaboard runs until 7 during the week and is the only terminal at this port open on Saturday, until 2. That matters most across a weekend: demurrage does not stop on Saturday, so a box that misses Friday's gate anywhere else sits until Monday paying for the privilege.
Our dispatch answers around the clock, which is not the same as the gate being open. Send a container number at 11pm and you will get an answer, but nothing rolls until the gate lifts.
Rail, if that is where it is going
FEC runs on dock here, 9,000 feet of track, and reaches 70% of the US population in four days. Port Everglades runs a near-dock facility instead, 43 acres beside the port. Both work. They are not the same move.
Checking it yourself
Schedules, hours and container status live on their own site: www.miamidade.gov/portmiami. Charges and holds sit between you and the line or the terminal. We move the box.
Terminals at this port
What we do with the box from here
Equipment we pull from here
Where it goes
More in this section
Questions
Straight answers
Do you pull containers from Port of Miami?
Yes, daily. 20ft, 40ft, 45ft, high cube, reefer with genset, flat rack, open top, overweight and bonded.
Is PortMiami the same as the Port of Miami?
Yes. The county rebranded it PortMiami in 2011 and the trade never stopped calling it the Port of Miami, or just Port Miami. Same terminals, same gates, same paperwork.
Do you deliver from the Miami port to my warehouse?
Yes, port to door across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, and statewide. If the freight is going a long way inland we will usually suggest transloading it to a trailer first.
What happens if my last free day is tomorrow?
Tell us today. A pre-pull gets the container out of the terminal and onto the yard before per diem and demurrage start, and it is almost always cheaper than the charges it avoids.
Are your drivers TWIC-carrying?
Yes. Every driver working the terminals holds a valid TWIC, which is required to enter.
What is a pre-pull?
We collect the container from the terminal before you are ready for it and hold it on a yard. It stops demurrage running at terminal rates and it takes the pressure off your receiving schedule.
What is the difference between demurrage, per diem and detention?
Three different charges from different parties. Demurrage is the terminal charging you for cargo sitting inside the gate past free time. Per diem is the shipping line charging you for keeping their container out past free time. Detention is the trucker's time, charged when a driver waits at your dock beyond the free window. They can run at the same time, which is how a bill gets ugly fast.
What is a chassis split?
When the chassis you need is not at the same location as the container, so the truck makes an extra trip to collect it before it can even pick up. It costs a move and it is the single most common surprise line on a drayage invoice.
Is it a live unload or a drop and pick?
Either. Live means the driver waits while you unload, which starts detention once the free window is up. Drop and pick means we leave the container and collect it later, which usually costs less if you have the yard space.
Do your drivers carry a TWIC?
Yes. Every driver working the terminals holds a valid Transportation Worker Identification Credential, which is required to get through the gate at all.