Service
Container pre-pull at PortMiami and Port Everglades
Last free day today? We pull the container out before demurrage starts and hold it on the yard until you are ready.
Demurrage and per diem are two different clocks
Demurrage is the terminal charging you for the container still being in their yard past the last free day. Per diem is the shipping line charging you for still having their box at all, and it keeps running after the container leaves the terminal, right up until it goes back empty.
People conflate them and then get two invoices they were not expecting. A pre-pull stops the first one. Only returning the box, or transloading and returning it early, stops the second.
What a pre-pull actually costs against what it saves
We collect the container before you are ready for it and hold it on the yard. You pay a move and some storage. You do not pay demurrage, which is a daily charge that escalates and does not care that your warehouse is full or that no appointment was available.
It is almost always the cheaper side of that trade, and the reason to call early rather than on the last day is simple: at SFCT and at nearly everything at Port Everglades, a slot has to exist before a truck is any use. The exceptions worth knowing are King Ocean, which has no appointment system, and Seaboard at PortMiami, which runs until 7 during the week and opens Saturday until 2. If your last free day falls across a weekend and the box is at Seaboard, that weekend is not automatically lost.
How the last free day is actually counted
Free time starts when the container is available for pickup, which is not the same day the ship arrived and is sometimes not the same day the arrival notice says either. From there the count belongs to the terminal, and it is not identical everywhere. Some count calendar days straight through, weekends and holidays included. Some count working days only. And the free days written into a contract with a line can differ from the free days the terminal applies under its own tariff, which is how two people end up arguing about the same box with two different dates in front of them.
So the useful thing to know is the date rather than the number of days. Read the last free day off the terminal's own system rather than counting forward from a notice, and read it again if the box was rolled onto a later vessel or the release came through late. A date that was assumed rather than checked is the single most common way a pre-pull gets ordered for the morning after demurrage started.
Timing the pull against the appointments
A pre-pull can only be as early as the first slot that exists. At SFCT and at nearly everything at Port Everglades an appointment has to be there before a truck is any use at all, and slots go. So the order of operations is to look at what is available first and then choose which day to pull, rather than choosing a day and hoping the terminal agrees.
In practice that usually means moving two or three days ahead of the last free day rather than on it. It also means a last free day that lands on a Saturday generally means Friday, unless the box happens to sit somewhere that works a weekend. Where the appointment is genuinely the constraint, it is worth saying so early, because the answer to a pre-pull request is mostly a question of what slots still exist, and that is a different conversation on a Tuesday than it is at four on a Friday afternoon.
Where the box waits, and what to send
It waits on five acres of secured yard in Hialeah Gardens, roughly 20 road miles from PortMiami and about 25 from Port Everglades. Grounded is cheaper and slower to move again, because putting it back on the road takes a lift and a slot on somebody's morning. Left on a chassis it is ready to go, hook and leave, but the chassis is doing nothing else while it sits and that adds up faster than most people expect on a long stay. A box with a date close by goes on a chassis. A box waiting on something nobody can put a date to goes on the ground.
To set one up, send the container number, the shipping line and the last free day. Add where it goes afterwards if that is known, and say if the box is a reefer or is running heavy, because both change the equipment rather than only the price. If the last free day is tomorrow, lead with that rather than burying it at the end of the message. It changes the order everything else happens in.
What it costs
Equipment
Ports
Questions
Straight answers
What is the difference between demurrage and per diem?
Demurrage is the terminal charging you for the container still sitting in their yard past the last free day. Per diem is the shipping line charging you for having their box at all, and it keeps running after the container leaves the terminal, right up until it goes back empty. People conflate the two and then get two invoices they were not expecting. A pre-pull stops the first one. Only returning the box, or transloading the freight and returning it early, stops the second.
When should I order a pre-pull?
Earlier than the last free day. At SFCT and at nearly everything at Port Everglades a slot has to exist before a truck is any use, so calling on the final afternoon leaves nothing to work with. The exceptions worth knowing are King Ocean, which has no appointment system, and Seaboard at PortMiami, which runs until 7 during the week and opens Saturday until 2. If your last free day falls across a weekend and the box is at Seaboard, that weekend is not automatically lost, but that is the exception rather than the plan.
Does a pre-pull stop per diem as well?
No, and that is the part that catches people. The moment the container leaves the terminal it is off the terminal's clock, so demurrage stops, but the line's box is still out and per diem runs until it goes back empty. If the clock that is hurting is the line's, the fix is to empty the container and return it, either by devanning it at the dock or by transloading the freight onto a domestic trailer for the inland leg. A pre-pull buys you time; only the empty return ends the second bill.
Where does the container sit after a pre-pull?
On five acres of secured yard in Hialeah Gardens, roughly 20 road miles from PortMiami and about 25 from Port Everglades. It can sit grounded or stay on a chassis depending on how quickly it has to move again, and the two are billed differently because a chassis under a box is equipment tied up. The reason to hold it there rather than anywhere is that the truck that brought it and the truck that takes it away are the same operation, so a stored box is one call from moving again.
Is a pre-pull cheaper than paying demurrage?
Almost always, though it is a trade rather than a free move. You pay for a move and some storage. You do not pay demurrage, which is a daily charge that escalates and does not care that your warehouse is full or that no appointment was available. The comparison worth making is the storage days you actually need against the demurrage days you would otherwise buy, and the longer the box would have sat, the more one-sided that comparison gets.
How do I get a rate?
Send the lane, the equipment, the container size and the port, and we come back with a number. Quotes and dispatch run 24 hours a day at quotes@dariaslogistics.com.
What does a drayage quote actually include?
The move itself, plus the accessorials people get surprised by later: chassis, pre-pull, per diem, demurrage, detention and storage. We would rather name them up front than add them to an invoice.