Import Drayage Insight- What's in store for 2025? 

As the year comes to an end, we reflect on an eventful 2024 that brought challenges ranging from union issues  (both Canadian and US), ongoing international conflict in the Red Sea, and infrastructure disasters in places like Baltimore, MD. These events remind us that even in a year that was expected to be uneventful (from a demand perspective), there is always potential for disruption with so many variables at play.

Looking ahead to 2025, the challenges laid out before us appear to be equally, if not more daunting than those we encountered in 2024. In the article below, we touch on a few variables we expect to play a factor in import drayage for 2025.

Election Results

The results of our United States Presidential election has brought a slew of international trade implications to the table for 2025. The proposed introduction of new or increased tariffs on imports has caused BCO’s to take reactionary measures to “pull ahead” imports forecasted for 2025. This has led to a surge of imports already in Q4 of 2024 and is expected to carry over into Q1 and Q2 of 2025, as shippers look to get ahead.

ILA part 2

While we got a short reprieve from the stress of the ILA strike in October, there is a looming second wave for this strike set for January 15^th, 2025. This time, the sticking point is surrounding port automation efforts, a topic that many believe will be harder to reach an agreement on than the topics we faced in the initial ILA negotiations. If a strike ensues, we can expect widespread delays in East Coast and Gulf ports, causing reroutes and delays.

Truckload Market Recovery

Believe it or not, a truckload recovery that many industry experts believe is primed for 2025 could pull newer drayage carrier entrants back to their roots of standard truckload freight. In 2022 as the truckload market weakened, Drayage.com reported an increase in registered draymen of more than 40% from January 2022 to July 2022. If these new carriers were historical truckload carriers looking to try their luck in the drayage space, a swing back to a favorable truckload market could very well cause a capacity dip for drayage providers.

Summary

2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for imports, with a host of old and new obstacles on the horizon. Q1 and Q2 will set the stage for the remainder of 2025 and may be a time to “reset the stage” for how BCO’s route and handle their import containers. Strategies that were viable for most of 2024 and earlier may quickly become unsuitable in the changed landscape of 2025.

For Shippers

Being a dynamic importer has never been more important than it is now as we head into 2025. Having a fluid second and third option to your primary import routing can make or break your supply chain in the likely scenario that you need to pivot at any given time due to conflicts we know are coming, or any new unforeseen challenges ahead.

1^st Choice Freight is leading the charge to help shippers not only navigate their current import strategy, but to help guide them in a much-needed dynamic approach for the future. As a drayage provider with national reach, we provide plug and play drayage and transloading solutions in any market, at any time. 1^st Choice Freight provides customers with additional upstream value for their import containers, monitoring shipments on vessel from origin to destination and providing real-time access to ETA changes, container outgates/ingates, and other important milestones.

If it's time to get a head start on your import drayage strategy for 2025, contact us today at Drayage@1stchoicefreight.com or call us at 800-659-9178