Intermodal broker software that sources drayage carriers before free time runs out.

Why intermodal brokerage is a different capacity problem

Over-the-road truckload brokerage is a lane problem — find a carrier who runs from origin to destination with the right equipment. Intermodal drayage is a terminal problem. The relevant carrier pool is the set of carriers who are pre-approved, regularly active, or geographically viable at a specific port or rail terminal. LA/Long Beach has its own drayage carrier community. The Port of Savannah has a different one. Chicago Logistics Park, Memphis Intermodal, Dallas Logistics Hub — each has carriers who know the terminal, the gate procedures, and the chassis pools. Sourcing from a general carrier book on a port drayage load often produces replies from carriers who've never touched that terminal.

Keelway addresses this by indexing your drayage carrier book at the terminal level, not just the lane level. When an intermodal load posts at a specific port or rail terminal, the platform surfaces carriers with verified history at that terminal first — before the inbox fills with replies from carriers who may not be viable.

Free time, demurrage, and the booking-speed problem

Intermodal loads have a hard timing constraint that general freight doesn't. Free time — the window between container arrival and when demurrage charges start — is often 3–5 days and starts whether you have a carrier booked or not. A slow booking process on an intermodal load isn't just operationally inconvenient; it's financially consequential. Demurrage at major US terminals typically runs $150–500 per day per container. One demurrage event on one container often exceeds the margin on the entire intermodal load.

Keelway surfaces free time status in the coordinator's view and flags loads as high-urgency when free time is within 24–48 hours and no carrier has been confirmed. After booking, the AI voice agent escalates ETA check-call frequency as free time approaches, alerting the coordinator if the carrier's ETA puts the container at risk of demurrage before delivery is complete.

Chassis availability: the booking that falls apart at pickup

Chassis shortages at major US ports and rail terminals are a recurring operational disruption. A carrier that confirms a drayage booking without addressing chassis availability is a potential same-day cancellation when they arrive at the terminal to find no chassis available. Keelway reads chassis-related language from carrier email replies — whether the carrier has stated chassis availability, noted a chassis surcharge, or made no mention of chassis at all — and surfaces that information in the inquiry detail view.

Carriers that don't address chassis on a port drayage load where chassis is a known constraint are flagged as incomplete quotes. The coordinator can confirm chassis before booking rather than after the truck rolls empty.

Drayage carrier vetting at the terminal level

The standard carrier email triage layer — FMCSA authority, insurance, trust score, rate extraction — applies to drayage carriers exactly as it does to over-the-road carriers. Intermodal loads add terminal-specific vetting signals:

• Terminal history. Carriers with prior completed moves at the specific terminal on the load are ranked higher than carriers with no terminal history, independent of their lane experience. Terminal familiarity — gate procedures, chassis pool access, pre-appointment systems — reduces pickup-day friction.
• Port-specific authority. Some ports and terminals require carrier pre-approval or have TWIC (Transportation Worker Identification Credential) driver requirements. Keelway flags when a carrier has no documented history at a terminal that has known access requirements.
• Chassis pool access. Keelway parses chassis statements from carrier replies and surfaces carriers with explicit chassis availability confirmation above carriers who haven't addressed chassis.
• Fraud on above-market import loads. High-value import container loads — electronics, pharmaceuticals, finished goods — attract fraud attempts. Keelway runs the full MC-DOT mismatch and chameleon carrier detection on every reply. See the chameleon carrier guide for the signal set.

The intermodal coordinator's workflow with Keelway

1. Intermodal load posted. Keelway immediately indexes the terminal, last free day, and any chassis constraints from the load record.
2. Terminal-specific carriers surfaced proactively. Before replies start arriving, Keelway shows the coordinators' top historical drayage carriers for that terminal — with terminal history scores and last booking dates.
3. Inbound replies triage automatically. Rate extracted, FMCSA authority checked, terminal history scored, chassis language parsed, ranking score calculated.
4. Coordinator works five rows. Accept, counter, or decline from the row with full chassis and terminal context visible.
5. Accepted carrier writes to TMS. Tai, McLeod, Aljex, Revenova, Turvo, or Rose Rocket — carrier data, rate, chassis notes, and terminal details write back automatically.
6. AI agent tracks the drayage legs. Check-calls and ETA tracking escalate as free time approaches. The coordinator hears about demurrage risk before the customer does.

IMCs and multi-terminal intermodal operations

Intermodal marketing companies managing bookings across multiple ports and rail terminals face a compound version of the terminal-carrier indexing problem. Keelway's carrier indexing is terminal-granular across your entire book — carriers are scored separately for each terminal where they have history. An IMC coordinator working loads at LA/Long Beach, Savannah, and Chicago simultaneously sees terminal-appropriate carrier rankings for each load, not a single undifferentiated carrier list.

For cross-border US-Canada intermodal operations, the Rose Rocket integration includes Canadian provincial carrier trust lookups alongside standard FMCSA data. See the full platform overview for the complete TMS compatibility list. For how Keelway fits versus outbound capacity sourcing tools, see the Parade alternative page.