Director of Drayage

LST Group, LLC; Chattanooga (TN); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

LST Group, LLC is seeking a Director of Drayage to lead and scale our drayage operations across port, rail, and intermodal markets in the Chattanooga area. The role owns pricing, carrier strategy, service quality, capacity planning, and profitability, driving performance across the end-to-end drayage lifecycle.

The ideal candidate combines deep drayage expertise with strong commercial acumen and leadership ability to build a scalable operation within a growing 3PL environment, collaborating

Qualifications

• Deep drayage expertise with strong commercial and leadership capabilities.
• Ability to build a scalable drayage operation within a 3PL environment.
• Experience managing pricing, carrier relationships, and performance metrics.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the company's overall drayage strategy.
• Identify opportunities to expand drayage coverage across ports, rail ramps, and markets.
• Build and manage a reliable network of drayage carriers and intermodal providers.
• Oversee day-to-day drayage operations and ensure on-time deliveries.
• Own drayage revenue, margin, and performance reporting.
• Collaborate with customers and partners on service levels and issues.
• Implement KPIs, dashboards, and process improvements.

Skills

Drayage leadership

Carrier network

Pricing strategy

P&L / profitability

Customer management

Tools

TMS

EDI/API

Port systems

Job description

The Director of Drayage is responsible for developing, managing, and scaling the company's drayage business across port, rail, and intermodal markets. This position owns the overall performance of the drayage operation, including carrier strategy, pricing, service quality, capacity, customer relationships, profitability, and operational execution.

The ideal candidate combines deep drayage expertise with strong commercial and leadership capabilities and can build a scalable drayage operation within a 3PL environment.

Key Responsibilities

Drayage Strategy & Business Development

• Develop and execute the company's overall drayage strategy.
• Identify opportunities to expand drayage coverage across ports, rail ramps, and geographic markets.
• Develop relationships with beneficial cargo owners (BCOs), shippers, NVOCCs, freight forwarders, and other logistics providers.
• Partner with sales leadership to identify and win new drayage opportunities.
• Develop pricing strategies that balance competitiveness, service, and margin.
• Identify opportunities to cross-sell drayage into existing 3PL accounts.

Carrier Network & Capacity

• Build and maintain a reliable network of drayage carriers, owner-operators, and intermodal providers.
• Negotiate carrier rates and contractual terms.
• Monitor carrier capacity and market conditions.
• Develop strategies for managing peak seasons, port congestion, chassis shortages, and other capacity constraints.
• Establish carrier scorecards and performance expectations.
• Develop backup capacity for critical lanes and customers.

Operations

• Oversee day-to-day execution of drayage operations.
• Ensure containers are scheduled, picked up, delivered, and returned within required windows.
• Manage appointment scheduling, free time, detention, demurrage, chassis, per diem, and accessorial issues.
• Establish processes to proactively identify potential service failures.
• Work closely with operations teams to resolve exceptions quickly.
• Develop standard operating procedures for drayage execution.

Financial & P&L Management

• Own drayage revenue, gross profit, and operating performance.
• Monitor margin by customer, lane, port, carrier, and shipment.
• Analyze buy/sell spreads and identify margin leakage.
• Develop pricing and profitability targets.
• Monitor detention, demurrage, accessorials, and other revenue opportunities.
• Prepare regular performance reports for executive leadership.

Customer Management

• Serve as an escalation point for strategic drayage customers.
• Participate in customer business reviews.
• Develop service-level expectations and performance metrics.
• Address recurring service issues and implement corrective actions.
• Maintain strong relationships with key customers and transportation partners.

Technology & Process Improvement

• Improve visibility and tracking throughout the drayage lifecycle.
• Utilize TMS, port systems, container tracking, EDI/API integrations, and other technology to improve execution.
• Identify opportunities for automation and process improvement.
• Establish KPIs and dashboards to measure operational performance.